This is Sri Lanka? Why you have to visit the Ceylon tea region!

If you have been reading my posts on Sri Lanka, you will know that I have been blown way by the country. It has exceeded all my expectations about this trip. Another example of this was my visit to the country’s tea region; but first, we visited the Ambuluwawa Tower on our way. From the bottom, you will take a tuk tuk to the top.

…and once you get to the top, you will have the opportunity to climb the tower in the picture below, and get incredible views. It was one of the most memorable things I did in Sri Lanka.

Afterwards, you can head back to the entrance where the same tuk tuk which brought you up, will bring you back down. After that, it was time to continue our journey to Hatton, in the middle of Sri Lanka’s tea country region. Prior to our trip here, I did not know that Sri Lanka was the 4th largest producer of tea in the world. Once we entered tea country, the views were spectacular and reminded me of the beautiful tea fields of Korea. The weather was also more pleasant (ie not so hot) as we were at a higher elevation.

The “hotel” we would be staying at for the next 2 nights was called the “Ceylon Tea Trails”, and they are a bit confusing so I will explain. Basically, the tea trails consist of 5 different “bungalows” (basically, 5 different plantation houses, spread across an area of land in the tea fields, which have been converted into individual unique very very very boutique hotels). They are dotted around a lake so you need to make sure you know which one of the bungalows you are booked in. There is no central “reception” or check in. For example, we were staying at Dunkeld, which is across a lake so we arrived at Summerville and then book a boat across the lake, and then transferred to a safari truck to take us to Dunkeld. This was a view of our drive from the dock to Dunkeld.

…and this is a video of the grounds and the Dunkeld Bungalow, with an amazing view of the infinity pool overlooking the lake.

Words, videos and pictures cannot describe how incredibly beautiful it was here. I would never, in my wildest dreams, pictured this to be Sri Lanka. It reminded me of North American wilderness sometimes. Anyway, when we arrived at our bungalow, we were shown to our room:

A couple pros and cons:

Pros:

• all food and beverage, including alcohol is included
• extremely flexible food service, you can discuss with the chef what you want for your meals
• very very good service; in fact, there is a bell beside the bed and if you ring it, someone will come within 5 seconds (I timed it)
• very beautiful setting and rooms
• very very few guests at each bungalow and it felt more like a home; in fact, you dont need to lock the door to your room
• really good food

Cons:

• no gym
• no AC (even though we were at a high elevation and it was basically room temperature at night, I like to sleep cold)

The next morning, we were given a tour of the Dilmah tea factory and had some samples:

We then spent the rest of the day lounging by the amazing pool.

Everyday, in the afternoon, you can also have high tea. On the first day, we had it on the patio off the main dining room. On our second day, we had it brought to the room.

We woke up on the third morning ready to say bye to this amazing place. Look at these photos of the incredible lake and scenery.

Next stop – Safari!