After a fleeting step through Kandy, where apart from celebrating Lety's birthday, we didn't do much more, we swell our lungs with oxygen, lest we go where we are missing ... if we go to the highlands of Sri Lanka!
Although where we began to notice shortness of breath was in the train on way to Haputale, it shows that it is a tourist route because here not even the hair of a prawn entered!
Although thanks to that we had the opportunity to see how the halls of Sri Lankan trains are hard…
Haputale it's a city to 1,400 meters of altitude where some years ago Thomas Lipton I take advantage of the pull of tea plantations to invest their fortune and enrich themselves even more. Since then the tea business in this area has grown, providing incredible landscapes with its mountains full of plantations that stain the world green (competing to Heineken clear).
Although before visiting the plantations, as we had time, we started to scroll the google maps to see what was in the surroundings. A telephone antenna, a Buddhist temple ... and a waterfall! We google it and it turns out that it is the highest waterfall in Sri Lanka and the 299th of the world, take it now! Is the Bambarakanda waterfall and it looks good, so here we go!
After a good kick, go through a little village Rober fell in love with and finally passed through rice paddies we reached the waterfall. It was worth the effort! We finished off with a little bath although Lety was not “available” for the dip and it was Rober and Jordi who enjoyed three.
With an empty stomach we stopped in the village of Rober and put on our boots. The return to Haputale was faster thanks to an old man who approached us for a while in his van and a tuctuc that the rest took for free.
In Haputale there is another (almost) mandatory visit: Lipton's seat, that is, where Uncle Thomas sat on top of the mountain (almost 2,000 meters above sea level!) to check that his employees did not wander. If the bum is you, you can go up in tuctuc or by bus to the tea factory and then tuctuc to the top that was what we did, although note that the last kilometer we did on foot, huh? A very cool climb between tea plantations, not suitable for those who hate the color green.
At the top of that mountain, there we alone felt free. As to complete this sensation what is needed is a teacup there is a business to offer it to you. So we ended up like 3 Thomas sitting in his seat with a cup of tea and a good talk.
We left the highlands as we came, by train, traveling the section between Haputale and Ella and this time we could sit in their wooden seats and freak out during a little bit of the places where it passes. We will remember this region for the impressive tea plantations and for the snake and frogs that we found in the bathroom of our cabin ... and for the shaved "machete" style that Jordi planted us! May the barber majete ... But these are other stories!
USEFUL INFO
How to get to Haputale from Kandy by train?
We did it by train from Kandy where we spent a night celebrating Lety's birthday! We wanted to reserve the day before but there were no places so we tried to go the same morning at 08:30, and they sold second class tickets without reservation, so we had to stand up almost all the way, tight as sardines. But that better than other combinations. It cost us 210 rupees and lasted about 6 hours.
Where to sleep in the highlands of Sri Lanka?
There are not as many options as in her sister Ella, and some are in the suburbs. We stayed at the Greenvalley Cottage.
Visits
- Bambarakanda waterfall: From Haputale you have to take a bus that leaves towards the Colombo road. About 15 km is the turnoff to the right (ask the driver). There may be some tuctuc that you want to take or you can kick the 5 km of paved road, it is not complicated and you pass through a very pretty town. When you reach a kind of parking there is a path in the middle of the curve that goes to the left, you have to take it and in a few minutes, after climbing some stairs, you are under the waterfall. We made the hike back to the main road and there we stopped the first bus that climbed. By the way ... you don't have to pay to get in! Incredible but true!
- Lipton Seat: in Haputale there are minibuses that leave in the “Tea Factory” for 30 rupees, from where you can take tuctucs to the Lipton Seat. It is the best, because they are 7 km of steep climb that can become a nightmare. At 1 km from the top there is a check point where 50 rupees are paid per person and 150 per tuctuc, we prefer to climb this last leg walking, so the arrival is more exciting. We pay for tuctuc 350. The descent to the Tea Fact. we also did it in tuctuc for 200 rupees.
