2014, Day 318 - Roly poly

After the crazy exhausting day we had yesterday it was nice to be able to wake up whenever we wanted.  Unfortunately we're all so programed to get up early we caught another sunrise.  But that's okay as today we had a mellow day planned.

After breakfast we ventured to Nuwara Eliya to see the famous tea plantations of Ceylon.  Along the steep hillsides are row after row of tea plants.  Women move among them picking only the new growth and never more than the top three leaves which they deposit in the baskets on their backs.  They move so methodically through the plants, some of which are over sixty years old, picking the tender green leaves which are then dried in one of three processes and sorted by size.

The very fine powdered teas are so strong that they must be diluted with milk otherwise it will be far to bitter to drink whereas the larger leave make a much more mellow brew.  Sadly I am not much of a tea drinker so I cannot attest to the quality of the tea we tasted but judging by the price they must be very proud of what they're producing.

Other than visiting the plantation we stopped to see a few waterfalls along the way which we pretty but not nearly so novel to those of us who hail from the Pacific Northwest.  We also stopped for a nice lunch which consisted of rice, a variety of vegetable curries, and a health dose of meat curry as well.  I, of course, skipped the meat but for a little over two dollar per person it was a great value and quite delicious.

When we finished eating we took a walk through the market in Nuwara Eliya.  It was relatively small but still lively and interesting.  Here we found more fresh meats than I had seen anywhere else in Sri Lanka thus far and there was plenty of fresh produce and dried fish products.  We also stopped off at a couple bakeries to try the local types of breads and sweet which were all good if sometimes a bit unexpected.

As it was getting into mid-afternoon we decided to head back to our guesthouse and have an early evening.  Our hosts prepared another exceptional dinner, the highlight of which was a spicy coconut sambal which made everything extra delicious.

Tomorrow we're planning another easy day as Monday will be another travel day with much of it spent in the car.

Fuji X-T1, Fujinon 56/f1.2R
56mm, f2, 1/125 sec @ 250 ISO