On the first leg of their whistle-stop tour through Sri Lanka, Roger Hermiston and Eileen Wise visit Uga Ulagalla in the island’s Cultural Triangle.
The teardrop of India, or the pearl of the Indian Ocean? Perhaps your reading of Sri Lanka’s distinctive shape is governed by the country’s fortunes at any given time. This nation has had plenty of reason to cry in its tumultuous past, ravaged by invaders and torn apart by ethnic strife; but equally much to rejoice over the achievements of its inventive people in this beautiful tropical landscape.
We arrived at the capital Colombo’s spotless Bandaranaike International Airport on a typically steamy afternoon, a little groggy from our eleven-hour flight from the UK but excited for the week’s adventure ahead.
As our chauffeur Chamila pulled away from the airport, one of the first sights to greet us was a giant billboard containing the smiling face of Sri Lanka’s new President, the left-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake (or AKD as he is more conveniently referred to).
A Presidential Welcome
You’re not likely to see Sir Keir Starmer on a board outside Heathrow any time soon. But as Chamila explained, great hope is invested in AKD, this ‘man of the people’, to continue the country’s economic recovery after its grave post-Covid travails. As we would discover time and again in the next six days, that quality of optimism seems firmly embedded in the DNA of Sri Lankans.
We were here on something of a whistle-stop six-night holiday, stopping off to explore four different areas in the south and central part of the country (the historic cities of Jaffna on the northern tip, and Galle on the southwestern edge, would have to wait for another visit).
We had chosen for our accommodation along the way hotels and resorts that not only provided comfort and style but which also embraced the culture and history of the country. Fortunately Uga Escapes, the leading Sri Lankan boutique hotel group which has six properties on the island (and a seventh on the way), does all that and – as we were soon to find out – much more.
So our destination on that first Monday afternoon, a three-and-a-half-hour drive away, would be Uga Ulagalla, a luxury resort close to Anuradhapura, the famed ruined city situated at the centre of the island’s northern plains in Sri Lanka’s ‘Cultural Triangle’.
Cultural Triangle
We sat back and gazed out of the window, taking in the nature of the countryside, and leaving the unflappable Chamila to negotiate the tricky, constantly busy traffic mix of tuk tuks, scooters, cars, buses and lorries, with the ever-present danger (to us, although not seemingly to Chamila) of one of the multitude of stray dogs deciding to veer into the road and cause mayhem.
What we witnessed was a constantly lush, verdant landscape, the roads flanked by impressive palm, coconut and banana trees, sometimes interrupted by waterlogged paddy fields. Now and again the flora and fauna would give way to small, dense-looking forests (Sri Lanka’s landmass has 30% forest cover), from where the occasional toque macaque monkey would scamper forth.
Roadside stalls abounded, selling a rich variety of fruits – bananas of course, huge watermelons, mangoes, jack fruit, pineapples and mangosteen. In the towns and villages, which seemed to run one into another (Sri Lanka is densely populated), small shops of all persuasion with brightly coloured signs were doing good late afternoon business. Quite often we would pass a statue of Buddha (Buddhism is the national religion), and sometimes a small stupa where followers were gathering to meditate and pray. The stupa, the hemispherical shaped ceremonial burial mound used for the veneration of Buddhist saints and relics, would be a constant feature on our Sri Lankan journey.
Uga Ulagalla
It was a relief to reach Uga Ulagalla after sixteen hours of travel where, as part of our warm welcome, we were encouraged to ring a bell and light an oil lamp in keeping with the resort’s ancient custom. We were then taken by buggy to our pool villa (No 24), one of the more remote on the property, about half a mile from reception. For the moment, after a sumptuous dinner (see below), what we appreciated immediately was the wonderful king-sized bed where we both enjoyed one of the best night’s sleep we had had in ages.
The morning revealed the other rooms in our thatched-roof villa in their full glory – an entrance hall, two vast bathrooms, a stylish sitting room with dark wooden furniture and comfortable sofas and chairs, and outside a spacious decked terrace (with plunge pool) which jutted out into the surrounding countryside. It was a splendid sanctuary.
The day also unveiled the full majesty of Ulagalla’s vast 58-acre estate, with extensive woodland that teemed with fascinating wildlife. The magnificent trees here provide both beauty and vital shade, the wood apple, ebony, rain, yellow teak and Andaman redwood the highlights. At the centre of the property lies the converted 150-year-old ‘walawwa’ or mansion house, formerly the home of a local chieftain, with reception, sitting-room, restaurants and a big outdoor swimming pool.
The wildlife encounters came thick and fast, both back at the villa and then when cycling around. Throwing out some nuts from our terrace inevitably attracted a full troop of toque macaque monkeys, who skittered around the foliage in fierce, loud competition. Out on the bike, we saw big monitor lizards lumbering along by the side of the track, a ruddy mongoose trotted purposefully ahead, and then soon afterwards we spotted a fish owl in a pond, taking refuge from the midday heat or perhaps looking for its next meal.
Conservation at Uga Ulagalla
This is wildlife heaven, and at the heart of it is the enthusiastic Katharina Raaben, the resort’s Head Naturalist, who gave up a successful corporate career back in Germany to get involved with conservation, first in Africa, and for the last four years here at Uga Ulagalla.
In addition to educating guests about the resort’s wildlife through tours and talks, Katharina decided – during Covid lockdown – to create an Elephant Research Centre. Here she and her small team could play a vital part in helping to conserve the area’s elephant population by tracking these animals, now gravely threatened nationwide by the loss of their habitat (largely via deforestation) and increasingly coming into conflict with villagers as they seek pastures new. An electric fence around Ulagalla Lake is just one successful initiative Katharina’s team has launched.
We were surprised to learn that 70% of Sri Lanka’s elephants live outside national parks. Katharina and her team – so passionate about their work – keep diaries and take photographs of many of the 250 elephants that have come into this area, none more so than a poor tusker they named Agbo, who suffered three bullet wounds when caught in a vicious gun trap. It took five months of treatment – involving sedation and antibiotics – to get Agbo moving comfortably again, although this lone bull will now walk with a permanent limp.
A Sri Lankan Feast
Dining at Ulagalla is such a treat – the tables always furnished with fresh seasonal fruits, vegetables and herbs straight from the resort’s organic garden. Indeed, Eileen took part in a cookery class in the garden’s rustic kitchen, making a beef curry which met with Roger’s wholehearted approval.
On our first night, flagging after our long journey, we were revived by the gargantuan ‘Kamatha’ dining experience – 23 courses (after a while we weren’t counting!) to taste in a typical traditional pavilion set in a paddy field, much as the farmers would have eaten after the harvest in time immemorial.
The meal was lovingly and meticulously prepared by two sisters from a nearby village, over several hours on a cinnamon wood fire. The setting was sublime, and the food absolutely exquisite. The breakfasts here – as they would be at all Uga resorts – were all vast and delicious.
Ulagalla’s spa is concealed amongst lush foliage, and reached by walking over stones on a tiny stream. Inside the treatment rooms our masseuses Ugxen and Nailar administered superb treatments, relaxing yet revitalising at the same time.
Anuradhapura
They set us up perfectly for an afternoon excursion to the nearby ruined city of Anuradhapura, which dominated Sri Lanka’s early history and was the country’s leading city for over 1,000 years. Legend has it that the city was established around a cutting from the ‘tree of enlightenment’, the Buddha’s sacred bo (fig) tree in Bihar, India, which was brought to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BC by Sanghamitta, the founder of an order of Buddhist nuns.
Anuradhapura flourished as a political and religious capital until it was destroyed and mostly deserted after the Chola invasion from South India in 993.
Much of the ancient city was hidden away in dense jungle until the late 19th century, when British explorers uncovered its magnificent array of palaces, monasteries, monuments and temples.
Nowadays, it is one of main Buddhist pilgrimage sites in the world, and the concourses around the stupas were thronged with monks in their colourful saffron, ochre, maroon and brown robes, while many of the visitors were wearing white in adherence to the precepts of the Buddhist faith.
The atmosphere around Anuradhapura’s holy stupas was calm and friendly, some visitors praying quietly in corners while others laid simple gifts by the walls. Eileen was generously presented with a bunch of lotus flowers by one lady for her to lay at a statue of Buddha, and she joined the queue for a blessing from the monk at the Sri Maha Bodhi (Sacred Bo Tree).
We took a tour around the ‘Great Stupa’ – the Ruwanwelisaya, originally built by King Dutugemunu ‘The Disobedient’ around 150 BC. We also visited the latest stupa, the Sandahiru Seya, dedicated to ‘fallen war heroes’, which was only opened in November 2021, but still remains to be fully completed. We were fascinated as young Prakash, one of an army of stonemasons, gave us a demonstration of his painstaking, highly skilled work, chipping away for hours on end to produce beautiful panels showing detailed scenes and stories from the Buddha’s life.
Roger and Eileen’s Voyage through Sri Lanka continues here …
