The hostels have become a pleasant part of this travel recently and especially Bunk Station here in Ella is a nice melting point.

I grabbed the chance when Rocem offered me a lift in her rented Tuktuk to the nearby UVA Halpewatte Tea Factory, which was on my list for the day. Rocem is one of the many youngsters exploring Sri Lanka with her own long-term rented Tuktuk. She is from London, roots in Turkey, solo travelling and does not like to drive the Tuktuk without someone joining. It became an adventure in itself and did not took too long until the Tourist Police and a Tuktuk specialist passing by had to help us out. The Tuktuk was a bit stubborn but we got it under control, finally. 😅

After my visit of the Ceylon Tea Museum in Kandy I was up to explore a state of the art tea factory demonstrating the actual making of tea. It was quite interesting and included a panoramic view from the top of the factory building.

This smaller factory is specialised in making pure black tea only, no white, green or blended teas are produced. The process is highly manually between the different stages of production.

At the end of the guided tour a variety of tea samples could be tasted.

Fair winds…