Hey there everyone, considering how I had kept you hanging while I finished by entries about the trip to Beijing, if you have actually kept up with reading all of these entries about Sri Lanka, then you are definitely to be congratulated for your stamina. Anyway, I will just jump straight ahead into Day 6.
I think we were all awake no later than 7:00 AM, but Laurianne got up much earlier and even saw the sunrise. However, as there was no rush to do anything, I stayed in bed until 7:40 AM, then having a light breakfast at the hotel before departing in the van with Erik at 9:38 AM. From there, it was a relatively short trip to Tea Castle St Clair where we arrived at 9:58 AM.
While I can’t say that I am particularly interested in the topic, I was still very impressed with the crazy variety of teas. However, for someone who is really into it, I wonder if this would have been seen as a “cheap” tourist attraction or as something which was really special. For instance, what would Beth Johns’ mom have thought? I wonder.
Then at 10:18 AM we had a special tea presentation in which we learned (or at any rate heard) about the general characteristics of different types of tea. Evidently white tea, in general terms, is considered “the fanciest” but she also said that green tea was very special. One thing that distinguishes white tea is that there is no fermentation process. Honestly, for me, the white tea was so mild that I could have believed I was just drinking oddly flavored water; I guess I’m not very cultured. The only one that I categorically did NOT like was the gunpowder tea . . . the name gives a bit of a hint as to why.
As far as the plants go, I was interested to learn that every 12 months, they completely cut away all of the green, leaving only the wood, but then the green grows back and they once again harvest the tea leaves.
We left around 10:45 AM but then stopped at a lookout spot to see Devon Falls in the distance at 10:58 AM. Evidently it is possible to take a trail up close to the waterfalls, but most people just stop where we did and look from a distance.
We were only there for a couple of minutes before driving on a bit more to stop at the viewpoint to see St Clair’s Falls at 11:02 AM.
Again, it was all very beautiful, but after looking around for a few minutes we were all ready to move on, and that is what we did at 11:09 AM, with the next stop being Christ Church Warleigh where we arrived at 11:48 AM. This really was incredibly charming, both inside and out, but there were no pictures allowed inside.
This is still a fully functioning church for the nearby community, and I thought it would be quite nice to go there for a service. However, despite all of its charm, there wasn’t a huge amount to see once one had walked around a couple of times. Shortly thereafter we were off once again to see if we could visit the dam, but it was evidently not possible that day. So, we just stopped to take a couple more pictures at 12:20 PM before getting back in the vehicle again at 12:23 PM.
Believe it or not, that was the only thing that was scheduled today, which was a bit of a shock as we started heading back to the hotel for our last night in Hatton. We had some discussion of things to possibly do . . . certainly at some point we would get lunch? The most interesting idea on the table was to go to the city/town of Hatton and just wander up and down the streets for a bit, but there was nothing of known note to do there. Then at 12:47 PM we made the decision to just leave right then and have an extra night in Colombo rather than spending two nights in Hatton. This would mean that we would “lose” the night already paid in Hatton and also would have to pay an additional night in Colombo, but it seemed worth it. Even Erik said he had never understood why we were scheduled for two nights in Hatton.
Yes, it was very pretty in Hatton, and for me at least the temperature was perfect, but it was also a bit boring, especially when thinking how there was so much to see and do in Colombo. While this might seem like a glitch or a downside of the trip, it is actually really liberating to make a decision like this. That’s another bit of my travel wisdom; when following an itinerary, even if you have already paid for something, it really is okay to change your mind and do something else instead. We were back at the hotel to gather our things at 1:18 PM, and thankfully my laundry which I had left to be washed the day before for a cost of 1000 LKR ($3.41 USD) was mostly dry. I put the lightly damp socks aside in my lightweight, cloth laundry bag as we got in the van once again at 1:44 PM and headed to Colombo. This time I switched things up a bit and decided to sit in the front passenger seat.
We stopped at 2:52 PM at a place I think called The Bridge Restaurant for lunch. It certainly had a beautiful view from the balcony, and there was even a live guitarist/singer. Frankly, he did not play/sing very well, but he was trying to entertain. The food also was also not particularly impressive, but more than adequate. However, the view and the general setting was very nice. The total cost of the buffet for all of us was 10500 LKR ($35.81 USD). We left there at 3:46 PM, with me once more riding in front with Erik.
As we continued on our way to Colombo, I noted that the seat in front was not quite as comfortable as in the back, but the improved view really did make my general trip more pleasant, which was important, because it was not until 6:57 PM that we finally arrived at our lodging for the evening, Sayura House.
Wanting to take advantage of our last evening in which all three of us would be together, at 7:29 PM we were out walking and went to the highly recommended Barracuda club which was nearby. There was a live band which sounded okay, but we found it too loud; although, we appreciated the background music as we sat out on the beach having our various snacks and drinks. We definitely made the most of our last night out together, and the final bill of 30,000 LKR ($102.31 USD) reflected the same. While that does seem like a lot of money, we had a very nice time, and it was not until 11: 30 PM that we headed back to the hotel for the night, so I think it was worth it.
So, things had clearly not gone exactly as originally had been planned, but I think that it was still a very good Day 6 of our trip. I was also VERY happy that we had traveled all of those hours on a day in which we otherwise would not really have been able “to do anything” in the afternoon, as that meant we would be able to take better advantage of the next day in Colombo before Laurianne would have to take an early evening flight back to Shanghai. What do you think? Did we make the right decision? Would you have just stayed another night in Hatton even though there really wasn’t anything more to do? Have you ever changed your travel plans like this on the spur of the moment? If so, how did it go for you? If you have answers to any of these questions you would like to share, or maybe you have some of your own questions, you can put all of that right there in the comments section below.
Travels with Jay 