Taste of Asia Jaffna Restaurant Colombo Sri Lanka - Jaffna Food Wellawatte Sri Lanka

Jaffna cuisine is Sri Lanka's only indigenous Tamil cuisine. Just like Sri Lankan Malay food, it started off South Indian hundreds of years ago and evolved into its own unique variant. Shamefully, though, if you ask the average Colombo-ite (Colombo-ian?) to take you for Tamil food, you'll likely end up at a South Indian vegetarian place.

This is because there are so many South Indian restaurants and hardly any Jaffna restaurants here (other than the over priced, now closed Peninsula and the over priced, still open Palmyrah at Hotel Renukah). If you wanted decently priced Jaffna food, you had to invite yourself over to a Tamil friend's house.

Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, with the end of the war, a couple more reasonably priced Jaffna restaurants have opened up. The first one, Taste of Asia opened just a few months ago on Galle Rd, Wellawatte (it's the sea side, between the checkpoint after the Savoy cinema and Kinross Ave, next to the Perera and Sons).

Villa Araliya Negombo Sri Lanka Hotel - Review and Video

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I'd forgotten Negombo existed as a place to visit. Maybe it's because it's so close. It takes around an hour to drive there from Colombo and it's just fifteen minutes from the airport. It's like going to Moratuwa for a vacation. Sometimes, Moratuwa can take longer to get to.

But exist it does and, even better, Negombo has a nice, relatively cheap collection of places for eating, drinking and staying. We stayed at the Villa Araliya in Negombo because we wanted something nice but relatively low priced.

Taragala Place Kalametiya Bird Sanctuary Sri Lanka Hotel - Review and Video - Mati Gederas Kalamatiya

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(Youtube video at end of this post)

The Taragala Place Matti Gedaras (mati gedara means clay house in Sinhala) are located right beside the Kalametiya Bird Sanctuary, 214km from Colombo. The name comes from Taragala Rock (not pronounced thaaraa as in duck but thaara as in tar) inside the sanctuary, which you can see from the chalets’ verandahs. Kalametiya, one corner of the RUK (Rekawa Ussangoda Kalamatiya) triangle of biodiversity, is about halfway between Tangalle and Hambantota.

New Letchumi Bhawan Tamil Vegetarian Street Food Colombo Sri Lanka

Stuff Posh People Like: Saivara Fare

In Colombo, we're blessed with an abundance of restaurants serving Tamil vegetarian food. The usual suspects like the Mathuras and the Shanthi Vihars litter the streets of Colombo, serving acres and acres of dosa nightly.

My favourite such place is a little less well known. It's also not as nice but 1) it's also cheaper 2) that's part of the fun. New Letchumi Bhawan is on Ernest De Silva Mw (formerly Flower Road) in between Cotton Collection and Leather Collection. It's an odd bird in that herd but it's an awfully tasty one.

Thirasara Leisure Village Thulhiriya Ambepussa Sri Lanka - Hotel Review - Ghandara Bungalow

If you need a place to stay on your way to Pinnawela (27km), Kurunegala (30km) or Kandy (60km) or you just want a quiet place to hang out for a weekend, you could do a lot worse than Thirasara Leisure Village in Thulhiriya. Actually, you'd have to go pretty far in any direction to find a better place in this area.

Cheese & Chocolate Rottis at Hansika Roti Shop Hikkaduwa Sri Lanka

When I went recently with a group of IT BPO people to Galle for a career fair, I found out that not everyone knows about chicken/cheese and chocolate rotis. They're just like egg rotis but, instead of egg, they're filled with chocolate or cheese and chicken. These tasty beasts are endemic to Hikkaduwa - the original rotti shop is in Narigama Beach.

Recently, as our normal roti shop (opposite the original) had run out of chicken, we drove on a little and saw a really nice place with a signboard advertising cheese / chicken / chocolate rotis "with recipes from the UK!" This was the Hansika Roti Shop.

Most roti shops are not places you can take anyone. This shop however is more like a restaurant with nice wooden benches attached to tables. Most rotti shops have menus on the wall. Here, when we sat down, they gave us a printed, laminated menu with multiple pages! (It even has a burger section - I will write about that later when I revisit...)

So we ordered cheese and chicken rotis (LKR 80) and chocolate rotis (LKR 140). And they came, well presented and plated, with cutlery, even. Both were really good with a lot of cheese inside the cheese and chicken roti and decent amounts of chocolate inside the chocolate one.

Satisfied, I decided to solve this "recipes from the UK" business. I walked around and saw a newspaper clipping hanging on the wall about a Lahiru "Larry" Jayasekara, who came from Hikkaduwa and worked under Gordon Ramsey and was now, at 23, running his own place in UK.

When I asked the lady at the cash register about it, she beamed with maternal pride and told me he was her son and gave me a list of his accomplishments. As my brother is also a chef, we had a long chat about the perils and pleasures of chef-relatedness.

So, if you go to the Hikkaduwa Beach Festival, drop by Hansika for a chicken and cheese roti. And, while you're there, ask Mrs Jayasekara (behind the counter) about her son. It's a nice finish to an excellent menu.

Rainforest Edge Kalawana Sinharaja Sri Lanka Hotel Review - Ecolodge / Hilltop Mudhouse

Despite the Sinharaja rainforest being the single most popular destination among local tourists - or maybe because it is? - there are very few hotels there. I've already reviewed Rock View Motel near Sinharaja which is a basic, low-priced experience at around LKR 5,000 full board double. And here is a review of Boulder Garden, a posh but occasionally dank experience, at above LKR 15,000 full board double.

If you're like Goldilocks, Rainforest Edge Sinharaja is like the baby bear. Not too expensive and not too basic.

Malay Food Festival at Galadari Coffee Shop

The festival is on till tonight (Sat 27th Jun 09)

When I was homesick for some Sri Lankan food, I used to go to a Malaysian restaurant. They had godamba roti (called it roti canai) and the chicken curry was identical to Sri Lankan chicken curry.

In Sri Lanka, though, there are almost no places to eat Malay food. So when I heard about the the (Sri Lankan) Malay Food Festival at the Galadari Coffee Shop (LKR 1400 nett per head), I didn't hesitate to bundle my wife into the car and go.

To ensure the food's authenticity, they had got actual Sri Lankan Malay housewives to stay in the hotel and assist the chefs.

I noticed two things about the food. The first is how different Sri Lankan Malay food is from Malaysian food. It seems like Sri Lankan Malay food started at Malaysian and evolved in its own way from there.

The second is how ordinary many of the Sri Lankan Malay dishes feel. Dishes like chicken curry, peanut and cashew curry, curried ash plantains, pittu, malay pickle and dodol are standard fare at the average Sinhala Buddhist table. To me, that signifies just how much the influence of the Malays, a relatively tiny minority, has shaped Sri Lankan cuisine.

They also had Malay songs and dances. Even these songs and dances feel very Sri Lankan.

When foreigners ask me about Sri Lankan cuisine, I always emphasise its Malay connections and downplay its similarities to Indian food. To me, our food is nothing like Indian food but a helluva lot like Malaysian. Go tonight and see for yourself.

PS: The Sri Lankan Malay community was out in force, dressed up to the nines - salwars, kurtas and cheongsams. Wear something nice and go.

PPS: If you know of any Malay restaurants (or eating places or holes in the wall) in Colombo, let me know in the comments...

Restaurant Name: Galadari Coffee Shop
Address: Galadari Hotel, 64 Lotus Road, Colombo 1
Phone: call +94 112 544 544 and ask for the Coffee Shop
Price: LKR 1,400 nett per head

Tissawewa Grand Resthouse Anuradhapura Sri Lanka Hotel Review - History, Refurbished

To visit Anuradhapura is to relive some of our country's past glories. We file past bricks and foundation and conjure up the palaces and princes written about in our history books. What better place to stay, then, than one which has the same sense of history about it?

The Tissa Wewa Grand Rest House in Anuradhapura is the oldest rest house in Anuradhapura and travel writers throughout the years have praised it. For them, this was the only place to stay. There are many more options now but, for us, Tissa Weva is still the best.

Nilaveli Beach Hotel Trincomalee Sri Lanka Review

We're so 3008, it's so '80s-late
The '80s called and they want Nilaveli (Nilaweli?) back. That decade was full of these types of hotels with matchbox rooms, tiny bathrooms, pools and buffets catering to miserly package tourists. The lobby, entrance and restaurant are typical of all chain hotels, polished cement, Bawa touches and Indonesian style furniture.In the '00s, we have learned better.

But Nilaveli Beach Hotel hasn't. Just like another refurbished '80s hotel, Amaya Reef Hikkaduwa, it has a (relatively) beautiful facade and not great rooms.

Arugam Bay Hotels and Restaurants - Travel Guide

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Arugambay is full of places to stay. None of them are super posh but they're usually cheap. LKR 700 was the cheapest rate I was quoted and LKR 5000 was the most expensive.

To find a place to stay, we just walked along the beach south from Stardust, walking into beach front guest houses and hotels and checking them out.

Where to stay (in beach order):
Stardust - The most expensive. LKR 5,000 for a "Luxury" room to LKR 2,000 for a beach cabana. The beach cabanas were cramped and basic. We didn't check out the rooms as they are in the main building and placed further away from the beach, which is really not what we wanted. +94 63 224 8191.

Galaxy Lounge - Where we ended up staying. All cabanas. LKR 1,500-2,000 per cabana. Big, airy toilets. Probably the nicest we saw there. +94 63 224 8415.

Ranga's Beach Hut - LKR 1,500. Cabanas with shared showers and tiny toilets. Ranga's visitors are very loyal and keep returning. However, we didn't find the accomodation to be that great. His food is another story. +94 63 224 8202.

Watermusic - LKR 1,300. All cabanas - better than Ranga's/Stardust. +94 63 567 1431.

Aloha Cabanas - LKR 1,500. All cabanas with en-suite bathrooms. Better than Ranga's and Stardust but not as good as Galaxy. +94 63 224 8379.

Where to eat:
Food in Arugambay hotels is relatively expensive compared to the room rates. It's why you see the tourists eating at the kottu joints which line the road.

At Galaxy Lounge, meals were about LKR 450-600 per head. The food there was good: they had some innovative dishes like Coconut Roti Pizzas and more basic meals like beef kebabs with rice salad, all of which were done quite well. When we asked, they made us an excellent crab curry.

Ranga's Beach Hut has amazing food, done Jaffna style. Ranga looks like the average Yogi - grey hair, beard, bare chest, belly and sarong. The seating is common and it's a lot of fun to see who you can talk to.



There is a set menu and you sit down and eat. The first night we went, he had string hoppers, poori and paratha with curries and prawns. It's all you can eat except the prawns. We paid LKR 450 per head and were stuffed.

We also went to Gecko. Gecko had hamburgers (LKR 540) on its menu so we ordered those. The waiter asked whether we wanted tomatoes, onions and lettuce on the burger. The burger came and it was good but nothing special and didn't come close to our Holiday Inn burger.

When the bill came, there were 2 salads on it, LKR 250 each, which we hadn't ordered. The waiter told me that the onion, lettuce and tomato ON THE BURGER is considered SALAD and they charge separately for it. I hate it when people nickel and dime you with tiny fees and don't tell you in advance. Just charge 800 bucks for the fucking burger already.

We went to Stardust for dinner one night because we'd heard raves about the food. There were only two other tables taken - both foreigners. After waiting for about 15 min, in full sight of the manageress, we called a waiter over to take our order. He came over, said someone else would take the order and disappeared. We waited 15 min more, in which time the manageress had chatted to both tables but continued to ignore us. Finally, we got up and left. Api kalu nisada? Is it 'cos we was black?

(Click here for Arugambay Travel Guide Part 1 for how to get there.)

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Arugambay Driving Directions and things - Travel Guide 1

When to visit:
Arugambay is full of foreigners during the surf season (June to August) but seems empty otherwise. While surfing is good, I prefer swimming. And what makes the off season bad for surfers (no waves) makes it great for swimming. The waves break really close to the shore so if you slightly beyond, you can just float for hours.

Security:
It's safe as anywhere else in the country. We experienced no issues and there are STF/Army checkpoints all along the way. Where there are concerns (such as the road from Panama to Kumana) the roads are closed off.

Getting there:
The distance from Arugambay to Colombo is around 350km and the easiest way to get to Arugambay is by vehicle.

But you have to leave early enough. We left Colombo at 5am - you must leave then: the buses get on the road by 6, the schoolchildren 6:30 - and made it there around noon. There are two routes you can take.

Either way, you take the A4/High Level Road past Ratnapura to Pelmadulla.

From Pelmadulla, you can go south to Embilipitiya, go across Udawalawe to Thanamalwila and back north to Wellawaya. The road is carpeted all the way except for the awful 40km of road crossing Udawalawe National Park. It has always been awful and doesn't seem to have been fixed since, I think, the dam was built.

Or you can stay on the A4 past Pelmadulla and go through Beragala (here, the road forks. The carpeted road continues to Badulla but you have to take the right fork downward - the bad road) to Wellawaya. The 37km from Beragala is not great but the rest is carpeted all the way and the views are spectacular.

I prefer the second route: once you pass Pelmadulla, there's no traffic, the road is good and the scenery is beautiful and unspoiled, especially the bit from Belihuloya to Wellawaya.

It also means you can stop at Thunmansala Hotel in Haldemulla on the south side of the road for breakfast: it's clean and airy, the owner is very pleasant and you can see the Kiri Vehera on a clear day.

From Wellawaya to Pottuvil, the road is straight and good except for the last 40km which goes through Lahugala National Park. This road closes after 5pm. This part looks scary (because it is thick jungle) but there are STF/Army checkpoints all the way.

Budget:
It cost me less than LKR 6,000 (~ 50 litres) in petrol for a round trip in my Mazda.

Getting back:
When you're leaving Arugambay, you have to get a permit. Make sure you have a copy of your vehicle ID card: they need engine numbers and things.

On the day you leave, go to the police checkpoint in Pottuvil town, park the vehicle and get the police officer to fill out the form. Then, you walk to the police station, into an office marked Minor Offences (apparently, tourism is still frowned upon) and get the permit. The whole thing'll take less than half an hour if there's no line. This is open from 7am to 3pm, so go at 7am if you can. Or if you're posh, send the driver.

You'll get three copies and you have to hand them in at different checkpoints along the way back - the last one at Siyambalanduwa (Tamarind Wrench?). On the bright side, it'll give you something to do instead of contemplating work the next day.

More: See Arugambay Travel Guide Part 2 - Hotels and Restaurants for where to stay and eat.

Galaxy Lounge Arugambay Sri Lanka Hotel Review - Arugam Bay

Arugambay is a lot like Hikkaduwa. The accomodation is cheap but the majority of places are holes. They have fancy names (Hillton!) and big, digitally printed signboards but are still holes.

Originally, when we decided to go there for the long, long weekend, I'd booked into Ranga's Beach Hut. When my wife found out Ranga's had shared bathrooms, she had a fit, called me unspeakable names, names a wife should just not call a husband, and booked a place she found on the web called Galaxy Lounge.

When we got there, I had to admit she was right. Ranga's - where we went later for dinner - was a hole, too. But Galaxy Lounge was much, much better.

Long Weekend in the Southern Tea Hills of Sri Lanka - 6 Day Itinerary

Six days of holidays are coming up! The 9th to the 14th of April, 2009 are holidays for most of us - for others, you just need to take the 10th off.

Only in Sri Lanka do we get these kind of long weekends. Most of us head in one direction: down south. The roads are good, the beach is there, etc. But so is everyone else.

Here's a slightly alternative itinerary, with minimal travelling time, which will take you to parts of Sri Lanka which almost no one sees. As a plus, you'll visit unique hotels - most of which you've probably never been to - and support them through this difficult time.

First, go to Halketha. Leave Colombo early in the morning when there's minimal traffic. It's in a rubber estate in Matugama, off Kalutara. Enjoy the scenery - go for a bike ride using the hotel bicycles in the surrounding paddy lands and rubber estates with minimal traffic - we counted 1 van per hour. See if you can bike to the Peeli Hatha (7 Waterfalls).

Then, head to Rock View Motel, Kalawana near Sinharaja. The road takes you across the Agalawatte tea plantation, which is gorgeous. When you get there, hike to or drive to Sinharaja if you want - stay in the room and enjoy the view and the chop suey if you don't.


You can also try Rainforest Edge, also in Kalawana, which is much more expensive - about twice the price of Rock View - but also much posher.

Finally, hit Bopath Ella Rock Chalets in Kuruwita past Ratnapura. The road from Kalawana/Sinharaja to Ratnapura/Kuruwita is similarly scenic, full of southern tea.They have an amazing chop suey and fried rice, so try both. Remember to take the Bopath Ella main road from Kuruwita junction and, when you come to some rocks on the Bopath Ella road put there by touts who want you to pay for parking, just drive past them and you'll find the hotel. By no means should you stay in Minara Bopath Ella which is just nearby: the parking lot is prettier than the hotel.

Travel time should not exceed 2 hours per leg. The total should not exceed LKR 30,000 accomodation for two people.

Reghina Margherita and Echo Cinnamon Grand Pizza Restaurants Colombo Sri Lanka - Spicy or Cheesy? Sweet!

I've always been a bit of a pizza snob. To me, real pizza is not Italian - it never was - but New York pizza. I think it's the water. In most places here in Colombo, the pizza just doesn't feel right in an I-don't-know-much-about-art-but-I-know-what-I-like manner. Even Il Ponte at the Hilton, which possesses a wood fired brick oven, only offers pizza that is both expensive and mediocre.

So, when we recently got a pizza craving, we decided to visit some of the newer Italian restaurants - Echo at the Cinnamon Grand and Reghina Margherita - to try theirs out.

Halketha Matugama Kalutara Sri Lanka Boutique Hotel Review - Mathugama

Rubber Soul


Kalutara. What is it known for really, other than somewhere to stop, drop in a coin and pray that you get to somewhere nicer? Turns out Kalutara, the district anyway, has nice areas and Halketha - in Mathugama, 75 km from Colombo - is in one of these.

We were looking for somewhere to go and found it in the Sunday Times HIT Ads supplement. Coming off a recent bad experience at Rainforest Eco Lodge, we were wary but when they sent us pictures, we were rearing to go.

Google Map of Sri Lanka Hotel Reviews by Bloggers

This Google map is for all the blog reviews of hotels in Sri Lanka. If anyone has reviews of hotels/restaurants on their blogs, please give me the links in the comments so I can include it in this map.

Judging whether a hotel is near where you want to go by address, especially in SL, is not the easiest unless you have a Survey Dept of SL map in your head. This map should give trip planners a little help in identifying a hotel close to where they want to go.

All the reviews I've done are here along with those by other bloggers I've found. It is always there on the top left corner of my blog but I thought I'd bring some attention to it because I'd like get more hotels reviewed by other bloggers onto it.


View Larger Map

Rainforest Eco Lodge Pelawinne Ratnapura Sri Lanka Hotel Review - Recycling Center

People like to visit a hotel they are already familiar with so that they won't have any unpleasant surprises. New Sri Lankan hotels, as a result have a huge barrier to overcome before the beach-pool-and-buffet crowd comes to visit them. We always felt a little superior to them. We used to find hotels in the HIT Ads and if we liked the ad and the location, we'd go. After this last experience, we're beginning to understand where they're coming from.

Rainforest Eco Lodge (Lanka Eco Lodge?) is an ad I used to see all the time and it looked nice. "Eco"-ey, even. Set in Pelawinna Estate, 10km from Ratnapura on the Adam's Peak road, it is 3km from the main road. And this 3km is a treacherous, awful road which you can only go in a jeep or vehicle you don't care about. We opted to take the Lodge provided transportation (an ancient Land Cruiser which costs LKR 1500 both ways). The road was promisingly bad - usually, the quality of a road is inversely proportional to that of the hotel.

So we got to the hotel, shaken and stirred like an indecisive secret agent's martini, and we got our first surprise. Whether you wake up and find next to you, a strange, beautiful woman or a horse's head, you're surprised. This was a bloody nag moment.

Park Street Mews Restaurant in Colombo Sri Lanka - Ingredient Cuisine

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Recently, we dined at Park Street Mews,a new bistro style restaurant with a lounge and dining space, on Park Street in Colombo 2. (Legally, new restaurants can only open in streets named Park).

From the outside, it looks just like a sidewalk cafe abroad which I loved. Sri Lanka, with its nice nighttime weather, should be full of these. Inside, the space which looks like a converted warehouse is huge. The decor is an odd mix of polished cement floors, exposed brick walls, leather sofas in multiple colours, a multitude of lamps, steel and glass fronted display cases and wood carvings. If this smorgasbord of styles is insufficient, there is a private dining area which is positively Pollockian.

They don't yet have a liquor license so you can bring your own. There's no corkage but your bill has to be at least LKR 2000. At dinner, at least, this is not difficult. Appetisers and soups are around LKR 500, mains go from LKR 850 all the way to LKR 1900.

Landa House Belihuloya Sri Lanka - Balangoda Sri Lanka Hotel Review - Best of 2008

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In 2008, I have stayed at over 30 hotels. Of some of these - the ones that either impress or depress me greatly - I have written about in this blog. Toward the end of the year, I had to visit Badulla for a presentation. The hotel I stayed at was the one I liked the most for 2008 or any year.

Belihuloya has always been a nice place to stop on the way to the southern hill country for a rice and curry at the beautifully located rest house along the oya (river). This time, though, I found Landa House, through a friend, which is even more beautifully located.

Drifters Narigama Hikkaduwa Sri Lanka Hotel Review

Drifters - in the Narigama part of Hikkaduwa - is close to all the Hikkaduwa clubs, close enough that you can crawl across the road after a good night/morning.

For breakfast, they give you gigantic slices of bread with parippu and pol sambol for breakfast and, even better food wise, is walking distance from the Roti Shop. Nothing like a parippu/pol sambol/paang and chocolate/banana roti breakfast!

What I liked about the place was that a) the owner treats locals the same way as he does foreigners b) they have these wooden beach beds with leather covered mattresses and coconut thatched roofs on top so brown people who aren't as sun-addicted as the white people who sun burn red can lie on the beach also.

Drifters is clean, cheap and basic. So there's no point really waxing poetic about it: rather, I'll show you some pictures of the rooms, surroundings and bathrooms.