Saturday 7th February, Day 14 in Sri Lanka
After hanging out a bit in Nuwara Eliya we asked our host about the best tea factory tour here. He recommended Pedro’s Tea Factory to us, so we decided to visit it in the afternoon.
Nuwara Eliya and the colonial heritage
Nuwara Eliya is quite cool, cause you can see quite a bit of british heritage here. They have a golf course and a lot of colonial british style fancy buildings. Most of the are hotels but also the Post office and the Cargill supermarket look quite nice and not to forget a pretty big park area in the middle of the town and by the lake. On the lake you can even take a cruise with a bigger boat. But as far as I could see only Sri Lankan people did that.
In a back alley a bit hidden in the city centre is also the famous clothing market. A lot of outdoor clothing from Northface and similar brands is sewed in Sri Lanka. Therefore they have kind of an outlet there. The prices are about one third of the regular price and the material seems to be the same as in the original product, but BE AWARE, every piece of clothing has a fault somewhere. The seller will not tell you but you could look for it and if its just a minor thing that one zipper at one side of you pocket is not working it’s still a quite good price.
Pedro’s Tea Factory
At the various Tea Factories in and around Nuwara Eliya you can take tours. Our host recommended Pedro’s Tea Factory so we booked a tour there (or he booked a tour for us there). The tour was about 30 minutes (but we were not allowed to take pictures and there) and afterwards you can taste some tea on the beautiful terrace overlooking the tea plantations. During the tour you will see how tea is made. Interestingly it looks like they haven’t altered the machines since the british set them up about 100 years ago. Everything is still done like back in the old days. After tasting you can also buy the tea and this is really a bargain. You can get 500 grams of super high grad black or green tea for a few euros. Quite a paradise for all the tea lovers.
If you wanna stay in Nuwara Eliya, here are a few accommodations.
Picture gallery Nuwara Eliya
