Geoff & Eileen
England, February 2016
Overall it was another excellent holiday. This was our 3rd visit to Sri Lanka, and the 2nd with Tikalanka. The previous 2 were primarily tours, culture and wildlife respectively, but this trip was firmly focussed on a multi-centre “rest and relaxation” itinerary, including returns to some old favourites.
On arrival at Colombo Airport, we were greeted by Niroshan, our first driver/guide. As agreed, instead of driving directly to Galle, we stopped at the Muthurajawela Wetlands for a gentle boat trip and some early morning bird viewing. Our hotel in Galle Fort was The Fort Printers, ideally located for sightseeing, shopping and restaurants in the Fort. We had spent a night at The Fort Printers on our previous tour but were too tired after that flight to do any sightseeing then. As before we had one of the original rooms in the main building, although the hotel has now expanded into adjacent buildings and, consequently, was much busier than previously. We also found the muezzin in the Fort much louder than we remembered, with people being woken at 5am regardless of their faith! One of our memories of the hotel was the jumbo prawns served in the restaurant, and we were disappointed on our first night to find that, although still on the menu, they were not available but “might” be the next evening. However the next evening we were again told that they were not available – however a few minutes later the waiter returned to say that, if we were the couple who’d asked for the prawns the previous night, they had got some just for us. These duly appeared and we thoroughly enjoyed them – much to the annoyance of other dines who had been told the prawns were off.
A Tip for The Fort Printers – if you plan to dine at the hotel, on arrival request a table in the pool courtyard: there are only a few but it is much more pleasant that the indoor dining room.
An early start the next morning for a bird viewing trip on the Mahamodara River on the outskirts of Galle: Niroshan not only translated for our boatman but also showed himself to be adept at bird spotting and identification in his own right.
On the next day, Niroshan took us on a short walking tour of the Fort and eloquently explained its complex history and filled in the gaps with the areas we had explored ourselves. Before we left Galle, we also stopped at a local market to see a bewildering and colourful array of locally caught fish.
Then it was off along the south coast to Buckingham Place, just beyond Tangalle, where Niroshan left us. Last time we spent 5 nights at Buckingham Place and liked it so much that this time we stayed for 12. Buckingham Place has 15 large modern rooms overlooking Rekawa Lagoon and has just, for the 5th successive year, been voted the “No 1 Best Small Hotel in Sri Lanka” in the Trip Advisor Travellers Choice Awards, which is a considerable achievement given the number of high quality boutique hotels that are opening across Sri Lanka. It is difficult to say exactly why so many people find this hotel so attractive but it seems to be whole ethos of the place and the way the whole staff work so tirelessly but unobtrusively to ensure that the hotel is run for the benefit of the guests and not the other way round.
There are no organised activities in the hotel and meals are when you want them. The local beach is stunning but has strong currents which make swimming impossible (although there are nearby rockpools, plus swimming beaches accessible by short tuk-tuk rides). Buckingham Place can organise trips to places such as the Yala National Park and Bundala Bird reserve, to Mirissa for whalewatching or to Galle.
However please note that these trips cannot be added to your hotel bill – you will need to pay directly in local currency for each element of the cost (eg for our Bundala trip, we had to pay for the transfer vehicle, for the jeep and driver in the park, and for the park entrance fees. If you want to do several trips, this can require a lot of rupees! One couple were going to have to look for an ATM at 5.00am on their way to Mirissa!
Although Buckingham Place is very laid back, you can have an active holiday if you wish – although I suggest it is not the place to be if on-site action or beach swimming are essential to you. For everybody else, I cannot recommend this hotel too highly.
From there we transferred to the Horathapola Estate, north of the airport, for 4 nights. Our driver/guide was Chathura who filled in gaps in our knowledge during the journey – and also managed to avoid the very large land monitor that was ambling slowly across the expressway. Horathapola is a 1922 plantation house in a working coconut plantation that also provides most of the fruit, vegetables and rice used in the hotel which has just 5 rooms (including a 2 room bungalow). The house and rooms are packed with period furniture, to the extent that there are few “comfy” seats available! In addition to Nalin, the manager, there are 2 cooks and 3 very hard working house staff who act as waiters, clean the bedrooms, clean the public rooms, greet arriving guests, see departing guests off, escort the village walk and ox-cart ride, serve drinks etc by the pool and so on. They speak sufficient English for their jobs but are not fully fluent (but they do smile a lot).
There are only 3 dining tables, each of which can seat 4 or possibly 6. Unless people re there in groups or volunteer to share tables, only 2 guests will be seated at any table – which means that some guests may be spirited away to dine on their patio or balcony. Although the hotel claims to offer western food, authentic Sri Lankan food is the clear focus with a seemingly endless range of excellent local curries - I never knew there were so many varieties of edible gourd, let alone heard of a loofah curry.
Horathapola works to what is sometimes known as “Sri Lankan Time”, which some may recognise as a cousin of the Cornish “dreckly” – whereby stated times are merely a guide and things will happen but not necessarily then, and will always happen with a smile. Guests need to understand this, or they may find Horathapola to be a culture shock: for that reason, we feel that although it can be very restful at the start of a trip if the guests are prepared to let it wash over them, it may be better at the end of a holiday when you have already experienced Sri Lankan life. We witnessed an embarrassing incident where a lady who was straight off the plane was becoming agitated because one of the staff could not understand her somewhat tortuous questions and she resorted to the time-honoured British tradition of shouting at foreigners.
When we were at Buckingham Place, we met a couple who had just left Horathapola – they said that we would find it “charming”. Horathapola is an experience that you have to be prepared to embrace. If you do, you’ll know what he meant by “charming”. It is an ideal characterful stopover before or after a tour (as above, we suggest after) especially if you are travelling to/from the north or east. However in my view one night is not enough to get the vibe.
All good things must come to an end, and after 4 nights, Yapa arrived to transfer us to the airport for our flight home. Leaving at 6am proved that you can get to the airport in an hour, although 1.5 hours is probably more realistic in daytime.
Our flights were with Emirates in business class, with tickets bought through Tikalanka in an Emirates “sale” at a reasonable price. Apart from the service you would expect onboard in business class, the key feature for us was the airport assistance provided to my wife who has mobility issues and finds the distances at some airports very challenging. We have had some very poor experiences with some other airlines, especially at Heathrow, but the service in this case at Heathrow, Dubai and Colombo was simply superb – prompt, friendly, and end-to-end. I realise that these services are provided by the ground agents and not by the airlines themselves, but Emirates have certainly got their agents organised.
We’re already planning our 4th visit to Sri Lanka – the challenge is deciding where to go in addition to Buckingham Place!
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