Sep 12 2012 Sri Lanka: eating tea on the train

• 4on

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/4tren.jpg

  I've eaten nuts, two coffees, nibbled a bit of pineapple and spicy tuna swallowed a dumpling and potato. I'm fat and happy. We continue to gain height, and forest clearing will, giving way to the tea fields. Waterfalls, women collecting leaves, white factories, tiny villages and Hindu temples.

• 6on

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/6tren.jpg

  I've eaten nuts, two coffees, nibbled a bit of pineapple and spicy tuna swallowed a dumpling and potato. I'm fat and happy. We continue to gain height, and forest clearing will, giving way to the tea fields. Waterfalls, women collecting leaves, white factories, tiny villages and Hindu temples.

• 9on

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/9tren.jpg

  I've eaten nuts, two coffees, nibbled a bit of pineapple and spicy tuna swallowed a dumpling and potato. I'm fat and happy. We continue to gain height, and forest clearing will, giving way to the tea fields. Waterfalls, women collecting leaves, white factories, tiny villages and Hindu temples.

• 11on

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/11tren.jpg

  I've eaten nuts, two coffees, nibbled a bit of pineapple and spicy tuna swallowed a dumpling and potato. I'm fat and happy. We continue to gain height, and forest clearing will, giving way to the tea fields. Waterfalls, women collecting leaves, white factories, tiny villages and Hindu temples.

• 1on

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/1tren.jpg

  I've eaten nuts, two coffees, nibbled a bit of pineapple and spicy tuna swallowed a dumpling and potato. I'm fat and happy. We continue to gain height, and forest clearing will, giving way to the tea fields. Waterfalls, women collecting leaves, white factories, tiny villages and Hindu temples.

• 15on

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/15tren.jpg

  I've eaten nuts, two coffees, nibbled a bit of pineapple and spicy tuna swallowed a dumpling and potato. I'm fat and happy. We continue to gain height, and forest clearing will, giving way to the tea fields. Waterfalls, women collecting leaves, white factories, tiny villages and Hindu temples.

Travelling by train is one of "my liturgies" When I'm forced Sri Lanka. As important as visiting dagobas, feel the power of the Sri Maha Bodhi or finger food. The train from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya, the "City of the Mountains" and "Little England", has all the flavor of the "old days". 80 kilometers 5 hours. The train, built by the British, has changed little since colonial times. Everything is old, battered and limping. This decrepitude is an essential part of the charm. Long stops on platforms, high in the middle of the jungle, remote halts arrests ... And especially people, many people. And food ... Sit on a train is a perfect opportunity to take the pulse of the country life and gastronomic.

The train, built by the British, has changed little since colonial times. Everything is old, battered and limping

Sunrise in Kandy when I get to the station. The seats in the second uninsured, so you have to "fight" for them. The lake is hazy, and the other side stands the golden roof of the Temple of the Tooth . The Theravada Buddhism's holiest. The sidewalks are full of families and workers who desperezan stalking the arrival of the wagons. Before going out there to fill the stomach with anything. So I bought a small position in black tea with milk, much sugar and cardamom. And pol roti, coconut bread spread with chilli, onion and lime. The cuisine of Sri Lanka, sus “short eats” y “rice & curry "combine the European and Indian with Malay in a different kitchen, spicy and delicious.

The train enters the station and your arrival starts the "assault". Too many people, so the struggle to get a seat is futile. Fortunately I take refuge in the "canteen", where employees make me a hole and let me settle down on the floor, protected under a table. With British punctuality machine throws his first puff of smoke. The train climbs the slopes ailing, and after the last houses enters the jungle.

Fortunately I take refuge in the "canteen", where employees make me a hole and let me settle down on the floor, protected under a table

2nd Riding is fun and promiscuous, nothing to do with the tank 1st aseptic. People are curious about a foreigner. Amused that someone, who represent rich, mixing with them, sit on the floor and is so interested in what they do or eat. So despite the 5 hour trip there is a moment of boredom. I try to read, I look at the landscape outside her door, I joke with the students and try to strike up a conversation with two girls with shiny black eyes.

Start of stops and the arrival of the sellers of trinkets gives rise to a sudden hunger in passengers. Children flock to the windows. Pineapple with salt and pepper, roasted peanuts, mango, water, hot coffee, pickled fruits and pickled peppers ... Vendors walk the aisle shouting. "This, that, this vadai!”, “Parippu, parippu, parippu vadai!” . They move up and down, dodging thousand bodies and offering cookies oily lentils and shrimp. The mothers buy a newspaper cone filled with “vadai” and fried chili peppers for the babies..

The train returns to cough and almost falls apart when restarted. Gampola, Pelagic, Nawalapitiya, Hatton ... The day is clear, and on the right is cut "Adam,s Peak”. I've eaten nuts, two coffees, nibbled a bit of pineapple and spicy tuna swallowed a dumpling and potato. I'm fat and happy. We continue to gain height, and forest clearing will, giving way to the tea fields. Waterfalls, women collecting leaves, white factories, tiny villages and Hindu temples.

Sri Lanka, in British colonial organization, was destined to be the "Island Coffee", but a fungus completely destroyed "the dream"

Sri Lanka, in British colonial organization, was destined to be the "Island Coffee", but a fungus completely destroyed "the dream". The English realized that tea was much more resistant and productive in those heights. So deforested jungles and their slopes covered with the new crop. After the number of Tamils ​​Hatton constantly increasing. They are easily distinguished by their darker, the colorful sarees and bindis on the forehead of women. Red and black. People are friendly and polite, eager to engage in conversation with any stranger. The "Indian" Tamils ​​came to Sri Lanka in the mid-19th century, brought by the British to cultivate plantations. With independence, state, fearful of having a "fifth column" in the middle of the island, denied citizenship until years 80.

At this time students, Children, Mothers, and even the two girls in bright black eyes, family are almost. We know, try to pronounce our names, and laugh at anything. 3 hours and everyone takes their lunches wrapped in newspaper. The car smells like chillies, with coconut milk and spices. The uproar is whisper quiet and dims. The family sitting in front of me as I look forward to offering their food. "Stringhoppers" , Dry fish curry, and handle acchar. I can not say no, and all began to eat with your hands and continue our conversation awkward and kind.

The family sitting in front of me as I look forward to offering their food. "Stringhoppers" , Dry fish curry, and handle acchar

Time has changed as we approached Nuwara Eliya, almost 2 thousand feet. It's raining and cold mist envelops us, while outside the few trees are islands in a sea of ​​tea fields. Now there are many more train Sinhalese Tamils. Nanu Oya is the end of my journey. I begin to say goodbye to families, the girls, of police officers and waiters of the canteen. We all smile and Sinhala or Tamil thanks and we wish him well. I leave the station and nostalgic with a full belly. Cold rain falls, and, from looking for a tuk tuk me away from Nuwara Eliya, I smell my right hand, as long as I am in Sri Lanka, smells of spices.