“What would you like to do while you are here?” Neroshaun shouted back at us from the front seat of the tuk-tuk the night before. We tried to hold a conversation about various options, but the crisp nightfall kept blowing ideas back against my cheeks as I tried to list them all out. We finished the day without a solid plan for the next.

There are two major attractions within a few hours drive of Nuwara Eliya - one is a rather expensive national park with a nice waterfall and a hike, the other is an epic religious pilgrimage in which Buddhists climb these many, many....many steep and uneven stairs to the very peak of a mountain top to pray and worship at a temple built at the very point. It looks gorgeous, but you don’t et existential glory without a whole lot of pain and suffering on the way there.

“Okay, we can go there.” Neroshaun says. “It will be a 4 a.m. pickup to get you there by sunrise.”

Mmm…yeah. The Oddgodfreys "aren’t feeling that ambitious.” Andrew explains. “I’d rather see Sri Lanka the way you see it.”

Neroshaun laughs and nods. “How about a hike waterfall closer to town? It’s a spot the locals like to go to.”

“YES!” Andrew and I both say at the same time.

And, so it was that the circle of trust did open to surround Neroshaun in its embrace. We had had such a nice day touring the tea country we knew he would not disappoint us if we handed over to him our itinerary for Nuwara Eliya Day 2.

The next morning, Neroshaun picks us up right on time and we putter away to pass through town. His foot pauses over the gas pedal as we pass a grocery store: “should we stop to get lunch?”

“Won’t there be an opportunity to get lunch while we are out and about?” I ask Neroshaun. In all these places we have visited, food - very delicious food - is to be had out in the small villages and neighborhoods. I’d rather hunt down something hot, fresh and delicious than carry something with us bought at the grocery store.

“Mmmooooh, well...” Neroshaun seems uncertain. “Yes, there is food, but I’m not sure there will be food for you.”

“No food for...not enough for us?”

“Enough, enough, yes! It’s just....I don't know....”

We survey the grocery store he has stopped near, very suspiciously familiar with neat rows of shelves, air conditioning and white lights pouring through the clear windows. “Oh! No, we like Sri Lankan food.”

“You do.” He says, still doubtful.

“Yes! We do, I’m sure there will be plenty of food for us.” We say. “Keep driving, keep driving.” Andrew waves his hand over his shoulder to say forward, yes, forward! And we carry forward tingling with anticipation of what might be awaiting us today.

We set our intentions for the day with a quick stop in a Hindu Temple famous for Hindus all over the world. While we aren’t going on the official Nuwara Eliya pilgrimage, it doesn’t hurt to start our unofficial pilgrimage with a visit to the gods. Open air, set on a cliffside overlooking a cold running river, this temple meets its worshipers with sunlight. I watch people kneel to pray and bring offerings through air softened by incense smoke.

From there, we travel the main highway for a few miles more only to turn left onto a dirt path that snakes around wide open cliffsides. The sun is beating down on bright yellow daisies and light purple flowers, making the air smell like grass and alf alfa. Looking over the cliff’s edge, squares of crops are plotted off into the distance as far as the eye can see. Andrew leans over and says to me, “it smells like summer in my parents’ back yard.”

We find ourselves mostly alone at the mouth of a trail marked by a meditating Buddha. We give an offering of money to help with trail maintenance, and then we begin our climb. One waterfall leads to another. Just when I think we've seen the best waterfall, Neroshaun leads the way even higher to the next waterfall. At the top, it is beautiful. and he is right, there are local Sri Lankans enjoying picnic lunches at the top. They add to my experience in a way a place crawling with tour buses just can't. I feel a twinge of irony as I realize I myself am interrupting the peaceful tranquility allowed by an absence of tourists. But, I sit and enjoy my good fortune. The wind blows mist droplets into my face, laying crystal droplets on all the fine hairs on my arms.

This girl must use the Ayruveda popcorn oil hair treatment. Look how shiney and beautiful her hair is!

Regretfully, after an hour or more, I tear myself away from the nice waterfall and we begin our hike down. Along the trail were small blue taps stretched across a framework of sticks, and logs built into benches. A woman smiles at us and waves us in, Andrew and I sway off trail like iron shards pulled by a magnet.

“Locals eat their lunches here on the side of the trail,” Neroshaun explains, “but we will go back to town for your lunch.”

“Ooooohhhhh....” I say with disappointment, the pull of this trailside lunch stand beckoning me. “Why? It smells so good in there.”

“Yes, but local food. You won't like. It's spicy!” Neroshaun explains.

“I like spicy!" I assure him. He looks undertainly toward Andrew, who confirms as much.

Neroshaun shrugs. “Okay.” And we divert course.

Inside this little hut, we are treated to one of the best lunches of our whole trip. I don't know if it was just because I was hungry from my hike, or the fresh air gives you a great appetite, but it was delicious. We had jackfruit curry, and a sambal made with roasted peppers, lime juice, and fresh crushed curry leaves. This was served with chewy roti bread and a fresh squeezed lime juice. Heavenly. After lunch, we are poured a cup of hot tea in china cups, trailside! The tea is served with coconut sugar cubes. Neroshaun instructs us to nibble the cube, then take a sip. “You aren't supposed to put the cube in your tea.” He explains, and I’m glad of it because I would have made that error without his intervention.

With all of us now happily full of delicious Sri Lankan food, we continue our hike down and instead of returning to the tuk-tuk, Neroshaun takes us the long way around into the village nearby. We turn a corner and find another waterfall dropping from the side of the mountain. A woman with long black hair is taking her shower with sun and waterfall dropping down the length of her body which was wrapped in a crimson red sarong. She giggles, shy from being caught in the act of bathing and I avert my eyes to be polite, but in that split second I saw her I just couldn’t believe how beautiful this place is. Imagine taking a shower every day in the drop of waterfall surrounded by sunflowers and mountain air.

This place truly is the Garden of Eden.

The village is full of color and light and open space. It makes a sailor appreciate these people of the land, and I am thrilled this is what we chose to spend our time on today.

At the foot of the trail, we find a stand to buy cool green coconuts for coconut water. An older man with lines chiseled into his face whacks the coconuts with a knifes perfectly built to hand the round top of the coconut. Andrew, fascinated by the wide variety of local knives on our travels expresses his appreciation for the knife, and its owner hands it over to him to inspect. This begins a parade of knives, each one more special and important than the first. One knife is built with the handle made of the antlers of the sacred deer that lives here. It’s beautiful, and Andrew covets it. He offers to buy this one or one like it, but the older man says, “I wish I could sell it to you, my friend.” He shakes his head mournfully, “But, no. I need it for my work, and I can't replace that knife for months or more if ever. All the young kids these days, they just buy knives from China. No one is learning the art of metal smith anymore, and the one man in the village who does it is old and months behind orders.”

Damn kids these days, anyway.

Back in the tuk-tuk, we climb our way out of the village valley to explore a series of waterfalls that drop thousands of feet across the Nuwara Eliya vistas. In the variations of mist, color, and light, each one is more stunning than the last.

"I feel back at home, being on the road again.” I tell Andrew, as I peer through the lens of my camera, trying to set up just the right shot. (Oh! The future irony of this comment....thanks, Covid.)

"Let’s cap off the day with a traditional Sri Lankan afternoon snack.” Neroshaun says, the dust flinging from the tuk-tuk tires as we weave through the city trying to reach our snack café before “snack time” turns to dinner. “Egg hoppers!”

We’ve been waiting to try Egg-Hoppers ever since we read they were a must-have Sri Lankan snack. We’d ordered “hoppers” before, not realizing that there are many different kinds of “hoppers”. We’ve had string hoppers, a patty of noodles made to mop up curry, but we had yet to acquire an egg hopper.

An egg hopper is a thin batter quickly fried crisp in a cast iron pan the shape of a bowl. An egg is cracked in the bottom, topped with salt and pepper then cooked to a perfect soft yolk texture. Topped with chili, the “hopper” is crisp like a chip, the egg yolk rich, and the egg white fluffy. A spicy chili sauce is served on the side for mopping.

The textures and flavors go together deliciously with a sweetened milk tea “pulled” by the cafe’s professional tea pulling man.

By the time Neroshaun dropped us off, we were riding high on Nuwara Eliya Exploratory Bliss. There is always so much to see in these places we visit - we can never see it all in the short time we have to visit. We always feel torn between setting an itinerary to squeeze in as much as we possibly can, or slow down and just have a day exploring what I like to call “nothing and everything.”

Neroshaun listened to us. He understood us. He believed us when we said we weren’t feeling ambitious enough to run the tourist gambit set out by the Instagram Overlords of World Travel Worthiness. We skipped the pilgrimage to Adam’s Peak, we didn't go to the spice gardens, we didn’t stop at Siggyria - the most ancient ruins of Sri Lanka that are absolutely a “must stop” stop. Instead, we had a leisurely lunch in a hut built of sticks and a tarp aside a quiet hiking trail, we spent hours walking through a farming neighborhood, Andrew chatted with fellow connoisseur of coconut shucking blades, and we joined the after-work crew at the local snack shop. And we loved every minute of it.

There is no right or wrong way to travel. Getting out to another country, meeting people, seeing beautiful places, eating food completely different from anything you’ve ever tried at home, experiencing a day in someone else’s life - that is all we are trying to do out here. And this day was truly one that met my hopes and expectations.