Rest day at Nuwara Eliya

April 18, 2025

When we got to our accommodation here in Nuwara Eliya yesterday we weren't too late to request the host cook a dinner for us, (Breakfast is included in the price of accommodation) and usually it is a typical Sri Lankan meal and as per usual it is served quite late by our time to eat dinner (Leanne and Russell it is a perfect time for you!) It is served 7.30 - 8pm (I am half asleep by then) needless to say we requested 7.30pm and by the time that time came around we were famished, which means very little will be left over whatever the size of the meal.
Well we weren't expecting this size meal but we gave it a damn good hiding

What is missing from this photo is the 2 small tubs of yummy yoghurt for dessert and the papadums! All that was left was a little bit of rice and dhal – we ate the rest! Feeling comfortable and not overly full that our stomachs ached we went to sleep on quite full tummies! – way too late to have dinner for us.

We got up early as the host also offered a walking tour of a tea plantation so we took advantage of that. We left at 7.30am (our breaky was to be served when we got back – 9.30am) and basically started across the road from the accommodation. It was just Neil and I on this tour, and you walk up the track/road and you can see peoples houses and they are all up and about so alot of good mornings said by all! It is an ok climb up the hill and we are not out of breath and for us who haven't done alot of walking on this trip we copped ok with walking.
At the top you get a great view over Nuwara Eliya and Mt Pidu (it has a longer name but I have just shortened it!) in the photo below is the tallest mountain in Sri Lanka – standing at about 2583m (Adams Peak is at about 2300m)

One interesting fact we learnt was that in Nuwara Eliya all the big houses you see are 2nd homes to the wealthy Sri Lankans – hence why on holiday week there are so many people here in Nuwara Eliya. And I must say there are some beautiful custom designed homes up here and apparently they can retail for around 2 million rupees or 1 million AUD! The guide said property here in Nuwara Eliya is just as expensive as in Colombo!

So I have split the tour photos into categories to make it easier on me to remember all the information we were given. But first the tea plantation we visited was Pedro Tea Plantation and all tea plantations in Sri Lanka are Sri Lankan owned. The land is leased from the government in 100 year leases. Originally they grew coffee plantations but that wasn't successful so they tried tea bushes in 1867 by James Taylor and it was very successful.

THE TEA BUSH

Walking up the hill to the otherside and Pedro Tea Plantation. These bushes are part of that Plantation. They are very hardy bushes and these ones are about 50 years old. But they can produce for 80-100 years.

They have a very deep and long roots - I think they have tap roots

This is one of the oldes plantations in Sri Lanka.

the flower of the tea bush - it doesn't have many on the bush and it also has seeds on it. It is from these seeds or grafting other tea bushes can be grown, but you would think due to the longevity of these bushes that a tea bush nursery isn't really common unless you wanted to start a new plantation some where else

So when they pick they pick 2 young leaves and a bud. The 2 leaves are used in black tea (remove 70% of the water content by being dried longer) or green tea (remove only 30% of the water content by being dried less). The middle bud is used for white tea. Which is rare. White tea has 2 grades - cheap and nasty (but still way more expensive compared to black tea) which is made from this plant or ultra expensive which the bud comes from the very rare red tea bush.

The bushes are picked every 7 days. But they are pruned severely every 4-5 years. In this photo you can see the colour difference. An extra fact - the older leaves on the bush that are not picked die off and drop to the ground and they become compost for the bush. The tea bush requires no spraying of pesticides and things like that!

On a side note we think this is where we will be cycling tomorrow.

THE WORKERS

At that time Sri Lankans did not want to work in the tea plantations so they bought the workers in from South of India particularly the Malayaga Tamils (all Hindu) and now the workers are the 3-4-generations of the original population.
We did walk pass some of the workers working and out of respect I did not take photos of them until we were well away from them and nearly a block or 2 away.

But they were fast workers and all women (apparently the men workers tried the picking but, according to the guide and not my opinion! the men were useless at it! So all picking is done by women and the men tend to do the pruning. They use both hands and expertly graze over the bush. Their bags are checked and leaves that are rejected are removed.

If you look closely you can see the women all where a black sari type skirt. This looked like and sounded like some form of flexible but hardy plastic as the bushes are close together and the branches are hard and coarse and would rub endlessly on clothing and skin so they sort of offer some form of protection for them

What I observed was the red bag around their heads is what they pick into and they routinely take this bag up to a sack of theirs that is hanging close by and empty them in there, they are then taken to the shelter when they have their breaks to be checked and weighed.

The station where they have their breaks and the sacks are checked and weighed

They have to pick 20kg per day and they receive 1000 rupees ($5.24 AUD). They work 6 days a week with Saturday being their day off. The factory works Monday to Saturday and not Sunday. So the workers work on the Sunday (which is usually their day of rest) and will get 2000 rupees ($10.50 AUD) for their 20kg. A weekly wage of around 7000 rupees ($36.67 AUD)

THE WORKERS LIVING CONDITIONS

This was always going to be the hardest thing for me when coming to this area. If I thought cycling through the impoverished areas of Colombo was bad this is even worse and we are not told or see the worse parts of it. Through no fault of his the guide only points out the niceties and generalises alot. It is only because we have both read the articles about how the plantations don't necessarily look after or pay these workers well and they live in sub standard squalor. Their huts may not have running water or toilets. We did pass the communal water hole which is favoured by many where we saw a woman washing her laundry, someone brushing their teeth all from a fresh water pipe outlet. However it is what it is and if we stop buying tea to protest then it these people would suffer the most and not have work. So here is what we were told!
The plantations all build community housing and always a temple. A plantation may have many of these villages.

the village is to the left of the photo with the temple to the right

All have community/village leaders and they organise the village crops that are grown. And I have to say after being here in Nuwara Eliya and as we came up the hill yesterday I have so much backyard crop envy! It is like Pitcairn Island – you plant a stick and it will grow quite easily with no effort! Considering I just spent my summer nursing my vege garden through a long hot summer with soil that has so much added to it just so something can grow, then tackle all the damn pests, bugs and rodents that chose to destroy all my work – well I am going to be leaving this country with vege garden envy!

We skirt along the edge of one of the villages that are sort of blended in with normal housing (no not the wealthy houses!) and the thing I have noticed here and all over Sri Lanka is there creativity with a clothes line – there are NO Hills Hoist lines here! In fact very few will string out a rope to create a clothes line instead they opt to use trees and bushes, the fence and my personal favourite – the roof!

OUR AFTERNOON

So we make our way back to our accommodation and get back here at 9am for breakfast and I tell you if we thought dinner was big last night our breakfast was massive! And do you think we shied away from leaving left overs? No! I think we see what and how much is presented to us and we automatically think – they are challenging us to eat it all (LOL we always think of your quote Sharon – with all you can eat/buffet type meals – “it is an offer, not a challenge!”) so we progressed to polish of the following (each!)
String hopper with milk curry, coconut chilli as conditments and I mixed in our fried egg with onion and tomato, then I managed to get the big roti bread in, then a lunch plate of fruit (papaya, watermelon and banana) in then 2 slices of white bread with butter on it and washed down with 2 cups of tea. Neil had an extra slice of bread so all that was left was the 3 slices of white bread left over. I think the hosts wife is astonished that we can pack away so much – and I tell you there is no way we are loosing weight over here!
I was comfortable after brekky but didn't want lunch and we decided to have a mid afternoon lunch/dinner. After that we were full and now the hosts wife has made us a cuppa with some sweets and we don't want to appear impolite and rebuff her by not eating what is on the plate and they are all new year celebrations and of course they were all delicious and so now we don't want our 2 potato roti we got for our supper!

But on to our afternoon – we walked up to the lake and paid the foreign entry to part of the festival that was there (they are dotted all over the town but we didn't want to go into town itself) we paid 1000 rupees each to walk around and see heaps of family gatherings picnicing and enjoying all the rides and activities. Each year the municipal or council put this celebration/festival on and it is incredibly popular. They are all enjoying boating, jet skiing, boating, helicopter rides, alot of sponsors have their displays up etc.
It was nice just out and about walking.

Yip another public toilet spotted at the end of Lake Gregory but I dare not go in it and even Neil wouldn't go in! But at least we can add this to the public toilet list!

Tomorrow we go down the hill to Kitugala. We have mapped our way back to Negombo. We are heading west to Kitugala then north to Puttalam (or there abouts) and then down to Chilaw and Negombo. We have 7 days left before we have to be in Negombo (next Saturday) so it looks like we will spend 3 nights in Puttalam on the beach there.
We are choosing not to go to Ella and Adams Rock like all the tourists do simply because we have no interest in visiting those places and we really wouldn't be able to fit it in with the ride northwards to Puttalam so we have opted for the beach over ancient towns and public pilgramage up a mountain at 3am in the morning! I think we could say we have climbed our mountain here to Nuwara Eliya!

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Sharon WilsonSo interesting Janet, I don’t think I will ever look at a packet of tea the same way again. So well written 👏👏
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2 days ago

Karen PoretOMG. Tea has a whole new meaning now.. Many thanks, Janet :)
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2 days ago

Sharon O'BrienHaha lol love the food eating challenge 😂 it was a Catherine Tate skit lol
Gosh that was really interesting about the tea, didn’t know much apart from the pay, a great rest day off with “Ya Belly’s a full” lol 😂
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1 day ago