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Part IV: Baby elephants, orchids, a Sacred Tooth and tea trees |
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Feb.
25: We had breakfast
at 6:30 and were on the road by 7:30 headed to Pinnawala to visit the
elephant orphanage. The baby
elephants were being fed when we got there.
They are so cute! Groups
of school children were visiting as well as tourists.
The baby elephants were chained by one leg and given palm branches
as well as the core of the palm tree, which is quite spongy and soft.
Several of them were also given a formula that replicates the
mother’s
milk. Everyone walked to the
nearby river because all the elephants are brought there for a mid-morning
bath. We were lucky to find
seats on a restaurant veranda for this part of the visit. Everyone
ordered something cool to drink while waiting for the parade of elephants. And parade they did! Fifty-five
elephants of varying sizes came lumbering down to the river with the
mahouts. It was great to
watch them enjoying themselves! Driving back to Kandy we stopped at the Peradeniya Royal
Botanical Garden where we had a light lunch and saw a small part of the
grounds. The last Queen of
Kandy had her pleasure garden in this area.
Later, the Botanic Garden was the operational headquarters of Lord
Mountbatten, who was Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces of the South
East Asia Command during the Second World War.
The highlight was the orchid house which houses more than 300
varieties of exquisite orchids making this one of the best-known orchid
centers in the world. Two more shopping stops were made before we headed back to
the hotel. One was a place
that sold silk saris, blouses, shirts and other items.
The other was a handicraft place filled with drums, brass pieces,
woodcarvings and silver plate. We had about two hours before we were due to go out again.
This was a very important outing as we were headed to the Temple of
the Tooth, which houses the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Lord Buddha to
observe the ancient traditions of drumming and chanting in honor of the
Tooth Relic. The ceremony
includes the opening of the doors to view the place where the tooth of
Lord Buddha is kept. You don’t
actually see the tooth itself but the extravagant vessel in which it is
kept. As our visit ended and we walked back to the bus, the almost full moon was rising over the temple making an impressive picture. Our dinner was very special tonight because it was Ellie’s
birthday. The dining room was open-air and the staff joined several
tables so that we could all sit together.
There was a special birthday cake and the fellows who were
entertaining came over to serenade Ellie. Feb.
26: On the road at
8:30 this morning heading higher into the hills.
By the time we stop for the night we will be at 2,500 meters.
Along the way we took a break in a village to buy snacks and
lengths of material that are used by the local men for sarongs. A bathroom break came at what is known as a Rest House.
The British built these during the colonial era.
It was a place with simple rooms, a dining hall, small library, and
lovely gardens. As we continued our climb we entered the tea growing area.
The very best tea and the most costly is grown at the highest
altitudes. There were
hillsides of tea as far as the eye could see and lots of waterfalls as
well. Soon after going over
Ramboda Pass we visited a Tea Factory where we toured and then had a
tasting. Only women pluck the
tea and only the terminal bud and leaves are plucked.
The bushes regenerate so quickly that the same bush can be plucked
twice a month. Once every six
years the bushes are severely pruned so that they are never allowed to get
more than waist high. It was
astounding, winding up this narrow road through the tea plantations and
also seeing the vegetable crops grown in such orderly fashion in the areas
where tea was not growing. The
vegetables appear to be grown in the intensive raised-bed fashion as in
France. Finally in mid-afternoon we arrived in Nuwara Eliya where we
transferred to a smaller bus to negotiate an even more winding road to get
to our hotel for the night. The Tea Factory Hotel was at one time an actual factory
where tea was processed and packaged. Some of the drying fans and other equipment used in the processing
of tea are in place in the hotel. The
plantation surrounds the hotel and is still operational.
Newton arranged for a man from the plantation village to
come and take us on a walk around the grounds.
As we started he pointed out the small flower on some of the tea
plants and told us that tea was related to the camellia, which is a
beautiful flowering shrub, also grown in the southeastern U. S. He took us
down the main road to a turn off into the area where the tea pluckers live
and work. It happened to be
quitting time and the ladies were having their afternoon plucking weighed
and tallied. Each of them had an accounting book and as the supervisor
wrote the weight of their bag in his tally book, he put it in theirs as
well. The tea was dumped on a
large tarp after weighing. The
aroma was heavenly! Then the tea was stuffed into special square shaped
bags that were made of heavy-duty canvas.
The process reminded me of my childhood in the southern U. S. when
cotton was weighed and tallied at the end of the picking day.
Our guide said that weighing is done three times a day.
He led us on through the village so that we could see the
houses and gardens of the workers. The
plantation owner provides each family with a home, medical care, schooling
for the children, 22 days of paid vacation each year, free firewood and
some other perks. In return,
the pluckers are expected to pluck 15 kilos of tea a day for 300 rupees
pay (which translates to 33 pounds of tea for approximately $3.50).
Since only the women are pluckers, the men are responsible
for maintaining the plantation and pruning the tea plants.
They also build the roads and houses as well as take care of the
vegetable gardens. These
crops are grown for market and the profit belongs to each gardener.
In this area potatoes, cabbage, leeks, beets and carrots are the
predominant crops. Cabbages
and potatoes are grown alone but the other three are sown together.
The beets are harvested while the other two are still growing; then
the carrots are harvested a month later and lastly the leeks.
The family also plants other vegetables for their own use.
All of the people here involved in the harvesting of tea are Hindu
Tamils. Their ancestors were
brought to this part of Sri Lanka from India by the British in order to
work the tea plantations. We
were told that they do not align themselves with the northern Tamils who
are fighting for a separate government. The entire time we were on the walk it was overcast and
cloudy as day was dying. By
the time we returned, the hotel was wreathed in mist reminding us that we
were over 7,000 feet high. We
had wonderful hot showers and dressed for dinner, which was a delightful
buffet, arrayed with both local specialties as well as more familiar fare.
There was a small combo with a saxophone player who played many
western tunes. At the end of
the meal as we were leaving one of the waiters had us form a conga line,
the sax player struck up “I Like to be
in America” from West
Side Story and we conga-ed all over the dining area eventually being
joined by everyone in the room - locals, Germans and British.
It was great fun and we all left laughing. Opening the door to our room we were met with another
surprise! Our bed had been
turned down and propped up by the pillows was a “person”
whose body consisted of Jim's sleepwear and a head fashioned from a roll
of toilet tissue with a face drawn on it and a party hat on its head.
Our room steward had done this in each of our rooms!
So we all went up and down the hall (we were all on the same floor)
checking out each other's “people”
before we turned in. What
fun! And the room steward
enjoyed it as well for he stood at the end of the hall smiling at our
exclamations. February
27: We awoke
surrounded by mist. Such a
change from the other places we've stayed where we awoke to warmth and
humidity... this time it's coolness and humidity.
As we drove down from the hotel to meet our large coach in Nuwara
Eliya the mist coalesced into droplets of rain but it did not last long.
We broke through the clouds as we descended watching the tea
pluckers working a hillside. Our first stop was to view the Waterfall of St. Clair and
again soon afterwards for the Devon Waterfall.
There was also a teashop at the turn out for the Devon Waterfall so
we had a nice break. Most
interestingly we chatted with a Sri Lankan gentleman who is a doctor in
Virginia and was visiting his sister and brother for the first time in
many years. Even though it was Wednesday we kept seeing many children in
the villages and on the roadsides. We
wondered why they were not in school. Then Newton reminded us that it was full moon and that is a
Buddhist holiday each month. It
is most auspicious to visit the temples and shrines at full moon. At 1:30 we stopped at the Kithulgala Rest House along the
Kelani River which is the river used in the making of the movie “The
Bridge on the River Kwai.”
Even though the story takes place in Thailand the movie makers found it
easier to film in Sri Lanka so the Kelani River became the River Kwai.
The restaurant at this rest house was very busy because of the full
moon holiday. It took quite a
long time to get our chicken sandwiches and cokes but that was probably
because everyone ordered french fries with their sandwiches.
It was worth the wait as the french fries were absolutely
delicious. It was very hot
and humid here along the river and felt like it could rain at any minute. We finally reached the Mt. Lavinia Hotel late in the
afternoon and totally exhausted from the long drive and the heat.(http://www.lanka.net/ExploreSL/96oct/mtlaviniahotel.html)
Sitting right on the beach, it is a lovely old hotel that began
life as the governor general's home during British colonial times..
Our room has a view of the Indian Ocean.
Dinner was delightful, a Mongolian stir-fry.
You took a plate and passed along a table where all sorts of meats,
seafood and vegetables were finely chopped.
Choosing whatever you wanted of each item, you then gave it to the
chef who cooked it right in front of you.
While it was cooking you got a clean plate, put rice or noodles on
it and then returned for the chef to add what he had cooked for you.
It was delicious! The
dessert table had many enticing items, but I opted for the creme brulee,
which turned out to be an excellent choice. After dinner I went to the business center and was able to get on line and check mail for the first time since leaving Colombo six days ago. After posting answers, we returned to our room to call it a night. |
(Click thumbnails for larger versions)
School children as well as tours enjoy a visit to the elephant orphanage at Pinnawala.
Orchids were a feature of the Peradeniya Royal Botanical Garden.
Tea covers a hillside.
Pluckers , above, keep accounts of their efforts at the tea weigh-in, below.
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