After visiting to factories: Mackwoods and Lovers Leap, it was time to call it a day and go to our next place of abode: Tea Trails in Hatton – Tientsin Bungalow.

Now this place is All Class with a capital A and a capital C. You get to stay in a real colonial bungalow. Bungalow is an understatement. For Aussie readers imagine a large lodge and for US readers imagine a small mansion. Kiwis, um… I don’t think there’s no real equivalent and for the rest of you, let’s just say it’s pretty hard not to know who the boss is.

And here I would learn just how wind up I have been. Thank God for this place.

We arrived there around 2pm and started the stay with a late lunch of 3 courses which morphed into afternoon high tea and then morphed into a 4 course dinner followed by supper in the living room. Surprisingly, I learned that while after Sri Lankan independence most of the English had to leave their colonial estates and go home, the Sri Lankan managers still live like the English did with maids and servants.

Luxury aside, being their you get a real sense of why British colonialism from the natives’ point of view isn’t-all-that-shit-hot. Unlike their Dutch and Portugese predecessors, The English never integrated with the people they were trying to rule over.

Now you may be asking why is he spoiling our nice cuppa with colonial politics?

The sad truth is that the tea industry in Sri Lanka goes hand in hand with British colonialism. To be fair the British did introduce some good things to Sri Lanka like cricket, tea and a very good bureaucracy regardless of who’s in charge.