Transoceanic Drivel: Sri Lanka

A few Sundays ago, we began our journey south for our first real vacation in 1 year. The last time we took some time off, we went to Mayakobe in Mexico. With everyone scared to come to Mexico due to the swine flu and Mexican drug violence, it was a great vacation. We were looking for more of the same!

This time, we decided to go to Sri Lanka for Thanksgiving. A far-off, exotic land for you, but a mere 3-hour plane ride for us. I had done my research and found a nice little boutique hotel in the southwest corner of the island - small enough to keep out the noise (read children) and remote enough to keep out the accidental tourist.

We left our flat at around 6:30am and made our way to the Delhi airport. After the usual ridiculousness of boarding a place in India, we finally departed Delhi. After a brief layover in Chennai, we landed in Colombo, the only airport in the country without incident. A brief kudos to the people at Kingfisher Airlines: If you are ever traveling within India, this is the only airline to take. The people are helpful and they are almost always on time. Two things that the other Indian airlines seem to miss – a lot!

Anyway, we arrived in Colombo and were met by our driver. He was a very pleasant guy who greeted us with a huge smile and scurried off to fetch his bright orange Toyota. Just as he pulled around, we were met with torrential downpour. We had been told by everyone in Delhi that Sri Lanka was experiencing unusually wet weather. We had already booked the room and were in dire need to get out of India, so we agreed that Sri Lanka in the rain was better than Delhi in whatever weather it was today. What I am saying is we were prepared for the rain and did not care.

We were also warned that the drive from Colombo to, well, anywhere worth going is long and arduous. Colombo traffic is epic in the kinship of Delhi or Jakarta, so nothing out of the ordinary for us, but what we were not expecting was the slowness of the road once you leave Colombo. It is truly painful. Buses, tuk-tuks, cars and motorcycles all compete for the small, two-lane country road. We averaged about 20mph for the entire 70 miles. But, the scenery is tropical and, outside of the 80s softrock on the radio (which clearly our driver choose for us), it was a nice drive.

We arrived at our destination about 6:00pm. It is called a boutique hotel, but I am not sure this really sums up the atmosphere here. First of all, the property, although one building, feels like a series of separate open spaces. There are no doors, but the clever use of the support walls and varying heights of the floor create the illusion of openness and separation at the same time. You enter through a lobby that seems detached from the rest of the building only to eventually find that it too is under the same roof. From the lobby, you pass through an open courtyard and into the main area. This area is an architectural marvel. It consists of a restaurant, three cozy seating areas, a bar and a foyer that leads out into the pool. All these areas are open to each other and the outside, but all seem like completely separate spaces. Hard to describe, so I took some pictures. The most impressive element of the property is that you are exposed to the adjacent ocean in almost every common area. The entire front side of the hotel is completely open.

Entry way into the resort

Garden between he entry and the main common areas

Looking out through the common area to the pool

The Dining room with the pool area through the orange arch

Looking from the garden into the dining area

The view from the room toward the ocean

We were escorted to our room and were happy to see the creative elements of the ground floor continued. The room was a huge space with a very high vaulted ceiling and large french doors which opened onto a verandah over the ocean. There is a raised sitting area (to give better views of the ocean) and a sleeping area in a well (as not to get in the way of the views from the seating area). Through the french doors, there was the aforementioned veranda that had a seating area and a large outdoor day bed that was made up every morning for us. The pièce de résistance, though, was the bathroom.

Sitting area in the room

Looking from the seating area toward the ocean

The verandah complete with plunge pool and day bed

From the room the bathroom door reveals nothing of what is behind it. As you enter the bathroom, you quickly understand, though, this is no ordinary space. It is a large, elongated, well appointed space with a huge shower at one end and…. (wait for it)….. nothing at the other. What I mean is, it was completely open to the outside. No wall, no screen, no curtain – just you and the outside world. Now, to be fair, you are on the 2^nd floor and the first floor has 40 foot ceilings, so it is not like people are walking by, but still at first, it is a little disconcerting. After a while, though, you really start to enjoy it. In front of the shower, there is a large vanity. Next to that, set in a well of its own is the toilet with 3 long stairs running past which spill the bathroom out onto the veranda in the form of a plug pool. Because of the elevation caused by the stairs past the toilet, the pool sits roughly three feet about the rest of the veranda. It is hard to explain, but the design is very cool.