I had pictured what my journey from the highlands of Ella to the Unesco city of Kandy would look like, but this was even better. The looping mountain roads stretched out before me as I drove through palm tree-lined valleys and past reservoirs so blue they looked as if they'd been photoshopped. Purple-faced langurs with their bushy white beards sat on the roadside and looked inquisitively at me, while elephants occasionally sauntered into the street. This was a road trip that couldn't be hurried. While I could have zipped along in a hire car, I knew this the journey would be far more fun trundling along in a self-drive tuk-tuk.