Today we left the hotel at 8.00am and made our way to Kandy. 

On the way we stopped at a tea factory. We learnt about the process of tea making and got to have a cup at the end. 

The first tea plant was planted in 1824 and Sri Lanka commercially started producing tea in 1867 by Mr James Taylor. The bigger the particles of tea the lighter in colour, and the finer leaves result in a strong cup of tea, just the way me and dad like it! 5 kg of tea leaves produces just 1kg tea. That’s a lot of leaves to pick by the tea pickers! I will now appreciate that cup of tea much more knowing the work and labour that goes in to it! I bought some loose tea, and tea bags to take home. 

We continued our journey to Kandy, stopping on the way to have lunch and then we went to a gem museum. It was quite interesting learning about the mining process. It’s very old fashioned and looks very dangerous. 

From there we went to the Temple of the Tooth Relic. It is much warmer here compared to Nuwara Eliya which made walking bare foot a tad painful. Like when you dash the the pool on holiday to try and not burn your feet. It was very busy and humid inside but very pretty. 
From here we then travelled to our hotel. I am undecided about the hike tomorrow. My legs are very sore from yesterday which made walking up stairs today quite painful. 

We arrived at the hotel around 6pm, after a minor mishap with some local boys. They were playing football and kicked their ball into the road. The driver accidentally popped the ball. They were NOT happy, crowding round the bus so we couldn’t continue our journey. We are buying them two balls tomorrow. 

The hotel and views from my room are insane. Dinner was included tonight, an amazing buffet with so much choice and beautifully presented. I then showered and read for a bit before going to bed. We are up early again tomorrow for our hike. Leaving at 6am. I am going to give it ago and will just turn around when I can’t go any further. 

Night all, 

A girl with an appetite for all things creative,

Maria x