Surprising Sri Lanka

Natalie Poat on 18 October 2014
Sri Lanka had been high on my wish list after I had an educational visit cancelled in 2005 so I was really looking forward to my visit.

It was great to arrive and depart in style with Business Class flights courtesy of British Airways. The flights to Colombo make a quick touchdown on Male in the Maldives in both directions which makes for interesting viewing during landing and take-off.

On arrival it was a short transfer to the Jetwing Beach Hotel, a super hotel on a nice looking beach within easy reach of the modest town of Negombo - which has a good selection of restaurants and an interesting old quarter. Unfortunately we did not have time to visit but we managed to squeeze in a tour of the sister hotel, the Jetwing Blue, next door.

The next morning it was an early start for our journey north to Anuradhapura with a stop en route at the Pinnawela elephant orphanage to watch the elephants bathe in the river (we had the opportunity to give one of the younger elephants a scrub behind the ears) before following them across the road to see the very young ones being bottle fed.

It was a late arrival at our hotel for the evening, the stunning Ulagalla Wallawwa Resort which has just 20 “chalets” (stilted villas set amongst the rice paddies). The surroundings, food and service were outstanding and waking in the morning to look out of the window and see a range of birds and animals including a whole troop of monkeys made a great start to the day.

Day 3 was spent visiting the ancient city of Anuradhapura where we were lucky to see a once a year event – that of Great Stupa being wrapped in the Buddhist flag. The flag is carried by hundreds of locals and it is wrapped round three times and left in place until it disintegrates and is replaced again. We also took the opportunity to be blessed at the Bo Tree Temple – said to be the offspring of the tree where Buddha found enlightenment. Our afternoon experience was very different as we took a jeep safari into the Minneriya wildlife sanctuary where we saw plenty of animals and reptiles but the elusive leopards kept out of sight on this occasion although they had been seen earlier that morning.

That evening we spent at The Heritance Kandalama Dambulla, a hotel built in to the rock face with stunning views over the reservoir to the famous Sigiriya Rock Fortress which we had the opportunity to climb early the following morning. I must confess to only getting part way as my fear of heights was put to test so I explored the lower reaches and the interesting cave paintings whilst my colleague reached the top (I have no regrets!). More climbing took us to the Dambulla Cave Temples and I did manage to see all of these with their beautiful statues and decorations before heading south to Kandy for our next stop.

Kandy is a delightful hill station, once the capital of the Singhalese Kingdom and the cultural centre of Sri Lanka. We settled in to our hotel for the night, the Cinnamon Citadel where we had time to sample the swimming pool overlooking the river before heading off to see a Kandyan dance performance and fire walking before a visit to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha. This is a very beautiful temple and also the sight of the surrender of Sri Lanka to the British in 1815.

Another early start the following morning gave us time to visit a word carving factory, the Gem Museum and a batik shop where we all dressed up in local costume before continuing our journey to Kegalle and the unique Rosyth Estate House - a colonial tea and rubber plantation with just 7 rooms, where we experienced the wonderful hospitality of the owners Neil and Farzana Dobbs and their team. The day featured delicious local cuisine and impromptu cooking lesson from the chef, a visit to the tea factory and a walk through the tea and rubber trees, all topped off with drinks on the verandah overlooking the surrounding hillside watching the fireflies play.

Another early start saw us heading further south to Koggala and another stunning boutique property, The Fortress Resort & Spa where we arrived in time for a delicious lunch and some relaxation time by the pool and in the spa – a real treat after our hectic schedule of the past few days. Dinner was another treat with half board at the hotel extending to the almost the whole of the a la carte menu.

Our last full day included a tour of the brand new Cape Weligama Hotel which was set to open shortly after our visit. The hotel is in a spectacular location and has some 13 pools for guests to enjoy. With the business element of the day dealt with we travelled along the coast road to Galle passing the stilt fishermen along the way. In Galle we had a short time to explore the famous Dutch ramparts in Galle Fort, Dutch church, colonial style buildings and old lighthouse. They say the world is a very small place and whilst stopping for an ice cream in one of the back streets we struck up a conversation with owner who asked if we knew Exmoor and Styles Ice Cream – I said yes, the owners are friends of mine and it turns out they had been there the year before and he gave me some local tea to take home to thank them for the ice cream scoop they had sent him in the post – an amazing coincidence!

By late afternoon we had arrived in our last stop of the trip, Bentota, and the Centara Ceysands Resort & Spa. A family friendly hotel positioned on a small island and reached by the hotels own ferry and offering a great selection of water sports. Bentota is a popular resort just 100 km south of the airport and the calm seas from November to April make it ideal for snorkelling, diving, sailing, wind surfing, water-skiing and deep sea fishing on a traditional outrigger canoe.

We had a super last night with a band playing at the hotel and were sad to say our goodbyes the next day to our excellent drivers and guide.

I am sure I will be back….