Riding on the train

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Trip Start Nov 25, 2010 Previous
Entry Trip End Dec 30, 2010

  Hatton, Sri Lanka
Friday, December 3, 2010

On this day we started off in our hotel looking out on a pretty cloudy day. The rainy season typically ends by November but this year the rains started late and that caused the rain to keep going a little bit longer.  The rain also compounded the fact that our hotel was pretty damp and never seemed to dry off no matter what we did; AC didn't work and leaving the door open didn't work.  That with no hot water wasn't a great morning to start off with.

Anyhow so we did have our first proper Sri Lankan breakfast here.  As with most things which are Sri Lankan we had to tell the kitchen staff in advance that we wanted it.  I was saying to Tara that it seems crazy that they need more time for their own food but then she explained how they would need extra time to actually have the dough rise and prep all of the food...I understand but still seems weird if you ask me.  So the traditional breakfast has a lot of the same basics you see in their rice and curry which is a bunch of small curry plates that you put on something else.  The little dishes are just a sampling of chicken curry or veggies or some sambal (which is a chili based spice, think of it as Sri Lankan Red Hot but better).  You have all of these small plates and then you get something to put them on.  For breakfast it is string hoppers, hoppers or coconut rice and for the hopper which is just thin wafer/crust they place an egg in the middle which makes a nice little bowl for with egg and curry in the middle.  It really is fun whenever you order any of the Sri Lanka breakfasts because there is just such a display and production with all of the bowls; it really is fun.  So even though the hotel wasn't the greatest we were able to have a nice breakfast and amazingly in the dining area it wasn't all damp so we enjoyed being up there.

After the hotel our plan was to take a train through the Hill Country to our next destination in Tea Country.  We got to the main train station in Kandy and we found that the info in our book had changed and the train we wanted had already left and it was the only one for that day, a bit weird.  But there was still a train headed down to Hatton but we needed to leave from another train station so off we went.  I will say it is kind of awesome to be able to take a train ride without our luggage and our luggage going by car.  It seemed a little silly but when you realize that the train tickets either cost $2 for the both of us for second class seats or $12 for first class seat you see it isn't crazy. 

So we got the train station and got on our train and eventually got into the first class area since it is considered the observation car which has bigger windows and strangely faces backwards.  They didn't have tickets available at the station, I guess computers with inventory was something which hasn't caught on yet.  So we had to talk with the guy on the train and we were able to get tickets from him, but it was very weird to say the least.

So I (Dan) was really excited about the train trip because I really enjoy being on trains and only ride them so often; mainly in Europe.  So here are some thoughts:

• Wow the prices are cheap as could be on the train
• Almost all of the trains are diesel and seem very old but they seem to work just fine which I guess is good. 
• There appear to be 3 classes of tickets, and most people were in 3rd & 2nd class.

• I never saw anyone checking tickets (but that might be because we got into the observation deck)
• The seats weren't that great and all of the windows were open and people just had their heads hanging out.
• Whenever we stopped at a station there were people ready to sell fruit and other food from the track and you just hang your hand out the open window
  

  Perideniya Train Station
  .  They are really entrepreneurial here in the country with people wanting to sell whenever they could.
• It was noisy!  With all of the windows open it made a bunch of noise...and whenever we went into a tunnel a bunch of the kids were screaming like it was a game (and no there were no working lights so it was pitch black).

So overall this was a super unique experience and great to see a train and how people traveled in the country.  Our trip was even more fun because we had a lively group in our car (carriage).  There was a big family of people who were drinking, eating, singing and generally took over about half of the car.  I didn't expect this because the rest of the car was a bunch of white people.  These folks were moving around, making noise and having a good time.  One of the guys came over and sat by us and asked where we were from and how long we were in Sri Lanka and more.  He told me that he worked for the railroad and had a month off and could travel around for free so he was traveling with his family.  It was quite a show and fun to see people in their normal lives (or at least in a little holiday).

As for the view was a beautiful and Tara was able to get some great shots of the landscape.  As we went south from Kandy the hill country really came out and we could see the difference in terrain.  There were a bunch more trees, rivers and overall very green.  The further south we went the more into tea country we went but more on tea later on.  Overall it was a pretty view but for me the train ride with the people on it were more exciting.

We arrived in Hatton which was this little sleepy town and JJ was there to pick us up.  At this point I wanted to talk about the SIM card we got to use in the country in case we needed to get in touch with JJ.  I was thinking the pre-paid SIM card would be a hassle or cost a lot of money but I can tell you that I was able to get a SIM and credit on the same for 225RS ($2).  It took a while for the SIM to get activated but it was pretty awesome to just have a phone just like that.  It really has transformed traveling that you can just get a phone wherever you go, totally crazy.  In fact I was thinking that our driver should have a SIM that he gives our to future clients and they just use that while they are in country.  While I am speaking about cost I wanted to say that from what I could tell it was about 100 RS/L of petrol.  So with my math that is about $3.50/gal of gas.  And if you think that most people here make around $4000 a year that is a huge cost and that is why you don't see many cars on the road, mainly motorcycles, buses and tuk-tuks.  I was thinking about this some more and if you look at %'s this would mean that the equivalent price for gas would be ~$35/gal (thinking of average US income of $42K).  That is crazy, sorry too much math and not enough travel stuff.

So we arrive in Hatton and we drove to Tea Trails and in particular the Norwood Bungalow.  Wow.  This place is awesome.  Driving along we kept going higher and higher and eventually we came to our little bungalow at 1300m (~4200 ft).  There is a house here with 5 rooms, a dining area, library and common room and it is awesome.  There are no keys to deal with, no phones in the room, at most there are 10 total guests (for our stay it has been just the 2 of us here and upwards to 6 people).  The staff is super awesome and overall an awesome place. 

For today's quote of the day it would be me:  "Let's become tea planters.  How do we do that?" as I was reflecting on the life at Tea Trails.

Then there is the view from up here, you can look out on the valley and see the other side with the rolling hills with misty coming over them.  Closer you look at the hills near by and you see tea growing everywhere and trees throughout.  And on the property of the house there are these giant 50ft tall bamboo forest near the front gate.  They are just so specular and adds a bunch of charm to the place.

So overall this place has great location, great rooms, friendly staff, good food and it is just great.  Top notch, I want to come back here again at some point.  Oh and I am starting to love tea time with sandwiches, pastries with cream and of course hot tea.

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Tara enjoying the train	Dan on the train	view from the train	view from the train
train ride	Tara on the train	Our room (Andrews) at Tea Trails - Norwood	View from our room at Norwood
Our bathroom at Norwood	a walk around Norwood	giant bamboo stand at Norwood

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