Scenic Train Ride & Exploring Tea Fields in Nuwara Eliya | SRI LANKA SERIES

Scenic Train Ride & Exploring Tea Fields in Nuwara Eliya | SRI LANKA SERIES

Hello everyone, today we are continuing our journey through the central parts of Sri Lanka. We are so excited for today’s adventure as we are taking the famous train ride from Kandy to Ella. It was voted as one of the most beautiful train rides in the world,

Which we will show you today when we take you along. During this seven hour train ride you have amazing views of Sri Lanka’s tea plantations. We decided to break up the train ride in two parts by spending two nights in Nuwara Eliya. This mountain town is famous

For its tea plantations and is also known as Little England thanks to its colonial buildings and cooler climate. Another day in Sri Lanka, another Sri Lankan curry and rice. So here we got the green beans made in coconut, the Dal, the lentil curry that we know.

This is a cabbage one also made in curry and these are like leaves made with fresh coconut you can see the white. And we’re still awaiting some chicken curry It’s on the way Moritz couldn’t wait, he’s busy. – It’s super yummy.

I also want to dig in, but I wanna take a picture with the chicken. So we have about 1000 employees, 600 of them collect tea leaves. Tea pluckers only ladies Tea factory tradition, they are plucking properly. One day, one lady should pluck 18 kilograms She has 8 hours.

About 200 men clean tea garden, they also do hard work feritilizing, grooming. Tea leaves get crushed After crushed tea leaves, we collect big trolleys That is cutting machine, tea leaves get more cutting White tea only the tiny tips no machinery process, only sun dried natural decaffeinated tea has more antioxidans than green tea

So white tea good for skin problems, heart diseases very rare, very expensive. Here we produce only black tea after oxidation thoes tea leaves are again dried. These become a black color, stem we never use so we need to separate, we have machine, that big machine Look at those cups.

They’re super pretty. Like back in the days You look like an advertisement for tea. Let’s try it. How is it? It’s nice tea I’m not a tea person myself Is it a black one? Yes, try it. The one that Sri Lankans typically drink with some milk and sugar. Love it.

We just came down from the Ramboda Waterfall here in Nuwara Eliya Super beautiful, intense it’s getting warm. Well, it’s quite a nice little trip It takes like 20 minutes to get up here, and it’s all with these steps as you can see, it’s like steps just, like, paved way.

So it’s like, technically, like, not really demanding, but some of the steps are quite huge and there’s, like, rocks in between in front of the waterfall. But it’s actually super easy to get to. And so beautiful you can take a little bit of a rest there, take some drinks with you,

Even snacks and dip your toes in the water. Some people are like sunbathing there. Everything is surrounded with the water. So yeah, the entrance fee is 200, which is super nice actually for the both of us. It was for two person. Yeah. So 100 per person, for a foreigner.

And you have a lot of local people who come here we saw like so many and of course they all wanted to take selfies. Definitely a point to you you can go to when you’re in this region and like exploring the tea plantation factories, like we are

What we did is we hired a truck driver that brings us to two tea plantations. Earlier this morning we went to Damro tea plantation then he drops us off here and now we’re going back towards Nuwara Eliya center and on the way we make a stop at the Bluefield factory as well.

So this is an avocado tree we had no idea. Amazing. Just out in the open Next to a street. So what was mine called? something like a Moon Mixture Blue Moon Mix. So there’s some roses in there all kinds of added things it really smells like roses It’s so nice.

I took a little bit of a coconut biscuit kind on the side. And Moritz took actually the How is it called? The golden tip? Golden Tip, it is one of the more expensive ones because they only use the tips. And it’s white tea, right? – Yes.

You can really see it in there. they left it with the leaves and all and in this case the tips. And in my case, Yeah. What kinds of things, looks super nice though. So earlier today, like we mentioned, we also went to some tea plantations.

We hired a tuk-tuk for 3500 for the day and next to the waterfall that we mentioned, we also went to two tea plantations, the first one being Damro tea plantations, which was actually super interesting. We got a whole tour of the factory as well as the process

And you’re like really in there looking at machinery. You see people working in there, you smell the tea leaves actually inside of the factory, which is super nice. And there they produced the black tea and was it the white tea? Yeah, black and white tea.

They explained us the whole process what the difference is between green, white and black tea. Also, we learned that the white tea is actually super expensive and this little tour that you’re getting, which was really well done, is actually for free. But of course they always appreciate a small tip at the end.

Of course, also because they’re doing it in English and their English was really perfect, they really take their time as well it’s not like just 5 minutes and you’re out they really take their time to explain if you have questions, they answer them.

And after that, we went to a little cafe inside. That one was for free. – Was also for free where you get served their black tea, a cup or like even a pot you get for free there, which is next to the shop then

And we actually also bought a little bit of tea because it was super yummy and not expensive at all we paid like €3 for at home, a nice presentable box. But they don’t push you at all because we, we were reading up on the different tea plantations

And we really wanted one that we could enjoy and didn’t feel pressured and we read about others not so nice reviews. And yeah, we wanted to like somebody who explains things and doesn’t just like throw us off there. So, so in the end we had a really nice experience

And we didn’t have high hopes, but we got really pleasantly surprised and after the waterfall we went to the second one, which is called Bluefield. Also very informative we got like a little tour, which was a little bit smaller but still, but still very, very informative and interesting.

It was a little bit more, how do you say old school? I wouldn’t say, but you could see that there’s a different vibe than with the Damro one. – Yeah, the machinery looked like a little bit older. Yeah. I think Damro was the second oldest. Yeah.

And that one was I think from 19 something was saying it on front. Still, very nice as well you can see all the different kinds of teas they have, they show it, they explain which kind of flavors there are. They only produce black tea, though. That’s a big difference.

And as well, at the end you’re going to enjoy a cup of tea with some sweets. But overall, we had really nice experience on both of them. Our driver also really took his time he brought us to to viewpoints points to really see the the tea fields.

He even went with us somewhere where we can walk through the tea fields, which was super nice. The only thing that I didn’t like that much was one stop that you could really see that the women were keeping themselves ready, like the tea pickers on the fields.

The tea picker ladies, until like tourists come up and they join us and on the on the fields, hoping to take a picture with them for which they ask money. I didn’t like that little part so much we also ignored it. But all in all, it was like a super nice day.

And after that we actually also had some time over so we decided to take a little hike inside Nuwara Eliya and went to the single Tree Hill, like the viewing platform I would say the view, because there’s not really a platform.

It’s a super serene and like a little bit remote road that you take up through tea plantations so everywhere like tea bushes and we didn’t encounter many people there, not a lot of drivers like a few tuk-tuks. – Super peaceful, calm and we just rolled up there and at the very top too

You have like a big rock where we just sat and had like a little bit of, of a snack, enjoying the view. – It was super nice. Because from there you can really see the colonial style buildings very well if you look over Nuwara Eliya Now we’re looking forward to Ella.

Yes. The train ride. – Yeah. So we actually already yesterday did the first part so that’s what a lot of people do they make maybe a stop between the famous train ride from Kandy to Ella they make a stop in Nuwara Eliya. A lot of people with kids do that because the

The one way is like a 7 hours, which is quite long. So they make the stop. So the first part was yesterday, I think we expected quite a lot of it. It is touristy, so definitely if you have the reserved seats it’s full of tourists and everybody wants to take those,

You know, those famous pictures hanging out of the wagons. We had a bit bad luck, our wagon, the doors didn’t open, so that was shitty. And with our window we didn’t have a full window so it was hard to take a picture

We had to like ask some people to move and we’re trying to get one just to try it, to give it a shot. Yeah, but it’s not really necessary, we think you can also just enjoy the surroundings. We found that the best seats are actually on the right. Yeah, yeah.

Because you will see most of the of the mountainous area then. And actually the whole experience so we went quite up front to the platform. But as we read as expected, the train was like half an hour late, I guess. – Even more than that.

And we were like always worried of course, that we should be there on time and everything but the took a while for us at least -It’s a German thing wanting to be on time. I know for a train ride you want to be on time,

But we heard that it can get quite chaotic, certainly for people that didn’t reserve seats because and you really have to fight to get on your unreserved wagon. But all in all, the the platform looked quite okay, right? Platform looked ok, just in the wagon behind us

We could see that people were really like standing next to each other. Like little sardines in a box a bit. So that’s also an experience, we talked to a couple They said it was quite the experience, but we avoided like standing for 4 hours.

So overall we had a chill ride, some nice views along the way because after a while it changes from some tropical palm trees to more like the lush greenery that you have here with all the tea plantation bushes. And the view is just super nice. Totally.

It’s a must see, I guess, on your Sri Lanka itinerary. So for a little bit more information on Nuwara Eliya, the weather here, is said to be among the coldest in Sri Lanka, if not the coldest, which I find super pleasant. It’s around 20 ° C here.

At the moment we have clouds, so it’s really, really comfortable to walk around. Yeah, for me I’m always a little cold, so I’ve been walking around with a little sweatshirt in the evening definitely also with longer pants. So yeah, usually you’re traveling maybe from a Western country, from Europe, where it’s colder

So you have those things with you. You’ll need it here. You can also really tell just by also the amount we saw of trees there’s like less palm trees and coconut trees here and we see much more of needle trees and like more, let’s say

The one the forest that we’re like more familiar with. So less tropical here up in the highlands. Actually, at our house they mentioned that at the beginning of the month, so we are March they even had a little bit of snow fall so I was really surprised to hear that.

So yeah, pack some leggings, jogging, whatever, and you’ll be fine here. Here also, most of the stays don’t have AirCo or fan you get even provided with a thicker blanket. Indeed. I think it was the daughter from the from the place from the host where we stay,

She said that it was like 3 ° C was the coldest that they had here this year or last year, it was at night, though. So just keep that in mind maybe pack a sweater. Some practical info for you. Yeah.

We are continuing our journey through Central Sri Lanka, with the famous train ride from Kandy to Ella, with a stop in Nuwara Eliya. This journey is known to be one of the most beautiful rides in the world, passing through lush green hills and tea fields.
Nuwara Eliya is a picturesque town nestled in the heart of Sri Lanka’s Hill Country. Known as the “Little England” of Sri Lanka, Nuwara Eliya boasts lush greenery, serene landscapes, and a unique charm that attracts travelers worldwide. The world-famous “Ceylon” tea comes from around these hills and is one of the biggest export goods of the country.

We’ll explore the enchanting tea plantations that carpet the hillsides, offering not only breathtaking views but also a deep dive into the region’s rich tea culture & try some amazing tea fresh from the factory. After checking out the Ramboda Falls Waterfall to cool down, we cover everything you need to know about Nuwara Eliya & The Train Ride in our Vlog.
#srilanka #ceylon #travelvlog #ella #kandy #nuwara eliya

DISCLAIMER: We did this adventure in 2022 when the Economic Crisis in Sri Lanka just started.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:40 Train ride to Nuwara Eliya
03:03 Day Trip to Tea Plantations
11:11 Vlog on Tea Plantations
14:45 Vlog on Viewpoint Hike
15:26 Vlog on Train Ride
17:46 Practical Info on Nuwara Eliya
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