Sri Lanka tour day 2
St Barbara's Web Diary
Peter & Sue Goldsmith
Sat 2 Feb 2008 06:11
2nd February
Breakfast and off to the station for our train trip that turned out to be so
memorable. The station itself is a throwback to earlier times with its
amazing collection of hardware and a thick volume to record the arrival and
departure of every train. Fortunately we had been able to secure seats in
the observation car at the rear.
The train climbed slowly through forest then tea plantations to a height of
over 6000 feet. People hanging out of the side of the train, others using
the track as a footpath and many just waving and smiling, even the tea
ladies picking the tea leaves waved and smiled.
Some 3 hours later we were collected by our guides after a truly wonderful
train journey. On the way down we stopped for tea and to see how leaves are
transformed. First withered then crushed and dried, the end result tasted
pretty good, particularly with the chocolate cake!
Next stop Kandy. The roads very from good to very poor. The driving never
varies - always a little scary. Kandy is a hill town (city?) at some 1500
feet above sea level and so has a cooler, fresher feel. We just had time to
drop our bags and we were off to see some local dancing that reminded us a
little of the Balinese dancing only rather more frenetic.
Dinner at the hotel was excellent as has been all the food and we were all
ready for an early night.