Kandy and Tea in the Mountains
In the morning, we explored Kandy and the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. The city was beautiful and busy. There were remnants of the festival the night before, as well as people already camped out for tonight's show. Beads and jewels littered the ground from the elephants and dancers, and we saw elephants near the temple eating a big helping of leaves.
Inside the Temple was very full. The locals leave daily offerings so all food and flowers we saw were fresh and bright. Some places also had bits of fabric tied around a coin, a way to make a wish for good health for others.
This temple had no live monks living there, but an active caretaker who is held in high regard and given special garment in recognition of their work. The temple housed old texts and paintings of the histories, even a small museum of artifacts from the previous kings and pictures documenting the history of the area. After surviving a bombing from religious radicals as well as 3 attacks from the British, the temple has been restored to it's original state.
In one of halls, there was a pile of costumes from the festivals. Most of the staff looked half asleep sorting through the elephant clothes.
We left again at the sound of drums signaling an offering time for the locals. As we walked along the water back towards the car, we learned this lake was man-made. Throughout our travels we realized most lakes, especially the large ones, were man-made to help the area with crops, wildlife, and local collection of rain water.
From our view point of Kandy, we started our ascent into the mountains. It was so lovely.
Between Kandy and Nuwara Eliya, is the Damro Tea Factory where the air is heavy with the scent of tea leaves.
It was so foggy, we could barely see the mountains at times, but the cooler air was welcome. We had a quick tour of the factory, where we learned about the different teas they process and how it's collected. Only women pick tea leaves in the field, and a mix of men and women work in the factories. Depending on the type of tea, the leaves will go through a series of shaking, cutting, fermenting, and drying.
This part was a little bittersweet, as we know that Sri Lanka is a developing country and this is where a lot of poverty continues. We could see the tea fields all the way up and all the way down the mountains, and throughout the area. The towns surrounding the area were mostly tea workers. Our guide said the work was brutal for little pay, which unfortunately made sense with what we were seeing. Most of the land was covered in tea with small communities at the bottom of the hills where the workers would live. Waking up at dawn, picking all day, and paid very little and inconsistently. I know this has probably gotten even worse recently as their economy has tanked fairly recently. Pedro knew from many locals in Colombo that the people are suffering from inflation, and with main economy drivers of tourism and tea, the prices and pay have varied widely.
As we got closer to Nuwara Eliya, which is nicknamed 'Little England', there were still many fields of crops with some little patches a tea here and there. However this town had horse shows, golfing, grand hotels, parks named after English queens... a stark contrast to the mountains. (I didn't take any pictures here as it was a bit of home and I was a bit sick).
We made it to our hotel in Ella just after nightfall. We had heard Ella was a very little yet busy town, known for restaurants, clubs, shops and all around nightlife. Not exactly our scene, so we ate at the hotel restaurant across the street and went to bed!
