Tea Plantations and World's End!

Ayubowan! (hello)
Done tons of traveling this weekend! I had my first experience with the trains here is SL! They are the old style choo choo trains with the engine at the front and everything! I was like a little kid in a candy store with all the pictures I was snapping! It was very neat to get into the mountains and see the most beautiful scenery! Though it was kinda scary to be so close to the edge of the mountain with the cliff just dropping off into the valley! Mom - you would have crapped your pants and passed out if you were there! haha! But it was cool!

Our first stop was in a small mountain town called Nuwara Eliya where tea was everywhere! We dropped our bags off at our hotel, and had a tuk tuk take us to the Pedro Tea Estates for a lovely tour of the factory and the process of tea making. They use a lot of very old equipment and techniques, it was such a process to see the steps it takes to make the tea! I guess I just figured it grew in the tea bags and we drank it with hot water! haha! After the tour we sat down to sample some of their teas. Again we were swarmed with school children, an all girls school came for a tour that day. All of them giggling at the 4 white girls sitting at the table, they couldnt resist snapping photos with their cameras and cell phones! We just started posing for them! haha! Aftering that we looked around the plantation for a bit and finally got a tuk tuk back to the hotel for the night. In the morning we hired a van to take us to the World's End, which is a national park type of place where there is an 800 meter drop off, straight down, from the plateau on the mountain side. It was a 4 hour walk/hike through the park and the view of the plateau was truely one of the most amazing sites I have ever seen! Kind of scary, the drop to the valley below is seriously bothersome. If I stood there long enough I started to think that the mountain was going to push me over the edge! But it was a leasure walk/hike through the planes and I definately got my excersize!

After our hike the van driver dropped us off at the train station where we could get the train to Ella, which is another mountain town with lovely hikes and walks. It was a 2.5 hour train ride to Ella, and once we arrived we were swept away by a tuk tuk man who brought us to his "brothers hotel" which ended up being exactly what we were looking for! It was clean, the owner was very nice and the rates were cheap! After we showered, we went downtown to get some dinner at this small retaurant. We met some Americans there that were from California who were backpacking Asia for the next year! They were a bit hippy, the guy was an ecological/biologist/tree hugging lover that was histerically funny! I havent met any other Americans traveling SL since I've been here so it was nice to relate to them and talk all night! After dinner we went to bed, the other girls were getting up a little early to take a hike in the morning. I was like... "NO f-ing way am I hiking again!" My legs hurt, my feet hurt and I would have been miserable! So I slept in, wandered to the town for a little tea and breakfast and when they returned we got the first bus back to Panadura!


The whole weekend ended up being fantastic! I really enjoyed being up in the mountains, and the tea country reminded me of the wine country out in California! Also, the climate up there was about 30 degrees cooler then what it is at the beach. So I was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt all weekend which was a nice changed from the sweat and smog of Panadura! Oh... almost forgot... I went shopping the other day! I bought a traditional saree, which is what the women here wear for "dress up"! The SL new year is rolling around pretty soon (April 14th) and everyone is suppose to have something new to wear to start the new year. So the department store was PACKED with locals buying new things and staring at us while we had the ladies wrap these sarees around our bodies to make sure we got the one we wanted! I finally picked out the one I loved and cant wait to wear it next week!


Well hope everyone is doing all right!

xoxo
Lauren