Thursday 12th February

Shri Bhakta Hanuman Temple : Labukale Tea Plantation : Seeta Amman Kovil Temple : Gregory’s Lake

I managed to get just a few minutes on our balcony before 7 am, hoping to get a couple of shots of some birds. Departure from the hotel this morning is 8 am, and we need to have breakfast, and take our luggage to reception.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As seems to be usual in this country, we passed many stunning scenes as we travelled ‘up country’ along winding roads to Nuwara Eliya.

 

 

 

On this journey, we passed through the area that was most heavily effected by the weather phenomenon late last year.  Sadly, there were views of devastation, and we saw small houses at the bottom of a ravine destroyed by landslides.

Stalls lined the road periodically, and we spotted some red bananas; apparently there are over 25 different types of bananas cultivated in Sri Lanka.

We stopped at Shri Bhakta Hanuman Temple which is dedicated to the monkey god Hanuman; it was prohibited to take photographs.  A barefoot priest had white markings on his face and body, a sarong was wrapped tightly around his waist.

Our next stop was a tour of the Labukale Tea Plantation.  A guide took us through the factory, pointing out the different processes.  She informed us that both black and green tea are manufactured from the same leaf; it is however a different process.

I scanned the tea plantation opposite the factory trying to spot the tea pluckers.  The leaves are hand- picked, so that only the young leaves and buds are collected.

It was Dave who spotted them, he pointed out to me white sacks, “they are moving” he added.  Of course, with each white sack there was someone collecting the leaves.

 

 

Nuwara Eliya is also known as Little England, and it is also occasionally referred to as Sri Lanka’s answer to India’s Shimla.

None of us were overly impressed with the hotel. It was rather dated but, as always, we will make the most of it.

After a short drive from the hotel, we arrived at an impressive Hindu Temple, Seeta Amman Kovil Temple.

 

 

 

 

 

One of our guide books described this temple as garish with nothing to see, but of course this is just the writer’s opinion.  In our opinion, it was very interesting,  and it was quite moving too as the priest included us in the rituals that were taking place when we arrived.

The grand temple is a Vaishnavite Temple. Vaishnavites is a sect within Hinduism that worship Vishnu and his incarnations.  The site is also where it is believed that the god Hanuman met the goddess Sita, and this is part of the Hindu Ramayana (an ancient Indian poem).

 

 

 

 

 

 

A ceremony was taking place within the temple. A priest was wearing a green sarong which was wrapped tightly around his waist.  Like the priest in the other temple we had visited this morning, he too had white markings on his chest.

The priest asked for our entrance tickets, and for our names.  He gave us a blessing, mentioning all our names, and applied a tilak between our eyes (the ajna chakra). He then returned our tickets to us, each ticket had some kumkum powder on it (the red paste which is made from red vermilion powder).

A different priest, who was dressed in a bright orange sarong, wrapped the tickets and the powder in a bag for each of us.  He asked Dave and I if we were man and wife, and then instructed us to use the kumkum to apply a tilak to each other’s 3rd eye every morning. The priests made us feel very welcome.

There were many gold coloured statues of Hindu gods in the grounds, of which we could only name one or two.

Gregory’s Lake was our next stop. It was pretty, but would have been even prettier if the rubbish that was floating on the edge of the lake had been removed.

There were many boats available for hire, some in the shape of swans which were great for the kids, some motorboats and some rowing boats.

According to our itinerary, we were supposed to be at the lake for sunset but we were early.  Anura had said that it was rare to get a good sunset at the lake. We all agreed that it was looking very doubtful as the weather was cloudy and dull. It was also a little chilly.

Apparently, just a week ago, there was a frost in Nuwara Eliya and the daytime temperature was just 5 degrees Celsius.

 

 

 

 

All of us wandered around, and I spent some time watching a couple of herons in a nest with their young. One would swoop down and circle around and disappear, and I would spot it again a few minutes later returning to its nest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at the hotel, Dave and I were on our way to dinner when a torrential downpour started.  One of the staff offered to light the fire and said we could have a table close to the fireplace.  We thanked him but declined the offer as we were happy watching the rain from a table near to the windows; flashes of lightening had now added to the storm.

The dining room doubles as the hotel’s bar, and it was filled with dark colonial furniture.

Our friends eventually returned from their walk into the town, unfortunately they got caught in the rainstorm as they were heading back to the hotel.

Attempting to take a shortcut through the pitch black alleys leading up the steep hill, they got lost, and therefore had to return down the hill to the town.

They managed to flag down a tuk tuk, but that didn’t have the power to get up the final part of the steep hill, so they had to walk the last few metres in the heavy rain.

Anne was pleased to see a hot bowl of soup placed in front of her but less pleased with the pieces of ice on her bread bun.   Mine had been soggy!

While I thought it was a nice change to be served at dinner (instead of the usual buffet), none of the courses were thoroughly defrosted. As I said earlier, this hotel was definitely lacking a little.

 

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