Ericka

Great report! Thanks for sharing.

BillT

Kathie- you indicated that you wanted to visit a rain forest. I am an expert on rain forests- having lived in one for 4 years so if you have any questions just ask. Oh yes - where was it you might ask- why it was Portland, Oregon!!!!!

Kathie

Thanks, everyone. There will be more installments later today.

Cheryl has been going over her photos and I will let you know when they are available on her website.

Bill, as I live in Seattle, I know what you mean about living in a rainforest.

cruisinred

I am really enjoying your report and Sri Lanka moves higher up my "must visit list" with each posting. Can't wait for more.

ekscrunchy

Kathie:
I, too, am enjoying very much. I visited Sri Lanka in 1972 and your report is kindling a desire to return.

I will stay tuned! Thanks for a good read!

rhkkmk

bill---i thought you meant that you were staying on an extended stay at the oriental and they had one of their regular pipe leaks---brown water

BillT

Now Bob... the Oriental now markets this as an theraputic mineral bath!

LeighTravelClub

Fantastic report Kathie!! I'm turning a deeper shade of green, the more I read it. Looking forward to more.

Kathie

The next morning, Aslam picked us up at 8 am for our drive to Kandy. There are a number of spice gardens along the way, and we asked him to stop at one so we could buy some spices. I was especially interested in buying some vanilla beans. Apparently, Aslam had called one of the gardens and they told him they had vanilla. We toured the garden, and enjoyed seeing some spice plants we hadn’t seen before. They did indeed have a huge vanilla vine. The guide identified many spice plants, but what he wanted to talk about most were ayurvedic preparations made from spices. I must admit I had no interest in that. After his tour and talk, we went into the store and purchased a few spices (at good prices); their ayurvedic preparations were quite expensive. But it turned out that they had no vanilla beans, just the plants. (I noticed that Aslam was not happy about this, but I told him not to worry about it, I was sure we could find vanilla beans at a market in Kandy.)

We drove onward toward Kandy, about a two hour drive from the Kandalama. The Kandy House is located in the hills outside of Kandy. It is by no means easy to find and there are no signs for it (this was another time when we were glad we had Aslam as a driver). It was the home of an important minister to the last king of Kandy. You drive to an unmarked gate that is opened by a guard, and then into the beautiful grounds of Kandy House. The garden is lovely and there is a separate area with a swimming pool. The house is over 200 years old and became a boutique hotel in 2005. A historically sensitive restoration/remodel was directed by an associate of Geoffrey Rawa and was beautifully done. It has 8 suites and lovely public spaces. There is no air conditioning but the thick walls and large overhangs, central interior courtyard as well as the shady gardens help keep it cool. There are ceiling fans in the rooms. We had a “super deluxe gallery room,” which placed us on the second floor and gave us a small study opening to a shady verandah. The room price of $155++ included breakfast. The rooms are really lovely with nice bathrooms that include a shower and a huge free-standing tub. The toiletries are locally made with delightful items like a cinnamon shampoo and black pepper shower gel. The four-poster bed has working (as opposed to ornamental) mosquito netting.

If you look on sites like Trip Advisor, the Kandy House has had mixed reviews. It is now under new management, and is being run by a Sri Lankan woman. She is very gracious and has perfect English. We have nothing but wonderful things to say about the Kandy House. The staff was very accommodating. There are houseboys assigned to each room, and the one assigned to your room will take care of anything you need – from doing some laundry for you to serving you breakfast on your verandah. There are no safes in the room, but the office has a safe and they are very willing to lock up your valuables for you. There are no phones in the room, and as Aslam pointed out, no televisions. I have to admit I hadn’t noticed, as we don’t have a tv at home.

Kandy is supposed to be the place to shop in Sri Lanka. This is the place for crafts, for antiques, for gems. However, we were not impressed. Gem prices are VERY high. Even after bargaining, we found we could get stones for better prices in Bangkok even though the stones we looked at were mined in Sri Lanka. The special stones from Sri Lanka were the natural pink sapphires. We can buy them in Bangkok for about US$100 a carat (although retail in Bangkok is about US$200 a carat). We were quoted prices as high as US$1000 a carat in Kandy, and even after bargaining, the prices were often $500 a carat. There were nice tourmalines, and we bought some, though they weren’t a great bargain. The local crafts we found were not very high quality and the prices seemed quite high as well. The “antiques” were outrageously priced and we didn’t see anything I was really convinced was old. We did stop at another batik place in Kandy and I purchased a nice piece for a gift. There is a famous Buddhist bookshop in Kandy and we did purchase several books there.

We went back to the Kandy house for dinner, which is served any time after 7:30. The dinner is served on a verandah that adjoins a garden, a very pleasant setting. The dinner, which was a three course dinner of Asian-French fusion cuisine plus an after entrée salad, cost about US$23 per person. There were two choices for the appetizer and two for the entrée. All of the food was excellent. There is good wine by the glass as well as a small wine list.

After our dinner we were ready for sleep. While we were at dinner, our houseboy turned down our bed, closed the windows to prevent the mosquitoes from coming in as he turned on a light for us, and prepared the mosquito net. Once we were ready to go to bed, we re-opened the windows for air circulation and turned off the lights. While we had an occasional mosquito in the room, they were really not a problem for us. Mosquito nets work well. We slept well on the very comfortable (but very high) bed.

kuranosuke

kathie, mahalo for taking the time to write and post this report. sri lanka is another place on my list to visit.

Kathie

I forgot to mention that Aslam took us to a local place for a massage. Before returning us to the Kandy House for dinner. As you might imagine, it had no atmosphere at all. Near the beginning of the massage, the masseuse pours oil onto your forehead and into your hair. I know this is a traditional ayurvedic technique, but I could have done without it. The massage I would describe as vigorous. It’s not Thai massage, but it does involve a lot of pounding. After the massage, you are steamed… you enter a wooden chest with your head sticking out , the top is closed and you steam for about 15 minutes. This is not for the claustrophobic! Then you take a shower and wash the oil out of your hair. It was an unusual experience, but it did not make me yearn to go back.

We had arranged with our houseboy to have breakfast on our verandah in the morning. When we opened the door to our verandah, there was a table all set for us. The breakfast there is really excellent. You chose what you want from many course options. You get juice, a large plate of local fruit, cereal if you want it or curd (yogurt), and eggs and breakfast meats, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms plus tea or coffee. We tried the egg hoppers (an egg cooked in a rice flour crepe) and they were very good. With a breakfast like this, you can understand why we didn’t need lunch!

One of the criticisms of the Kandy House is that it is perhaps 15-20 minutes outside of Kandy. While it can take longer if you go at rush hour, I found this was not a problem. It was such a wonderful place to stay it didn’t bother me that it took us 15-20 minutes to get to Kandy.

Aslam picked us up and we headed into Kandy for the Temple of the Tooth. This is considered the holiest Buddhist site in Sri Lanka. The main street in front of the temple is closed and there is very tight security as the temple was bombed by the Tamil Tigers in 1998. Again, Aslam got us a very knowledgeable guide. He gave us lots of good background information as we walked through the grounds to the Temple. Before entering the temple there is a pat-down search. As we entered the temple, there was drumming beginning, and it lasted through much of our time in the temple. You go upstairs where the sanctuary for the tooth is located. There were a group of white-clothed VIPs there, and they were admitted into the room the tooth is kept in (apparently an unusual occurance). There were lots of people waiting to parade past the tooth when the gold doors are opened for a few minutes (you don’t see the tooth, but the gold casket in which it is kept). There were a number of women with infants, as it is considered important to take a child to the Temple of the Tooth before they are 18 months old. The women with the infants were allowed into a gated area to await the opening of the golden doors. We decided to stay to be able to walk past the opened doors to the tooth.

From there, we went back downstairs and were led through a number of rooms including a library of ancient documents incised on palm leaves. The guide had lots of good information, but I must admit that by this time I was thinking about next trip to Sri Lanka and how I’m looking forward to visiting some of these wonderful Buddhist sites without a guide!

We visited two bookstores and purchased a few books that are not available in the US. We purchased some Buddhist books and we purchased a book on identifying Sri Lankan birds.

Before we left, Aslam said he’d go to the market for us to buy vanilla beans. He said if we went, they would charge us much more. He brought back samples to the car of two types, we chose the one we wanted and he went back and bargained and we got the vanilla beans for about $.37 each (40 rupees). We gave him a 1000 rupee note, so we got a nice batch.

We returned to the Kandy House for a few leisurely hours. I would love to have had more time there just to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. We had scheduled reflexology session with the masseuse, but it turned out he was very ill and was admitted to the hospital that morning.

We then drove into town for a performance of Kandyan Dance. There are two different shows, and book Aslam and the manager of Kandy House named this as the best one. The dance show was very good, and was the only place we’d seen lots of westerners! The traditional dance was followed by fire-walking.

We returned to the Kandy House for dinner. Tonight was Sri Lankan curry night (about $18 per person). The curries were fine, but we were spoiled by the quality of the curries at the Kandalama.

We checked out the next morning after another wonderful breakfast on the verandah, and left feeling that we would have enjoyed spending another day in Kandy just to have time to walk around and get more of the atmosphere of the place. And I would certainly choose to stay at the Kandy House again!

Kathie

There were several things we did not have time to do in the Kandy area, both the Botanical Garden and the Elephant orphanage sounded like places we wanted to visit. We’ll have to do those next trip.

The next morning, we left for Tea Trails, located in the hill country. It was probably a 3 hour drive from the Kandy House to Tea Trails. This was a very interesting drive through small towns in the hills. We began to see tea fields and continued to climb higher and higher. The road was mostly ok, though it was narrow and we had to share the road with buses, trucks, tractor-like vehicles (called land masters), bicycles and motor bikes, ox carts, dogs who like to sleep on the road, people often crossing without looking, and the occasional wandering cow. All vehicles feel compelled to pass the vehicle in front of them. You’ll pass a bus that is picking up passengers, and a few minutes later it will roar past you just before a curve. Drivers use their horns to communicate whether it is safe to pass, etc. Everyone cooperates to make this insane system work. The closer we got to Tea Trails, the more narrow the road became. We were driving though tea fields, watching the tea pickers, seeing the children coming home from school. Eventually, the road became a one lane dirt road.

Tea Trails is a collection of 4 old planters homes that have been refurbished and turned into a small boutique hotel. Located at 4000 ft elevation, it is significantly cooler here than anywhere else we’ve been. The houses are some distance apart, the other bungalows are 4 – 14 km away. Each bungalow has 4 – 6 rooms, there are 20 rooms in all. Each house has its own staff including a chef, a manager, various house staff and grounds keepers. When you make your reservations, you choose the bungalow you want and the type of room. We opted for the Castlereigh, as I wanted to be right on the reservoir. One other bungalow over looks the reservoir, Summerville, but it is higher up the hillside on the other side of the water. The other two bungalows, Tientsin and Norwood, overlook the tea fields.

We arrived at Castlereigh, the guard opened the gate, we drove to the bottom of the steps and we were met by several staff members. Our luggage was whisked away and we were invited up the walk and into the library for a welcome drink of fresh juice. The bungalow is beautiful, like an English country house. The public areas consist of the library, the drawing room, the dining room and the verandah. The grounds are lovely, and Castlereigh has a swimming pool. There are 5 rooms in Castlereigh. Each room is quite large with a four poster bed with working mosquito nets, a big armoire, a desk and sitting area and a huge bathroom with double sinks and a big claw foot tub. The rooms feel even bigger as they have 14 foot ceilings. There is no air conditioning (not needed) but there are ceiling fans. As at the Kandy House, there are no telephones and no televisions, no internet access (actually, at both places, the office has dial-up access which is very slow, but in a pinch, you could use it if you had to send an email). There are safes in the rooms. They do not hand out keys to the rooms routinely, but you can ask if you want a room key. We simply left our room unlocked, as almost everyone else did.

The price for the rooms is all-inclusive of four meals a day, wine and before dinner drinks. The chef came out and met us, told us his suggested menu for lunch (he will make something different if you ask). We were asked what time we wanted lunch served and we went to our wonderful suite to unpack. Our room overlooked the lake. There are also rooms that face the garden, and have a small terrace. It was time for lunch, and we sat on the verandah and were served a beautiful three-course lunch with wine. Our choice of wonderful single origin Dilmah teas were served after dessert. I appreciated that the food portions are small. As you finish lunch, you are asked what time you want high tea, and as you finish tea, the chef tells you his recommendations for dinner and you tell him what time you want to eat. It seemed like an endless cycle of eating and preparing to eat!

All of the food is cooked on site, often using fresh vegetables from the gardens. The food was excellent and beautifully presented. We soon learned what made sense in terms of the meals. While they will cook you a full English breakfast, I opted instead for a lovely fruit plate and a warm croissant. The lunch consisted of a soup, a small entrée and a small dessert. I had a glass of wine with lunch each day. The house wines are a Chilean Chardonnay and a Chilean Cabernet. Both were good. High tea consisted of a half a tea sandwich, crusts carefully trimmed, a half a slice each of two different loaf cakes (pound cake, banana cake, chocolate cake, etc.) and a small scone and a small lemon tart for each person. Lovely Devonshire cream and an excellent jam were accompaniments. Of course, you choose from the lovely Dilmah teas. Before dinner, people congregate around the fire in the drawing room for drinks. One of the staff will mix you drinks from their bar or pour you a glass of sherry. Dinner was again three courses with red or white wine available. While it sounds like a lot, the portions were such that the food was not too much. (And we both came home a few pounds lighter.) All meals are typically served on the verandah with the exception of curry night. It cools down quickly once the sun goes down. We were grateful for the propane heaters they light at dinner time!

One night there was a curry night, and the meal was served family style in the dining room. We had a lot of fun getting to know the other people staying there. What an interesting variety of people!

There are trails, and we were given a map and headed out to walk through the tea fields. While it is cooler than other parts of Sri Lanka, we quickly decided that right after lunch is not the best time to walk. The sun is very direct and we quickly felt hot out in the tea fields. We moved to walking after breakfast and/or after high tea. We loved walking at Castlereigh. Everyone around is so friendly. We waved to various workers, the children came and talked to us, all wanted to practice their English. Sometimes a child would ask for money. As we never carried any money there, we simply said we didn’t have any and they continued to chat with us. Cheryl would take their pictures, and let them see the photos on her camera, which they enjoyed.

We brought books to read, but all of the rooms are furnished with an interesting assortment of books about Sri Lanka. We read some of our own books and some of their books. We walked every day. Cheryl took lots of photos, and got into photographing birds and identifying them. You’ll see some her handiwork when the photos are posted on her website.

There are a number of activities available, such as white-water rafting perhaps an hour’s drive away, bicycling, etc. These cost extra. There are also spa treatments available in your room. We didn’t try these, either. I guess we were so relaxed we didn’t need them! They offer a (free) tour to the tea factory that was really excellent. We learned so much about the process of making tea from the growing of the plants to the plucking of the leaves through the fermentation process and the tea tasting and auction process. You can buy the Dilmah teas at the bungalow, and we brought back quite a bit. These are unusual single origin teas that I have never seen for sale in the US.

We spent four wonderful days and nights at Tea Trails. We loved it, and will return. It was the best “resort” experience I’ve ever had. The setting is idyllic, the bungalows are lovely with every comfort, the staff is gracious and helpful without being intrusive or fawning, the food is excellent. What more could you want?

hawaiiantraveler

Kathie,

I just gained 5 pounds reading about your time at Tea Trails. Sounds like you had a moving experience there. Thanks for sharing and all the wonderful details....sounds like a place we should put on our list.

Ask lavendarstreak not to edit out all the pictures, lol

Aloha!

rhkkmk

i think craig must be jumping out of his skin awaiting his arrival in sri lanka....i know i am and i have no current plans to visit in the next year...darn!!

cost of tea trails??

Craig

Tea Trails sounds like it lived up to its billing and more. Good to hear about the small food portion sizes. We are also staying at Castlereigh but only for 3 nights (darn!). Did you visit any of the other bungalows and was it warm enough to use the pool in the afternoon?

glorialf

Fabulous report, Kathie. Now I REALLY want to go!

Kathie

Thanks everyone. I'll try to finish up the report tonight if I can.

Cost of Tea Trails was $385++ per night for two persons.

Craig, it was certainly hot enough to use the pool during the day. It was at night that it really cooled down. We visited Summerville on the other side of the lake from Castlereigh. It looks down on the lake from much higher above the lake than Castlereigh. It was also lovely. It's smaller, only 4 rooms. The public areas are oriented to the lake, and none of the rooms overlook the lake, but at least some of the rooms open to the garden where you can sit and enjoy a view of the lake. I could certainly stay there. At Castlereigh, we had the Tate room, which was my favorite after looking at all the rooms.

While four nights at Tea Trails was bliss, we were the people who stayed the longest of the people we met while we were there. There were several people who stayed only one night.

Mohammed

Kathie, I'm so happy to read all the lovely things you write, wish more people will visit our beautiful island.

Craig

More questions, Kathie -

At Kandalama were you able to eat an early breakfast before visiting Sigiriya? If Anaradhapura is safe, we anticipate doing Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa on the same day and Anaradhapura the next. We would want to avoid backtracking. Some how we've got to fit the caves in also. It may all be moot if we can't go to Anaradhapura. Any thoughts on this?

We are planning on stopping at the elephant orphanage on the way to Kandalama from the airport. Our flight arrives at 8:15 AM which should give us more than enough time to get there for the 1 PM feeding and 2 PM bathing of the elephants. If the trip from Negombo took you only 3 hours without the detour to the orphanage, we should arrive at Kandalama late afternoon don't you think?

I was sorry to hear that you missed the botanical gardens near Kandy. We will not be overnighting in Kandy but want to stop in that area on the way to Tea Trails from Kandalama. Does the Temple of the Tooth take much time? Also, Mohammed had recommended the Kandy Arts and Crafts Center for high quality crafts. Were you able to get there? We also plan on stopping at one of the spice gardens. Hopefully if we get an early start we can arrive at Tea Trails in time to enjoy high tea. Do you think this is realistic?

Did Cheryl feel there were good photo ops on the drive from Kandy to Tea Trails? Was stopping along the way difficult?

Did you use your driver while at Tea Trails to take you to the other bungalow or to the tea factory? We were thinking of taking the train from Hatton to Nanu Oya, returning by car - did you run into anyone that did that? Any idea how long that takes? On the Tea Trails web site it says that the unguided walks using their trail map are 1/2 hour to an hour - are there several different walks at each bungalow? It sounds like you were able to meet local people and had some good photo ops on these walks - if so we will be sure to make the time to do this.

Thanks for your help. February can't come soon enough!

rhkkmk

i told you he is jumping with joy...and questions