Sri Lanka - Food, Lodging, Lodgistics & Shopping, Part 3 of 3

Sri Lanka has a fabulous variety of lovely boutique hotels. We stayed in high end places and the value for the price paid was very high. Here are some details about each of the places we stayed, food, and shopping:

Negombo: Villa Araliya is a "boutique guesthouse" located relatively near the airport, US $65++ per night. The Villa Araliya is lovely, beautifully designed, very pleasant. Our only complaint there is that the bath towels are hard and rough, there are no hand towels and no wash cloths. There is no shampoo, etc, so bring your own. It is clean, the beds comfortable, the atmosphere nice. Breakfast (cooked to your order) is included in the room price. Note that they do not take credit cards; you need to settle your bill in cash.

For the price, it's a real deal. And since we were just spending the night, we felt there was no reason to go to the "best" hotel in Negombo, The Beach for US$200 a night. We visited The Beach on our way back though Negombo to return to the airport. We had a good meal in their restaurant, Black Coral, but the hotel itself was just a beach hotel that could have been anywhere in the world.

Dambulla: The Kandalama was designed by Geoffrey Rawa, and was the first building designated as a "green building." It's a wonderfully designed place, with the lines between indoors and outdoors beautifully blurred: boulders comprising parts of walls, a mix of open-air and enclosed space, and windows making up the whole outer wall of the hotel. While it has about 150 rooms, it feels spacious and uncrowded, not at all like a large hotel.

The rooms are really lovely, with a full view from both the bedroom and the bath down to the "tank" (reservoir) where you can see herds of animals drinking. There is a balcony with a table and two chairs. The décor is Rawa's signature "Asian minimalist." The bed is very comfortable, the towels thick and soft. The room cost was $228++ per night, and includes both breakfast and dinner. Both are huge, lavish buffets. You can opt for the a la carte restaurant for dinner and receive 20% off the menu prices instead. I am not one who likes buffets, but these were very nice.

There are always items freshly made for you (eggs, waffles or French toast at breakfast; dinner might have a grill where you chose what you want grilled for yourself, or a station making Caesar salads, for instance). There was always a wide choice of foods, both Sri Lankan and Western. The Sri Lankan curries were the best we ate anywhere. Lots of fresh, local fruit was available at every meal. We really enjoyed our stay there and would be delighted to return.

The Gimhala Rest House: There are a number of these resthouses run under government supervision, which are oriented to offering safe food for tourists. In the countryside there are almost no other places to eat. They offered a lunch buffet, but we ordered from the a la carte menu. We wanted Sri Lankan food, and they offered a number of interesting choices. I asked the waiter if the item I chose was spicy. He replied, "no madam, not hot." I asked if he could make it spicy for me, and he was surprised "you want it hot?" and said they would make it spicy for me.

As we were eating, we noted that the staff was watching us, apparently waiting to see if the food was too hot. The food was very good, with nice spicing and not too hot. We paid about US$14 for our two lunches. As we were leaving, we noted that we were the only westerners who ordered Sri Lankan food! There were a couple of tables of Sri Lankans or Indians who were eating the Sri Lankan food. Our driver told us the staff thought it was very odd that we wanted our food spicy! We ate at this guest house twice and had excellent food both times.

The Polonnaruwa Rest House: We ate lunch at the famed Polonnaruwa Rest House, where Queen Elizabeth ate when she visited back in the 1950s. They built a lovely dining room just for her visit, and that is where the restaurant is now located. They had an excellent buffet of Sri Lankan food and the service was excellent.

The Kandy House is located in the hills outside of Kandy. 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.

A Sri Lankan woman recently took over management of the Kandy House. She is very gracious and has perfect English. The staff was exceptionally 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 no televisions.

We ate dinner at the Kandy House both evenings. The dinner is served on a verandah that adjoins a garden, a very pleasant setting. The 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. Good wine by the glass is available as well as a small wine list. The second evening, Sri Lankan curries were served and the price was US$18 per person.

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.

We had arranged with our houseboy to have breakfast on our verandah both mornings. 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) with local honey, 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!

Tea Trails is owned by the Dilmah Tea Company. 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'd 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. 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 ($385++) 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.

When it was time for lunch, 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. 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!

While I rarely use travel agents to book trips, trying to book hotels in Sri Lanka on my own made me decide to use Boutique Sri Lanka to book our hotels and car and driver. We had limited time and we wanted to stay at high-end places, so the use of an agency made sense for us.

Hiring a car and driver is the most efficient way to get around. While the distances are not great, the road conditions (often one and a half lane roads, twisting mountain roads, bus drivers who think they are driving sports cars, poor road conditions in many areas) are such that getting from place to place takes some time. We chose to hire a driver through Boutique Sri Lanka. Typically, when you hire a driver not through an agency, they would like to book your hotels for you (as they get commissions), but few drivers have relationships with these high-end hotels. By booking through Boutique Sri Lanka, this was not an issue.

Having a good driver is incredibly important. Your driver can recommend and arrange activities for you, and will know the best guides at the various sites. You have your choice of car types, and without thinking much about it, I booked a standard car. When we arrived, they upgraded us to a "semi-luxury car" a large Nissan model not available in the US, but comparable to a Maxima, with good leg room and trunk room and nice leather seats. When I to do it again, I'll book the semi-luxury car.

Boutique Sri Lanka furnished us with the number of their local agent should any problems arise. The agent also called us after several days to make sure things were going well. Also, the agency that furnishes the Boutique Sri Lanka drivers gave us a number should we have any problems or need any assistance.

I was surprised at how little interesting shopping there was in the places we visited in Sri Lanka. I am a collector of crafts, but found very few.

In Dambulla, we asked to stop at a batik place. While I had seen the process both in Bali and in Java, I noted that much more of the work here was "tulis" (by hand) and I did not see any stamped batik at this shop. We purchased two batiks of moonstones, one for us, one for a gift. We also stopped at a batik place in Kandy (also at our request) and made another batik purchase.

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.

There is a famous Buddhist bookshop in Kandy and we did purchase several books there that are not available in the US.

Our driver offered go to the market in Kandy to buy us 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.