The Start of the Holidays

We are officially on Christmas break. This year to celebrate, as soon as the school bell rang, we quickly caught the first flight out of Kuwait to the magical land of Sri Lanka.  We have been talking of traveling Sri Lanka for about 3 years now so we were very excited to see this if this place lived up to the hype in our mind.  About two minutes after exiting the airport we knew we had made the right choice. 

Sri Lanka is like paradise -- green trees and plants EVERYWHERE, kind people, delicious spicy food, cheap beer (which is actually good cheap beer -- err, wait ... perhaps our standards for beer cannot be trusted anymore), and lots of cool birds and animals.  We drove straight from the airport into hill country to a town called Haputale.  It is known for its tea plantations and some cool mountain hikes.  The town did not disappoint.  Our hotel was gorgeous and the view was not so bad either.  Despite being rained on and fogged in, we saw some amazing sights, drank tea IN a tea field (Heidi thought that might just be what heaven is like), ate too much curry, drank aforementioned cheap beer like we might never see it again (thanks, Kuwait), and had many great conversations with local people.  All in all, it has been a great way to start a much needed vacation in the land which just might be the original Garden of Eden (no, seriously!!  Look it up).

This picture does not do the view from our hotel justice.  From our hotel, high in the mountains, we could see 5 different provinces in Sri Lanka.  And, on a clear day, all the way out to the ocean.

Our first stop in Sri Lanka -- the duty free liquor store.  This is Adam doctoring our afternoon coffee to make it a little cup of delight.

So beyond happy to be out in nature and GREEN space.  We went on an awesome evening hike in the hills of Haputale where ...

...we stumbled across an organic spice garden in the middle of nowhere. 

We would like to point out that this trip was made possible by Columbia Sportswear.

Driving up, up, up, up, up into the tea fields to a place called Lipton's Seat.  At some points, we had the In'Shalla attitude that if our jeep tumbled off the side of a road and down into the deep villages below then it was meant to be.

When our jeep could no longer navigate the mountain roads, the driver had us get out and walk.  Heidi hiked through tea fields!!

We were so high up that we were in a cloud.

The view from the Top of the World.  Supposedly the best 360 degree view of Sri Lanka.  All that walking for this!

Thankfully a local villager found us without any view and invited us in for some tea and freshly fried veggi samosas.  Heidi drank tea in a tea field with a tea worker.  HEAVEN.

We stopped at a local tea factory where we learned how in 18 hours and 46 minutes, freshly picked tea leaves become the ground, dried tea product it is.  Adam channeled Ken Soper as he walked through and explained cooling and sorting to Heidi.

Our final Haputale stop = a monastery builty in 1931.  We paid about $1 to walk in the rain to see a living room and old books.  Literally.