There's much more to Sri Lanka than beaches

catherine · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 21

Sri Lanka, is shaped like a tear drop, but it shaped belies what is has to offfer, because it is anything but tears. The beaches all over the island comprise white beaches, with coconut pals, wreck diving in mamy places as well as good reef diving. However there is much more to the island than the standard beach holiday.

Nuwara Eliya the highlands of Sri Lanka is the tea growing area. Whilst Sri Lanka's climate is mild all year, the climate here is much colder. It's altitude means that you actually appreciate a hot water bottle in your bed at night.

Apart from seeing a working tea plantantion, where you can witness the tea leaves being cut and picked, washed and dried, and then shredded. Amazingly there are several cuts off the leaves the first cut of orange pekoe gives the best quality tea. Then it is cut again and again until there is only dust and goes in the dust bin, this is where incidentally we get the word dust bin from. The tea in the dust bin goes to make tea bags globally, and they make no secret of their derision of that fact.

The highland area offers spectacular scenery and wonderful waterfalls, it is not unlike the centre of Fiji, without the Bungi jumping.

However, Nurawa Eliya offers more than the scenery. It has a type of old world charm, that is almost still set in colonial times. There is a golf course there that must offer the cheapest golf in the World, and is the only
place in the World, where when you play golf you do not have to go to the clubhouse for a drink, a gin and tonic is brought out to you on the green by immaculate liveried footmen. Personally I have always been so sozzled I have never got beyond the third round. My feeling on golf is it ruins a good walk, so it is the only place where I will even atrat to play, because I know there is no chance to finish.

An aspect of Nurawa Eliya, not to be missed is the hill club, a fabulous officer's club in the time of colonial, set in lovely lush grounds. You can stay there and use it as a hotel, or just go and have a meal and a drink. As late as the eighties, it was impossible for ladies to pay, and there is a ladies bar where you were segregated, but it was possible for the men to come in and visit, whilst you were there. Another aspect of this Hill Club was a very pro British stance. There is a fabulous old snooker tabke there I remember it was covered in Bond Street in London, and was marked some date in the 1890's. Well you had to show a British passport to use it.

The first time I was there there was an enormous row because one of Australia's under 18 champion'swas not allowed to use it, I on the other hand who had never been near a fiull sized snokker table in my life, was allowed to use it. Needless to say my husband only allowed me one shot, and it took for ever because he walked around the table several times, to make sure my shot was not going to tear the table. - No doubt frantically trying to work out how much it would be to recover should my shot backfire.

Nuwara Elya is also the site for the only brewery in Sri Lanka, and although it makes beer of the type only the British drink it is worth a visit.