My top 3 scenic drives in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, that hoary old cliche about the journey being better than the destination is actually true. What I have enjoyed most about my travels to hotels and bungalows around the country is the drive there.

You pass forests, waterfalls, rivers and see ancient trees, massive bougainvilleas just growing wild on the roadside, green fields pregnant with paddy.

Some of the wonders you pass are man made: lakes that go as far as your eyes can see, temples that have been there before Jesus was a twinkle in God's eye, fortresses that were somehow built by by our ancestors on rocks that their descendants strain to climb unburdened.

Before you know it - Sri Lanka is so small and geographically diverse - you've gone from the sea side of Colombo to RL Brohier's plains of gold to fields of paddy to mountains of tea and you are wherever you were going to.

But that arrival is poignant because there's no more to see.

(Click "Read More" to see the 3 scenic drives I enjoyed most)

Things I learned about eating out in 2009 – The Good

I spent a lot of time eating out in 2009. These are a few of the standouts:

Fine Dining - I've always appreciated the Cinnamon hotels because the food there is good but not overpriced. Their Epicurean menu (LKR 1600++, Thursdays) at Tao, Cinnamon Grand, +94 011 2497369 - a 24 item tasting menus - is a good example. There may be a better fine dining value in Sri Lanka but I haven't found it. Forget how cheap it is: the technique on the plate is excellent.

Tiramisu - The best tiramisu is at Reghina Margherita (photo below, on left). The cheapest decent tiramisu is at Taprobane Coffee Shop Cinnamon Grand or Bars Café (photo below, on right).


Pizza - Pizza at Echo Cinnamon Grand is cheaper than Reghina Margherita but still as good. 7 Degrees North at Cinnamon Lakeside, +94 11 2491000 also has a good, cheap pizza.


Donuts - Keells Bakery donuts are better than Gonuts and are 50% off after 7pm


Outdoor Restaurant - Summer Garden (86A, Green Path, Colombo 7, +94 11-4940540, turn into the second gate after the the National Art Gallery) is the cheapest place to have a drink outside. It has an amazing mixed grill with bacon and all (LKR 750, enough for 2) and a pretty damn good chop suey (LKR 400, enough for 2).


Rice & Curry - If you’re on your way to Batticaloa or Polonnaruwa, stop at Woodside Tour Inn in Giritale for an amazing rice (keeri samba) and curry – ask for the lake fish fillet fried in breadcrumb to be added to your meal.


Rice & Curry 2 - If you’re passing Haldemulla on your way to Arugambay, you must stop at Thunmansala for breakfast or lunch or both. The view is amazing. On a clear day, yes, that's the Kiri Vehera.


Rice & Curry 3 - Cheap, clean, tasty food? In Anuradhapura, the only way to get all three adjectives is at Family Super.


Nostalgia - Fountain Café is open again at Keells Union Place. They’ve got some of the old menu, some of the same cooks and even one of the old waiters. Even the Knickerbocker Glory should be back now. Here’s a hint, though - it doesn’t taste the same because we were young then. Nothing tastes as good as it used to: nostalgia is the sweetest sauce.


Street Food - Burgers King (old name Mr Burger King) has expanded and their beef kebab is awesome. Imitation shawarma places are everywhere – there’s an inscrutable Malay guy running one in between Odel and Rahumaniyas.


Street Food (best for last!) - The kadala (chick pea) guy in Katunayake (turn right at the T junction just before the airport security check; he’s usually in front of the row of food joints in the evening) makes his “taste” with tiny dried shrimp. I have eaten food in Sri Lanka aplenty but this is probably the one item of food I enjoyed the most last year.

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.

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

(Click here for more posts about hotels, guest houses and holiday villas / bungalows in Sri Lanka)

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.

Selara River Guest Uda Walawe / Embilipitiya Sri Lanka Hotel Review - Selara River Hideout

Embilipitiya is one of our new urban centers, 200km from Colombo. Drive into town and you can see a town that in a few years will become a city. When my dad was doing an agribusiness here, we used to stay at Centauria. Now, however, they have overbuilt the place - the view from the restaurant of the lake is no more, cut down the menu - no more wild boar! and overpriced it - last time I asked, LKR 7,500 was the half board rate, which is like paying LKR 3 million for a Maruti.

When I had to go there recently, a colleague recommended Selara River Guest. As it's only about 15km from Embilipitiya on the Pelmadulla-Embilipitiya Road, I thought I'd try it. We turned left at the Uda Walawe turn off (Walawe Handiya) and about 5km down the road, you turn right and drive about 1km of jungly road: we had complaints from the driver that there couldn't be a hotel in such an area.

Rock View Motel Sinharaja Sri Lanka Hotel Review - Kalawana Ratnapura

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(Updated Sep 2010)

Many hotels in Sri Lanka have evocative names that they do not live up to - "beach" hotels with minimal, unswimmable beaches, "resorts" which barely meet the criteria of a single star and "eco" lodges which are eco only because the plumbing doesn't work.

Rock View Hotel (Motel?), near the Sinharaja rainforest, is not guilty of this. The view from each room (on the upper floor, at least) is breathtaking. Standing as it does, on the edge of a tea mountain (mountain of tea?), the view from the balcony is of the entire valley below and of the hilly range above it, encompassing paddy fields, pine forests, mountains and mist.

Bopath Fall Rock Chalets Kuruwita Ratnapura Sri Lanka Hotel Review - Bopath Falls Rock Chalets

The hotel trade in Sri Lanka is an odd business. Down south, cookie cutter hotels with blue pools and blah buffets next to a sliver of beach are full every weekend while one in gorgeous low country tea land, right next to a waterfall in an intensively green, landscaped environment languishes, empty.

Bopath Ella Rock Chalets Hotel is in Kuruwita, just about 2 hours from Colombo before Ratnapura. Tip: The hotel can be reached by the main Kuruwita Bopath Ella Road or a road before that where the hotel sign actually is. But don't take the road where the hotel sign is - it's awful. Take the main Kuruwita Bopath Ella Road to the hotel and your car will thank you.

World's End Lodge Eagles Nest - Lower Ohiya Sri Lanka Hotel Review - Horton Plains

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(Updated Sep 2010)

Judging a hotel by how you get to it is like judging a book by its cover. The drive to World's End Lodge, Lower Ohiya (drive on the A4 past Belihuloya and turn right at Kalupahana Junction and keep going up, up and up) was excruciating. When we turned off from the A4, we saw some lights, high up and far in the distance, and joked that that was where we were going. When we got to the hotel, we felt like a couple of jokers: that was where we were. The last bit of the climb is a series of hair pin bends with signs painted on rocks urging you forward "just a hop skip and a jump," etc.

We walked out of the car around midnight - we left at 7pm - and our minds were blown. There is no light pollution and you're high up on a mountain: the stars are clearly visible, seemingly just out of reach. For me, it was as if I was really seeing our night skies for the first time, so clear were they. Another sign of how high this was - even inside the room, you can hear the wind whistling and swirling around angrily, banging at the windows.