NUWARA ELIYA

Woke up to a fine morning after all the rain that came down just as we arrived at our hotel yesterday, called Jetwing St Andrews . It's been overcast all morning with the sun coming out briefly. Driver picked us up at 9.00am but as I said last night that not a lot to do or see here. He took us to Gregory Lake but unfortunately with the very heavy rain last night it was very dirty with all the debre coming off the mountains and a lot of rubbish mainly plastic bottles being washed in to the lake as well. The driver was shocked when he saw it as he said that it is usually clean. Because we are a lot higher here the temperature is a little cooler but when walking you can still feel the humidity. We are now in the heart of Sri Lanka's Tea  country as you would know by the photos yesterday. We could see the bottom of Sri Lanka's highest mountain  called Pidurutalagala, (get your tongue round that) but the rest of it was in the clouds. Although it is fine now the chances are we will get rain later today which is common in this area. Hence this is why the driver would only recommend one night. After seeing the lake area we walked through town, the driver left us to do this on our own as it was within walking distance back to the hotel. I can now see why one night is definitely enough here so we have got the rest of the day here with nothing to do, no swimming pool as too çcool for swimming, but we are stuck here until pick up at eleven tomorrow. He won't pick us up earlier as we only have a couple hours driving tomorrow and we can't check in until 1.00pm. Looking forward to it as the area and hotel look heaps better. This hotel we are in now looks nice in the photos but very tired inside. All it needs is a little paint to spruce it up. They should get Evka over here as she would sort it out. So will have to fill the blog up with lots of  photos around the the hotel grounds and the lake and that's about it for this area. A bit of a waste of a day. Especially when you can't even  relax around a pool. We will now go and have another walk around town to see if we can find something different. It's now just after lunchtime.

Entrance to our Hotel

Further up the drive, our wing is on the left looking over the golf course. Notice the cut out of a man in the hedge.

We are just right of the middle tree upstairs



Looking down from the balcony

Looking the other way and can just see the golf course.

Sunlounge to relax. Very pretty setting.

Our room, big area, photo doesn't cover a lot of it.

Quite interesting for a hotel they have this huge garden area up the back of the hotel were they grow all their veges and herbs and have a few fruit trees as well as flowers. Above looking over the herb garden. It goes on further behind.

As we came down from the back garden we saw these people making flower posies for the hotel. The one on the left is complete, next one to the right is been worked on. Interesting how they build up the circle one layer at a time, inserting the stems into a round plastic disk. Further right are the bunches of flowers that the gardener had just picked out of the hotel garden.

Now a walk around the front garden where they sculptured a lot of the trees like above. PT holding the handle of a tea pot. Appropriate for the area.

This one is someone fishing in a pond. If you look hard you will see a stick at the end of his arm to form the rod. This could be Cody!!

Lizard

Elephants head, notice two stray dogs sleeping under the trees.

We could see the influence of the British colonial era as we drove in yesterday.

We have now arrived at Gregory Lake, such a shame re all the rubbish that has ended up in the lake after the heavy rain yesterday. Looking over to the other side. The mountain on the left is the highest mountain in Sri Lanka, 2000ft higher than the town, the top is hidden by the clouds. If we had gone over to the lake later in the day we would probably have seen it as it cleared a little even with some sun.

Looking down one side of the lake. A lot of the boats are there to take people for boat rides but very expensive.

Looking across the end of the lake




These for the kids swan rides.

PT trying to tell the owner that his boat needed a good polish, as they are all in terrible condition. Not sure if he really understood, polish probably doesn't come into their vocabulary. He also tried  to tell him if he looked after his boat and it was all shiney he would get more people interested in his boat rides as he would look the best. Don't think that he could comprehend all of that. Look at all that rubbish.

Some of the local homes across the road from the lake with lake views. They look like apartments. Would be upmarket for their way of living.

A handsome pair we met on the lakeside walk. All the locals are friendly say hello and smile.



After lunch we thought can't hang around our room so went for another walk around town. Got away from the main shopping road and walked around the back streets where you always see more about their way of living. We found the market area as it is Saturday and very busy. Brought some bananas.

Then we found this alley way of tiny shops tailors and all sorts. Thinking of Tayla's birthday coming up I saw a childrens and babies clothing shop. Some looked small so thought that they might be OK for Tayla's dolls. Well you should of heard us trying to ask this elderly lady with no teeth did she have any dolls clothes. Eventually a younger person came alone who could speak a little English we still had a battle. She was trying so hard to help us, but I thought that "doll" isn't a word that they would learn. We were saying doll little girls baby so she brings out all these baby cloths which were far too big. We had to leave her shop after that battle with nothing. A shame as I would have loved to have bought something off her.

After we returned home from our 2nd walk we relaxed a little back at the hotel, and sure enough we could see the black clouds building up and more heavy rain came in about 4.00pm. Now waiting for dinner to come around. Dining room doesn't open until 7.00pm. They eat late here.

Well for someone that said there was nothing much to do here and not much to write about, I seemed to have babbled on about nothing much at all.

We actually enjoyed filling in the day finding things to do.  Really looking forward to tomorrow as we believe that's a little gem of a place again up in the hills but not so high as to where we are today. A shame about only having one night there.