weekend in the hill country...

Just got back from a weekend break to Nuwara Eliya (also known as the little England of Sri Lanka). It took us 6 hours to get there, on some pretty bad roads for the last two hour stretch, I was grateful it was dark, so we couldn't see how steep the slopes were on the sides of the roads. We stayed at a real Tea Factory, that has been converted to a hotel, which looks on majestically to rolling hills of tea-plantations. It was quite quaint, and the whole of Nuwara Eliya really brings home the influence and impact of the Raj! There's the Nuwara Eliya Golf Club, which has a public footpath running through it, which means that you often get some nutter running through the footpath and getting walloped on the head with a golf ball! M & B spent the morning golfing, or attempting to golf...I think they played 9 holes... while I enjoyed the view and listened to my iPod...
We then drove through the town, which was swarming with bus-loads of day-trippers from Colombo, all buying the brightly coloured monkey-caps and sweaters that were on sale on the road-side (it was seriously not monkey-cap weather, rather more like a pleasant English summers day... but I guess the locals find it cold...).
We had high-tea in the afternoon back at our hotel, since (luckily) none of us were appropriately dressed for the very posh, very Colonial Hill Club which is a members only establishment, where gentlemen are expected to wear dinner jackets and there is even a separate gentleman's only bar... the Orange Pekoe tea was excellent, although the food took a good hour to get to us, and was a far cry from cucumber sandwiches or indeed Sri Lankan short-eats, and poor Bush had to wait an hour for his Fanta... even though we asked about 3 times...
Anyway, the return journey back was far more pleasant, and shorter by a couple of hours since we left late morning and made it in good time to Colombo...
I think Nuwara Eliya is a perfect weekend or mid-week break from Colombo, for a spot of golf, some great tea, as well as to experience the high old days of the Raj ;-)...
Pictures to follow (when I bother to upload them)