At around 10:30 AM Hoài Anh and Thắng appeared and we all hopped back into the Maruti and headed toward our next destination, a tea plantation stuck somewhere in the highlands passed Nuwara Eliya. All of us heard that the drive would be about four hours but we did not reach our final destination until after seven PM. It was a lot of driving but we did make some stops along the way.

We had to stop several times outside of Delhousie for a 3-speed, rod-brake bicycle race. It was funny to watch people wearing bicycle shorts and jerseys peddling hill-climbs using the same 45 pound bike I own. Manog told me these were the bikes they can afford and if everyone has the same equipment it levels the playing field.

In Hatton, home to a large Tamil population, we literally drove through Hindu parade, all part of the continued New Years celebration shared by the Sinhalese and the Tamil people. Manog had to swerve to miss pedestrians carrying banana palms with bunches of bananas still attached to hang at the entry of the town shops. People were dressed as monkeys dancing in the streets. It was a sight to see.

At around three we stopped at the Blue Fields Tea Processing factory (Ramboda, Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka) for a tour on the production of tea and for some lunch. All of the equipment in the tea production plant was over 100 years, all except the fluorescent lit tea leaf sorting machine. Since the tour was free we all felt compelled to purchase Blue Fields tea at the gift shop. Buying Blue Fields tea from the source also made sense because Blue Fields was a wholesaler to Finlay's, Liptons and other companies and you can only buy Blue Fields direct from the Blue Fields factory. This was all lost on Hoài Anh, who found cheaper tea later at the supermarket.

Running short on time we breezed through Nuwara Eliya, a popular spot for the British looking to escape the heat back when Sri Lanka was the British territory of Ceylon. The buildings in the center of town all date from the English occupation, and they all look, well British, full of white washed buildings with dark timber accents and formal gardens. It was quite lovely and out of place in the frenzied rush hour traffic of modern day Sri Lanka.

At about 6 km before reaching the town of Badulla, Manog took a right turn before the town of Hali-ela and then a left at a sign marked, "Rossett Division, Demodera Group, Finlay's Tea", over a bridge he went and then began four wheeling the Maruti up the final 7km to our destination for the evening, the super attendant bungalow inside a working tea plantation.

It was a bit past dusk by the time we reached the plantation house, a single story home with at least four bedrooms. Upon arrival were introduced to Sanjimani and her husband, Shane. They ran the house and quite possibly the 525 workers living and working on the planation. I was hoping to see a British couple but Shane said the British workers left with the British after World War Two.

Above the arched entry to the planation bungalow was a placard, "Dedicated October 1, 1908". Though the building was sagging a bit and the plumbing or electrical did not look like it had been updated since the British left in the 1940s, sitting in the drawing room you could imagine having high tea while looking out over the manicured gardens, over toward the tea plantation and into the distance the beyond ravine and to the opposite hillside. In fact soon after our arrival, we were served tea by what could at best be described as the resident butler or servant. He didn't talk much, just carried trays about. There was a buzzer in each room to call him. The old man washed Manog's Maruti and he brought me a finger bowl to wash my hands after dinner. Dinner was rice, dahl, potato curry, spicy fish, and greens. For desert we ate custard fruit. The taste was similar to an Asian pear and the interior was, well a bit like custard. It took several bites to convince myself that it was fresh and not way overly ripe, only then could I call it tasty.

After dinner I returned to the drawing room to journal and take in all that was this place. My trip was framing to be a trip of a lifetime. I had not had so many things go so well in one trip. I could not stop smiling as I typed.