A night out at Grand Hotel, Nuwara Eliya. – By Dr Harold Gunatillake
Website: www.Doctorharold.com
My wife and I thought that Nuwara Eliya would be the best place to be during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year festive seasons.
We started the trip, along with my nephew’s family on the 15th of April, the day after the auspicious New Year’s Day, and drove through the curvy uphill roads, viewing the most spectacular sites, the wavy lofty hills.
Our first stopover was in Ramboda at the Tea Bush Hotel, a spot where every passerby stops to view the beautiful scenery, including the Kotmale Dam in the distance.
It is a wonderfully comfortable hotel to stay in or for a quick cup of tea on your way. Good food, kind service with courtesy, and comfortable rooms.
The next morning we were on our way to Nuwara Eliya. We passed through the Ramboda tunnel. Ramboda Road Tunnel is currently the longest road tunnel in Sri Lanka close to Ramboda Falls.
On reaching Nuwara Eliya town, it was surprising to see a mammoth crowd, and hardly any space on the sides of the road and pavements.
This is the season when Colombo people migrate to the hills to avoid the heat. There were few foreign tourists. There were a variety of expensive cars on the road, such as Ferraris, Porches, and SUVs with families, and it was all bumper to bumper, with large numbers of policemen directing the traffic. There was a carnival, pony rides, and many other events to make the holidaymakers occupied.
In Nuwara Eliya, we stayed overnight at the Summer Hill Breeze. This is a three-star hotel, again quite a comfortable spot except there were many steps to climb.
Our climax was the anticipated evening at the Grand Hotel. This is a luxurious Colonial Hotel in the heart of Nuwara Eliya Town, the city in the hill country of the Central Province. Its name means “city on the plain (table land)” or “city of light”. Falling in love with the beautiful locale of Nuwara Eliya so
reminiscent of ‘home, ’ the 5th governor of Ceylon from 1824 to 1831, Sir Edward Barnes and known as
the ‘Father of Nuwara Eliya built a single-storeyed, Tudor style bungalow in 1828, naming it ‘Barnes Hall., which now stands as the Legendary “Grand Hotel” with a proud history of well over 194 years.
Let me now show you a few captures of that night at the hotel.
We returned home to Kandy after two nights in the hills.
The smiles and hospitality of Sri Lanka are world-famous and so are its spicy food, exotic fruits, and an array of sweetmeats found nowhere in the world. With so many cultures living next to each other life in Sri Lanka continues with a series of festivities throughout the year, an ideal recipe for fun and leisure.
The Sri Lankan diasporas are Sri Lankan Emigrants and expatriates from Sri Lanka, and their descendants that reside in a foreign country. They number a total estimated population of around 3 million.
If they all visit Sri Lanka for a holiday, minimal restructuring will be required to return to our past glory.
Hope you enjoyed and shared this weekend’s holiday trip of ours.
See you again, Stay safe, and goodbye for now.
