Lipton's Seat Trip

 

Feb. 25

            We got another early start to see the sunrise at Lipton’s Seat.  This is a high viewpoint at the centre of the famous tea grower’s plantation.  Our tuktuk driver was there for us again but told us his wife had a doctor’s appointment but we could easily get a local bus back after we walked down to the main factory building.

             Again, the roads were not crowded and we were surprised that a gatekeeper charged us admission to enter the plantation.  We were dropped off at a strange building at the top of the hill which was an obvious viewpoint but felt unfinished.  The day was misty and windy but it was nice to watch the mist blow from hill to hill as the sun rose to expose a 360 degree panorama.  A few other tourists showed up in tuktuks (the road up would have needed a narrow and rugged car to make it up there).

            We posed for pictures with the statue of Mr. Lipton and then stayed for some tea served by vendors who rushed in just as the sun was coming up.  Most people were driving down but at least one couple walked down with us.  We were supposed to look for stairs to shorten the road journey back, which was all switchbacks.  Most of the paths among the tea leaves were irrigation channels but we found a few stone paths that cut through the fields.  Most of these were pretty rough and so required going slowly, which probably erased any time saved by not taking the twisty road. 

            Still, the walk through the fields was really atmospheric with mist blowing around and workers showing up with their baskets to pick the tea.  Eventually the road led into the village and we easily located the bus stop if front of the factory.  A tuktuk driver approached us and told us that the bus wasn’t leaving for 45 minutes but we knew not to believe him.  A bus driver then told us he was leaving in 10 minutes and invited us to sit down.

            The public buses here are red and look the way you expect but the private ones can be absolutely wild.  They usually have pumping music and flashing lights inside.  Outside they are usually blue and white but often with wild designs and images spraypainted onto them.  Ours wasn’t too crazy but the thumping music was there.

            As we got going, we wondered why everyone else on the bus was seated on the opposite side from us.  We switched over and saw that the view from this side of the bus was spectacular.  The road wound through tea fields overlooking a valley and everyone was staring out into the landscape.  It was almost as good as our train ride for a bus fare of 50 cents each.

            We walked back from town and, after a few detours, found our shortcut and got back to our room.  We had another late breakfast and packed up our things for the next leg of our journey.

            The way to Tissamaharama wasn’t direct and would have involved several changes of buses, so we cheated and used the Pick Me app to get a door-to-door ride.  Our guy showed up right on time, so we said goodbye to our host and were off.

            The trip down was scenic as we descended from hill country into the steamy jungle area.  We made good time and arrived 30 minutes ahead of our projection.  Our driver needed to make a few calls to get directions but got us to our hotel, which had a nicely gardened courtyard and a big open porch.

            We settled into our room and toughed out a power outage before heading out to explore the city.  The hotel gave us the number of their local tuktuk driver as the building itself wasn’t an easy walk to anywhere.  He let us off at a grove of trees by the water where we could watch bats fly out for their evening if we waited 45 minutes.  We weren’t up for waiting so we walked along the promenade of the huge artificial lake the city was built around.

             You would think a lakeside walkway would be busy with pedestrians but it really wasn’t.  A few people were fishing and one place had rentable swan boats but for the most part we were on our own except for the occasional tuktuk driver slowing down and offering us a lift.

            We headed inland and found the restaurant we were looking for, which was built like a huge grass hut and was known for its seafood.  Many people were there and we got seats under a fan, which was welcome on this hot night.  I had a good curry but Meg’s grilled fish was exceptional. 

            We called our tuktuk guy to get us back to our hotel and didn’t need to wait too long.  He didn’t seem too upset that we didn’t hang around for the bats.  Once back, we needed to prepare for yet another early morning so to bed we went.