Thursday, April 11, 2013

Sri Lanka Part 2- Nuwara Eliya

Our amazing trip organizer (Brad) planned for us to go up the hill country. We took a 7 hour drive (thankfully this car had seat belts) to Nuwara Eliya: where tea plantations, beautiful flowers, vegetable gardens and the remnants of colonial Britain abound. Due to its high elevation the temperature is always about 70 degrees during the day with no humidity, a nice break from Galle's heat. However, still being located 5 degrees from the equator the sun was still intense and we actually all got a little sunburned there!
 
 Waterfall on the way there (above). Windy country roads (below)
 Brad was a champ and entertained Joy the whole time in the back seat, because I was really car sick with all the windy bumpy roads.

 First sight of tea plantations
 We stayed at a grand colonial hotel. It had amazing gardens....and yes Joy did end up falling off that bed (but not while Brad was taking this picture) because she liked to play on it. The hotel was full of Israeli and Gulf Arab tourists which made Brad and I chuckle, probably the only time they have been in such close proximity :-)

 Joy's first swing ride...she LOVED it. She likes going fast and the initial drop the swing does. Definitely a daughter after her daddy's heart (he will finally have someone to go on roller coasters with him)

 Hotel gardens
 Pedro Tea Estate (Below). We had a great time touring the facility (Brad took illegal photos inside) and walking around the tea plantation.


 It looks like I am going into surgery but really I am only going on a tour of the tea making facility.
 The tea is dried, sifted, heated, sorted and packaged. The smell of green tea cooking is REALLY STRONG (and I could barely handle it).

 A complimentary cup of their finest tea










A walk around Victoria Garden (below). Joy is a major nature lover so we had to come back to the garden because not only were there flowers and treas but dogs and birds....Joy learned the word "WOW" on this trip :-)


 
 A hike through the tea plantations to a waterfall (below)



 
Lunch at another tea plantation (I thought I was so smart and packed store bought baby food for our little bean....she HATED it all...I learned my lesson)

 

Bye Bye Nuwara Eliya!

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