Hi, Steemit community!
After spending dinner time and a few hours of shut-eye in Kandy City, we left at 1am to go see one of the most famous locations in Sri Lanka. It was a small town called Haputale situated in the central mountainous region of Sri Lanka. The distance was not that far, but because of the mountain roads and darkness it took us 5 hours by private cab. (There were no buses at the time...) Long story short, this is what we saw when we got to a place called Lipton Seat at sunrise.
A google map screenshot of the location is below and you can find it yourself in this link (Haputale).
A little bit of history:
Sri Lanka is very famous around the globe for it's flavorful tea and it is the home to what we call Ceylon tea. Sri Lanka used be known as the British Ceylon while it was under British rule and changed its name after it gained independence to Sri Lanka in 1948. Thomas Lipton, the founder of Lipton Tea (now Unilever owned) visited Sri Lanka in 1890 and beyond and struck business deals there with tea rollers and later on, bought Ceylon tea and started distributing it throughout Europe and the USA. Lipton's seat is a place where Thomas Lipton to sometimes climb to think and ponder about work while enjoying the view.
So, Haputale is the location where Thomas Lipton visited the tea leaf fields and had a plantation home nearby, which I will do another posting on, but the main place of interest is Lipton seat. This place is on one of the highest points in the area and you could see amazing views of the skies, tea fields and the mountain ranges. This was one of the most breathtaking places we've ever been to. I highly recommend you to go visit no matter what if ever in Sri Lanka.
*Some more breathtaking photos of the sunrise.
*You can walk to Lipton seat from Haputale, but it is a VERY long walk and round trip will take you 5~6 hours. So instead we took a tuk-tuk to the top. This photo was taken by our tuk-tuk driver. Thanks!
*And another shot at the signage!
*There actually is a statue? for Thomas Lipton and as usual, we took a photo.
*We even got to see a double rainbow!
*After watching the sunrise, we decided walk to a tea house nearby and enjoy some Ceylon tea while enjoying the clouds in front of us.
*Instead of calling another tuk-tuk, we decided to walk 6~7km down to the nearest bus station to take us back to Haputale and it was a magical moment. Since we got to see the sunrise, there were very few people at the top and we rarely ran into other people on the way down. (You can see my lovely future bride waving in the photo.)
*After about 2 hours of enjoying the quiet sun and the beautiful tea fields, we made it back to the base of the mountain where we took the bus back to the town. And yes, selfie time!
**Comments, votes are appreciated! Please let me know if you want to know more or anything else! Thank you!