---
type: Video
title: "We didn't expect an English Town in Sri Lanka! 🇱🇰 Nuwara Eliya"
description: A $17 tuk-tuk to fix a missed train stop, then an afternoon in Sri Lanka's "Little England" — Edinburgh on a tea plantation, a pub, 15°C and cloud, and his first temple visit of the trip.
tags: [sri-lanka, nuwara-eliya, little-england, colonial, tea, weather, temples, markets]
timestamp: 2026-08-06T14:40:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx6IP7cFyVQ
video_id: yx6IP7cFyVQ
upload_date: 2022-02-24
duration: 1593
---

# We didn't expect an English Town in Sri Lanka! 🇱🇰 Nuwara Eliya

Picking up exactly where the train video left off: Harry and
[Mac](/people/mac.md) are at the wrong station, in the middle of potato and tea
terraces, and have to buy their way back to
[Nuwara Eliya](/places/nuwara-eliya.md).

He opens the video standing on a live railway line, which he checks first — the
station staff tell him it is fine and that the next train is ninety minutes away.

*Obs: this page is based on auto-generated subtitles.*

## The cost of the missed stop

**3,500 rupees for the tuk-tuk — about $17 or $18**, which he calls an expensive
mistake and then immediately stops complaining about, because the drive is
through the plantations.

He also runs into the language switch: **this is Tamil-speaking country**, and
the Sinhala greetings he has spent a week learning don't land. He lists the
sequence he has been through — Arabic, Urdu, Spanish, Sinhala, now Tamil — and
says he's struggling with English.

## Little England

The town's whole reputation, and per the description it is colonial in origin:
the coolest place in Ceylon, so the British made it their hill retreat, and the
names stuck.

What he actually finds:

- **A tea plantation with "Edinburgh" on a sign** across the middle of it.
- **Devon Cottage**, a **Windsor Hotel**, and a **pub**.
- **Bank of Ceylon**, which prompts the note that Ceylon is what the country used
  to be called.
- **The Lion Centennial clock tower**, which he reads off the plaque as officially
  opened in 2007.
- **Architecture he calls a cousin of British rather than a copy**, and his more
  interesting line: this is how Sri Lankans think England looks, and it isn't
  quite what England looks like.

**The weather does most of the work.** It is around 15–20°C — cold enough that he
mentions it repeatedly after a week in the lowlands — heavily overcast, with
cloud rolling over the hills. His own observation is that in England he would
call this terrible weather and here it looks atmospheric.

## Where they stay

A guest house rather than a hotel, booked on the way in through a booking site,
and **chosen mainly for its wi-fi rating** — the same problem as the previous
video. It is far larger than two people need: kitchen, washing machine, dining
room, several unused bedrooms, and a balcony over the valley. His reasoning is
that a guest house gives more space and a kitchen than a hotel room does. See
[book for the wi-fi when you work on the road](/tips/book-for-the-wifi-when-you-work-on-the-road.md).

Nothing was booked until they were in the tuk-tuk.

## Eating, and the tourist premium

Lunch at a coffee shop and restaurant in the Western-facing part of town:
chicken noodles, mixed noodles, egg fried rice to share and three iced lattes,
for **3,850 rupees — just under $20, about $10 a head.** He flags it plainly as
more expensive than Sri Lanka has been and explains why: touristy area, Western
food. The egg fried rice he calls plain; the noodles he rates.

He also tips the chilli flakes in without checking the heat first, on the
strength of a week's practice, and needs the water.

## The temple

**His first temple visit of the trip** — he never got into the ones in
[Kandy](/places/kandy.md). Small, with a large Buddha above it and smaller
painted figures below, a tree growing in the middle of the courtyard, incense,
offerings, and people praying. He takes his shoes off, keeps his distance and
says why: he doesn't want to get in the way of what people are actually doing.

## The market

A bazaar in the town centre, in the cold: jackets, clothes, shoes, food.
Counterfeits again — a branded golf cap at 650 rupees — and socks asked at 350,
which he gets to 300. There is also a haberdashery selling nothing but zips,
buttons, fabric and tailoring supplies, which he films purely because of how
completely it commits to one idea.

He notes that a lot of tourists got off the train with them and that he then sees
almost none of them in town.

## Key moments

- `[00:00]` Standing on a live railway line, with permission.
- `[02:00]` Sinhala doesn't work here — this is Tamil country.
- `[03:01]` 3,500 rupees to get back to town.
- `[03:31]` "Edinburgh", on a tea plantation.
- `[05:37]` The guest house, and why it was booked.
- `[08:11]` Nothing booked until an hour beforehand.
- `[15:22]` 3,850 rupees for lunch, and why it costs more here.
- `[16:27]` 15–20°C, and the clouds coming over the hills.
- `[17:28]` His first temple of the trip.
- `[19:32]` "This is how Sri Lankans think England looks."
- `[20:05]` The clock tower, and the Bank of Ceylon.
- `[21:07]` A local's account of when the weather here is bad: April, May, June.
- `[23:11]` Socks, 350 down to 300.

## Extracted pages

- [Sri Lanka](/countries/sri-lanka.md)
- [Nuwara Eliya](/places/nuwara-eliya.md)
- [Mac](/people/mac.md)
- [Book for the wi-fi when you work on the road](/tips/book-for-the-wifi-when-you-work-on-the-road.md)