We decided to treat ourselves to a couple of nights in a tea plantation bungalow to celebrate Adrian's birthday. There are a number of these bungalows around the hill country; they were the homes of the tea plantation owners. Ours, Kirchayn Bungalow, is about 15 minutes' drive from Bandarwela on the edge of the Aislaby tea plantation and was home to the Bostock family, but is now locally owned.
Before we leaving Ella for the bungalow on the morning of Adrian's birthday we took a quick tuk tuk trip to a tea factory. Unfortunately there was no production that day as the day before was a holiday for Diwali, so no leaves had been picked. Despite this and the fact that neither of us are big tea drinkers, it was interesting to learn about the production process. I hadn't realised that green, black and white tea all come from the same plant and that it is just the part of the leaf/process that varies. There was a tasting at the end; we both preferred the lighter teas that are apparently very popular in warm climates like the Middle East.
Once we arrived at the bungalow there was very little to do but eat, swim, play croquet, eat, walk around the plantation, read, eat and generally relax. So this is what we did for the next 48 hours. We had it to ourselves until late on the second night, so were very lucky.
Adrian's birthday celebration was low-key. We had ordered a birthday cake from a restaurant in Ella and, while it was a poorly-kept surprise, it was yummy and Adrian did have a couple of candles and a round of Happy Birthday. I 'let' him win at 500 later in the evening as a birthday present.
The house itself is huge, it has five bedrooms with four in the main house and the fifth in a separate building. Our room was the master bedroom complete with four-poster bed and doors opening onto the lawn leading to the swimming pool. There is also a dining room, lounge, study, sitting room and porch with a view out to the plantation.
Life would have been very comfortable for the family, but no doubt significantly less so for the Tamil workers who picked (and still do) the tea! There is something of the 'faded glory' about it now, our room could use new carpet and it is all a little ropey around the edges, but that was part of its charm.
All our meals and drinks were covered in the room price and the food was fantastic, from the home-made marmalade at breakfast to the curry (made up of about six or seven different vegetable dishes and a meat) for lunch and three-course dinner. For two days all we really did was fill in the time between meals. We had breakfast and lunch outside on the porch and dinner in the dining room as the evenings were a little cool. Waking up one morning with mist touching the grass and watching it slowly clear as we had breakfast was lovely.
There was no menu, but each day we could choose what we wanted to eat. Adrian's spicy curry yearnings were almost satisfied, but as his taste buds were still functioning after the hot pork curry, the search for truly spicy curry is ongoing. My favourite, other than the delicious curry (they made it more mild for me!), was the absolutely delicious steak with onion sauce we had on the second evening. The chef prepared something different for Eleanor and Leo if they wanted it, so we were all happy.
Eleanor and Leo loved all the space inside and out. They had loads of fun chasing our inflatable ball down a grassy slope until it was speared onto rose bush at the bottom and promptly deflated. The pool was a highlight, despite being a little chilly, but our croquet match was short-lived as the mallets were on the heavy side. Instead we rolled the wooden balls down the hill and chased after them.
The evening after Adrian's birthday Eleanor and Leo ate early and went to bed, so we had our meal alone. It was a pleasant change to have adult conversation at dinner rather than spending most of it cajoling young children into eating!
It was a very relaxing stop and lovely a way to celebrate Adrian's birthday, but after two days we were ready to reduce our food intake and head to the beach.
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