The weather here in Sri Lanka has been hot and sunny in the morning and would get steadily cloudy and then rain or thunderstorm in late afternoon and evening. Today is the one exception as it starts to rain and drizzle right from the morning. This is poor timing for our visit to another Sri Lankan landmark: Lipton's Seat, situated at 1800m high with one of the best 360 degree view of the land.
Sir Thomas Lipton visited Sri Lanka in 1871 and was so impressed with its beauty and the tea it produced that he decided to purchase a tea estate to supply his grocery stores back in UK and USA. He is the first guy to package tea in consumer sized tea bags and let the mass enjoy fine tea. He is credited with the establishment of the important tea business in Sri Lanka. On his original tea estate, there is a spot where Sir Lipton would survey the surrounding and enjoy a fine cup of tea.
The tea estate is very scenic even in the rain. We had to take a tuk-tuk for the final 200m ascent. There is a certain beauty to the scene of women picking tea leaves in the tea estate but the reality is that these (often Tamil) women only earn meager money for the incredible hard work they are doing. Our tuk-tuk driver told us that on average, these women have to pick 18kg per day for 750 LKR (about 6.5 CAD) pay. If they can't make the quota, the price per kg they got paid would be much lower.
Since my arrival, I have really grown to enjoy black tea with milk in Sri Lanka. This particular tea estate has also started to produce whole tea leaf tea for the Chinese market.
We next visited an impressive waterfall near Ella, Ravana Falls. This waterfall is especially awesome with the rain we are getting.
Our hotel tonight is at Kataragama which is just outside the Yala National Park where we would do another Safari. Kataragama is also known for its shrine of Kiri Vehera. Amazingly, this shrine not only attracts Hindus (this is a Hindu god btw), but also Buddhists (with lots of Buddhas on the ground) and muslims!! Every day they have 3 ceremonies called "puja" where pilgrims come to offer fruit baskets.
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