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We got to Nuwara Eliya in Hill Country by train early Friday morning. No need to guess if it was the right train, only westerners were waiting for it, tourist trap.
The train journey was beautiful, clearly built by the British as it went through all of the tea plantations. A really slow train but pleasant and comfortable. Much more comfortable than an Indian train. Smaller and much less crowded. The Lonely Planet had advised us against third class because it was densely over packed and uncomfortable but as there was no space in second class we had to brave it. Whoever wrote that section clearly has never travelled in India because we thought it was an absolute dream. Borrowed the Lonely Planet of the Swedish couple next to us and planned our next few days.
Arriving in Nuwara Eliya we were offered a very cheap taxi ride along with two Spanish girls so the guy could tout us a guesthouse. As we hadn't booked anywhere we gave it a go. The Spanish girls took everything far too seriously, but these guys were nothing on Indian touts so we quite enjoyed his efforts. He also said I looked like a girl, must be the week old beard I was sporting. Dread to think what his wife looks like. Brian Blessed? The guesthouse wasn't bad and he dropped the rate to meet our budget so we stayed. A bit chilly we headed out to the tea plantations and factory, stopping off for some rice and noodles for lunch; a far more successful meal than our last.
The tea factory was massive, much bigger than in Ooty and produces a massive 2000kg of tea per day. The women pick 20kg of leaves every day (for only £2 per day) and they had 80 women working in the fields. That's a lot of tea. She also explained the process of selling as they only produce the massive nags for sending to the tea auctions and apparently they often supply Twinings so think of us with your next cuppa!
We ate in the guesthouse for dinner, a massive portion of Sri Lankan curry with all the trimmings. We met a nice guy called Takafumi who had just arrived and spent time chatting to him about football and where to go in Nuwara Eliya. He said he lives just by the port from South Korea so we got his details to maybe visit next year.
Only a short stop as the next morning we were up early to move on to nearby Ella. Or we thought it was near but the snail pace train through the mountains meant that we were going about 15km per hour. Which was nice sometimes as the views were even more spectacular than the last journey, waterfalls and valleys and tea plantations. But not helped by our carriage companions who were clearly the type of eager wealthy tourists that make our lives more difficult when locals see us in the street and assume we are of the same caliber. Miss Dior from France with designer glasses and all the men had cameras bigger than my head. And were rushing to each side of the carriage for any vaguely interesting sight. We think they saw more of the journey through their lenses than with their eyes. The German couple had come along with their guide and they all thought the peanut seller who came aboard at one stop was absolutely darling. Tourists. We arrived in Ella having once again missed lunch and headed to the next guesthouse.
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