Nuwara Eliya: visit to “Little England” and its tea plantations

Freshly landed the same morning after our train journey from Ella, we landed in Nuwara Eliya (roughly pronounced Nourelia), perched at almost 1 meters above sea level. From the first steps, the atmosphere changed: the freshness, the green hills, the English-style houses... No doubt, we are in the famous "Little England" of Sri Lanka, settled in these mountains since 900.

It was here that the British planted their first tea plantations, in the middle of 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 undulate as far as the eye can see, with sari-clad pickers completing the picture.

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 the Nanu Oya Station is about 6km. The day before I had booked a hotel in a hurry, the problem being that this one is further than I thought and not located in Nuwara Eliya itself (for info, it was the Thuruliya Lodge, 26km from the center of Nuwara, too bad, it looked great). Arrived 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…

Welcome to Nanu Oya Station!

No luck.

The road is being widened but for now it's quite chaotic...

Unfortunately we weren't thrilled, the hotel is a bit dilapidated so we ask to go elsewhere, he first shows us the neighboring hotel before going to another one a few 100m further. This one was very good (I had seen it in the guides) but the budget was obviously higher... (Trevene Hotel, 6000 Rupees per 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 visit of the rooms, they had shown me in particular the new rooms that they renovated and were therefore a little more expensive. Well, we are not going to linger and we paid the 4000 Rupees for the night that we have to spend on Nuwara Eliya, our hotel was therefore the New Tour Inn .

The hotel is quite well located, just behind the Victoria Park and not far from the bus terminal. Not the biggest luxury but the new rooms are ok (the old ones leave a bit to be desired because they smell of humidity, but are 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…]

The hotel terrace, with Victoria Park opposite.

Our room at the New Tour Inn, taken at night, hence the gloomy appearance.

At the Nuwara Eliya market

Following the road passing in front of our hotel, we quickly reach (400m) the bus station, itself adjoining the Nuwara Eliya market. We were then in total improvisation mode, knowing all the same that our coming to Nuwara meant for us " visit a tea plantation”. We hung around the area at first, not really going any further than this stretch of street running alongside the market. What I guess you could call the city centre.

So we ended up just going back to the bus station, not without having had a nice little meal in the area, and asked for a bus to go to the main factory in the area, the Pedro Tea Estate (which literally translates to the Pedro tea plantation).

Napping or dead drunk (or a bit of both)

Here we are behind the bus station.

The large building opposite is the post office, dating from 1894.

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).

Situated on Uda Pussellawa road and not far from Bomburella water reservoir, the Pedro Tea Estate dates from 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.

On the bus to visit one of the local tea factories (in our case Pedro's), at first it's okay, we can sit down.

I quickly find myself surrounded by many locals.

When you get there, it's time to go down.

Pickers come from the factory after unloading their baskets.

Tamil families, most of whom work in the fields and the men in the factory, live just across the street.

This way for the visit!

Photos are not allowed during the tour, even though we are not yet inside, this is the only photo I will have… Only one couple was visiting at the same time as us.

After the visit, there is of course a tasting offered (the least we can do 😉)

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...).

Arriving in the village, you don't go unnoticed (probably no tourists go there...).

Jitima warms up the pencil and proceeds to create several portraits.

Everyone gathers to have their portrait taken.

We continue our visit.

The hill dominates the factory just opposite.

Another series of portraits.

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...).

The unlikely encounter of the day, a guy offers to give us a tour of the plantations (we suspect that it won't be free but hey, that's what we were there for anyway...).

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!

A quick What The Fuck, while he shows me these martial arts moves that he says he practices as a hobby.

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...

On the way back to the bus stop, he shows us his house, pointing to his shoeless wife, implying that Jitima could give her her flip-flops….

THE unlikely duo of the day, one claiming to be the son of the other, the other saying no, he's just a nutcase...

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.

The post office.

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.