13 August 2011
THE SRI LANKAN ADVENTURE
When I told Murray, my husband, we were going on a two week trip to Sri Lanka, all he could say was, “Why are we not going to Paris?” I really had no answer to that, as this trip was at my instigation as it’s a place that I have always hankered to visit.
Mary Taylor, a long time NZ Guild of Food Writers member, has been leading tours through her Food Matters tour company to Sri Lanka for almost ten years. The itinerary of each group is “Taylored” to suit individual and collective interests. She led two back to back tours this year, the first concentrated on fabric and art, while our group wanted to focus on food and architecture. We were seven; with a skilled and careful bus driver, a knowledgeable local guide, a charming baggage handler and Mary to look after us.
We stayed in stunning, luxury hotels, all hand picked by Mary for their Sri Lankan ‘x-factor’. Majestic colonial edifices, a Geoffrey Bawa designed eco-friendly hotel perched amongst rocky outcrops and tumbling vegetation, an amazing converted tea factory, a planter’s bungalow that I feel was a every bit as good as Huka Lodge, and the Lighthouse, another Bawa designed hotel in the coast near Galle where the waves crashing onto the rocks below lulled us to sleep.
For me, travel is all about food. Sri Lanka is a lush country with intense cultivation that provides plenty of food for all 23 million people who inhabit this teardrop shaped island to the east of India. Successive waves of travellers and immigrants from southern India, Malaysia, the Middle East, Portugal, Holland and England have made their mark on the spicy rich cuisine, leaving a legacy of vegetables, spices, rice, tea and much more to sustain the Sri Lankans.
The smelly bustling Pettah market in Colombo, a vibrant fish market in Negombo, a vegetable distribution market at Dambullah, a traditional spice garden and a couple of cookery lessons helped to really understand the local cuisine. Visits to the Dilmah tea factory, a dessicated coconut processing plant, a boat trip to observe cinnamon quilling, and walking amongst the tea pickers on the plantations got us up close and personal with the bounty of Sri Lanka. There were food experiences galore, and truly wonderful rice and curry meals.
Breakfast was buffet style everywhere and it’s intriguing to watch other tourists who want to stick to their own food; bacon and eggs, cereal, and espresso coffee. Not for me. I ate lacy egg hoppers each day, with a selection of spicy vegetable curries and now at home I’m finding my tomatoes on toast truly bland. Mary is the ultimate tour guide, quietly witty, incredibly calm even when the bus breaks down on a remote strip of road, and has made fabulous contacts and friends through Sri Lanka who welcomed us warmly and fed us delicious food.
I’m not a dedicated animal lover, but we ticked off quite a list of intriguing wild life; cheeky monkeys on our balconies, colourful birds, water buffalo providing buffalo curd for almost every meal, and adorable orphaned baby elephants in a special transit house who came in from the wilds while we visited, for their daily ration of milk. We also visited a little primary school, and we were constantly handing out pencils to wide-eyed children who curiously and shyly approached us.
And something I learned about Sri Lankans and their sport. We know about their love of cricket, but most people we spoke to knew all about our All Blacks. Apparently Sri Lanka has more than 130,000 registered rugby players. That’s more than New Zealand by miles!
It was an outstandingly successful trip and I dream about going back. Even Murray wants to go on another Mary Taylor trip and not to Paris!
Pic; Kandalama Hotel by Richard Harris