斯里蘭卡羣山間的隱祕茶鄉

The man in the khaki vest slurped noisily from his cup, descended briefly into scowling meditation, spat the contents into a sink and then unleashed a torrent of approving descriptors, lavishly rolling his r’s along the way: “No foreign taste, very refreshing, robust, strong tannins, a tingly sensation at the end of the tongue — good show!”

穿卡其布馬甲的男人用杯子咕嘟咕嘟大聲喝着東西，蹙眉沉思片刻，把嘴裏的殘渣吐進水槽，頓時爆發出一陣滔滔不絕的讚美，口音裏“r”的發音特別重：“絕對本土，特別清新、口感強勁、丹寧口感、回味無窮——好東西！”

I sipped as well and nodded gravely, thinking: right, but it’s still tea. Granted, it was excellent tea, cultivated just outside the Norwood Estate processing factory where we stood, surrounded by whirring machines and immense bags stuffed with tea leaves.

我也品了一小口，鄭重其事地點了點頭，心想：挺好的，不過再好也就是茶嘛。但退一步說，它的確是好茶。我們身在諾伍德不動產茶葉加工廠，周圍全是呼嘯作響的機器和塞滿茶葉的大包，這些茶葉都是在工廠外的茶園種植的。

Here, near the town of Hatton, in the alluring hill country of Sri Lanka, some of the finest tea in the world is grown at an elevation exceeding 4,000 feet. And as Andrew Taylor, the vest-clad Norwood resident planter and native Sri Lankan, had made emphatically clear, everything about this beverage required martial exactitude, from the small-handed women who carefully picked the leaves to the 170 minutes the leaves spent being machine-oxidized, to the 21 minutes of drying on long trays, and at last to the six minutes Mr. Taylor cheerily advised me was optimal to consume my drink after it was brewed — “so bring your stopwatch, ha ha!” Nonetheless, I confessed that I had other liquid preferences.

我們置身斯里蘭卡美麗的丘陵，距離哈頓鎮(Hatton)不遠，在這個超過海拔4000英尺的地方，生長着世界上最好的若干茶葉。穿馬甲的這位名叫安德魯·泰勒(Andrew Taylor)，他是諾伍德本地的茶園主，斯里蘭卡人，他強調，任何與茶有關的事情都需要一絲不苟：茶葉要由長着纖細雙手的女人悉心採摘、要在機器中經過170分鐘的氧化發酵工序，之後在長長的托盤裏乾燥21分鐘，最後，泰勒興高采烈地告訴我，茶葉製作完成6分鐘後是最佳飲用時間——“所以帶上秒錶吧，哈哈！”不管怎樣，我坦白告訴他，我更喜歡的是另一種飲料。

“Coffee has almost no medicinal effects,” the planter scoffed. A regimen of four cups of tea a day, on the other hand, would indemnify me against indigestion, heart disease and general dysfunction. I asked Mr. Taylor how many cups he consumed daily.

“咖啡幾乎沒什麼醫學價值，”這位茶園主嘲笑道——但是每天喝四杯茶卻能預防消化不良、心臟病和身體綜合機能失調。我問泰勒他自己一天喝多少杯。

He beamed and replied, “Five to six.”

他樂呵呵地回答：“五六杯吧。”

Sri Lanka is a sunny heartbreak of a nation, a welcoming South Asian island country beset by three decades of ethnic war that came to an end in May of 2009, when the Sinhalese government routed the Tamil Tigers in a brutal show of overwhelming force. As many as 100,000 Sri Lankans died along the way. Another 38,000 were killed when the tsunami of 2004 pulverized its eastern coast.

陽光明媚的斯里蘭卡卻是一個傷心之地，這個好客的南亞島國30年來一直抱受種族戰爭困擾，直到2009年5月僧伽羅政府以絕對優勢的兵力無情地擊潰了泰米爾猛虎組織，戰爭才告結束，其間約有10萬名斯里蘭卡人死於戰火，2004年席捲這個國家東海岸的海嘯又帶走了約38000人的生命。

It’s entirely possible to visit the country formerly known as Ceylon in a state of blissful ignorance, to ogle its elephants and leopards roaming about in the national parks, or to languish on the many beach resorts in coastal Galle and Batticaloa, and in that way sidestep altogether the scabs of history.

但是遊客如果幸運地對此一無所知，也同樣可以暢遊這個原名錫蘭的國家，眺望國家公園裏四處漫步的大象與豹子，抑或在沿海的加勒與拜蒂克洛的諸多海濱聖地之間舉棋不定，把歷史的傷痕丟在腦後。

By contrast, the hill country stretching across the island’s midsection presents an authentic side of Sri Lanka that can be visited without experiencing pangs of guilt. Though largely unblemished by the long war, the roots of conflict — proud Buddhist nationalism (as evinced by the region’s great temples), the residue of British colonialism (apparent in its tea estates) and Tamil militancy (expressed in a single but notable act of violence, a deadly bombing in a Buddhist temple) — are all here to be discovered and pondered.

相形之下，綿亙在島嶼中部的丘陵地帶才呈現出斯里蘭卡的真正面目，訪客很難不感受到陣陣愧疚的刺痛。經歷了漫長的戰爭，衝突的源頭卻還清晰可見——驕傲的佛教民族主義力量（可以從這一帶宏偉的寺廟看出）、英國殖民主義殘餘（從這些茶莊就可以看出），以及泰米爾武裝力量（它的暴力只留下唯一一個顯眼的證據：對一座佛教寺院的致命轟炸）——置身於此，人們可以好好去觀察與思忖。

At the same time, the region feels like its own country, as it essentially was when the Buddhist Kingdom of Kandy held sway over the hills five centuries ago. It is noticeably cooler, higher and greener than elsewhere on the island, with the omnipresent terraces of neatly pruned waist-high tea plants as its aesthetic and economic organizing principles. Today Sri Lanka is the world’s fourth-biggest producer of tea; most of it, along with the island nation’s excellent cinnamon, comes from the hill country.

與此同時，這一帶又完全自成一體，和五個世紀之前橫亙在羣山之間的康提佛教王國別無二致。和島上其他地方相比，這裏地勢較高，氣候格外涼爽，植被也特別蒼翠，到處都是種滿茶樹的梯田，按照特有的美學與經濟原則修剪成整飭的齊腰高度。如今，斯里蘭卡已是世界上第四大產茶區，大部分都產自這片丘陵地帶，此外這裏還出產獨特的肉桂。

The names of the plantations — Strathdon, Shannon, Kenilworth — are distinctly Anglo and many of the field workers today are descendants of the “plantation Tamils” who were transported by boat from southern India to pick the first tea leaves cultivated in the 1860s. (Shortly after the British awarded Ceylon its independence in 1948, the new Sinhalese government stripped the Indian Tamils of their voting rights, setting into motion ethnic grievances that would eventually lead to war.)

這些茶園的名字都非常英國化——斯特拉思頓、香農、肯尼爾沃斯之類的，如今，很多茶農都是“種植園泰米爾人”的後裔，他們的祖先於19世紀60年代從南印度乘船而來，採摘這些茶園裏的第一批茶葉（1948年，英國授予錫蘭獨立身份之後不久，新的僧伽羅政府剝奪這些印度泰米爾人的選舉權，引起種族不和，最終導致兵戎相見）。

Navigating the hills by rail can be a beguiling experience but also a time-consuming one, as the trains move slowly through the undulating rough country and run infrequently throughout the day. I opted instead for a van with a cheerful Sinhalese driver named W. S. Yapa, who has been ferrying tourists and journalists throughout Sri Lanka for over three decades. (Sri Lanka’s roads are invariably two lane but well-paved and safe. And the country’s better hotels typically offer lodging for tourist drivers at nominal or no charge.)

乘火車在山間旅行是一種迷人但頗爲耗時的體驗，列車在崎嶇的丘陵之間緩慢顛簸，每天的車次也很少。於是我選了坐麪包車旅行，司機是個快活的僧伽羅人，名叫W·S·亞帕(W. S. Yapa)，30多年來一直搭載旅客和記者們在斯里蘭卡全境旅行（斯里蘭卡的公路都是隻有兩個車道，不過路面狀況很好，很安全。全國最好的酒店一般都給搭載旅行者的司機提供費用低廉甚至是免費的住宿）。

On the three-hour drive from the capital city, Colombo, to Kandy, Mr. Yapa pulled over twice so that I could visit roadside stands selling delicious locally grown cashews and boiled corn on the cob.

在從首都科倫坡開往康提的三小時旅行中，亞帕靠邊停車兩次，讓我下車看看路邊賣的本地腰果和小塊煮玉米，它們都非常美味。

Kandy sits in a valley beside a placid lake that was ordered by the region’s last Sinhalese emperor. Like most Sri Lankan cities, Kandy, which has a population of 109,000, has the unzoned, mangy atmosphere of a once-small village that proceeded over generations to become sloppily urbanized.

康提(Kandy)坐落在山谷之中，毗鄰一片寧靜的湖泊，是由這個國家最後一位僧伽羅君主興建。和大多數斯里蘭卡城市一樣，擁有10.9萬人口的康提也是經歷了數代人的發展營建，由一個小村莊走向混亂的城市化，有一種邋遢雜亂的氣氛。

I killed a couple of hours gathering up dried peppers and cinnamon at the local market and wandering through the tearooms — but really, one comes to Kandy for three principal reasons. One is to visit the Royal Botanical Gardens, across from the university about three miles from the city — though I’ll confess that I did not do so, because it was drizzly and the grounds are famous above all for their orchids, and even on a dry day I am strangely underwhelmed by orchids.

我在當地市場購買幹辣椒和肉桂，然後又去茶室流連，藉此消磨了幾個小時。但是遊客前往康提一般主要有三個去處。首先就是本地的皇家植物園，它坐落在本地大學對面，離城區約有三英里遠，不過我得承認我沒去，因爲當時下着毛毛雨，而且那個地方最有名的就是蘭花，就算天氣好，我對蘭花也不怎麼感興趣，挺奇怪的。

Besides, Kandy’s other two attractions were easily worth the trip. The first is the famed Buddhist sacred Temple of the Tooth, in the very center of town. While paying 1,000 rupees (about $8 at 125 rupees to the dollar) for admission, I noticed the security guard informing a female tourist that her dress did not cover her knees. Unruffled, the woman walked over to a nearby clothing vendor and, for about 25 cents, rented a sarong, wrapped it around her waist and strolled through the security gates. I slipped off my shoes, entered through the security booth and found myself in a crease of the city where all is suddenly hushed and orderly.

還是另外兩個地方更值得一去。其一是著名的佛牙寺，就坐落在市中心。花1000盧比（按125盧比兌換一美元，約合8美元）買了門票，我注意到保安告誡一個女遊客說她的裙子沒有過膝，那女人鎮靜地進了旁邊一家小服裝店，花了大約25美分租了一條紗籠裹在腰間，悠閒地踱進安檢門去。我脫掉鞋子，走過安檢崗哨，發現自己置身城市的裂隙，身周的一切突然變得整潔寧靜。

The sumptuous marble temple contains two large shrines, along with a series of paintings that memorialize the odyssey of the Buddha’s tooth from one place to the next until the end of the 16th century, when it at last arrived in Kandy and is presently entombed in a small gold casket. Upstairs from the shrines is a small museum with incense, jewelry and other relics of the imperial era. One floor up was a memorial of a different kind: an exhibition of photographs depicting the temple’s wall in a state of semi-demolition, the result of the 1998 bomb blast attributed to the Tamil Tigers that killed 11. Sixteen years later, security guards were still frisking visitors before they entered the temple complex.

這座輝煌的大理石佛寺內有兩座龕位，還有一系列彩繪，紀念佛牙從一處到另一處輾轉流落的奧德賽之旅，直至16世紀末終於來到康提，如今，它被安放在小小的金匣子裏。聖龕樓上有一個小小的博物館，燃着焚香，陳列着珠寶和其他帝國時代的文物。再往上走一層，又是另一種完全不同的紀念：一個照片展，全部是寺院的斷壁殘垣，那是1998年泰米爾猛虎組織爆炸襲擊的結果，11人在事件中喪生。16年後，在遊客入寺之前，保安仍會對他們進行搜身。

From the temple I wandered a few hundred yards into the Kandyan Art Association and Cultural Center just as an hourlong performance by traditional dancers and fire-eaters was getting underway, led by a Sumo-sized but fervid and surprisingly nimble young male dancer. Watching them hop across a bed of fiery coals reminded me that I needed to retrieve my shoes. I did so, called Mr. Yapa on my cellphone and together we drove from the temple into the hills above the city, where I was due for an evening at Helga’s Folly.

出寺院再走幾百碼，我來到康提藝術協會文化中心，這裏有傳統舞蹈和吞火表演，長一個小時，我來的時候正演到一半，領銜的是一個年輕的男舞者，身材好像相撲運動員，但卻極具激情，而且意外的身手矯健。看着他們跳過一片燃燒的煤塊，我突然想起還得回寺院取回鞋子。我回去取了鞋，用手機給亞帕打了電話，從寺院開車駛進城市上方的山麓，趕往夜色中的海爾格富麗酒店(Helga’s Folly)。

The visual pandemonium of this rambling 35-room chalet — Dali meets Addams Family — overwhelmed me at first, like tumbling through a kaleidoscope of oil paintings, vintage furniture and spicy fragrances. As the photographs on the walls attested, the Folly’s 60-year-old guest dossier includes Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Sir Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck and Vivien Leigh. The suite I stayed in felt like a large, dramatically lit family scrapbook. A sign admonished me to keep the windows closed so that monkeys wouldn’t raid the kitchen. Peering out, I could see a few of them scampering from the treetops.

這是一片散亂的山間房舍，有35個房間，有點像達利外加亞當斯之家(Addams Family)，一開始，繁雜的視覺效果就令我爲之震撼，感覺自己在無數油畫、古董傢俱與香料的萬花筒裏跌跌撞撞。牆壁上懸掛的照片告訴人們，60年來，富麗接待的貴賓包括聖雄甘地(Mahatma Gandhi)、尼赫魯(Nehru)、勞倫斯·奧利維爾爵士(Sir Laurence Olivier)、格里高利·派克(Gregory Peck)和費雯麗(Vivien Leigh)。我住的套間有點像一個巨大的、富於戲劇色彩的家庭剪貼簿。一個告示牌告誡我關好窗子，以免猴子衝進來跑到廚房搗亂。向外看去，的確有幾隻猴子在樹梢上蹦蹦跳跳。

While eating my excellent curried lamb in the candlelit dining room connected to my suite, a red-haired, pale-skinned woman in a crushed velvet dress and oversized sunglasses materialized from an unseen staircase. This was the proprietress, Helga Perera. She asked if she could join me and then told my waiter to bring me a different dessert, her personal favorite — though, to be honest, I was no longer paying attention to the food.

正當我在套間旁邊的燭光餐廳吃着美味的咖喱羊肉之際，一位紅髮雪膚的女人從一道隱蔽的階梯上款款而下，她身穿帶褶皺的絲絨長裙，戴着大號太陽鏡——正是這裏的女主人海爾格·佩萊拉(Helga Perera)。她問能不能和我一起用餐，並讓侍者給我上另一道甜品，這是她的最愛——不過實話說吧，看到她我就沒法再注意食物了。

When I inquired as to what planet she was from, Ms. Perera said that she was born and raised in Kandy, the daughter of a prominent Sri Lankan politician and a mother who was active in Berlin’s Bauhaus art scene. For the last few decades she had lived in the private quarters upstairs with her third husband, a former local tea planter and presently a “total recluse” surrounded by weathered books.

後來我打聽她的身世，她說她是在康提出生長大，父親是一位著名的斯里蘭卡政治家，母親是柏林包豪斯藝術圈中的活躍人物。過去幾十年裏，她一直同自己的第三任丈夫一起生活在樓上的私人區域，他原本是本地的茶園主，現在“完全與世隔絕”，專門研究古籍。

Ms. Perera said her mother had designed this structure as their family home, as “a sort of Bauhaus” artist collective, and that to this day artist friends stayed at her hotel to pursue their inspirations. I found myself wondering if Jack Torrance, the murderously blocked writer in “The Shining,” might have found a more agreeable balance of work and play at Helga’s Folly.

佩萊拉夫人說，這裏的建築是她母親設計的，既是爲了家人，也是爲了“某種包豪斯的”藝術羣體，至今藝術家朋友們都會到這個酒店來尋求靈感。我忍不住思忖，電影《閃靈》(The Shinning)裏受困於殺人之念的作家傑克·託倫斯(Jack Torrance)如果來到海爾格富麗的話，可能就不會落得“只工作不玩耍”了吧。

I left the hotel the next morning in a lingering state of stupefaction. The 40-mile drive upcountry to the town of Hatton took us two and a half hours. The hills were tropical, and fruit stands girdled the two-lane A-7 highway, which had little traffic beyond the ubiquitous feral dogs and three-wheeled Asian taxis known as tuk-tuks.

翌日清晨離開酒店之時，恍惚之感依舊縈繞在我的心頭。我們開車花兩個半小時向內地行駛了大約40英里，趕往哈頓鎮。山間一片熱帶風光，兩個車道的A-7公路兩側種滿果樹，無處不在的野狗和名叫“tuk-tuk”的亞洲三輪出租車不時製造小小的交通事故。

As we continued to climb, past 4,000 feet, the vistas opened up to reveal majestic waterfalls and terrace after terrace of tea plants. We pushed through the compressed beehive of Hatton, past Castlereagh Lake and into the heart of tea plantation country, a world of verdant staircases occupied by laborers with heavy bags across their shoulders. When I stepped out of the van into the crisp mountain air enveloping the spectacular gardens leading to the bungalow where I would stay that night, I suddenly lost all memory of that unforgettable place in Kandy.

我們繼續向上行駛，大約過了海拔4000英尺，眼前出現一片巨大的瀑布，茶園的梯田鱗次櫛比。我們穿過熙攘擁擠的哈頓，經過卡斯爾雷湖(Castlereagh Lake)，深入茶園之鄉的腹地，這裏到處都是綠油油的梯田，工人們肩扛着沉重的大包行走期間。走出麪包車，山間新鮮的空氣撲面而來，茶園美景一覽無餘，遠處有幾間平房，我晚上就要在那兒過夜，面對此情此景，康提那些難忘的景色也不禁被我丟在腦後。

I had arrived at Tientsin, the oldest (built in 1888) of four bungalows operated in the Hatton area by Ceylon Tea Trails, Sri Lanka’s first Relais & Châteaux resort. Shortly after I was shown to my colonial high-ceilinged room (one of six in the bungalow), the chef knocked on my door and proceeded to describe the three-course lunch and four-course dinner he had in mind for me to make sure that I had no dietary concerns.

這裏名叫Tientsin，是“錫蘭茶徑”(Ceylon Tea Trails)酒店在哈頓地區運營的最古老的四處平房酒店（始建於1888年）之一，“錫蘭茶徑”也是斯里蘭卡的第一家羅萊夏朵(Relais & Châteaux)集團酒店。這裏有六座平房小屋，我住的是其中一座，服務員領我進了殖民地風格的高屋頂房間，沒過多久，大廚就敲響我的房門，爲我描述他爲我設計的有三道主菜的午餐和四道主菜的晚餐，還問我有沒有忌口。

I sat on the patio overlooking the terraces and enjoyed a near-perfect meal of carrot and coriander soup, fresh bread, grilled tuna with tarragon sauce and apple crisp. I was about to order tea when the manager informed me that wouldn’t be necessary: I had an appointment in 15 minutes at the nearby Norwood tea factory with their planter in residence, Mr. Taylor.

後來我坐在天井裏，一邊品嚐胡蘿蔔芫荽湯、新鮮麪包、烤金槍魚配龍蒿醬和蘋果脆片，一邊俯瞰下面的梯田。我本想點茶水，但經理告訴我完全不用，15分鐘後，我就可以按照行程安排參觀附近的諾伍德茶廠，並同茶園主會面——也就是泰勒先生。

Two hours after my tea-slurping seminar, I went for a long stroll through the tea plantation abutting Tientsin. Along the narrow roads, the only other pedestrians were women carrying freshly plucked leaves in large sacks or bundles of tea plant branches to use as firewood back home. The British planters had long since left the hills: Their estates had been expropriated by the new government in the 1950s, then returned to them a few years later, though the ensuing years of war and government-initiated land reform efforts had compelled their interests elsewhere.

開完兩個小時的品茶會，我在毗鄰Tientsin的茶園漫步。狹窄的小路上只有扛着大包新採摘的茶葉或是大捆茶樹枝幹的女人們，這些樹枝是要拿回家去生火用的。英國種植園主早已離去，20世紀50年代，新政府沒收了他們的產業，幾年後又歸還給他們，但是接踵而至的戰爭歲月以及政府發起的土地改革迫使他們只能另謀他處。

Even under local ownership, however, a colonial air pervades the region. The women laborers greeted me warmly and chatted among themselves as they, with their armloads, walked off into the setting sun, but I suffered no illusion that their $4-a-day livelihood was a particularly happy one.

雖然眼下茶園歸本地人所有，殖民遺風依然隨處可見。夕陽西下，扛着東西的女工們熱情地和我打招呼，但是她們每天只能賺四美元，我不會幻想她們可以輕鬆愉快地維持生計。

Presently I was alone, moving through the sea of leaves, past residences pumping out local music and Bollywood dialogue. Behind me tucked into the hills was a single aglow building, the Tientsin bungalow, and I would get there when I got there.

後來我孤身走過茶樹的碧海，路邊的民房裏傳出本地音樂和寶萊塢電影的對白。Tientsin平房的孤燈在我身後閃耀，漸漸隱沒于山色之中，我願意什麼時候回去都可以。

Mr. Yapa picked me up the next morning at 7:30. The three-and-a-half-hour drive along the A-5 to Ella was even more absurdly beautiful — velvety mountains, the mighty Devon Falls, the twinkling Gregory Lake, the wildly baroque roadside Rama Sita temple — than the previous day’s journey. And an even sweeter surprise was Ella itself, the one town I would unhesitatingly recommend as a destination. (Caveat: I didn’t have time to visit the much-touristed city of Nuwara Eliya with its profusion of vegetable gardens and fine colonial buildings.)

翌日清晨七點半，亞帕來接我。我們沿着A-5公路開了三個半小時，來到艾拉(Ella)，這裏的風景美到不可方物——天鵝絨般蒼翠碧綠的羣山、巍峨的德文瀑布(Devon Falls)、波光粼粼的格里高利湖(Gregory Lake)，路邊奇異的羅摩西塔寺(Rama Sita)——比起昨日的景色還要有過之而無不及。最美妙的驚喜還要算艾拉本身，這纔是我可以毫不猶豫地推薦給所有人的小鎮（注意：我沒去遊覽遊客衆多的努沃勒埃利耶(Nuwara Eliya)，那裏有很多植物園和精美的殖民時期建築）。

Ella possesses an agreeable scruffiness, the tea plantations and noble birch trees sharing the landscape with a host of ramshackle restaurants and guesthouses. A couple of miles past town, we pulled in to the Secret Ella, a sleek resort that had opened only two months earlier. The concierge showed me to my shiny wood-and-concrete room and presented me with a mobile phone with which I could summon him at a moment’s notice.

艾拉有種令人愉悅的保守氣息，茶園之間矗立着高貴的樺樹，鎮上有不少老舊的飯館和賓館。我們住在鎮外幾英里的“祕密艾拉”(Secret Ella)，這是一處隱蔽的酒店，兩個月前纔開張。看門人帶我進了嶄新的木結構混凝土房間，裏面放着一部手機，供我隨時用來召喚他。

Though it was getting chilly, I could not resist the rolling views from the dining patio, where I was presented with enough food — fruit salad, wild mushroom soup, curried fish — to fortify five of me. I did what I could before wandering down the road to the Secret Ella’s big sister, the lovely 98 Acres Resort, with its swimming pool seemingly hoisted up by the tea terraces.

儘管有點冷，我還是忍不住到天井裏用餐，順便飽覽美景，晚餐分量很足——水果沙拉、野生蘑菇湯、咖喱魚——足夠五個人吃。我儘量享用了一番，然後沿路走到可愛的“98畝酒店”(98 Acres Resort)，它可以算得上是“祕密艾拉”的姊姊了，那裏有個游泳池，似乎正坐落在茶園之上。

I took a drink at the bar and continued my stroll downhill toward Ella. Then the rain began to fall hard. Drenched, I staggered into a place called the Curd & Honey Shop, at the town’s main junction. Those gathered on the covered patio were similarly soaked: a German family of four, a Chinese female traveler and an American techie named Neil who had cashed out a few years ago and was now backpacking across Asia, with tomorrow’s destination being Kandy where a five-day course in meditation awaited him. I counseled Neil to visit Helga’s Folly. Then I ordered a pot of tea, which cost about a dollar.

我在酒吧喝了一杯，然後又一路下坡，走到艾拉。這時開始下起大雨。我很快就渾身溼透，衝進一家名叫“煉乳與蜂蜜”(Curd & Honey Shop)的地方，這是鎮上最大的娛樂場所，院子裏遮起了天蓬，各種各樣的人都進來躲雨：一個德國四口之家，一個來自中國的女遊客,還有一個名叫尼爾的美國技師，幾年前他破了產，現在成了揹包客，在亞洲到處旅行，明天他要到康提去次參加五天的冥想課程。我建議他一定要去海爾格富麗看看。後來我點了一壺茶，只要一美元。

I sat there for an hour or so, watching the rain thin out while the ancient properties of the local beverage worked their magic on me. Newly imbued and somewhat dry, I marched back uphill.

我坐了一個小時左右，雨勢漸收，而茶水也開始在我身上發揮它古老的魔力。我帶着煥然一新的心情和乾爽起來的衣服，回頭向山上走去。

If You Go

實用信息：

Local cuisine in the hill country is similar to Indian food, though often spicier (particularly in restaurants with Tamil chefs). Sri Lankan as well as Asian and European meals are generally of particularly high quality in the region’s more notable hotels, such as the following.

這個山地之國的美食和印度菜有點像，不過通常更辣一點（尤其是泰米爾大廚掌勺的飯館）。高檔酒店通常會提供更好的斯里蘭卡菜、亞洲菜和西餐，比如下面這些酒店：

Helga’s Folly (32 Frederick E. de Silva Mawatha, Kandy, 94-81-223-4571,): A delightful alternative universe to Sri Lanka, fashioned by an eccentric native. Luxurious in its own way, with delicious dinners. Rooms for two from $200.

海格爾富麗 (32 Frederick E. de Silva Mawatha, Kandy, 94-81-223-4571, )：斯里蘭卡一處美妙的平行宇宙，有種奇異的本土色彩，其奢華自成一格，晚餐十分美味。雙人間每晚200美元起。

Ceylon Tea Trails (four locations between Castlereigh and Hatton, 94-11-774-5700,): Handsome and spacious Relais & Châteaux bungalows strewn across the hushed, high-altitude interior of tea country. With outstanding service and cuisine, the Tientsin bungalow with its magnificent British garden constitutes a destination all its own. All-inclusive rate for a single room starts at $437.

錫蘭茶徑（四處地址，坐落於卡斯爾雷與哈頓之間，94-11-774-5700，）：羅萊夏朵旗下美麗寬敞的平房酒店，坐落在高海拔茶園寧靜的中心。服務與菜餚都屬一流，Tientsin平房酒店有魅力的英式花園，別具風情。單間各種費用全包，437美元起。

The Secret Ella (Passara Road, Ella, 94-57-222-6333, ): A sleek new addition to Ella’s many (and mostly scruffy) hotels, situated about a mile from town and catering to couples and families. Excellent local food served on a picturesque terrace. Room-only rate for two starts at $180.

祕密艾拉 (Passara Road, Ella, 94-57-222-6333, )：艾拉有衆多酒店，大都破舊邋遢，這家新酒店卻是整潔乾淨，坐落在鎮外一英里處，接待情侶和家庭。院落內風景如畫，提供精美的本地食品。雙人間（只含房租）：180美元起。