Tea, temples, traffic and much more

Day 5 was a very big day. We started off early with a visit to a local tea plantation where we were shown how tea was processed once it had been harvested. The fact that in some tea factories the workers are forbidden to stop work to have their photos taken just reinforces how poor some of the people here are. It appears the women can make more money by holding out their hands for a tip (if they have their picture taken) than they do shovelling tea, but of course this reduces their productivity somewhat.

It appears that some forestry workers from Sri Lanka did their training in Australia and (in the 1960s I think) decides it would be a good idea to grow Eucalyptus species. The only problem being that a lot of timber is grown for firewood for cooking (not heating) and the eucalyptus oil tends to carry through to the food. Also nothing else will grow under the gums and the local wildlife won't eat the l;eaves or make their homes in the trees. The Eucalyptus plantations are gradually being removed.

You see a variety of people usually young women or boys selling things from the roadside. They simply try to flag down passing traffic, especially tour buses like ours. The freshly roasted cashew nuts were very nice but I wasn't sure about the practicality of flowers or inflatable Scoobie Doo toys for that matter, but at least the inflatable toys would keep. As soon as one enterprising local thinks of something to sell all his or her neighbours jump on the band wagon and so you can have kilometre after kilometre of rag rugs, straw brooms or inflatable toys. The guy who started the flower trade is too old to jog up the road after the coaches now but people still go to him, see picture of him with Alistair below left, Foxglove orchid below right.

Next stop was the Peradenia Royal Botanic gardens which were first built as a pleasure garden by a Sinhala King and expanded by the British. We were given a tour of the highlights of the 147 acre garden, which is just as well as it was getting very hot again and we were all seeking out the shade as we walked.

After the gardens we were taken to lunch at a place two doors down from a gem museum and jewellers, where those so inclined purchased rubies, topaz and sapphires, but we gave it a miss.

Sri Lanka is roughly the size of Tasmania but with a population of around 19.5 million people as you can imagine it is decidedly more crowded and the traffic is far worse. Below left typical traffic in towns like Kandy and the entrance to the "Temple of the Tooth" Buddhist shrine also in Kandy.

To enter a Buddhist shrine you have to remove your shoes and either go barefoot or in socks. Frank caught a picture of a Russian tourist who chose yet another option (see below). The shrine was very large and very busy with lots of tourists and local school children.

To finish off our busy day we went to a Cultural show featuring a number of traditional dance styles including one which involved a lot of forward and backward somersaults. Pictures don't really do it justice - you had to be there but I have included a couple.

After such a big day we discovered we had very little recollection of the hotel we stayed in that night when it came to filling in the appraisal form at the end of the trip.