One of the famous activities in Sri Lanka is the Sri Lanka Tea Train thru the hill country and tea plantations. It’s one of the best things to do when touring or backpacking in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lanka Tea Train leaves from this great train station at Peradeniya Junction outside of Kandy.
We “splurged” by buying the first class tickets for the Raj car. The cost was a whopping $17 for a full day ride, and it included meals.
Despite the “first class” moniker, the seats were worn, and the air conditioning unit above my seat was emitting a constant drip. So it wasn’t long until I grabbed one of the few bench seat on the open part of the car. Minutes later they served a curry chicken meal with a cup of water. Not bad for train food.
I enjoyed sitting in the open air car. The temperature was nice, the air was fresh, the scenery was gorgeous, and it was fun to wave at the locals as we went by. At mid afternoon, the train attendants came by with hot tea. How great to sip my tea and watch the tea plantations go by.
Besides us, and a family from Australia who were originally from Sri Lanka, the train car was completely full of Chinese tourists. Almost all of them slept the entire ride.
Eventually, our friend Doug boarded the train at N.E. – just in time for the rain, cold and dark. There weren’t may people on the train. Most had gotten off. So we hung out in the car portion of the train, had our sandwich and dessert (included in the price of the ticket), and watch a movie in the local language.
The train ride was one of my highlights of Sri Lanka.
If you want to see what it’s like to ride one of the lower classes and on a sunny day (it was cloudy and rainy the day we did it) check out this other blog on taking the train from Kandy to Ella.
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