An early wake up for all of us as Amy and David on Starry Horizons needed to catch the train for an epic ride through the tea plantation area: Nuwara Eliya.
It was such a blast touring with you guys!!!! So glad you didn’t get tired of the Slow Flight crew….I know they can be a bit rough around the edges and a bit crazy too. I see more land touring in our futures : )
So it was just Raj, Trevor and I….we planned to visit a Blue Fields Tea Factory. But the drive UP to the mountains was an experience it self….windy roads, pine trees, hills full of rows of tea plants.
Panoramic view of the hills of one of the tea plantation areas….stunning!
Photo courtesy of Raj…. 
At this viewpoint, we saw wedding photos being taken. She is Gorgeous!
It was a Sunday and we saw many kids dressed all in white. Raj told us that it’s like our version of Sunday school for Buddhists 
However…on the same day, the Hindu’s practice a similar youth education on Sundays but they wear Yellow?!
Then we arrived at the Blue Fields Tea Factory…
Because it was Sunday, the factory/plantation was very quite and only the shop, cafe, and tour guides were working. I am not sure what I was expecting but we hear there are possibly “better” tours in other areas to see the epic fields and process. Just a note.
We were not invited to the tea fields where the first stage of tea making happens…the plucking. Ladies traditionally are the only gender that works the tea fields. We asked why but things got lost in translation. The women only pluck the top layer of leaves…this is extremely labor intensive.
The second stage is called “withering” where the leaves are spread out and “dried”…. 
the smell was intense!
After withering the tea leaves, they go down this shoot and down to another level….. 
…where the third stage of “Rolling” which breaks up the leaves and crushing them to bring out their natural chemical compounds.
The fourth stage is fermenting….tea leaves and their natural fluids aids in the fermentation process. The leaves are spread out in cool, airy, humid spaces. Fermentation is the most important stage in tea processing. If left too long or too short of time, the strength of tea weakens.
This fermentation process only happens to BLACK TEAS (Ceylon Pekoe tea). White tea leaves is actually a different plant altogether (aka as silver or gold tips) and Green teas (same plant as black tea leaves) are just not fermented. Didn’t know…
Stage five is the firing process…where the leaves are dried in basically an oven to stop the fermentation process. 
Stage 6 is sorting and grading the dried tea leaves. Here is a sorter…. 
Here is where they take sorted leaves and grade them…. large leafs are higher grade.
Final process is bulk packaging…. 
Here is an example of the types of tea and the grade of tea. From left to right/top to bottom..is the grading. White teas on top, then green tea, then the black teas on the bottom are graded from full leaves to a power.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_production_in_Sri_Lanka
Tea time….Is he looking proper?
And off we go…. Raj had lunch and a spice tour planned for us at Old Ayurveda Village no. 27!
Lots of different “natural” remedies…. 
Trevor testing out the product as Ashan (guide) gives him a face massage….. 
And a “free” leg and shoulder massage?! Tips only…
As of today….his hair has still yet to come back fully…should of bought 10 liters (LOL)!
And so it was…we headed back home for about 2 hours drive….this is what Trevor did…
Screen time…. 
Raj got a phone call form his wife to pick up some fruit…so we stopped. Another fruit stand later, Raj told Trevor to stay in the van as he has an “expensive face” (LOL)
Thanks Raj for being such a great sport with all of us…Amy Alton for doing all the research BEFORE we even dropped anchor! This was such amazing trip…memories for a lifetime!
Raj…it’s been real…if you want his contact info…just let us know : )
Next up: a day in the life…..Lions, Tigers, and BEERS…?!