Do you know where Goddess Sita from the epic Ramayana was held captive? Do you ever heard of “tea cake”? Have you ever tasted tea with jaggery? Don’t worry; we will take you on a memorable experience to Nuwara Eliya.
Our experience will benefit you in planning your itinerary and simultaneously learning about our experience. Yeah, of course, we are here to help you out.
In case you don’t know who we are………..
We call ourselves Travel Freaks……..
Let’s begin this blog with a unique experience of tea. Now you might want to know…….
1. What kind of tea are we referring to?
Coming back to our story, we landed in Colombo three days back. We were in Colombo, then Dambulla, and last, in Kandy. Checkout our Sri Lanka series.
We started at around 8:30 AM from Kandy. Our driver halted and insisted that we try jaggery with black tea, best known as “Kitul Hakuru with Ceylon Tea“, in the local language. It was our first-time experience having tea with Jaggery, which turned out to be a unique, memorable one.
As we tasted a unique tea, we were more interested to know more about the tea-making process in Sri Lanka. You got a hint for our next destination.
Many of you might be curious about…….
2. What kind of tea production did we witness?
The distance from our Kandy Stay to Damro Tea Factory was around 75 km which took us around three hours to reach. We were amused to view the tea plantation.
Our driver cum guide took us to the reception area, where we learned that their staff would be taking us for the factory tour. As we joined the tour, the guide explained the complete tea-making process, from plucking leaves from the tea garden to processing them as an end product.
One of the staff explained the process of manufacturing white, green and black tea. Any tea lover would love to know the process of manufacturing their tea. After the factory tour, we were asked to take the seats where they served us the sample tea. Also, we ordered their most famous “tea cakes“.
We would love to recommend our readers who are planning to visit Sri Lanka, to try out this cake as you won’t find it anywhere else in this country.
After enjoying the tea cake with their tea, we went for tea shopping. They showed us various tea flavours, viz., apple, red hibiscus, vanilla, etc.
The tea garden in front of the tea factory had magnificent views. There was a viewpoint from where we took snaps.
After nearly two hours, we moved to our next destination, Ramboda Waterfalls. On the way to the next destination, we saw many tea estates. We could not resist getting down for pictures.
Hearing the name of the waterfall, many might be eager to know…….
3. Do we need to hike to see the Ramboda Waterfalls, and how was the experience?
Ramboda Waterfalls is located on the outskirts of Nuwara Eliya. Ramboda Waterfalls is famous for its unique formation, known as the “Upper Ramboda Falls” and “Lower Ramboda Falls“.
It took us half an hour from the Damro Tea Factory to reach. As we headed towards Nuwara Eliya, the topography changed from plains to hilly terrain. Soon we got down from our car; we saw many tourists enjoying the waterfall.
The entry ticket to the waterfall was 200 LKR. One has to hike for approximately half an hour to reach the viewpoint of the top. On the way, one can hear the flowing river, birds chirping and playful monkeys. It felt very close to nature. As you reach the viewpoint at the top, you will forget the tiredness of your hike by the charming beauty you see. You can admire the serene beauty of the waterfall from the top. It was not easy to capture such beauty through a lens.
On the way down, we interacted with fellow travellers and exchanged opinions about this beautiful country. One can learn a lot by exploring the unknown. Hence, we call ourselves Travel Freaks.
After coming down from the top, we interacted with the local shops that were there by the side of the road. They showcased souvenirs and woollen clothing as Nuwara Eliya is a cold region compared to other parts of the country.
After spending nearly two hours at the Ramboda Waterfalls, we hopped into our car for our next destination, Seetha Eliya Temple.
Yeah, you heard it right. Do you remember the question we asked at this blog’s beginning?
Many of your curiosity might have increased…….
4. Is this the place where Goddess was held captive?
Yeah, you are right, we are moving to this place now.
It was another one-hour ride to this unique temple. This place is associated with the epic Ramayana and is believed to be where Sita was held captive by the demon king Ravana. It becomes difficult to think of Ramayana as mythology rather than history. There were idols of Lord Ram, Lord Lakshman and Goddess Sita inside the temple premises. The idol of Lord Hanuman, their biggest devotee, was also there. Within the temple complex, one can cross the Seetha’s Gangula, which translates to Sita’s River, to see the footprint of Lord Hanuman on a rock when he came to visit Goddess Sita.
It felt so serene within the temple complex that it is difficult to explain in words. We were happy to witness something that we read since childhood. Getting immersed in thoughts of various episodes of Ramayana, we moved on to our next destination, Hagkala Garden, which was 5 minutes from the temple.
Hearing the word garden, many might yawn a bit. Wait! This garden is a bit different.
5. What is so special about the Hagkala Garden?
This garden is locally known as “Hagkala Kanda” in Sinhala at a height of approximately 5740 feet above sea level. The garden showcases various collections of plants and stunning landscapes. This garden was set up during the British era, dating back to the 19th century. The main motto of setting this garden was to grow Cinchona, a plant used to produce quinine, which is used for treating Malaria. However, with time, this evolved into a botanical garden.
The entry ticket for this place was 3000 LKR for adults and 2000 LKR for students. As the area was vast and we had time constraints, so we booked a golf car to explore the garden. The seven-seater golf car cost us 2000 LKR. It was a unique experience for us.
We stopped at various sites featuring different varieties of plants, trees and flowers. Exploring the entire garden in a single day and capturing such beauty was challenging.
After this enjoyable golf car ride, we moved on to our last destination for the day, Lake Gregory. It was another 15 to 20 minutes ride to the lake.
As soon as we got down, it started raining. The weather changed from a pleasant climate to bone-chilling weather, and we decided to visit the next before leaving Nuwara Eliya.
Now our readers might want to know…….
6. Where did we stay for the night?
We booked our stay at Hotel King’s Lodge. As it was raining, we thought of returning to our stay at the Water Filed Bank area. We reached in half an hour. The area had many stay options. However, be aware that you must come down to the town area if you wish to have food, and your hotel does not provide it. So choose your stay accordingly. We choose it as we wanted to stay close to nature, and the view from our stay was breathtaking. We would suggest to spare a complete day in this area to experience nature at its best. In our case, we only had the night to admire such a view.
The temperature dipped as the night progressed. We had a good night’s sleep wrapped in a warm, cosy blanket that did not let us feel the bitterly cold.
We hope you got a glimpse of the beautiful Nuwara Eliya. We are just a click away if you need any help planning your itinerary.
Wait, we are not going anywhere without this last question……
8. What kind of help are we going to provide?
Let us inform you that we prepare itineraries not only for anywhere in India but also for Asia. We have been travelling since we were toddlers. So here in our blogs and stories, we will give you a glimpse of our journey and help you plan your trip.
Read about our Uzbekistan blogs.
Read about our Kazakhstan blogs.
Read about our Singapore blogs.
Read about our Vietnam blogs.
Read about our Cambodia blogs.
Read about our Bali blogs.
Read about our Kuala Lumpur blog series.
Read about our Sri Lanka blogs.
Read about our Nepal blogs.
Read about our Char Dham blogs.
Read about our Ladakh blogs.
Read about our day trip to Hyderabad.
Read about our Madhya Pradesh blogs.
Read about our Andaman and Nicobar blogs.
Do follow our Instagram handle @mindfulllofvacations and watch for the next destination story of Sri Lanka. For any query related to any trip, drop a mail at @mitkau007@gmail.com.
by mitkau