Nuwara Eliya

Tuesday 01/03/16

Hard to believe it is already March and we are into the third week of our trip!

Saji (our driver), picked us up at 11am and we made our way back to Kandy where we would be spending the night before heading to the Hill country.

En route we made a stop at a beautiful ancient temple sited in the very centre of Sri Lanka.

Our journey continued for another hour when we arrived back at the lovely Baramba guest house. We spent the rest of the afternoon catching with messages and finances before enjoying a lovely dinner with fellow guests and prepared by our hosts. The meal included tofu fritters with a chilli, papaya and coconut salsa to start, mains of Dahl curry, rice, pineapple with chilli powder, and peanuts and green leaves and to finish a heavenly slice of homemade lemon tart! We also had a glass of red wine with our meal - our first wine since arriving in Sri Lanka!!

Wednesday 02/03/16

After another delicious breakfast we said goodbye to Baramba house and spent the next three hours travelling to the Hill country. The journey took a while as, for the most part the roads are winding and narrow as we climbed to the highest town in Sri Lanka, Nuwara Eliya and our base for the next few days.

Our temporary "home" is with a Sri Lankan family at a Homestay. 

Their place is situated high in the hills overlooking the town and at the edge of the forest. We have our own private living accommodation which includes a small living room, dining room and bedroom in the loft. All very cosy and cute! The family are very friendly and welcoming and speak excellent English.

Breakfast is included and we also opted for dinner as we wanted to sample some authentic, home cooked Sri Lankan meals - we were not disappointed. Our first night we had steamed rice cooked with coconut milk and several curries; spinach, aubergine, mountain curry, pineapple, Dahl and cucumber and tomato. Dessert was a speciality dish known as Wattalappam - similar to creme caramel but made from coconut milk and sweetened palm syrup. All of which was too tasty for words!