Travels with V

Sri Lanka

Tea and love in the clouds

Nuwara Eliya

From Kandy we take the train further east, along an incredibly beautiful trail among ever higher mountains. The closer we get to Nuwara Eliya the more the nature around us is shaped by enormous tea plantations on green terraces. Having arrived at the city itself we walk around and enjoy the remarkable mixture of faded colonial style mansions and dusty quarters that border to outright slum.

Nuwara Eliya lies at 2000 meters above sea level, and was a summer retreat for the colonizers fleeing the sumer heat of the lower altitudes. This mountain climate was also perfect for growing the vegetables that the westerners liked to see on their plates.

Nuwara Eliya is in the middle of Sri Lanka’s tea district, due to the mountain climate that is perfect for the tea bushes. Huge plantations are everywhere. We choose to visit the San Pedro factory, makers of the “Lover’s Leap” tea brand. Terraces with thousands of tea bushes surround the factory in all directions.

Walking through the terraces we see white dots moving slowly around. It’s the tea pickers, most of them poor women from India. But they are experts in finding the leaves that have exactly the right colour to be harvested. It’s a tiresome and low paid job. This is how it’s done:

The tea brand “Lover’s Leap” takes its name from a nearby waterfall where legend has it that two young lovers that didn’t have their parents’ blessing jumped out to die together. We walk up there with some solemn expectations, and under the waterfall’s veil we exchange engagement rings and kiss. We hear applause and cheers from a forest ledge, where a film crew are resting after shooting some scenes at the tea factory.

In the guesthouse on a high hill we’re the only guests. The road up to the house is so steep that the tuk-tuk taking us there breaks down. It’s so high up that the nights are freezing cold, and waking up one morning we can’t see anything through the windows, because we’re actually inside a cloud.

But the owner is such a sweet fellow, he puts flower beads around our necks when we arrive. He has put his other guests in another house down the road, and when we come home after our engagement ceremony he brings us flowers and a chocolate cake!

We’re beginning to understand how to travel by train in Sri Lanka. You should always book 1st class tickets, they’re a little more expensive but give so much more comfort. Now we embark on a ride that has been called the “most beautiful train ride in the world”. Running between Nuwara Eliya and a town called Ella. It’s a journey between rolling hills, steep ridges and with a fantastic view of a green countryside. It’s stunning!

Our next stop is Sri Lankas biggest and most famous wildlife reserve, and the only place in the country where wild leopards can be seen. But will we really see one?

Resebloggar finns det gott om men vi har en lite annan tanke med våra berättelser. Vi vill främst beskriva våra upplevelser av udda platser, människorna vi möter och miljöer som är rätt annorlunda mot vad vi möter hemma.

Därför hamnar vi ibland i avlägsna indianbyar i Guatemalas berg eller bland andetroende bybor på en ö i Indonesien. Men också på mer kända platser som Machu Picchu i Peru eller sandstränderna i Goa. Allt sett genom våra ögon och kameror.

Den som vill ha restips får också sitt - varje resmål har en avdelning med sånt vi kan rekommendera. Eller undvika. Vårt fokus är framför allt att sporra er läsare att göra som vi - resa rätt ut i den vida världen.