The HIll Towns - Bandarawela, Haputale, and Nuwara Eliya

  Sick of doing nothing all day, we headed inland to the hill country. This is the part of the trip in Sri Lanka that I had been most excited about, and I wasn't dissapointed. After a day in Kandy again, we took the train to Bandarawella. The train ride from Kandy was breath-taking; once we gained higher elevation, the clouds circled the hills in large swathes, waiting for a wind to propel them onto and over the mountainside. I had read in Lonely Planet that there was a tourist company that did cooking courses here, so we tried to get a tuk-tuk straight there. Unfortunately, no-one had ever heard of Woodlands tourism, and upon asking the next morning, I found out that Woodlands had closed down 3 years ago. Without any further reason for remaining in Bandarawella, we caught the bus to Haputale, which is higher up in the mountains. Haputale is a big tea plantation area, and we got to see tea pickers at work with their sacks full of freshly picked tea on their backs. Haputale wasn't as cold as expected, although it was still pleasantly cool compared to the lower altitudes. After two days in Haputale living in the clouds, we took a bus to Nuwara Eliya, in the hopes of meeting my cousin Vicki there.

Nuwara Eliya is a very European-style town, with swiss style cottages and even some European food. Accomodation here is very expensive (1500 rupees was the cheapest we could find), as it is a well-known tourist town. After a day checking out the beautiful Victoria Gardens, we were succesful in meeting up with Vicki, and we sojourned to the pub for a drink. I was convinced to try some Lion Stout, the local stout beer, which tasted like liquid Marmite, while the girls wisely stuck to the Lion Lager, which is a good beer. After a couple of beers, we showed Vicki and her mates a typical Sri Lankan restaurant meal – rice and 3 vegetable curries, usually including dahl, onion curry and coconut sambal, with a meat curry. The fare is usually similar all over Sri Lanka, and although some vary on the type of vegetable curry, none vary on the quantity – massive amounts of all of it. We had little choice but to keep eating a couple of large meals a day rather than more regular, smaller meals, as whenever we were asked if we wanted more food, and we replied more, we were promptly provided with a fresh dish full of curries. This is the very hospitable nature of the Sri Lankans, and I loved it, although waistline-minded people would likely be less amused! Making plans to catch up the day after in Tangalla, Vicki and her mates headed to Ella, while we stayed at Nuwara Eliya for another night.