Nuwara Eliya : Colonial Trains, Thermals & Tea
Trip Start
Dec 24, 2008
1
5
10
Trip End
Jan 04, 2009
Where I stayed
Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Wow - amazing Tuna Curry Breakfast for me......might try that at home! We're heading into the hills today. We taking a scenic train ride which is touted as one of the most beautiful in the world. We had tickets for the observation car - you sit facing backwards in the last carriage and there is a strip window around the carriage which offers views over the amazing countryside. There are 24 seats - we ended up being split up and only getting 1 window seat which we took turns in! Seats 11, 12, 23 & 24 were the best to have. Along the way we passed a train heading back to Candy which had a far better observation car - a huge window at the back of the carriage - luck will play a part on when, what train and who books for you. It was nice - we talked to the people around us - one family had the cutest kid who we swapped sweets with - she came up and asked which country we came from - and ran away giggling each time we told her. The other 2 white tourists were English - he was working for Arups in Abu Dabi - they are getting hit with the recession even over there. She was an events planner - spooky. At one point on the journey another carriage was hitched to the back - well more of a floor on wheels with an awning. The scenery was lovely - gradually working through towns and up into the hills - at times huge slopes fell away to the side of the train. As we got higher and higher the trees went from tropical to pines and then replaced by very pretty tea plantations. Over 4 hours later we arrived at our station, picked up by Amaranga and got taken by minibus to Nuwara Eliya. It's at an altitude of 1,868m - far higher than Ben Nevis which is only 1,344m - and is shadowed by the highest mountain in Sri Lanka. The town was founded as a hill retreat for the British during Colonial times - you can easily imagine the Colonial Brits (thanks Grom!) running into the hills away from the heat to find the cooler climate - there was a race course, a polo club, hunting..... It has an average temperature of 16 degrees and it showed! Quite a shock to come from the 30s to the 10s! The locals are wandering around in scarves and woolly hats - we're still in T-shirts. We had a very poor lunch in our hotel - the Alpine. Yuk food with little choice (both chicken) accompanied by a hovering waiter. After lunch we headed out to a tea plantation for an optional tour (about 2 quid) - we started with a cup of lovers leap tea and then got a tour of the processing building - the plantation is at the heart of the best Ceylon tea growing area and is described as the champagne of teas. The tour was interesting and our guide turned on quite a lot of equipment for us. The process from picking to packing takes 24 hours - the tea is then auctioned and therefore, we might drink tea from this plantation and never know it. It was nice to see the different grades of tea. The Plantation we visited is an ethical plantation and promotes education, health and sustainable living. They had a nice spelling error on one their signs which you should look at the pictures to spot - agreed, still room for improvement. After the tour Amaranga dropped us in town and we did a little ATM use and shopping - buying a Jackfruit from the local market. What we didn't know is that there are two types of Jackfruit - the kind you eat as fruit - and the kind you cook with - we bought the wrong one! The cakes looked nice but the flies in the bakery put us off. The supermarket provided us with the best find of the holidays - curry puff biscuits.....lovely. We found the Post Office with an original Post Box from Derby - the building itself looked amazing - red and white brickwork and very colonial feel. We walked back to our hotel - passing the golf course and the race course - remnants of the colonial time. The road was also lined with some lovely large colonial buildings. The evening meal was very poor - deep fried breaded fish for me with a pepper sauce. Michelle and Sam - mother and son from Somerset - joined us. They're in Sri Lanka for a wedding but have a tour similar to us before the wedding stuff starts. With her ankle still hurting we invited Sam to do the 3 hour walk with us the next day - with a little persuasion he agreed to join us. There were another 2 tables eating that night - 1 touristy and one which must be locals - they sat through the entire meal wearing woolly hats - yes - the temperature was dropping and dropping. We had music again - a solo guitarist who we sang along to - from the beatles to John Denver! I hope he enjoyed us singing along - we kept him later than he was planning with shouts of more. After he finally decided to finish we tipped him and we headed through to the bar and took advantage of the log fire and had another drink. Sadly the German spoilt it a little by smoking....grrrr. We headed to bed and wished we had a hot water bottle to heat us up. Very cold night but a snug sleep followed under a few blankets. The Hotel was actually nice - but the food was woeful.
Comments
The British
So the colonial English ran up the hills to found Nuwar Eliya eh? I thought most of them were Scots! ;-)