Sri Lanka with G Adventures - Day Three

It's my third day in Sri Lanka and I'm still waking up at 4 am.  The only good thing about that is our 5:30 am meeting time (which I would normally hate) didn't seem so bad.  The early morning was because we were hiking Horton Plains National Park and if you don't finish early enough, the cloud cover will ensure that you see nothing, and if you're hiking 6 miles, you definitely want to be able to enjoy the views.

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Horton Plains was really amazing.  I knew it was going to be a great time when we were greeted by a samba just past the park entrance.  The hike took about three hours and was absolutely breathtaking, both because of the scenery and because of the altitude (between 4,000 - 7,500 feet).  There are three main sites on the trail that we took, Baker's Falls, World's End and Little World's End.  World's End is a cliff overlooking a valley and is about 2,850 feet high.  Little World's End is another cliff, but is only about 880 feet high.  It was really interesting at World's End because it's in a cloud forest, so one minute you could see throughout the valley below and the next minute, the clouds would roll in and you saw nothing.

I was a little nervous at both of the cliffs because there were no guardrails anywhere.  It's a good thing that I'm terrible at taking selfies so I didn't have to worry about stepping backwards off of the cliffs.

​On our way out of the park, we saw our first monkeys of the trip.  There were a few hanging out on the side of the road.  As we continued our drive, we past several groups just hanging out in the trees.  It's pretty cool to be able to see them in the wild like that.

We had worked up quite an appetite after our hike and had our first local meal of the trip.  We stopped at a small restaurant in the town of Nuwara Eliya that was a favorite of locals.  One typical Sri Lankan dish is fried rice, so I ordered that with chicken.  For a huge plate of that and a bottle of water, it cost me 400 Sri Lankan Rupees.  That calculates out to about $2.70.  The cost of living is much less here and the exchange rate is very favorable for the US dollar.

After lunch, we checked out the local market.  It was similar to some of the other markets that I've been to in Peru or India.  There were many stalls selling different fruits, fresh or dried fish, meat, spices and basically anything else that you would need for your meals. 

After a quick walking tour of the town, it was back to the Grand Hotel for afternoon tea.  I love afternoon tea, probably because I love trying a lot of different things each meal.  With finger sandwiches, small appetizers and mini desserts, you can eat a bite or two of everything and not feel like a complete pig.

I neglected to mention the hotel.  The Grand Hotel is a beautiful old hotel, built when Sri Lanka was under British rule.  It's an old manor house and the home of the governor of Sri Lanka during 1830-1850.  It's got lots of wood accents, different parlors and sitting rooms, a cozy bar, billiards room with the biggest pool table that I've ever seen and beautiful gardens around the hotel.​  There are several restaurant choices and it's a quick walk into town.  This may be the best hotel option in Nuwara Eliya.