Holiday at Kandalama

It was a memorable trip to Kandalama last weekend as the destination was worth all the fatigue of long distance travelling through a dry zone.
Heritance Kandalama is a unique type of a resort situated at Dry zone in Dambulla about 160km away from Colombo. Opened since June 1994, this is a master piece of Architect Deshamanya Geoffrey Bawa which took 22 months for completion. This had been refurbished in December 2005 but the spirit had been preserved.

The uniqueness of this rare beauty is that it is environmentally friendly. The Hotel spreads to each sides of the mountain with a dark thick forest area surrounding its existence. If you look at the hotel from the middle of Kandalama Tank, the picture you would witness is a giant step in the middle of a green mountain. It is also said that one day if the buildings and other structures are demolished from that surrounding, the original rocky green mountain will lie there at the site. The architecture is such that it has taken every step to conserve the nature around it and also make a simple and elegant holiday get away place with all the tranquillity and the nearest to nature.

Not only the service and excellent food, all things of Kandalama will make a difference to anybody's holiday. One can wake up to the singing of red vented bulbul who are in ample numbers around the hotel. The breeze is soothing that flows from the side of Kandalama Tank. And there are many more treasures for anybody to explore on their own in the woods surrounding this place. Lot of monkey activities which are so delightful to watch, bird watching and elephant rides are to name a few.

Their environmental conservation projects include recycling of water and garbage. Water used by guests are recycled and used for gardening. The garbage are recycled and there is a paper manufacturing plant which make paper out of Elephant Dung. And also as this is a forest area lot of reptiles and wild life meet different situations like attacks to nearby villages or meeting to the on going traffic. These creatures are rescued and taken care of at the Animal rehabilitation centre and all of them are released after a maximum period of three months. They have a garden with herbs and all the trees in the premises are named with the local name and scientific name.

If one is truly in need of a holiday in tranquillity, this would be the ideal place to be as one can be living apart of the city and feel the calmness of being near to nature's most strangest secrets.