If Scotty from Star Trek beamed you into parts of Nuwara Eliya, you’d swear you’d landed in a Victorian-era English village rather than in Sri Lanka.
Nuwara Eliya is situated about a mile above sea level in the hilly tea growing region of the country. The climate is actually a little cool — in the morning it was 18 C when I got up (Sir Arthur C. Clarke once told me it was the only place in Sri Lanka he ever encountered a light frost on a winter morning). For 19th century expats from England, a vacation here would have been a most welcome escape from the steamy heat found in the rest of Ceylon.
Many of the buildings in the town date to the era of British Colonial rule and were constructed in the late 19th century, giving rise to the town’s nickname “little England”. This includes this picturesque red post office, which still active and functioning; it was opened in 1894.
The Nuwara Eliya post office was honored with its own stamp, issued in 1990. The residence of the former post master on the second floor was recently converted into a holiday bungalow (for rent), and it would be an interesting and well-situated place to stay. I didn’t know about this option before my trip.
Stepping into the post office is like stepping back in time as well, including this massive wooden letter box….
…a display case functioning as a postal museum, with some interesting historic artifacts….
…and outside — the typical red mail box we associate with the British.
For a list of DrFumblefingers blog posts on Sri Lanka, please click on this link.
