Having just arrived that morning after our train journey from Ella , we landed in Nuwara Eliya (pronounced roughly Nourelia), perched at almost 1,900 meters altitude. From the very first steps, the atmosphere changed: the cool air, the verdant hills, the English-style houses… No doubt about it, we were indeed in the famous “Little England” of Sri Lanka, established in these mountains since 1846.
It was here that the British planted their first tea plantations during the colonial era, making this region one of the capitals of Sri Lankan tea (the tea trade represents 2% of GDP today). Even today, the plantations stretch as far as the eye can see, with tea pickers in saris completing the scene.
On the agenda, a visit to a tea factory, of course, but also a walk in the hills to meet the locals (including a memorable one!), that's what awaited us for this stop in Nuwara Eliya.
Nanu Oya – Nuwara Eliya: mission to find a hotel
The journey from Nanu Oya station is about 6km. The day before, I had hastily booked a hotel, but the problem was that it was further away than I had thought and not located in Nuwara Eliya itself (for your information, it was the Thuruliya Lodge , 26km from the center of Nuwara; what a shame, it looked amazing). Arriving at the station, and after asking the only tuk-tuk driver willing to take us, we decided to follow him to find a hotel in town.
This tuk tuk ride from the station took us about 1/2 hour (including a flat tire, yes… It was not our day…) to finally reach the small town of Nuwara Eliya.
By defining our budget before leaving, he would take us directly to a place. Given the way he was pushing us to go to the hotel in question, he must certainly have a deal with them…
Unfortunately, we weren't thrilled; the hotel was a bit run-down, so we asked to go somewhere else. He first showed us the neighboring hotel before taking us to another one a few hundred meters away. This one was very nice (I had seen it in the guidebooks), but the price was obviously higher… ( the Trevene Hotel , 6000 Rupees a night).
This hotel is even better than the photos I saw) since we were starting to waste time, we were ready to put the budget there, but we could only pay by credit card and we were told that we could only pay in cash… A little annoyed that a hotel of this caliber could not be paid by credit card, we quickly left in embarrassment without knowing what to do, and the tuk tuk driver was starting to wonder what to do with us…
We ended up going back to the first hotel. During the room tour, they had shown me the newly renovated rooms, which were therefore a bit more expensive. Anyway, we didn't want to linger and paid the 4000 Rupees for the night we were spending in Nuwara Eliya ; our hotel was the New Tour Inn.
The hotel is quite well located, just behind Victoria Park and not far from the bus terminal. It's not luxurious, but the new rooms are decent (the older ones leave something to be desired as they smell damp, but they're only 3000 Rupees).
[EDIT 2017: they have since renovated everything, it looks better even if still damp but on the other hand it is more expensive than before…]
At the Nuwara Eliya market
Walking along the road past our hotel, we quickly reached (400m) the bus station , which was right next to the Nuwara Eliya market. We were completely improvising at that point, although we knew our trip to Nuwara meant " visiting a tea plantation." We lingered in the area at first, not really going any further than this short stretch of road alongside the market. What you might call, I think, the town center.
So we ended up simply returning to the bus station, not without having had a nice little meal in the area, and asking for a bus to go to the main factory in the area, the Pedro Tea Estate (which literally translates to Pedro's tea plantation ).
Pedro Tea Estate and visit to the heart of a tea plantation
The bus to the factory filled up gradually, politely I gave my seat to an older lady. I then found myself standing there swinging at every turn.
It's a good thing that the trip was quite short, since only 3.5 km separated us from the bus station to the plantation. Count 54 small Rupees for 2 for this trip (it's a gift).
Located on the Uda Pussellawa road and not far from the Bomburella water reservoir, the Pedro Tea Estate dates back to 1885. The visit cost us 400 Rupees for 2, including a small tasting offered at the end.
Photography is not allowed inside the factory. The process consists of drying the leaves and then several steps including calibration and different treatments that will give different qualities to the tea.
Visit to the Tamil village
Having seen in particular the pickers who, as I mentioned before, are generally Tamil (an ethnic group originating from the north-east of India, not very popular with the Sinhalese). We wanted to go for a walk in a nearby village to see the local population as we have become accustomed to doing. After the first surprised glances, our visit quickly took on the appearance of a spectacle.
Me taking pictures, Jitima drawing portraits, that's how to simply brighten up the day of these families for a moment. We'll also take the address to send the pictures (Which, to this day I still haven't done damn! How time flies! But a promise is a promise, the pictures will arrive, well if the post office is willing...).
Guided tour of the plantations
As we were returning to where the bus had dropped us off, in order to do the reverse route, a guy we met started to encourage us to follow him, apparently to give us a tour of the plantations. Since I wanted to see the pickers at work, I thought why not, well, I suspected that the good man would end up asking us for a little money… But we went there knowingly.
And then, he had a good heart, a touch of madness, but in a good way, so we follow this stranger who takes us to the middle of the plantation, at the foot of Mount Pedro (ah, that's where the name of the factory comes from, ah unless it's the same guy who gave the name to this mountain...).
He explained a few things to me about selecting tea leaves, how to plant it, they offered us some seeds along the way, then at one point, I got a little impatient, because I understood that there were no pickers working in the area, and Jitima tiring, who had stopped a little further down, was waiting for me.
Kindly, I tell him that I'm going back down and while chatting, he explains to me that he likes practicing martial arts and then begins to give me a little "demonstration"...
Probably the most WTF moment (What The Fuck, I like this kind of English expression which in this case expresses precisely the inexpressible, a most bizarre moment) of all my travels!
If you meet him, don't worry, he's not mean! On the way, as he was walking us back to the bus, he showed us his house, indicating his wife without shoes, he asks if Jitima can give her hers... We'd like to, but how will she walk afterwards...
Then, we come across a guy all smiles, announcing that the gentleman accompanying us is his father, well, why not, the ages could match… But our good gentleman turns towards us before whispering to us in his approximate English “Um, that’s not my son, he’s not all there…”
And I burst into laughter when I saw this man who had given me his crazy kung fu demo just before and then told us this afterwards!
Definitely an unforgettable moment, the duo of the day will pose together for the occasion. We will leave quietly towards our bus to return to the city center, not without having given 200 rupees to our improvised guide who would have hoped for more...
Catholic parade and mild evening in the mountains
Although our hotel was next to our hotel, we didn't even visit Victoria Park... Instead, we went to sit quietly in a small café right next to it, an outdoor café. Nice place and while we were each sipping our drinks, I heard music and saw some agitation in the distance. The Catholic community was parading. Let's take a closer look.
After that, we went back to the hotel to shower, before going out again for dinner. We chose to go to one of the restaurants listed in the guide. About 600m from the New Tour Inn hotel, near the stupa in the international Buddhist center of Nuwara Eliya, the soberly named Restaurant Two, which offers barbecues among other things.
Before going back to bed we wandered around a bit, Jitima grabbing a small bowl of noodles from a "Maggi" truck (and your ideas are genius...)
Next day, departure for Kandy.
