Saturday, August 18, 2012

Nuwera-Eliya

Continued from here

It seems that every hot country in Asia which has had a history with British people at some point when they were on a travelling and colonising spree, would be left with hills where people live, grow tea and ultimately end up being a tourist destination. That is perhaps why we found ourselves in Nuwera-Eliya, a settlement on top of a hill with sprawling tea plantations and known to the locals as Little England.

We, on the other hand called it a refrigerator. It was cold. Now, I know my previous posts on travels have been lengthy, but I intend to cover this place in one post, and even if it means typing it out in point form, then point form it is:

1. 7 waterfalls en route. You never know you can get OD'd on waterfalls until you actually do.

At this point I just grabbed a photo from inside the van

2. Yes, it rained - on and off.
3. We had the quickest tour of a tea factory with the unfriendliest guide ever.
4. We bought a lot of tea. This was in January 2011, and some of the tea is still sitting in the house, some still in my office drawer, etc. There's only so much tea you can drink.
5. We couldn't visit the town properly because of the rain. Despite being on top of a hill, several places were flooded.
6. We ended up in some deserted garden. The sister and I braved the rain sans umbrellas and took some pictures.

The deserted garden. No idea what the red line is, though.

A building near the garden

One of the pathways at the garden

7. The parents went to a local spa. I didn't want any treatment and neither did my sister, so we sat on plastic chairs with our feet hovering slightly above the floor due to the flood while the parents were pampered.
8. Cold, cold, cold. We had to heat the room with the vapour from the hot shower in the bathroom, and sleep with jeans, jackets and dirty socks (note to self: bring more socks next time and don't burn what you have with you)
9. For the first time ever in this country, the food sucked. It wasn't Sri Lankan food, per se - it was Chinese Sri Lankan food (we weren't given a choice here, it was either this or starve) I usually love Chinese food in Malaysia, and this wasn't even close. Sorry.
10. Watched a bit of local TV with really bad reception. Tried to read, but I couldn't due to all the shivering. How can anyone like the cold? The only person who enjoyed the cold was my mom.
11. We have to give credit to the place, though. It was a beautiful building and had really old decorations and beautiful flowers.

Real flowers. Don't ask me why the red seems pretty artificial.



12. The people of Sri Lanka love their trees.


13. More waterfalls on the way out.
14. Some poor kid was selling paintings to tourists so he buy shoes for school
15. Some local people come after you for money. It's one thing if they try to sell you stuff you don't need, but them asking for it outright made me very sad.

17 comments:

  1. It looks to be a peaceful place pity about the rain.

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  2. Well, hopefully it was still enjoyable, even if it was cold and the food sucked. And yes, those flowers look artificial. They're so bright I think they're burning a hole in my screen.

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  3. Well, the weather couldn't be helped, I guess. Sucks, but you gotta deal with it if it does.
    Waterfalls are amazing though, it seems impossible to overdose on 'em, even after seven of them.

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  4. Sounds like it was a pain in one way with all the cold and rain but at least it was an experience.

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  5. I think I would really enjoy it there. I don't know if you really can OD on waterfalls, but I'm yet to see one in person, let alone seven. You also got yourself a lot of tea there. Boy I hope tea doesn't have an expiration date.

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  6. There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.

    No, I don't believe that either.

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  7. I love when you don't consider a country as a travel destination and then find out it's amazing :D

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  8. I love rain but I can't stand bad food. I'll make sure not to visit this place any time soon.

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  9. looks beautiful :) i cant begin to imagine what chinese sri lankan food might be like ! i love our local chinese food, and now that i'm in doha, i am soooo happy that i found a chinese restaurant run by a malaysian chinaman from ipoh where i come from! its probably the only place in this country where i feel like im being fed with home-cooked food :)

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  10. I feel your pain. I hate being cold. It does look kind of pretty, though.

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  11. It hasn't rained where I live in forever... ><

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  12. Of course the food sucked... what did you expect haha! And don't you just hate it when it's cold? Hope you're doing fine now.

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  13. W.H.E.R.E. A.R.E. Y.O.U.? :(

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  14. I couldn't find your mail, Terra.

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