Dambatenne Tea Plantation

The Dambatenne tea plantation is very big and old, and was founded by Englishman Sir Thomas Lipton in the mid-nineteenth century. You can visit the factory or you can just take a tuk tuk (rickshaw) to get you around the region if you just want to enjoy the scenery. It is a very beautiful mountain landscape with tea trees cut to the height of one meter for easy harvest. Employees start early but have a long day. They only earn just a little over a euro each day, but the advantage of working in the plantation is that everything is organized like a small village sponsored by the company. A rent free home is provided, schools have been built and teachers paid, and the hospitals care for a thousand employees.