Sri Lanka Sri Lee Nice
To travel from one side of Sri Lanka to the other you must go through what the locals call "up country". This is the only part of the island that is formed from hills. This is also the only place where they grow the tea that they export so much of.
I took a train from Colombo up to the city of Kandy, which is more of a small town than a city. This is up in the hills and the train journey there is one of the prettiest I have ever taken. The small train would bump over the tracks up the mountains and from the carriage you could almost taste the mountain air, such a change from India, as well as look at the valleys beneath you and the clouds rolling in over the mountain-tops. Once you're up in the mountains the climate is very cool and pleasant. It was the first time in a while that I was able to wear trousers and go out for a walk without sweating profusely. The experience of being able to walk from my guest house to town and around without being hassled or stopped at all was also very novel. When people said hello they more or less meant it. I decided that I liked it here even more after that.
In Kandy I visited the old British Garrison cemetery. This was not as morbid as it sounds, as it had recently been unearthed and restored. It is now maintained by a very witty caretaker who took great pains to show me each grave and tell me a story about their lives and demise (he had a dark sense of humour). Most of the interred there were Scottish and died of either malaria or cholera over 100 years ago. One man was even a veteran of Waterloo and walked through the dense jungle between Trincomalee (in the NE) to Kandy, sleeping rough and through the rains. He succumbed to malaria when he arrived, having heeded no advice on avoiding the disease. Typical man, I thought, always ignoring the bloody instructions.
Kandy was pleasant enough though one day I took an excursion up to the tea plantations in the hills and to a place called Nurelia, or “Little England” as they call it. The plantation was good as one man there told me all about the process of making tea. I shan’t bore you with the details though one fact impressed me. Green tea and regular,”black” tea all come from the same plant and leaves. One stage of fermentation is left out, however, in the processing of green tea which means that the tea is greener and tastes different. People still pay more for it, but I know better! Ha! Just so you know and can impress your friends, the best type of tea is called “Broken Orange Pekoe”. So there.
On the way further up the mountain we stopped for lunch at a hotel that had an excellent view of a waterfall. This was unusual as looking out of the window I could have sworn that we were in the French Alps or somewhere similar. Everything was green and the waters ran clear, even the air was sweet. I didn’t feel like I was in Asia.
After this we proceeded to the top of the mountain and to Little England. This is at about 6300 feet and their name for it is accurate: the weather was crap. At this altitude it is actually quite cold, like spring day in England I expect; I’ve just become used to the hotter climate. The whole area was green and there were fields with Friesian cows grazing in them, and the buildings were all colonial. We spent some time in a Gentleman’s club there too! I sat in the reading room with my book and ordered a cup of tea. Naturally this was served on fine bone china as well as a small man in a bow tie doing the pouring. I looked up at the slowly ticking clock on the mantle and saw next to it were portraits of H.M. The Queen and H.R.H The Prince of Wales. There was also a picture of the Sri Lankan president. I relaxed with my tea and thought that a posting here when Ceylon was a British Colony must have been a right plum role. Great stuff, though afterwards we went back down the mountain to the town of Kandy and to the present day.
What impressed me most about this was not my mock-opulence but how Sri Lanka seems to be at peace. I have spoken to many people and they seem not just genuinely interested in where I am from but also good conversationalists. I guess the standard of spoken English here is good though many taxi drivers who I have spoken to know little English but still seem to communicate well beyond the standard conversations. The weather is fine, the towns clean and well managed, they drive well (relatively, of course), the food is great (lots of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as meat and fish that won’t kill you), and nice people. The final thing that leads me to appreciate them more is that their Civil War came to a cease-fire in 2002. There have been a few explosions since then but all parties are now engaged in talks for a separate Tamil region in the North, though still part of the Sri Lankan nation, like a federation. This is not only a testament to the current crop of leaders but also that all parties can get around a table and talk peace. I don’t think Northern Ireland would ever end up like this, not with the current Old Men. Maybe I am just happier here and am making things out to be better then they are?
After Kandy I travelled to the NE of the country to a place that was ravaged by the civil war in the 1990s called Nilavelli, but I shall save that for the next despatch.
In other words, I like Sri Lanka a lot.
I took a train from Colombo up to the city of Kandy, which is more of a small town than a city. This is up in the hills and the train journey there is one of the prettiest I have ever taken. The small train would bump over the tracks up the mountains and from the carriage you could almost taste the mountain air, such a change from India, as well as look at the valleys beneath you and the clouds rolling in over the mountain-tops. Once you're up in the mountains the climate is very cool and pleasant. It was the first time in a while that I was able to wear trousers and go out for a walk without sweating profusely. The experience of being able to walk from my guest house to town and around without being hassled or stopped at all was also very novel. When people said hello they more or less meant it. I decided that I liked it here even more after that.
In Kandy I visited the old British Garrison cemetery. This was not as morbid as it sounds, as it had recently been unearthed and restored. It is now maintained by a very witty caretaker who took great pains to show me each grave and tell me a story about their lives and demise (he had a dark sense of humour). Most of the interred there were Scottish and died of either malaria or cholera over 100 years ago. One man was even a veteran of Waterloo and walked through the dense jungle between Trincomalee (in the NE) to Kandy, sleeping rough and through the rains. He succumbed to malaria when he arrived, having heeded no advice on avoiding the disease. Typical man, I thought, always ignoring the bloody instructions.
Kandy was pleasant enough though one day I took an excursion up to the tea plantations in the hills and to a place called Nurelia, or “Little England” as they call it. The plantation was good as one man there told me all about the process of making tea. I shan’t bore you with the details though one fact impressed me. Green tea and regular,”black” tea all come from the same plant and leaves. One stage of fermentation is left out, however, in the processing of green tea which means that the tea is greener and tastes different. People still pay more for it, but I know better! Ha! Just so you know and can impress your friends, the best type of tea is called “Broken Orange Pekoe”. So there.
On the way further up the mountain we stopped for lunch at a hotel that had an excellent view of a waterfall. This was unusual as looking out of the window I could have sworn that we were in the French Alps or somewhere similar. Everything was green and the waters ran clear, even the air was sweet. I didn’t feel like I was in Asia.
After this we proceeded to the top of the mountain and to Little England. This is at about 6300 feet and their name for it is accurate: the weather was crap. At this altitude it is actually quite cold, like spring day in England I expect; I’ve just become used to the hotter climate. The whole area was green and there were fields with Friesian cows grazing in them, and the buildings were all colonial. We spent some time in a Gentleman’s club there too! I sat in the reading room with my book and ordered a cup of tea. Naturally this was served on fine bone china as well as a small man in a bow tie doing the pouring. I looked up at the slowly ticking clock on the mantle and saw next to it were portraits of H.M. The Queen and H.R.H The Prince of Wales. There was also a picture of the Sri Lankan president. I relaxed with my tea and thought that a posting here when Ceylon was a British Colony must have been a right plum role. Great stuff, though afterwards we went back down the mountain to the town of Kandy and to the present day.
What impressed me most about this was not my mock-opulence but how Sri Lanka seems to be at peace. I have spoken to many people and they seem not just genuinely interested in where I am from but also good conversationalists. I guess the standard of spoken English here is good though many taxi drivers who I have spoken to know little English but still seem to communicate well beyond the standard conversations. The weather is fine, the towns clean and well managed, they drive well (relatively, of course), the food is great (lots of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as meat and fish that won’t kill you), and nice people. The final thing that leads me to appreciate them more is that their Civil War came to a cease-fire in 2002. There have been a few explosions since then but all parties are now engaged in talks for a separate Tamil region in the North, though still part of the Sri Lankan nation, like a federation. This is not only a testament to the current crop of leaders but also that all parties can get around a table and talk peace. I don’t think Northern Ireland would ever end up like this, not with the current Old Men. Maybe I am just happier here and am making things out to be better then they are?
After Kandy I travelled to the NE of the country to a place that was ravaged by the civil war in the 1990s called Nilavelli, but I shall save that for the next despatch.
In other words, I like Sri Lanka a lot.