Sri Lanka Is Best Explored In A 9-Hour Train Ride From Colombo To Ella

Capture what Sri Lanka was, what the country is now, and where it is headed in a train journey, described by a DW documentary report as “Asia’s most picturesque and most beautiful railway line,” that stretches for about 270 kilometres of stunning landscapes and spans key attractions such as the towns of Kandy and Ella, among the island’s high altitude points and also serves as the travel’s final destination.

The video report below meticulously tracks the Main Line, also Sri Lanka’s first railway route, as it cuts through tea plantations and jungle, then passes Buddhist temples and relicts of the British Empire. In the process, the island, which in the film was called Pearl of the Indian Ocean or Teardrop of the Sea, was depicted as a paradise yearning to be explored.