Two leaves and a Bud
Melbourne is a great city, we often forget to say this,
because mostly we are consumed with criticism of its weather, especially during
its long and torturous winter. This year it was a bit different. After not
having seen the sun for more than a couple of weeks, we were still not complaining.
There was a reason. We had a long Indian summer break coming up. We were
excited to be back home for a long 4 week haul, last 4 days of which were going
to be spent in Sri Lanka. Summer in the sub-continent is a double edged sword,
you could really suffer but after you have suffered enough you will be rewarded
with some amazing, mangoes and litchis. You might be sweltering in heat
specially with power cuts and water shortage always around to bother you, but a
light shower of relief is never far away in Dehradun.
This yearly re-union with family in India is very special
and energising and no length of time is ever enough. This time was going to be
even special because of the detour to Sri Lanka. I was thrilled when Rahul had
first brought up Sri Lanka as our destination, I had been dreaming about it for
quite a while. And as the eyes see what the heart want, I happen to be reading about
Sri Lanka everywhere recently, including a blog post by Shivya
Nath.
I have been fascinated by the beauty and the simplicity of
the place. I had some friends visit Sri Lanka ad return with some great
memories, it was heart-warming to hear about their positive experiences. Sri Lanka
has definitely arrived on the world tourism map after opening a new chapter in
history as peace finally prevails after a 26 year-long war.
After a great vacation in India we boarded Sri Lankan
airlines from Delhi to Colombo, a less than 3 hour journey. We hired a taxi to
the hotel from the airport and resisted all the supposedly best deals for taxi
hires for the week that we were bombarded with at the airport. As experienced
travellers in Asia we have worked out, there are usually good public transport
options available once you step out of the airport and the private taxi drivers
floating around the hotels offer a very competitive rate if nothing else works
out. You could say we paid a bomb at the airport for the transit but given how
far Negambo is from Colombo and how late in the night it was, we were happy to
have done that.
We stayed the night in a comfy hotel (super cheap, great
location along the Colombo Galle road, but proved to be very far from the fort
area), the hotel had a great fish curry albeit not for the faint-stomached. Next
morning we explored the city known for its gem stones. There are about 70
varieties of gem minerals found in the bosom of Sri Lanka. Blue Sapphires, Cats
Eye, Rubies etc. from Sri Lanka are worldwide famous. I certainly am an admirer
of these natural treasures. There are a few places that you can visit some
places around the station. You will be intrigued by the confluence of new and
old and modern and colonial. The Dutch Hospital converted into a shopping
precinct stared eye to eye with the very modern world trade tower. Just round
the corner from there is the Parliament overlooking the Indian ocean. You could
easily saunter around for a few hours admiring the contrast. We even tried some
street food, brave!
We however were heading to Kandy, the highlands of Central Sri
Lanka, that very evening. We chose to take the train ride instead of a taxi
which worked out nicely as we got to Kandy in less than 3 hours in the Inter
City Express train via a very picturesque route as opposed to a 5 hour taxi
drive in serious traffic, not to forget the steep charge for a taxi as opposed
to a meagre $5 for public transport, Public transport 1 private taxi 0. Though
I must add, the train ride is not for the weak hearted. I had my heart in my
mouth when the train seemingly did 1000 km/hour or thereabouts, with the
additional audio of the rattling train track and a sway here and there. It was
reassuring to see the locals in the train unaffected and almost unaware of it.
Note, the train tickets can’t be booked online and it’s recommended to book in
advance as it fills pretty quickly.
Majority of the route was very scenic, through myriads of
tunnels and over-looking charming mountains. We reached Kandy which is a
delightful city and a love at first sight. The temperature was cooler, in the
mid20s and the mountain ranges were lush green with dense flora and fauna.
There is something about high cities populated around lakes.
We could sense it was a very religious
city and so it is as it is home to the relic of the tooth of Buddha and a very
sacred worship place in the Buddhist world. We stayed at the very newly built Ozo
Kandy, close to the lake. The hotel itself is stunning as it sits on a small
hill overlooking the lake and faces lush green mountains on all sides. The
entertainment area had great views looking onto the lake where we spent most of
the evening.
We walked over to the garden café and had out first taste of
the famous Kothu roti, really impressive, don’t even remember what we paid
there it was so less. We walked back
late in the night, felt pretty safe walking around the lake, not sure if it is
actually that safe but we had no untoward experiences.
Day 2 in Kandy started with the tuk-tuk drivers, of which
most also ran a taxi service and motor-bike hire service, flocking around us,
in no way hassling us, but suggesting what we could see and do in Kandy.
Because we had not researched much, we were happy to be directed.
The guide was happy to share his knowledge with us and the
staff were happy to give a quick back massage with the therapeutic oils and
ointments. It felt like we were breathing
the purest of air in the garden. Being a nature lover, I did buy some oils to
bring home. Again, it is worth a visit.
Next we visited an Elephant orphanage where we got to be
close to these beautiful creatures, bathe them in the river and feed them. In
many cases the elephants were orphaned at young age due to their mothers
falling in a pit or being killed by farmers.
Chintakataka was very cordial and moved at our pace happily,
happy to stop by at a fruit shop were we ate local mangoes (nope, does not beat
the Indian mangoes), avo and banana.
We ended the day with a herbal massage at
a medicinal spa centre. We knew we were coming back for a second one soon. The
price was not Bali cheap. We paid $40 each for an hour.
Our staple diet in Sri Lanka was Kothu-roti and pineapple
juice. Both Sri Lanka authentic. Other times we snacked on a variety of
seasonal, genetically un-mutated fruits and may be the best avocados I have had
to date. The tut-tuk charges for the day
were $20. Tipping is generally expected in Sri Lanka. Bearing in mind that the
wages are quite low, a reward for good services does go a long way.
The next day was going to be special as we were planning to
visit a tea Estate Bungalow in Wattegama, called Hatale Bungalow. We decided to
hire a scooter for that trip, which obviously Chintaka organised for us,
actually we became more like friends with him and all his friends were our
friends now (one of them who ran a cafe taught us how to prepare Kothu roti). It felt safe to ride a scooter on the roads in
this peaceful town and we had past experience of driving in hilly areas, and it
was a lot cheaper that way.
The tea estates are not as well-known and touristy as Nawara
Eliya, the one place that everyone in Kandy vows to and is better known as ‘New
England’. I knew though where we were heading was going to be a lifetime
experience. There are other more exotic and expensive tea estates in the area,
like Madulkelle, but we somehow found Hatale very unique. It was a 2 hour ride on the motor-bike and
quite an enjoyable one. It does get pretty dark and lonely as the sun sets here
so I would suggest leaving early enough so there is daylight to assist you on
the way.
We were staying in a bungalow on this 300 acre tea estate, the
first thing that comes to my mind every time I think of my stay there was the
tea and jaggery that we were served on our arrival. The place was a quaint
1930s bungalow which had been maintained beautifully to leave the old vibe. Our
bedrooms were luxurious to say the least.
The bungalow had other guests, a couple of tea brokers with
whom we had great conversations and shared beliefs and values. Rahul is a
vegetarian and most Sri Lankan dishes revolve around some form of meat, but the
chef had no difficulty in catering for a vegetarian guest, in fact some of his
vegie preparations were mouth-watering. Most of the veggies were grown in the
estate and you could feel the freshness of the jackfruit sabzi and mango
pudding. All of a sudden the $150 we were going to pay felt too little for the
experience.
In the morning we woke up to a breath-taking view of the tea
estate. After breakfast, we were to accompany a guide to the tea factory. This
tea estate is owned by the Meezans family. They have 4 tea estates, Hatale
being one of them.
There are about 500 staff working at the Tea Estate. It
houses 150 families of these workers and provides for their health and the education
of their children. The workers we met were proud of their work and their
factory. The tour began with the manager showing us the very first step of tea
production which is selective hand plucking of two-leaves-and-a-bud. This
practice of fine plucking of tea plants produces the best tea in the world.
The tea leaves go through some extra-ordinary processes of
oxidation and rolling in massive machinery operated by factory workers. The
timing, humidity and filtering of the end product play a massive role in
production of the premium tea. I also learnt the difference between the green
tea and black tea, and it is the level of oxidation the tea leaves go through
that makes them what they are. As a fact I was told, green tea is the second
best anti-oxidants source after strawberries. I think I jumped from being a
no-tea person to a tea-admirer, if not a drinker. What was very humbling to
hear from the people around us was them acknowledging that India produced the
finest tea in the world and that they were still learning from them.
And yes we did the tea-tasting thing
too, sipping the tea at the same time sucking in lots of air, swirling and rolling
it in your mouth and spitting it in a bowl. Weird for us, but fun. The backdrop
from the manager’s office was so heavenly and scenic that I wished I had a job
like his. He however said, he wanted a job like ours ‘novelty does not last for
ever’. Sigh!!!! I guess it was time for us to return home.
The land of Buddha had offered us so much love. The
humbleness of people of Sri Lanka humbled us most times. I remember a
conversation with a local who said, ‘you gave us Buddha’. It felt like we were
one. We visited the Temple of Tooth after we succeeded finding Rahul a ‘dhoti’
from a near-by market to cover his bare legs. Yes, there was a fee for the foreigners
to visit the temple, but I had to suck it up and cue in the line, even though I
didn’t consider myself one.
