TRAVEL
it is named, it consists of carefully
designed buildings and gardens
surrounding a large asymmetric
swimming pool. And the barman
makes whisky sours to kill for.
I was so relaxed during my stay
that I totally forgot to send Rohan’s
clothes, which he’d left with me
while he stayed at his club, off to the
laundry with mine. He is not going
to let me forget that, I suspect...
The quality of the rooms and the
food matches everything else about
the hotel, and I treasure the memory
of sitting high above the river on a
landing having dinner by lamplight in
the gathering darkness.
One reason for the time I’m
spending on the Mahaweli Reach
Hotel is that it illustrates the
difference between chain hotels
- Hilton, Sheraton – and family-
owned places which always offer that
something extra.
Unlike Colombo, which I’d
cheerfully miss, I would strongly
recommend that you visit Kandy.
Have a gin and tonic in the upstairs
bar of the colonial-style Royal Bar
& Hotel in the middle of the city,
too. Top place.
We took the road north from Kandy
to Matale, and shortly afterwards
turned east on a narrow and fairly
rough road. It was worth every
patch and pothole, though, for the
views over the Knuckles Ranges,
named because that’s exactly what
they look like. A snack stop at a café
precariously hugging the hillside gave
me a chance to recover from the road.
Eventually we returned to the
(usually Chinese-built) network of
excellent roads that knits Sri Lanka
together and continued to make our
way north. This is open country
with only small settlements and we
made good time. Despite that, Rohan
was a little concerned as we reached
Giritale. He had intended to show
me the ruins of the ancient city of
Polonnaruwa to the east, but it was
getting late – at least for Sri Lanka.
“This is elephant country,” he said
as we turned west instead on our way
to Sigiriya, “and it’s best to be off the
road by 3.00pm.” That sounded like