Our bed in Trincomalee the day after the swans!
Dear Friends, my last Dispatch was written on Sunday and after our relaxing day, we had a wonderful seafood barbecue on the beach with our driver, Neel. The food was great – lobster, seer fish, prawns, octopus and we washed it down with a light French Shiraz and Wes gave Neel the wine lesson, which he really appreciated. The next morning we had a yummy breakfast of fish curry, string hoppers, egg hoppers, sambals and fresh fruit, followed by curds and treacle – no need for lunch! Neel took us to see a famous old Buddhist Temple, we stopped to photograph the deer, drove to some hot mineral springs (Daylesford has absolutely no competition as far as mineral water goes), and visited the Hotel Nilwali, where we stayed with Judi and Jane in 1979 and had a lovely time. It has been modernised of course, but we recognised it easily and were able to have a cool drink on the beach.
With one of the many friendly deer we encountered on our way to the Buddhist Temple
The rest of Monday was spent relaxing – Wes had hoped to take Neel out snorkelling but the sea was too rough and the boatman refused to go to Pigeon Island. We were very impressed with everything about our hotel – the staff is friendly, knowledgeable and helpful and one of them told us that the management is fantastic and everyone loves to work at Chaaya Blu. We had Sri Lankan curries again for dinner that night with Neel and arranged an early start in the morning for the big drive to Nurawa Eliya, the tea area.
Neel & I
After another yummy breakfast we headed off with a few stops along the way – the Juice Factory is an oasis of wonderful juices made from organically grown fruits (although I had lassi to drink as it hadn’t been offered anywhere else we had been – Wes & Neel enjoyed avocado juice). The Factory is situated on an organic farm, which grows the fruit, vegetables and plants, as well as offering organic eggs and is on the outskirts of Dambulla. Shortly after that stop, we found ourselves at the famous Buddha Rock Cave and Golden Buddha Temple and Museum. Neel had forgotten to mention to Warren that his knees needed to be covered, and told neither of us that we would be climbing 120 steps plus some steep inclines in the heat. We advised him that he should always warn his passengers of these things, especially as you pay 1,200 rupees for the privilege. Neel found a sarong for Wes to wear; we removed our shoes and socks and hopped over the hot sand until we reached the cool of the old Cave. There are plenty of Buddhas to see and it is well-maintained, which made visiting the 5 areas a pleasure, although we are both always delighted to put our shoes and socks back on again.
We stopped again in Kandy to cash some Australian dollars – an easy thing to do at the airport, but rigmarole at banks, then continued our big drive. The road was good for most of the journey, but the last 43kms were on windy roads, and our hotel was another 14kms beyond that on a goat track! We finally arrived at 6pm, where we were greeted warmly, given a sweet fragrant tea, anointed and allowed to go to our room, which has stunning views on 2 sides of the plantations all around us. We were quite emotional as we drove through Nurawa Eliya – it was a special place for us all in 1979 – we had our first massages at the Grand Hotel, which still stands, opposite the golf course, where we used to walk daily into the town to get short eats for lunch.
The Tea Factory Hotel this morning on our walk
Last night we decided to eat in the restaurant, which was quite OK, although the food was not as yummy as Trincomalee. Neel was born in this area, so he was seeing friends for dinner and we had an early night – not as early as we would like as hotel restaurants don’t seem to open until 7.30pm! Everyone is happy to talk about the cricket and they are all confident Sri Lanka will win the World Cup.
Today we gave Neel the day off to visit family as we have another big day of driving tomorrow, followed by a half-day safari and a drive to Colombo on Friday. So we awoke early to see the plantations shrouded in mist and enjoyed breakfast watching it lift. At 10am we joined three French people for a 2-hour walk around the plantations learning about tea-picking and spotting various birds. We all got soaked to the skin when it suddenly rained, but we have dried off again, after a refreshing pot of tea in the tea lounge. I drank organic green tea, which is easily the nicest green tea I have ever tasted, while Wes had orange pekoe, of which they are very proud. Even though we are in the home of beautiful teas, I am carrying my tin of Jasmine tea around with me as the tea that is served in the restaurants is not Ceylon’s finest and everyone is fascinated to watch me put the leaves in the teapot and stir them around before drinking. They all want to examine the tin and smell the leaves – it’s a good talking point.
Shortly we are heading downstairs to the spa, where I am having a 90 minute herbal massage and Wes is having a 90-minute Balinese special massage. Then we plan to sit in our room and watch Australia play Canada, indulge in G&Ts and perhaps have some of the many cricket flavoured snacks that are being offered by room service. We won’t have much access to computers over the next couple of days, so don’t be disappointed if we are not in touch. We will be thinking of everyone in Daylesford tomorrow and hope the sun shines for Averil’s funeral.
Dear Friends, my last Dispatch was written on Sunday and after our relaxing day, we had a wonderful seafood barbecue on the beach with our driver, Neel. The food was great – lobster, seer fish, prawns, octopus and we washed it down with a light French Shiraz and Wes gave Neel the wine lesson, which he really appreciated. The next morning we had a yummy breakfast of fish curry, string hoppers, egg hoppers, sambals and fresh fruit, followed by curds and treacle – no need for lunch! Neel took us to see a famous old Buddhist Temple, we stopped to photograph the deer, drove to some hot mineral springs (Daylesford has absolutely no competition as far as mineral water goes), and visited the Hotel Nilwali, where we stayed with Judi and Jane in 1979 and had a lovely time. It has been modernised of course, but we recognised it easily and were able to have a cool drink on the beach.
With one of the many friendly deer we encountered on our way to the Buddhist Temple
The rest of Monday was spent relaxing – Wes had hoped to take Neel out snorkelling but the sea was too rough and the boatman refused to go to Pigeon Island. We were very impressed with everything about our hotel – the staff is friendly, knowledgeable and helpful and one of them told us that the management is fantastic and everyone loves to work at Chaaya Blu. We had Sri Lankan curries again for dinner that night with Neel and arranged an early start in the morning for the big drive to Nurawa Eliya, the tea area.
Neel & I
After another yummy breakfast we headed off with a few stops along the way – the Juice Factory is an oasis of wonderful juices made from organically grown fruits (although I had lassi to drink as it hadn’t been offered anywhere else we had been – Wes & Neel enjoyed avocado juice). The Factory is situated on an organic farm, which grows the fruit, vegetables and plants, as well as offering organic eggs and is on the outskirts of Dambulla. Shortly after that stop, we found ourselves at the famous Buddha Rock Cave and Golden Buddha Temple and Museum. Neel had forgotten to mention to Warren that his knees needed to be covered, and told neither of us that we would be climbing 120 steps plus some steep inclines in the heat. We advised him that he should always warn his passengers of these things, especially as you pay 1,200 rupees for the privilege. Neel found a sarong for Wes to wear; we removed our shoes and socks and hopped over the hot sand until we reached the cool of the old Cave. There are plenty of Buddhas to see and it is well-maintained, which made visiting the 5 areas a pleasure, although we are both always delighted to put our shoes and socks back on again.
We stopped again in Kandy to cash some Australian dollars – an easy thing to do at the airport, but rigmarole at banks, then continued our big drive. The road was good for most of the journey, but the last 43kms were on windy roads, and our hotel was another 14kms beyond that on a goat track! We finally arrived at 6pm, where we were greeted warmly, given a sweet fragrant tea, anointed and allowed to go to our room, which has stunning views on 2 sides of the plantations all around us. We were quite emotional as we drove through Nurawa Eliya – it was a special place for us all in 1979 – we had our first massages at the Grand Hotel, which still stands, opposite the golf course, where we used to walk daily into the town to get short eats for lunch.
The Tea Factory Hotel this morning on our walk
Last night we decided to eat in the restaurant, which was quite OK, although the food was not as yummy as Trincomalee. Neel was born in this area, so he was seeing friends for dinner and we had an early night – not as early as we would like as hotel restaurants don’t seem to open until 7.30pm! Everyone is happy to talk about the cricket and they are all confident Sri Lanka will win the World Cup.
Today we gave Neel the day off to visit family as we have another big day of driving tomorrow, followed by a half-day safari and a drive to Colombo on Friday. So we awoke early to see the plantations shrouded in mist and enjoyed breakfast watching it lift. At 10am we joined three French people for a 2-hour walk around the plantations learning about tea-picking and spotting various birds. We all got soaked to the skin when it suddenly rained, but we have dried off again, after a refreshing pot of tea in the tea lounge. I drank organic green tea, which is easily the nicest green tea I have ever tasted, while Wes had orange pekoe, of which they are very proud. Even though we are in the home of beautiful teas, I am carrying my tin of Jasmine tea around with me as the tea that is served in the restaurants is not Ceylon’s finest and everyone is fascinated to watch me put the leaves in the teapot and stir them around before drinking. They all want to examine the tin and smell the leaves – it’s a good talking point.
Shortly we are heading downstairs to the spa, where I am having a 90 minute herbal massage and Wes is having a 90-minute Balinese special massage. Then we plan to sit in our room and watch Australia play Canada, indulge in G&Ts and perhaps have some of the many cricket flavoured snacks that are being offered by room service. We won’t have much access to computers over the next couple of days, so don’t be disappointed if we are not in touch. We will be thinking of everyone in Daylesford tomorrow and hope the sun shines for Averil’s funeral.
Above, we are soaking wet walking down from the tea plantation & the clever use of bottles to stop soil erosion
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