The ttgluxury Experience
unique welcome ritual for guests; at Chena,
each guest is given a little flag to put on the wall behind reception while they are in residence.
Cultural connection Meanwhile at Ulagalla, the original of the Uga Escapes portfolio and our first stop on this trip, we had arrived in the dark feeling slightly disorientated after our flight from London, but soon felt revived as we stood around an ancient wooden wall lined with bells for our welcome ritual. As the bells were rang, we each lit a candle to announce the beginning of our two-night stay. Upon seeing the resort in the daylight, we soon decided that two nights was never going to be enough – a message Uga Escapes is keen to push about its hotel and rich cultural surroundings. Ulagalla sits in 58 acres of natural woodland, of
which guests are free to roam, be it on bike, on foot, or even horseback, as a few of us tried. Once the ancestral estate of local nobility, the hotel features a 150-year-old mansion at its centre, home to reception and the restaurant, while a pool sparkles invitingly and 20 ecologically-built private villas are dotted among the grounds, which even contain a solar farm that fulfills half of the resort's energy requirements. Ulagalla sits in Sri Lanka’s “cultural triangle”,
which includes Anuradhapura, a former political and religious capital of the country that flourished for 1,300 years, but was abandoned after an invasion in 993. Over the years, the abandoned city fell to ruins and became enveloped in dense jungle but today, this Unesco site can be explored by modern-day Sri Lankans and visitors – including our group who explored it on a cycle tour, pedaling past old bathing pools, temples and remnants of other structures, as well as fully-intact “stupas” – domed buildings that enshrine relics of Buddha. The Ulagalla stay also included a tour of the
chef’s garden, where we learned the dedicated team had started the garden again virtually from
scratch recently, following a trampling visit from a hungry elephant. It was once again stocked full of herbs, salads and vegetables which were used for a cooking lesson in a fancy garden “shack” as the team prepared curries, roti and hoppers, a Sri Lankan dish enjoying popularity here in the UK too. One of the other highlights at Ulagalla was the
dinner under the stars out in a paddy field; led there by candlelit pathways, it made for a memorable setting, enhanced by yet more delicious food. We virtually had to be rolled back to our rooms; luckily fleets of golf buggys are always on hand to drive guests back to villas, each of which has as many glass walls as possible to allow the highest appreciation of surrounding nature. Marcelline Paul, Uga Escapes’ general manager,
sales and marketing, says: “We are thrilled we got to show such a wonderful group of travel professionals what Sri Lanka has to offer and to do so by hosting them at our five hotels. This kind of personal experience is so crucial in helping those selling our hotels understand each of their unique qualities and I hope the group will now be our ambassadors in the UK – and of course, return again one day.”
Step back in time The final stop on the trip was Colombo, which thanks to a new expressway is doable in around five hours from Yala. In the capital, Uga has transformed a 150-year-old mansion into an 11-suite boutique hotel, The Residence, which provides a leafy oasis of colonial-style calm in this otherwise bustling city, close to Park Street Mews with its cute cafes and shops and the lakeside temple of Gangarama, one of Colombo’s principal Buddhist shrines. In the capital, we enjoyed an entertaining and
educational walking tour with Mark Forbes, a photographer who now wants to show people his passion for the city via tours. He shows us the Old Colombo Dutch Hospital, a heritage building
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TTGLUXURY.COM SUMMER 2016 DESTINATIONS
that has been transformed into a cool shopping and dining precinct. Forbes also shows us the district of the city filled with official buildings that was effectively closed down during the civil war – which ended in 2009 – and for years afterwards, but is now slowly creeping back to life since becoming accessible to the public again a year- and-a-half ago and full of incredible old, but run-down buildings. As Bridget Hussey, a consultant with Carrick
Travel, says: “I would definitely recommend Mark’s tour – I really enjoyed it because he really interacted with us all, got us interested in the history and because of his interest in photography, he not only shows you how places are now, but compares them to a bank of images on his iPad so you can see what they looked like many years before.” There’s no denying distances are great in
Sri Lanka between key highlights, but roads are improving and ever more expressways are planned. The country is not without its woes; civil war is still fresh in some minds, and the impact of the tsunami will never be forgotten – and of course it’s recently been hit by flooding and landslides. But its resilient people and inner spirit will no doubt ensure there will always be a welcome for any visitor who wants to explore this fascinating and beautiful country. As Gill O’Leary sums up: “The people are the
friendliest I have met and cannot do enough for you. The country is so lush, which I wasn’t expecting, and there are so many different parts to Sri Lanka; it’s like having many different holidays all in one place.”
Pictured 1. Chena Huts at Yala national park 2. The group prepares for a cycling tour 3. Expect wildlife at every turn 4. Beach Villa at Uga Bay, Passekudah 5. Karen Williams, Rowena Butterworth and Gill O’Leary 6. ttgluxury editor April Hutchinson 7. Jungle Beach, Kuchchaveli 8. The Residence, Colombo
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