Middle-aged flash packers

folk museum

The French Lotus
Today we moved from the French Lotus to the Santori hotel just down the road. Booking.com had told us that there were no rooms available at the FL for the next two days and Steve was quite relieved as he wasn’t getting on with just a fan to cool us down.
The very gorgeous Celine who runs the hotel with her hubby was not pleased. She said we should have asked her as she had a “beautiful ” room for us. She was really quite annoyed. She looks and acts like a brunette version of Tinkerbelle. I felt very ashamed I’d upset a fairy. I have to say though, Celine has real design talent as the old colonial house had been furnished stunningly. I think she’s allowed to be a bit of a Tinkerbell , goes with her artistic personality.
Feeling a need for culture, we hired a tuktuk driver to take us to the Sri Lankan folk museum and a tea plantation/factory.
I quite like trogging about in a tuktuk when we hit the back roads, away from the insane town traffic. Tootling along the dusty lanes, watching the world go by at a slow pace is quite relaxing.
First stop the folk museum. Luckily for us Martin Wickramasinghe was quite the hoarder. He was a well known Sri Lankan writer and thinker and collected lots of bric a brac, enough for a small museum.
It was fascinating, I particularly liked the costume section. Because there are many religions and geographical regions, the clothing was extremely varied.
Mr W himself was leaning towards the communist side of politics and there was a photo of him with chairman Mao. I don’t think he’d be too happy at today’s state of affairs. I’d say the Sri Lankans are very happy with capitalism.
Next stop, Handunugoda tea estate. By most standards quite a small plantation but the owner, Herman Guneratne, has differentiated himself by producing white tea that is untouched by human hands. Gloved ladies pick the tiny fresh leaves after 14 days. It’s very expensive but has no bitterness at all. Everything on the estate is produced without pesticides.
The factory still uses machinery from the British days of the Raj! Lovingly preserved, they are a museum in themselves.
We were given a piece of cake and a cup of tea to try (ruby oolong) then taken to the tea shop where we could taste over 30 different types of tea.
The tour is free – most unusual in Sri Lanka, land of tourist rip off. The tasting is free, the cake is free. By the time you get to the tea shop, you are very happy to part with a few(or more) quid and there are many delicious teas and also their home grown cinnamon to buy. Oh and by the way, Herman has written a book which you are gently encouraged to buy. It’s all very unpressurised and we enjoyed it immensely.
All in all, an interesting jaunt.