Tea, Temples and Touts

Lion rock disappeared as we made our way towards Kandy. We stopped briefly at the impressive Sri Muthumariamman Thevasthanam Hindu temple in Matale. If we were to give this a nickname it would be ‘Muthy Thevy’.

Hindu temples are incredibly colourful and have lots of detail so it’s easy to A-) recognize them and B-) while away some time taking it all in!

Our driver then suggested we visit a ‘spice garden’ called Surathura No 3.

Gools and I were indifferent about the idea as both of us had been to Zanzibar Island (the ‘Spice Island’) off the coast of Tanzania. We had seen plenty of spice garden demonstrations before, but our driver was persistent.
This was against our better judgement as he had also stopped at a woodcarving place up the road a bit where prices were exorbitant and the salesmen pushy. We walked in then straight back out again as it just felt wrong…We then noticed he was eating his ‘free’ meal with all the other drivers! No wonder he was keen for us to take a look!

With all our travels we have become very aware of all the touristy exploitations that take place and have become quite expert in avoiding them altogether. We have the knowledge and skill to find the genuine places ourselves. This time I think we were too polite and simply got dragged along.

The spice and herb garden was basically a small scale ‘show garden’ where we followed the 'spice' guide as he explained exactly what herb or spice it was we were looking at. He then showed us the processed product. Our 'spice' guide told us about the medicinal benefits that he felt would be gained by using each of these concoctions. Most of us just think of spice as flavour enhancers but they apparently have some medicinal benefits as well. At least according to this guy, he had a cure for everything ;-)

It was about at this point we started to feel some heavy handed sales tactics being employed!
We were continually asked whether we would like to see the Ayurvedic Doctor. Both being pretty fit and healthy we both declined. The pressure continued, we declined again. How about a free massage? No thanks, very little in life turns out to be free!
We were then shown into the sales area and the hard sell stepped up a level.

 

It was so ridiculous, it was amusing. We looked around at the jars of ‘snake oil’ lining the walls. Shelves full of lotions and potions of all shapes and sizes. The best was the promise of renewed hair growth. Thommo could have done with some of this !
Nothing was priced. We played along and asked to see the price list.
Their hair removal cream that the garden guide had applied near my ankle had in fact removed my hair! For a bargain price of just $25 for a jar smaller than the smallest jar of ‘vegimite’. He suggested it was great value. Half a dozen of these jars should do almost one man’s chest.

 It definitely felt like a scam was brewing!

What disappointed us most was that we specifically told our driver that we wanted no part of any touristy venture like this. It is common in developing countries and fun the first time round but once you are in the know it is nothing more than a waste of time and money.

We eventually made it outside to note our driver receive his package from the owner which was clearly his gift for taking us there.
I suspect the gift would have been much bigger had we purchased some products!

He then had the cheek to ‘ask’ us to pay the 'spice' guide a ‘tip’ for the tour…which was supposedly free…

Rather than argue I slipped 200 rupees into his hand ($2) and told the driver to hit the road.

These guys were definitely ‘snake oil salesmen’. Both of us felt badly for the other tourists we left behind, gladly handing over their credit cards to buy baskets full of goods.

We 'googled' the business a little later, if you want a laugh check out what trip advisor users have to say about Surathura No 3. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1865780-d2624756-Reviews-Surathura_Spice_Garden-Matale_Central_Province.html

Note to self: Always trust your gut instinct!!

We whizzed through the pretty city of Kandy, which was absolutely heaving due to the Christmas holiday break. Thousands of people lined the lake area and joined the queue to enter the famous Buddhist Temple. This Temple holds the Sacred Tooth Relic of Buddha.

We are really interested in Buddhism but for us, the crowds were just too much to deal with. Thankfully we know we are returning to Kandy on another trip so we chose to avoid the crowds today and will visit next time.

The misty mountains beckoned and we continued upwards towards Nuwara Eliya, our next stop.

This town is 1889m above sea level and sits just below Sri Lanka’s highest mountain, Mt Pedro at 2524m.

Nuwara Eliya (the ‘City of Light’) was the cool climate escape for the tea pioneering English and Scottish after being ‘discovered’ by John Davy in 1819.

The town is known as ‘Little England’ by many and while it may not look like England to a British backpacker, some of the grand old buildings do look decidedly European in design. The weather however certainly reminded us both of a wet English December, albeit a bit warmer so I guess for us it will remain ‘Little England’ more so than the ‘City of Light’.

 

We visited the Glenloch Tea plantation and had a quick tour to see how tea is processed. It only took about 30 mins and was quite informative. We never understood why Silver Tip tea was so expensive ($18 for 100 grams), but now we know why! If you want to find out why, well you will have to come and see for yourself!

Driving through this area is nothing short of spectacular and we watched in wonder as the tea plantations spanned out in all directions. An amazing amount of timber must have been felled by the pioneers off the steep hills that surrounded us. It would have been back breaking work establishing the plantations.

That hard work is now being carried out by the army of tea pickers that dot the hillsides looking to fill their bags with the new green leaves that shoot from the tea plants.

We drove past an amazing hotel property called 98 Acres that was constructed on a working tea plantation. The pickers were busy filling their bags with the prized leaf.

 

 

 

 

It was raining a little and we learned that the pickers actually like to pick in the rain as they get paid by the weight of their daily pick and of course wet tea leaves weigh more than dry leaves right? Very clever! A win for the workers!

It makes a wet day just feel that little bit easier to deal with. Now it is time for us to head off for a cuppa!