Sri Lanka (part 2)

Saturday evening, Gonzalo and I met up with an American friend of his at the Galle Face Hotel for dinner. It being monsoon season (never had to factor in a monsoon before when making travel plans) so sitting outside was a bit less than optimal but it was still really amazing to eat with a phenomenal view of the Indian Ocean. After dinner we went to an expat party which was great fun and I bonded with my new American friends in Sri Lanka.

On Sunday Gonzalo and I were going to go to the beach and the turtle rescue but a variety of factors prevented this from happening. One, it was monsoon season meaning it was very rainy at the beach. Second, we were going to go to a beach not as far south, but Gonzalo never woke up in the morning when I was up at 9:15. Please let the record reflect this fact. Instead we went for a swim in the apartment pool and planned out the rest of my trip. Gonzalo knows a driver and he was free, so my jaunt around the country was set and I left Sunday afternoon for Nuwara Eliya.

This being me and traveling in a developing country, the trip was a bit eventful. First of all, roads in Sri Lanka are just a shade under really crappy. And there are dogs, goats, cows, people, bikes, tuk tuks, big trucks and pretty much any other obstacle imaginable on a road that can barely fit two cars. Add to this horrific food poisoning from the previous night's dinner and Maria was not a happy camper. I won't go into too much detail but there was a need for me to stop about every 30 minutes so I could vomit on the side of the road.

But that's not all! Around 11:30pm we got a flat tire. It is pitch black except for one rather dim street lamp. My driver Tilak and I had been on the road for at least 5 hours at this point and I am about to die of food poisoning. At some point Tilak asks for my help in the form of holding up a cell phone as a makeshift flashlight. However, this is right at the end of one of my 30 minute food poisoning intervals. So I am standing in a vacant, dimly lit, patch of dirt on the side of a mountain road, Tilak is putting all his effort into unscrewing the lugs of whatever, I am holding a cellphone and then I have to upchuck. What is traveling in a foreign land without a little excitement?

Eventually we make it to the very nice guest house I booked in Nuwara Eliya and I crash. I managed to sleep a fair bit and in the morning I was feeling better but the stomach was still a little on edge so I forced down two slices of toast and then we head into town so we can have the tire properly fixed. Once the repairs are done, Tilak takes me on a tour of Nuwara Eliya, which some people call Little Britain because there was a strong colonial presence there. It didn't remind me of Britain much but the old colonial houses/hotels were rather pretty.

The Hill Club - one of the oldest colonial hotels and clubs in the city.



Views from the Hill Club


The Grand Hotel - another old colonial building


Typical view around Nuwara Eliya


After a brief visit we were off to the tea plantation. The Hill Country is where all the tea plantations are in Sri Lanka. As you may have guessed, it is also rather hilly. There is an amazing contrast of beautiful tropical jungle and perfectly maintained tea plantations. Also, given monsoon season and the general propensity for rain in the Hill Country (which I always want to call Hill District - thanks Pittsburgh!) there was mist all through out the valleys (It is really hard to write about mist and not sound like a tool).








Tea pickers



Tea pickers unloading their haul.








After a long and windy journey through the Hill Country we arrived at the tea plantation. Quite the views from the plantation:


The actual tea factory


I went on a tour of the factory where I learned more about tea than I ever wanted to know in my life (particularly because I don't drink tea) but it was really interesting. Here we see freshly picked tea leaves being dried.

Tea leaf grinder thing


Sorting machine that sorts the leaves once they've been ground


More tea sorting


I think this is where the black tea ferments.


And more pictures of sorting machines



After the tea plantation and factory it was off towards Kandy in the center of the country. This meant lots of stopping on the side of the road to take pictures.






We arrived outside of Kandy, I had a delightful Sri Lanka curry lunch (though I didn't eat too much - yay food poisoning!) and then I was off to the botanical gardens. And I saw monkeys!






This small child was part of a much larger crowd of school children who were very excited to see a white woman.





We now enter the monkey portion of the visit







From monkeys to turtles




After the botanical gardens it was off to Dambulla were we stayed the night. However, we were beseeched by more van troubles. Yay overheating! This turned out to be a chronic problem the whole trip but a short stop and some water seemed to fix the problem well enough for us to continue on our merry way.

Tilak and the ever so necessary water bottle.


Typical village during one of our overheating stops