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Published: August 7th 2007
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It's cold up here. And rainy. The sky is grey and the hills are green. They said in the guide book that we borrowed for an hour that Nuwara Elia was like England. I guess that's an attraction of sorts. We came to see the tea plantations, cool down and not get bitten by skeeters. The ride up to 2000 odd metres was pretty (but there are no photos as we were in an air-conditioned sardine tin with wheels). We were accosted by touts as we got off the bus and got one to drive us to our hotel of choice, only to find there was no room at the inn. We therefore accepted our accosters' kind offer and ended up the Glenfall Inn, which it turned out was just fine and not a skank for clueless, newly arrived tourists. Once again dinner was wicked. Beetroot (curried), aubergine (curried), bean curd (curried) and sambal (grated coconut with chillies).
After an evening by candlelight, due to the flaky electricity, discussing travel, meditation and capital punishment with Czech Republic (meditator), England (gap-year teacher) and Netherlands (surveying something Sri Lankan for a school project), we spent most of the following day walking
the plantations around the town.
What did we discover: there's a whole heap of tea in Nuwara Eliya; women do all the picking; groups of tea workers live in "illegal" shacks on private land; other tea workers live their entire lives on the big plantations as everything is provided onsite (shrines and churches, shops, medical facilities, schools); with the resumption of fighting the LTTE and the government have ruined the tourist industry that was re-emerging after the "cease fire" so that most of Sri Lanka is a ghost town when it comes to the much needed tourists and there $$ bills.
Our little (15km) stroll up through and around the hills was a great way to do something other than temple viewing and dodging honking traffic. We spent a few hours that day and the next talking to Nuan (our host) and friends about Sri Lanka, Buddhism, the Singalese and the Tamils etc. Nuan should be on his way to England to be with his wife and baby in the next few months, so we may get to hear what's up in the hill country when we get back.
After Nuwara Eliya we headed to a small
town, still in tea country, called Haputale (ha-poo-ta-ley) where according to someone, from a lookout high in the hills, called Lipton's seat (yes that Lipton), you can see all the way to the coast some 45km away on a good day.
It wasn't that good a day but it was high up and you could see a long way down and across Sir Lipton's estate. He must have been mighty pleased with himself. Literally a master of all he surveyed. All those lands, lives and (tea) leaves and he had a spot from which he could look down on it all.
We attempted to walk back down to Haputale through the estate, but even though just heading down seemed the obvious thing the vast and numerous hills meant you had to go down the right down. In the end we made it, passing camera friendly kids and tea workers and accompanied by staring fellow passengers on our bus back to town.
FRANÇAIS
Après le pays de Kandy, nous sommes allés au pays du thé... Ciel gris, pluie, fraîcheur, paysage verdoyant, imposantes demeures victoriennes et country style cottages... Pas étonnant, donc, que Nuwara Elia soit surnommée Little England.
Ici tout l'monde se promène avec blouson et parapluie.
Pourquoi aller dans un endroi pareil?... me demanderez-vous. Pour plusieurs bonnes et évidentes raisons...
1. Echapper un p'tit peu à la chaleur étouffante des plaines du Sri Lanka (Ça fait du bien!)
2. Ne pas avoir de moustiques à venir battre sans cesse leurs petites ailes au creux de nos 4 oreilles (vraiment agaçant)
3. Se ballader au milieu des plantations de thé... et en boire des tasses et des tasses (j'adore).
Nous avons passé 2 soirées à Nuwara Elia... dans la casi-obscurité (Les pannes d'électricité sont fréquentes ici). On a dîné avec les 3 autres clients de l'hotel Glenfall Inn autour de la faible lueur d'une malheureuse bougie... Bougie autour de laquelle nous n'avons pas refait le monde mais seulement humblement discuté de voyages, de méditation et de peine capitale avec la Republique Tchèque (méditateur en herbe), l'Angleterre (instituteur en herbe) et la Hollande (chercheuse en herbe).
Après Nuwara Elia, on s'est rendu dans le petit village tranquille d'Haputale (toujours dans le pays du thé). Il y avait 2 touristes ce jour-là: Jason et moi... On ne peut pas vraiment appelé Haputale un "trou perdu" du fait qu'il
est suspendu à plus de 1000 mètre d'altitude mais bon, quand même... La rue principale est un chemin boueux et il n'y a même pas de Coca Light à vendre chez le marchand!!!
Alors pourquoi Haputale? Essentiellement pour la nature qu'il y a autour... qui est sans aucun doute encore plus jolie qu'à Nuwara Elia. Et puis, il y a Lipton Seat, où Sir Thomas Lipton aimait s'asseoir et contempler le paysage... fabuleux seulement quand il n'y a pas de brouillard. Et ça n'arrive malheureusement pas très souvent... Mais bon, pour conclure, Haputale, il faut y aller... malgré tout et surtout!
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