Little England

 

For a city that is often referred to as ‘Little England’, this refined highland neighborhood does have its fair share if rose-tinted, roughly British-country-village feel to it, with its colonial-era bungalows, Tudor-style hotels, well-tended hedgerows and prepossessing gardens. Indeed, Nuwara Eliya was once was the favoured cool-climate escape for the hard-working and hard-drinking English and Scottish pioneers of Sri Lanka’s tea industry.

A wave of recent constructions has banjaxed the scene to a degree, and the dusty and bustling centre is a typical Sri Lankan urban muddle, but Nuwara Eliya still makes a fine base for a several days' relaxation. The verdant surrounding countryside of tea plantations, carefully tended vegetable plots and craggy hills is highly scenic. Treat yourself to a night in one of Nuwara Eliya’s colonial hotels, play a round of golf or a few frames of billiards, and soak up the town’s unique bygone heritage.

Haggala gardens, a tad southeast of Nuwara Eliya, are a peaceful retreat. Highlights include a fine rose garden, a Japanese garden, an orchid collection, cedars and giant cypresses. However, the entrance fee is very steep for foreigners. Planting season is between January and late March and at these times the gardens don't really look their best.

Legend has it that Hanuman, the monkey god, was sent by Rama to the Himalayas to find a particular medicinal herb. He forgot which herb he was looking for and decided to bring a chunk of the Himalayas back in his jaw, hoping the herb was growing on it. The gardens grow on a rock called Hakgala, which means ‘jaw-rock’.

Dinner at the Hill Club is an event in itself. The menu focuses on traditional English dishes such as roast beef with all the trimmings and rich puddings – in cuisine terms it's far from sophisticated, but will be familiar (for homesick Brits at least). The whole thing is carried off with faded colonial panache. All diners must wear formal attire.

To see where your morning cuppa originates, head to the Pedro Tea Estate, about 3.5km east of Nuwara Eliya on the way to Kandapola. You can take a 20-minute guided tour of the factory, originally built in 1885 and still packed with 19th-century engineering. However, due to the type of tea produced here (a very light tea), processing only takes place at night when it’s colder, so you’re unlikely to see much action.

'පුංචි එංගලන්තය' ලෙස බොහෝ විට හඳුන්වනු ලබන හුරුබුහුටි නගරයක් වන නුවරඑළිය, රෝස පැහැයෙන් යුත්, දළ වශයෙන් බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ගම්මානයක ස්වරූපය ලැබෙන්නේ එහි ඇති යටත් විජිත යුගයේ බංගලාවන්, ටියුඩර් පන්නයේ හෝටල්, හොඳින් නැඹුරු බඩවැටි සහ අලංකාර ලෙස සැකසූ උද්‍යාන වලින් ය. ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම, නුවරඑළිය යනු යටත්විජිත සමයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ තේ කර්මාන්තයේ වෙහෙස මහන්සි වී වැඩ කරන ඉංග්‍රීසි සහ ස්කොට්ලන්ත පුරෝගාමීන් සඳහා සිසිල් දේශගුණික ගැලවීමකි.

මෑත කාලීන ඉදිකිරීම් රැල්ල දර්ශනය තරමක් දුරට වෙනස් කර ඇති අතර දූවිලි සහිත හා අවුල්සහගත නගර මධ්‍යය සාමාන්‍ය ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ නාගරික මඩ ගොහොරුවක් විදහා පාන නමුත් නුවරඑළිය දින කිහිපයක් විවේකීව සිටීම සඳහා කදිම පදනමක් සපයයි. අවට තේ වගාවන්, පරිස්සමින් සකසන ලද එළවළු බිම් සහ අවට කඳුකරය දර්ශනීය ය. නුවරඑළියේ යටත් විජිත හෝටලයක රාත්‍රියකට ගතකර, ගොල්ෆ් වටයක් හෝ බිලියඩ් රාමු කිහිපයක් ක්‍රීඩා කර, සහ නගරයේ අද්විතීය අතීත උරුමය පොඟවා ගනිමින් ඔබ විසින් ඔබටම මන බඳනා සත්කාරයක් ලබා දෙන්න.

நுவரா எலியா - லிட்டில் இங்கிலாந்து

'லிட்டில் இங்கிலாந்து' என்று அடிக்கடி குறிப்பிடப்படும் ஒரு நகரத்தைப் பொறுத்தவரை, இந்த சுத்திகரிக்கப்பட்ட ஹைலேண்ட் அக்கம் அதன் ரோஜா நிறமுடைய, தோராயமாக பிரிட்டிஷ்-நாடு-கிராமத்தை உணர்ந்தால், அதன் காலனித்துவ கால பங்களாக்கள், டுடோர் பாணி ஹோட்டல்கள், நன்கு வளர்க்கப்பட்ட ஹெட்ஜெரோக்கள் மற்றும் முன்கூட்டியே தோட்டங்கள். உண்மையில், நுவரா எலியா ஒரு காலத்தில் இலங்கையின் தேயிலைத் தொழிலின் கடின உழைப்பாளி மற்றும் கடின குடிகார ஆங்கிலம் மற்றும் ஸ்காட்டிஷ் முன்னோடிகளுக்கு குளிர்-காலநிலை தப்பிக்க விரும்பினார்.

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Caption by    : Thrividya Liyanaarachchi 

Designed by : Deeshan Madusanka