Latest / What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka Podcast / The Jungle Hotel I A Look Behind The Doors At Sri Lanka’s Flame Tree Estate & Hotel
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- The Jungle Hotel: A Look Behind The Doors At Sri Lanka’s Flame Tree Estate & Hotel Whatever else is happening in the world, here there is a cake for tea, and birdsong from dawn to dusk. But what else might you find? Encounters at the Jungle Hotel is a behind-the-scenes look at Sri Lanka’s Flame Tree Estate & Hotel. It starts, of course, with a welcome. And thanks for coming our way; most of the readers of this booklet will no doubt be our guests. Whatever else is happening in the world, here at least there is a cake for tea; birdsong from dawn to dusk; and from everywhere the sound of civets, bickering monkeys that look a lot like Mr Trump; and squirrels bouncing on roofs like Keith Moon. To have made it this far, your car will have navigated our driveway of buffalo grass and untamed forest. Guerrilla gardening, we call it – it keeps at bay, if only metaphorically, what’s best avoided to safeguard a long and happy life: televisions, for example, or processed food, or terrorist warlords. We enjoy being a secret to most and a companion to some. Our sophisticated friends in Colombo call this Village Country, all jungle; tiny hamlets, simple living, feral nature. But really, the jungle is far from feral. What looks so random is ordered, artful, and immeasurably peaceful. Its discreet hills and valleys keep safe a rare seclusion. Nightclubs, branded food concessions, and even a shop selling extra virgin olive oil – all have yet to open here. Somehow, we cope. Nature, good food, schnauzers, art, walks, music, books, yoga, swimming, massage, a few rules, bird watching, tree hugging, meditating, and that most lost of all life’s activities – just being: that’s what this tiny jungle principality is all about. That and the odd trip to a few places well off the beaten track. This little guide will try to give you a glimpse of what makes things tick. And how on earth did we get here in the first place? Geographically, we are neither part of the Rajarata, the oldest kingdom that reached from Jaffa to the edge of the hill country, nor the hill country itself. We lie between the two, on the first high hills that rise from the dry northern plains to eventually reach Mount Pedro near Nuwara Eliya at 8,000 feet. The hotel sits, belly-button-like, in the middle of 25 acres of plantations and jungle that dip down to paddy and up to hills of 1,000 ft, all of it surrounded by yet more hills and valleys, almost all of which are given over to forest. Until family wills and the 1960s land reform acts intervened, this estate was much bigger; a place where coffee, cocoa, and coconuts grew. They grow on still, fortified by newer plantations of cinnamon and cloves, and rarer trees. Now almost 100 years old, the main hotel block, Mudunahena Walawwa, was built by the Mayor of Kandy. Walawwas, or manor houses, pepper the island, exuberant, disintegrating architectural marvels, now too often left to meet their ultimate maker. In size and style, they range from palaces to this, a modest and typical plantation Walawwa with metal roofs, inner courtyards, verandas, and stout columns arranged around it like retired members of the Household Calvary. But it was not always thus. This walawwa – like a caravan - moved to its present site when the water ran dry at its earlier location. The foundations of this first abode, on the estate’s eastern boundary, can still be seen. It overlooks the Galagedera Pass, which found its 15 minutes of fame in 1765 when villagers, fortified by the Kandyan king’s army, rained rocks down on an invading Dutch army that melted back to Colombo: fever, and early death. From that moment on, little happened in the jungle, that is. Elsewhere, America declared itself independent, and the Holy Roman Empire dissolved. Wars, the Napoleonic, the First, the Second, and the Cold War beset Europe. Asia threw off its colonial masters. Not even the LTTE civil war that so rocked the rest of Sri Lanka made much of an impression here. In fact, it wasn’t until 1988 that the outside world caught up with the estate when a Marxist-Leninist insurrection weakened the country for three years in a blizzard of bombings, assassinations, riots and military strikes. Entrusting the Walawwa keys to three old retainers, the family left the estate, and for 20 years, weather and nature took turns budging it into a Babylonian wilderness. Landslides embraced it. Buildings tumbled. Termites struck. Trees rooted - indoors. Later, we arrived on holiday and bought it – a sort of vacation souvenir that could only be enjoyed in situ. No Excel spreadsheet; no SWOT or PESTLE analyses were manhandled into service to help escape the inevitable conclusion, which was, of course, to buy it. The estate and the buildings were lovely; they only needed some love back. The love restoration programme that followed often felt like the unravelling of Denisovan DNA. Expect the unexpected, said Oscar Wilde. Prescient advice in the jungle as much as in Victorian London. There were monks, of course. They arrived to be fed, to bless and leave, their umbrella bearers running behind them. And five or six builders, not dissimilar to Henry VIII’s wives: some jailed, some cherished. There were monsoons, material shortages, power cuts, and work schedules giddily interrupted by alms-giving and wakes. And of course, the Easter bombings, COVID, the bankruptcy and collapse of the government, and shortages of everything from fuel to yeast. But with each cloud came the most golden of silver linings, fostering those most Sri Lankan of virtues - patience and fortitude. As a thirteenth-century Sufi mystic put it: “What comes, will go. What is found will be lost again. But what you are is beyond coming and going and beyond description.” With a wisdom you might expect from one who put up with Genghis Khan, Rumi was right. In the jungle, everything eventually settles back down. Nicely. And so, finally restored, the estate opened as a boutique hotel in 2019, becoming one of the island’s Top, albeit tiny, 5-star hotels. Most hotels start their blubs with room details or menus. This one begins with plants. As befits a jungle hotel, we love them. Especially trees. We have planted almost 8000. The gardens that cradle the hotel include yellow and pink shower trees, frangipani, flamboyant and Illawarra flame trees; coconut, lipstick, and queen palms; mangos, and wood apples. In the outer garden grow cycads, orchids, sapu, Cook and Norfolk Island pines, jak, jacaranda, and tea. Rarer palms too - travellers, foxtail, ruffled, stilt and golden; pomegranates and citrus in force – from lime to kumquats, grapefruit to tangerines. Small paths crisscross the estate with four easy walks laid out in the Garden, the Outer Garden and a half or full estate walk, with a fifth taking you further into the jungle and nearby hamlets. Down one of these paths is our private Spice Garden planted with cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, cloves, turmeric, and ginger; nurseries of herbs, vegetables and rare saplings, the Elephant Graveyard, and a grove of cocoa. Beyond all this stretch the plantations where the jungle is kept at bay with ever more deliberate degrees of lassitude. Deliberate – because that’s what the wild creatures demand in most surveys we have carried out. Birds especially. Over 200 species breed on the island, including 33 endemic species. We have counted over 50 species here, including kites, eagles, peacocks, parakeets, owls, hornbills, kingfishers, bee-eaters, barbets, swifts, woodpeckers, flame-backs, wagtails, bulbuls, babblers, warblers, flycatchers, flowerpeckers, and drongos. Mammals too. Few countries of comparable size offer such a diverse range of mammals as this island. Its wildernesses support 126 species, 19 of which are endemic, and some of which list this hotel as their official address. Five warring families of Toque Macaque Monkeys live here. Giant squirrels abound, along with lesser squirrels, bandicoots, gerbils, mice, hares, shrews, bats, fishing cats, civet, wild boar, mongooses, muntjac, and deer. Porcupines can be heard munching through newly planted shrubs at night. Just ten kilometres away, the rare Sri Lankan leopard has been spotted, eating a neighbour’s goats. Our own goats, descendants of a more populous harem, live in greater safety in the Corkscrew Orchard beneath the Hotel’s Parking Area, munching glericidia and watching Ceylon pond turtles. Over 11,000 insect species inhabit the island, but only a fraction have been counted here, which is refreshing, free of the most irritating ones: mosquitoes and flies. Mayflies live their blink-and-you-miss-it lives for a few monsoon days; microscopically small bees, butterflies and moths abound. Four species of Asian jumping spiders have been discovered, but sadly, not hopping around here. And then there are, of course, the animals that dare not speak their name – the reptiles. Of Sri Lanka’s 208 species of reptiles, 116 are endemic. Amongst them are crocodiles, lizards, monitors, turtles, the increasingly rare star tortoise, and, of course, as in any tropical country, snakes. Stylish little skinks and colour-changing chameleons can be found everywhere, along with the odd monitor lizard, and melancholy clucking geckos, whose excellent service is to munch their way through all manner of insect pests vigorously. Barometers of just how good the air quality is, the tender-hearted lichen. Sri Lanka records nearly 1,000 species, many of which flourish on our trees in glorious greens and oranges. For trees are of course at the heart of the estate, with well over 70 different species. Jak abounds, with huge green fruits growing out of the stem and thicker branches, a superfood in its own right. Mahogany, sapu, nadu, satinwood and teak are planted across the estate. And ebony - black, complex, snail-slow, fussy, and so rare it is sold in kilograms, At a more practical level are the island’s utilities, once as endangered as the rarely spotted Sri Lankan mountain palm civet. The Ceylon Electricity Ltd.’s many supply breaks offer unrivalled opportunities to practice patience. Occasionally, monkeys add to the fun by chewing through wires kamikaze-style. The Hotel draws electricity from a private substation off the national grid to improve supply security, but when power is cut, the hotel’s diesel-powered generator kicks in. Bottled gas, bought in from abroad, is (after wood) Sri Lanka’s go-to cooking fuel: more reliable and cheaper than electricity. With water, feast or famine is the mantra of the water board, which is struggling to keep up with King Parakrama Bahu’s declaration: “In a country like this, not one drop of rainwater should be allowed to flow into the ocean without profiting man.” The Hotel’s water comes from a 350-foot-deep well bored through rocks. It is now supplemented by a link to mainline water from the new Galagedera-Mawathagama Water Supply Project. Water management, irrigation, storage, collection, and distribution enabled Sri Lanka’s great Anuradhapura Kingdom from the 5th century BCE onwards. Even today, it is a critical resource, powering over 50% of the electricity grid. Bills can be paid in the main Hotel Office. They include a 10% service charge, a legal requirement here, although its distribution and timing are often anachronistic. At our hotel, we give all staff members, regardless of seniority, the same percentage share, and it is paid within a week of the month’s end. Any tips given are added to the Service Charge Fund and distributed evenly. By agreement, 1% of the Service Charge is retained in a Staff Welfare Fund set up to help our staff and their close family members deal with unforeseen problems. Sri Lanka is blessed with a range of locally grown fruit and vegetables, spices, and herbs. And a tradition of blending local with European recipes. So we don’t have to go very far to find our own particular bit of kitchen fusion magic, captured in our drinks, breakfast and à la carte menus. All we serve is made to order and unprocessed, using fresh ingredients. Do let us know if you’d like to order a picnic lunch for a tour or a special occasion, so we can arrange it exactly as you need it. Cars, Tuk Tuks, Vans & Taxis can be booked via the Hotel Office. We only keep a few very trusted drivers on our register, so book ahead if you know your plans. Tours can also be organised exactly as you would like them. To borrow, at least a small part of Emma Lazarus’s famous poem: “Give me your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free -" and we will do our best to help put things right, for it is a comfort to know that it is of little matter whether the glass is half full or half empty. Thankfully, the glass is refillable. And we do fill it at The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel. Should you want to restore, reset, reboot, or rebalance your mind or body, we are fortunate to have five of the very best therapists in Kandy on hand to help. All can be booked in advance through the Hotel office to come to treat you here at the Hotel, either in your room or in Coco’s Pavilion, our therapy treatment centre built into a private amphitheatre with gorgeous views across the secluded jungle hills and valleys that surround the hotel. In particular, we have excellent physiotherapy, courtesy of Roshan Silva, our on-call and certified physiotherapist. Accredited by the Sri Lanka Foundation and the American Safety and Health Institute, Rohan works with a wide range of clients, including athletes recovering from injuries. His work focuses on injury prevention, recovery and rehabilitation, and performance enhancement. One of his main clients is the Kandy Sports Club, founded in 1874 and today the country's leading multi-discipline sports club, known primarily for its rugby. Rohan will begin the 60-minute session with a 5-minute consultation to identify any necessary special areas of treatment, previous treatments, and specific vulnerabilities to be mindful of. The physiotherapy massage at the heart of the session is delivered through hands-on treatment methods. It will first address pain, stiffness, muscular tension and any limited range of motion in the joints, muscles, and soft tissues. It will also focus on longer-lasting pain in the spine and joints, shoulders, knees, and elbows, which is typically caused by muscle and soft-tissue strains or injuries, as well as postural imbalances. The session may also include, as appropriate, two other classic therapies that are commonly used by trained physiotherapists: Dry Cupping helps improve drainage in inflamed areas of the body by encouraging the removal of excess blood and water. K-Taping is used to support muscles, joints, and tissues in the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries by applying thin, elastic tape. The whole session lasts 60 minutes, but its structure can be determined in advance at the consultation. Rohan is also experienced in selecting and teaching exercises from aerobics and yoga to further strengthen areas of vulnerability, which you can practice regularly in your own time. If you would like to make time for him to determine and teach you a bespoke set of exercises tailored to your specific needs, this can be added to an extended session or included in a shortened physiotherapy massage treatment. A more traditional island massage is also available courtesy of our two fully qualified Ayurveda masseuses: Udaya Rajapaksha and Yamuna Jayawickrama. Both are trained in a full range of Ayurvedic practices, including Panchakarma and Abhyanga, as well as Reflexology, and have been practising for over 14 years each. The classic Ayurvedic abhyanga oil massage they offer focuses on manipulating energy fields by applying the oil more to the skin than to the underlying muscles. It helps detoxify the body, improve circulation, release muscle tension, and reduce stress, and is especially good for nourishing the skin from head to toe. Unlike a sports massage, which primarily kneads the muscles and skin, the Ayurvedic abhyanga oil massage uses long, gliding strokes. It can also involve rhythmic tapping with the fingers or hands to stimulate nerve endings and rejuvenate the skin; quicker back-and-forth movements to generate heat and enhance blood flow; and specific pressure movements to target muscles and joints. Our fifth therapist is Noel Dharmajith, our on-call yoga teacher, who has run some of the most popular yoga classes in Kandy for many years. He has been practising yoga since he was eleven, training continually with yogic masters in both Sri Lanka and India. The Hatha Yoga that Noel offers is the sort of workout that nurtures both body and soul, stretching and rebalancing the muscles as much as it de-stresses the mind. It is much loved for its mellow and measured pace. It gains its name for its unification of all that the sun (“Ha”) as well as the moon (“tha”) embodies - active and passive, warming and cooling. It dates back to ancient and later medieval Indian traditions. Two practices lie at its heart. The first, the Asana physical postures, comprise a set of exercises that build strength and enhance flexibility. Each posture is held for a while, giving you space to connect with your breath and develop a deeper awareness of your body, whilst also stretching the muscles with careful attention. The second, the Pranayama - or Breath Control – is the other central part of the therapy. By extending, slowing, or intensifying your breathing, you become much more conscious of the energy within your body between exercises. Many practitioners of Hatha Yoga also follow four additional routines that you can incorporate into your yoga session with Noel, if you would like. The first of these is the Shatkarma Purification Techniques, a set of six cleansing practices that aim to purify the internal organs and set the stage for more advanced yogic practices. The second are the Mudras Energy Seals, the classic hand and finger gestures taught by Lord Buddha, that are believed to channel energy within the body. The third are the Bandhas Energy Locks - a set of internal muscle contractions that help to lock and redirect vital energy within the body. And the last is, of course, meditation, often done at the end or start of a session to quiet the mind. “What a long time whoever lives here is answering this door,” said Winnie-the-Pooh as he knocked on the door again. “But Pooh,” said Piglet, “it’s your own house!” “Oh!” Said Pooh. “So it is,” he said. “Well, let’s go in.” And so you can, body and mind returned to the unruffled and tranquil stillness that holidays are, in part, all about finding once more. For connectivity with the outside world, the Hotel Wi-Fi and Telecom are provided by Sri Lanka Telecom, a reliable network of routers and underground cables that is surprisingly stable. The Wi-Fi Password is flame2021. A curated 100-hour Flame Tree Music playlist mixes French jazz with Russian folk, German Lieder with Scottish classical; Indian raga with Motown, pop & indie. Our shampoos, soaps and conditioners have been specially developed for us by Green Leaf Herbals, a pioneering local company whose products are environmentally friendly and certified free of alcohol, caffeine and animal ingredients. The Pool is open 24/7, shared with skinny-dipping swallows. Old-fashioned board games live in the library: cheating at Monopoly is mandatory. Rooms are cleaned, and beds made daily: linen and towels are changed every second day of your stay. If you would like them changed sooner, or do not wish for housekeeping to come, please inform the Hotel Office. Please ask the Butlers to provide you with any tea or coffee you may want in your room; alternatively, if you would prefer to use a room-service tea-making kit, please ask the Duty Manager to place one in your room. Essential items such as toiletries, medicine, and cigarettes can be obtained in our local village, Galagedera. Priyanka, our tuk-tuk driver, can take you or fetch things, and can be booked via the Hotel Office. Helpful Telephone Numbers include the Hotel Office at +94 81246 1265 and the General Manager at +94 77 189 8586. Don’t be alarmed by strange noises heard in the dark – it is usually porcupine, wild boar, civets, frogs in radiant song & owls. Wiji, our Nightwatchman, is available throughout the night in the main hotel block to handle any unexpected issues. If anything, however minor, in your room or elsewhere is not working or causing you problems, please let our team know so we can put things right quickly. Scattered around the hotel’s nine bedrooms and public spaces are hundreds of pieces of art. The hotel’s three-dimensional art includes Phoenician, Tamil, Sri Lankan, Bengali, and Javan statues, as well as a Tamil Kovil statue of a dog, made in Jaffna around 1930.; painted wood panels, Altar Screens and Lion Guardians, stained glass and cut glass from Orrefors & Kosta Boda; Kandyan bridal clothing; nineteenth century Swedish cutlery and Indian art deco silverware; Portuguese ceramics and Welsh urns; gold art deco heliconia Lamps, glass and metal chandeliers from Cairo, Marrakesh, and Damascus; chiming clocks from Ängelholm; Japanese lacquer and Chettinad Palace Doors; and, oldest of all, a mysterious ceramic animal statue unearthed in Sri Lanka and dating back 2600 years. Amongst the paintings are lithographs by Warhol, Miro, Chagall, Picasso; and of King Emperors and Rajas; Patachitra scrolls, tribal tapestries, panels from Vietnam, Ethiopia, and India; propaganda posters of Sophia Lauren films and the Viet Cong; daguerreotypes and 19th century ethnographical, and Imperial photographs; canvasses from Auroville, Oxford, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Geneva, Calcutta, and Leh; 18th and 19th century cartography; Japanese, Indian & Scandinavian engravings and woodcuts; and a wide range of contemporary Sri Lankan art. This includes an extensive collection of rare batiks from Ena de Silva, one of the island’s great modern artists. Specially commissioned paintings by some of our favourite artists are for sale in the hotel’s Entrance Hall. Much of our furniture is carefully restored island antiques, including Ayurveda Dispensers, 19th century four poster beds, Victorian hand painted chests, ebony day beds, dining tables from lost hill clubs; desks, trollies, Pettegamas, card tables, newspaper racks, chairs, dressing tables, and carved cupboards of ebony, mango & burtha, mahogany, jak, teak, satinwood, mara and nadun. Polishing our furniture is one of those tasks that never end and is among the many assignments our team, a community of 25, handles as they run and nurture the hotel and its estate. Many of its members live in the hamlets that abut the estate, including our housekeepers, Yassika and Chandra, and her husband, Ruaan, one of the estate gardeners; Shyamalee, our head housekeeper, and her husband, Manju, our supervisor and butler. Nearby, too, are Mahesh, our Maintenance Supervisor; Kasun, who has been a chef here from boy to man; and our learned butler, Nandana. Others are just a tuk-tuk away, including Ananda, Bandara, and Janaka in the gardening team. Thamod, our youngest butler, comes from nearby Rambukkana, a stone’s throw from the Elephant Orphanage. Wiji, our schnauzer whisperer, once worked on the estate plantations before retraining as our nightwatchman, waking the hotel at 5 am and putting it to bed when all are asleep. Nadeeka, too, made the same transition, moving from cropping to the housekeeping team. From further afield, Shalitha, our Demi Chef, and our butlers, Herath and Lahiru. Sudesh, our talented sous chef, lives in nearby Kandy with his young family, as does Dissanayake, our kitchen assistant, whose smile always reminds you that life is actually rather good. Our three newest staff members include Devika, who works in the kitchen and spice gardens and also takes her turn preparing staff meals, sharing the role with Sunethra; and Danushka, our accounts and marketing executive, whose family have lived in Galagedera for generations. Ajith Molligoda, our Commercial Manager, lives a short drive away, though he still laments the loss of his classic sports car, which he sacrificed to upgrade to a family car. Ranjan, our Assistant Operations Manager, comes in from further afield and is still trim enough to see a jog around the estate walks as barely worth mentioning. The team is overseen by Angelo Perera, the Hotel’s empathetic all-rounder General Manager, who wears his wisdom and talent lightly and had to help build the hotel before he could run it. A board of directors oversees everything. The most eminent of its five senior directors is Bianca, born beside Oxford’s Garsington Opera. Her husband Archibald arrived from a country pile beside Highgrove. Together, they instigated Coco and Cuthbert, who live the lives of smitten drama queens, along with Coco’s youngest daughter, Nestor. The junior directors are Mikael and David, who repurchased the estate in 2007 whilst on holiday, and Ranjani Goonetilleke, the banker in Colombo. Sitting as we do in the middle of the island, we are within striking distance of a great many of the country’s most important sites. There are over eighty remarkable attractions, adventures, and activities to be found within sixty miles of the estate, two-thirds of them no more than five to thirty miles away. One of these, rarely visited by tourists, is a place associated with Sri Lanka’s first queen. Kuveni is remembered today as a mother, lover, and wife – but also a demon, a metamorphoser, an outcast, an avenging fury, a suicide, a traitor, a murderess, a ghost, and a mistress of deception. A descendant of the gods, she is also a goddess to the country’s still-living Aboriginal peoples. The site of her presumed tomb, almost two thousand five hundred years old, is to be found barely twenty miles from The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel. Her husband, Price Vijaya, a shaved-head fugitive with a penchant for what The Mahavamsa calls “evil conduct and … intolerable deeds,” is said to be buried at another site close by – and equally unvisited by anyone today. In amongst these first sovereigns is the lost masterpiece of one of the world’s great wood carvers; some of the best mountain ranges for trekking; prized bird sanctuaries; an orphanage for elephants; the forest retreat of reclusive monks; the hidey-holes of a freedom fighting king famed for his boomerang resilience; the village of a latter day Robin Hood with Oscar-Award winning looks; the home of the bible of Buddhism; and an eccentric vertiginous jungle tower. Elsewhere are to be found some of the island’s most significant medieval temples; Buddhist temples that look like Hindu temples; Hindu temples built by the last Buddhist king; Victorian churches that have escaped from the home counties; and the holiest Buddhist site on the island. Equally close are melancholy cemeteries, forts, and battlefields where colonial ambitions met a bloody end; the island’s greatest surviving royal palace; frescos that tell tales centuries old; a rock pierced by a road; an antique version of the Nine Arch Bridge; the best botanical garden in Asia; tea plantations; and an antique shop that never ends. But just before this guide ends, here are a few reading tips. Try Jasmin Gooneratne’s novel “The Sweet and Simple Kind,” one of the greatest friendship novels you will encounter. Or Shyam Selvadurai’s magical cross-dressing drama “Funny Boy,” Ameena Hussein’s “The Moon in the Water,” a colossal drama of love and maybe even forgiveness; and anything by the astonishing Askok Ferry, whose powers of compassion and identification, let alone of the ridiculous, are irresistible. Read also “Mosquito,” by Roma Tearne; Ru Freeman’s “On Sal Mal Lane;” Shehan Karunatilaka Booker prizewinning “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida;” and “Blue Skinned Gods,” S. J. Sindu’s tale of futuristic magic realism, about a boy born with blue skin. Books of every possible kind are as precious as trees at The Flame Tree Estate and Hotel, which is also, and not unsurprisingly, home to The Ceylon Press, a digital publishing initiative set up to tell the story of Sri Lanka and whose many eBooks, podcasts, histories and guides can be downloaded for free at the ceylonpress.com. That was a production written and recorded by David Swarbrick at The Ceylon Press, based in the jungle north of Kandy, at The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel, and set up to tell the story of Sri Lanka.