This retreat at a hillside tea plantation is a serene escape from the hustle and bustle.
The drive from Colombo to Kandy is a chaotic mash of tuktuks, cars and motorbikes that take over every inch of asphalt. It’s a reminder that while Sri Lanka may be slightly smaller than Tasmania, it’s home to a staggering 23.1 million people. It’s part of what makes the country so exhilarating, of course, but it can also send your senses into overdrive.
Thankfully, this is tea country, where stillness is the game. The ascent takes in rows of lush emerald-green terraces that slow the breathing and calm the eyes. And behind a wrought-iron gate that swings open in welcome? The ten-bedroom sanctuary that is W15 Hanthana .
A former tea planter’s bungalow that fell into disrepair, the property has been meticulously renovated to recall the 19th-century heyday of British colonialism. There’s the wide verandah with views across to the Hanthana mountain range, an antique-filled piano room, a shaded swimming pool and croquet on the lawn, natch. A swing in the corner of the garden is just the spot for a G&T against the backdrop of chanting monks.
While you will want to venture 15 minutes down the hill to experience the charms of Kandy, a UNESCO World Heritage site famed for its artificial lake and Temple of the Tooth, there are equally enticing diversions onsite, from cooking classes and birdwatching walks to a wilderness “safari” in an open-top Land Rover (circa 1978).
On a leisurely drive through the plantation, we spy cannonball trees laden with fruit the size of melons and a crested serpent eagle that hovers above us, scanning the ground for snakes. Then there are the tea plants – rows and rows of them in myriad shades of green, punctuated only by local women with baskets tethered to their backs. “In Sri Lanka we have a high standard,” says Bhanuka Ranasinghe, the retreat’s head naturalist. “We always do the picking by hand.”
The food here is of an equally high standard and includes a decadent high tea served by your personal butler. Sit on the wraparound verandah – at tables fashioned from antique Singer sewing machines – and really embrace Sri Lanka by ordering the traditional breakfast of curries and sambal, rice and hoppers. That’ll wake the senses up again.
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