St. Andrew's Hotel Nuwara Eliya

... Il me dit aussi que first class est plein , mais que si je viens vers 8h demain matin, pour le depart de 8h45, peut etre une place se desistera, mais sans garantie. Il m'assure par contre que je trouverai sans probleme en 2eme classe, et me dit qu'il faudra m'assoir a droite pour profiter pleinement du paysage. me dis qu'il a ete en Australie, moi aussi, donc on se quitte avec un grand sourire et je le revois demain matin pour essayer de me trouver une place en ...

... established NE as the tea capital, bring in South Indian Tamils to pick the leaves. Now the cornerstone of SL’s economy, this breakthro’ in 1867 was successful because tea requires a sloping terrain, a warm climate and altitude – and the Hill Country met the criteria! Altho’ the bushes can grow up to 10m high, they’re kept at 1m high, with new leaves/shoots systematically picked each day. Part of tea categorization depends on where it ...

... 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 ...

... was in the final 5kms around the jam-packed streets. Once in Kandy we had no idea where we were as there were at least 3 bus stops. We asked for some directions and managed to locate the train station and purchased some 2nd class seats for the journey to Nuwara Eliya. We had decided to travel by train as the LP said it was a fantastic journey around the mountainous tea plantation areas. It sounded good so we sat about waiting for an hour, eating random ...

... plantations are everywhere. We visited a tea factory and learned how tea is produced and how different kinds of tea are made. The climate here is much cooler than on the coast and Eva even pulled out a sweater. The hotel in Badulla was one filthy hole full of mosquitoes, but we survived for one night and the next day the journey to the east coast was awaiting us. PT: Depois de Anuradhapura ach ...

... process of making the paper and due to the fibres in the elephants diet, it makes very strong paper - and the dung is treated 1st to remove the bugs!! The dung is obviously quite readily available and environmentally friendly and the local people make cards and stationary, picture frames and photo albums etc and the money generated helps to buy medicine and food for the sick and orphaned elephants so is quite nice. Temple ...

... of England v Sri Lanka. After grabbing our tickets we were confronted with a mammoth queue to enter into the seated section. Reluctant to queue we wandered to the front and merely walked in. With ticket in hand we found a seat and remarkably watched England have a fantastic day, shooting Sri Lanka out for 188 which should have been better. A nice surprise after the underwhelming experience of Kuwaiti Airlines on the way to Sri Lanka!

... a Buddhist place of worship - a depression at its summit is claimed to be the footprint of Buddha - and has been an object of pilgrimage for over a thousand years. From the Duruthu poya day in December through to the Vesak poya in May, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims drag themselves 7km up the illuminated, stepped footpath - there are some 4800 steps, and no, I didn't count! The ascent is made by night, allowing you to ...

... the rugged terrain around the train route, the Sri Lanka Rhododendron bloomed a bright red amongst the dark green Nillu shrubs and small gnarled trees. In these cloud forests I looked for some of the rare endemic animals among the many endemic plants: Mountain Horned Agama, Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush, Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon, and Sri Lanka Bush Warbler, Yellow-eared Bulbul, and Sri Lanka White Eye. For most of four days, I hiked in ...

... much so we had to forget our trip up Adam's Peak (5000 steps to climb in the rain would not have been good) and we moved onto Kandy the 2nd largest city in Sri Lanka. Kandy was crazy, it was like Oxford street the day before Christmas. Everyone was buying presents and it was danterous on the streets. It was hot and there were a million umbrellas for the sun and rain at the same time, poking us in the eyes. Luckily we found a guest house away from it all which was overlooking the ...