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Published: April 16th 2014
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10
thApril Colombo, Sri Lanka
Another early morning arrival into Sri Lanka, we berthed at their container port and when we got onto the coach for our trip it took about ten minutes just to get to the port gates.
Colombo is Sri Lankas capital city and is at the crossroads of the great spice routes where cultures and races have combined for centuries.
Sri Lanka (Ceylon) became a British colony in 1802 after being ruled by the Portuguese and latterly the Dutch. Plantations were established (coffee) and was a leading export until destroyed by disease. Tea was introduced and Sri Lanka is now the fourth highest producer in the world.
The majority of the country’s earliest inhabitants were Sinhalese from northern India, the Dravidian (Tamil) invasions from southern India caused the Sinhalese to abandon the northern capital of Anuradhaura and various places served as Ceylon’s capital until present day Colombo.
Racial tensions between Sri Lanka Sinhali & Tamil communities came to a head in the 1980’s when the Tamils demanded a separate state in the north of the island. The fighting took place mainly in the
north; however Colombo was affected by suicide in the 1990’s. It was not until 2009 that the war came to an end, the violence having killed some 70,000 people many of them civilians. The war severely damaged the economy, especially the all important tourist industry.
In the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami over 30,000 were killed in the coastal communities.
Our trip today (Ceylon Tea Experience) took us out of the city to a tea plantation called Rayigam Estate.
The journey from the ship took us out of Colombo through the busy suburbs to Kotagala. It was about a two hour trip travelling in small mini buses (narrow tracks at the plantation) but it was good to see the different countryside interspersed with the very busy townships.
Colombo has bazaars, temples and still loads of colonial buildings which they are very proud of. It is home to the majority of Sri Lankas corporate offices, restaurants and entertainment venues. There is a huge amount of building work going on including new roads. It was difficult to know when the conurbation of Colombo finished and the next town appeared.
Just as an aside our guide explained that Japan had financed the new parliament building and China had financed (50%) of the new Arts & Cultural centre, all to do with having extra clout in World politics!!
The back roads to the plantation were not the best; still we arrived in one piece to have a nice cup of the local blend and a slice of cake. Because there were half a dozen coaches we were having refreshment first before proceeding to the factory.
The tea was served in the gardens of the plantation manager’s bungalow, and it is exactly what you would expect given the colonial structure of the building with its views over the hillsides. All that was missing was Noel Coward.
On the way to the factory we passed the rubber plantation where they were tapping the trees for the latex. All the tea picking and rubber harvesting is done by hand.
At the factory we were given a tour from when the picked leaves arrived from the hillsides to the finished dried product. At no stage do they add any artificial ingredients.
Most of the machinery they used looked as old as when the Brits first came, but they did have a couple f modern machines. One of which could grade the tea by colour, black tea is one of the most expensive!!
Finally we got to taste a couple of blends in the Managers office.
Back to the ship on a slightly different route through Colombo along the sea front. More building work to the extent that we came back in 2015 there would 7 (seven) brand new 5*+ hotels lining the sea front. Pretty impressive.
At the berth the locals had erected a small shopping market for the ship – it was a bit of a shame because mid afternoon when trips were coming back, the heavens opened and put a dampener on the buying power of the guests!!
Very hot & humid throughout the whole day.
Next stop Mumbai, India
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