Around The World With Lena: Finally hiking

I'm back in civilization after 2 days of hiking. At the moment I'm sitting in the hotel reception with a view of the tea terraces. I feel really happy. We have had 2 fantastic days of hiking the tea terraces. I loved every minute of it.

But before we went for the hike we had some other interesting activities:

Tea factory tour
Shopping in Kandy
A traditional dance show which included a walk on fire
A visit to a quirky hotel called Helga's Follie where a lot of famous people have stayed

The tea factory was interesting since we got to see the working conditions (I have seen how they make tea before). I don't think that any Swedes would accept to work there. It is times like this that I'm reminded how good our life is in Sweden. We also got to test some tea and I ended up buying green and white tea. I'm looking forward to try the tea in Sweden. I mean - Sri Lanka is famous for the their tea.

I was really looking forward to the shopping in Kandy, but I was very disappointed since I didn't really see anything that I wanted to buy (strange - huh?!). In the end I only went to the supermarket and bought some yoghurt and water. Huge disappointment. So far - the only souvenirs I have bought was in the Spice Garden and the Tea factory.

In the evening we went to dance show, where they presented a lot of different dances from around Sri Lanka. I was sitting next to Annie (my room mate) which was funny, since a couple of the dancers were staring (in a nice way) in our direction. They probably stared at Annie, but I still felt somewhat included in the attention.

After our late dinner in Kandy we decided to check out the quirky Helga's Follie hotel. Some of the guys on the trip had been there during the day and loved it. So we went there for the night cap. What a fantastic place. We went around and took pictures of all the rooms (that we could go into). You can see a couple of them below.

So we finally went of on a hiking tour. It has been THE thing I have been looking forward the whole time - my highlight of the trip! I didn't get disappointed. It was a fantastic track - one of those nice forrest trails where most of the time you can't walk two persons next to each other and with a beautiful view ALL THE TIME. I absolutely loved it. As usual (except for the hike in New Zealand) I walked in the front. For me it is all about being able to walk in my own tempo and also to have a quiet hike. I know - it is ridiculous to get on a hike with a big group thinking you should have peace and quite, but it actually works if you walk a little bit a head of everyone else. It didn't hurt that I had the nice company of our very good looking local guide. We spent 2 days discussing life, relations, work, money and hiking. It was so great!

We spent the night in the the "managers bungalow" - a sort of a guesthouse with shared sleeping rooms and bathrooms. It was absolutely lovely. The nicest thing was that I had company during my shower - a cute little frog suddenly appeared and kept me company. See the picture below.

Our evening the "managers bungalow" was ended with a lot of music. Our guides played some really nice Sri Lankan (love) songs accompanied by the bongo drums. The group was supposed to answer with a song that was common for all of us (Aussies, British and one Swede). But we stank. We couldn't come up with a single song that we all knew (especially the lyrics). In the end I sang one song, but we couldn't find any common songs.

The next day our wonderful hike continued. It was as beautiful the second day as the first, with fantastic views and nice tracks. We were soooo lucky with the weather both days - sunshine and good temperature for hiking. I couldn't ask for anything more. We finished the hike with a trip to a waterfall. Out of the whole group we were only two (I was one of them) that went into the water. Most thought it was too cold, but it was actually 22 degrees Celcius. Not bad at all.

The day finished with a visit to a Hindu temple where we got to participate in the service. Very interesting! I love this kind of activities - where you get to try or be a part of other peoples traditions.

Now we are looking forward to a visit in a elephant orphanage and some days on the beach is awaiting. It is going to be really nice.