Hotel Centuria ~ Rathnapura.

We Normally do the planning part well before we go any outing, But this time it was upside down. Even though we have decided a few days back that we should go on a outing again, we were unable to find a good Location. We tried every option and every place we got to know but it was not a success. Mainly there were two reasons for this as I see... First it was a Thursday and normally that happens to be the Nakath day in our country so all those hotels with a Banquet hall was booked for some wedding. Even the small ones. Next thing was we all were in bit of a confusion as to what area we should visit.. Nevertheless we set on to go ahead to Rathnapura hoping we could find some place to crash in.

As we saw this sign board on the side of the road, near Rathnapura saying Centuria hotel, we made the instant decision of visiting the place, which was partially correct. It is on a small hill and we had to turn right from the main road and went ahead towards the hill. It was pleasing by the look of it and was well maintained. The whole hotel is a combination of antique and modern designs as the main reception area looks like an old mansion while the newly built luxury rooms are more modern type.

The magnificent thing was the swimming pool with an artificial waterfall at the back of the pool. When the waterfall was switched on it brings out a charming look to the hotel. The changing rooms are also very good and secured so there's nothing to fear.

After having the initial overlook of the hotel we decided to go for the pool directly as there was nothing else to do.. Before that I ordered six bottles of Sprites without any further thinking.... and this cost us more than 1500 Rs. No need to say it was a painful memory but we had to do that because we did not receive any welcome drink or anything. We were used to that pattern comparing to other places we visited but here there's nothing like that.

Anyhow, we then dived in to the pool and spent maximum time there as it was the only fun item available. The waterfall was a new item that we could really enjoy. It was about 2 in the evening when we get off from the pool and then we had the Lunch.

I mentioned above that we were partially correct in going in to this place. Here comes the partially incorrect side of our decision as the lunch was a very bad one. They said when we order one portion of a side dish would suffice three people. I don't know how they came in to that decision as one portion was insufficient for even one person. Food was delicious but the problem was it was not enough to see whether it was delicious. That made the whole place a useless one and we were utterly disappointed.

After looking at a lunch(Can't say we actually ate that tiny lunch) we took some snaps of it and returned back home quickly.... it was not actually a spend the day more likely a half spend the day....

The Spectacular View at The Elegan.................!!!

View from the Edge of Elegan..........!!!

The Surrounding Mountains.........!!!

The Surrounding Tea Estates...........!!!

View at the Portico..........!!!

The Entrance of the Elegann..........!!!

The Well Maintained Garden.........!!!

The Pool and The Float with The Magnificent View......!!!

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Green Elegan, Rathnapura- Pros and cons!

We actually wanted to go again to Clunes Villa for another spend the day, but unfortunately by the time of our next get together, the place has been shut down due to some managerial problems. So the hunt began for another proper place where we could get close to nature while relaxing and enjoying the environment. We got to know of this place, Green elegan after reading an article on a news paper. It was mentioned to be in Ratnapura, and have a nice surrounding. So we knew this was the ideal location for us.

The road which leads to this place once we turned off from the main highway, is not one for vehicle lovers :). We travelling in a 4x4 pick-up and it was tough for that even. But the thing is we happened to have found a car also traveling along a particular stretch of this road without much difficulty. All I say is that it is up to the driver to handle the vehicle and the owner of it to decide whether or not to go on that road or not :). But the rough ride is more than worth it, when you consider the view at the end of it.

Somehow we managed to go up to the place without much difficulty and without consuming much time (Thanks to our good old 4x4 and its skillful driver, yah thats me ;) ). The first thing which came up to my mind after i saw the place was that its design is much closer to a holiday bungalow than a hotel. It had many unique features that can be seen in any kind of private holiday bungalow and was very beautiful also. As usual we did not find many visitors there, leaving us as the only guests present there on that day.( the freedom as we expected)

Here there were no bicycles or any other method of traveling so we decided to go on foot and observe the area a bit. Tea estates were a common site around that area which gave a Nuwara Eliya like feeling to us. As i have mentioned earlier this place was located on a top of a hill thus providing a panoramic view of the picturesque surroundings .

The garden was also a well maintained one and had many artistic features adding more to the beauty of the place. The well trimmed grass in the garden, the famous Ruk-kala, weird circular type interlock design, altogether makes this place a soothing place to visit. The swimming pool was also a huge attraction due to the view that is provided once you are in it and due to the eye catching design.

From what we have observed and felt the swimming pool was not filled with usual Chlorine mixed water, instead it was filled up with natural water from a natural water source. This was a whole new thing for us as the water was not so clear but it was cold and fun to have a bath. There was this 'Rubber floating bed' found on the side of the pool so we filled it up with air(from our lungs :), since the staff was not that fond of providing us with a pump ) and put it on the water.

After the great and enjoyable bath we went down to have the lunch. This was the disappointing moment for us where we had to wait a quite long time until we were served and after that even, the food was not what we expected regarding to what we ordered. There were problems relating to the quality as well as the quantity of these foods. We were utterly disappointed as we were so hungry at that time and we did not expect anything like this. One thing should be mentioned here, If some one is opening a place for customers and he advertises that place, then he should make sure that he do what he says instead of making the customers suffer due to others' faults. In here we did not see any reason why they couldn't meet with what we demanded from them. The food was short of what we ordered and the quality of food was very poor also (considering the amount we payed for it :(  ) That is one black mark for this Elegan place.

After the disappointing lunch and paying the bill we spent some time to take a few snap shots as the view up there was so beautiful. What i must inform on this place is that apart from the odd way of treating the customers by the dis-respective staff and the bad lunch we had, this place is so undeniable for a visit if you love a nice view and a nice bath!

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The Sites and Sounds and Leeches of Clunes......!!!

The Waterfall alongside the road to Clunes........!!!

The gigantic leeches.............:) :)..........!!!

The Main bungalow of the hotel and its surrounding garden.

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Clunes Villa, Avissawella - Detailed!

After visiting the Wijaya Holiday resort twice, We were desperately in need of a new and a good place to visit. All these outings happened after exams or after some stressful incident most of the time. So we need to spend our day in a more relaxing and a nicer place. While Me, R'jala and Hasi were looking for some ideal places for our purpose, this place was accidentally found. Me and R'jala was going to visit another friend of ours and we happened to come to Avissawella town. Then for some other reason we wanted to go to this Clunes Villa.

Then the hard time came when we tried to locate this place... First we turned to the left side (i.e. Hatton side) from the Avissawella town and were looking for this place. Once we passed the famous 'Hotel Picturoseque', we asked a guy by the side of the road "Where can we find Clunes Villa?" But the problem was this guy never had heard of it. Then as we went further R'jala was able to locate a small road( more like a footpath) turning sharply left from the main road which had a sign post saying 'Clunes villa'. Even though this road directly leads to the place, there are some tricky turning points, but no fear as you can easily get directions from anyone you meet traveling in that road.

So that was all about getting to this place.. Then on another day we all went in there to have a good spend the day! This small road which I mentioned earlier is more like a road through a paradise. As we began ascending this road, we came across a small waterfall, many rubber estates, and a nice view of the mountains. There's another thing which must be mentioned about this road. There are leeches ( very huge ones) in the sides of this road so be careful if you come up with an idea to explore the waterfall or something. [ as Hasi found out when he had the brave idea of going near the waterfall, and came up with a hand full of leeches ;-) ]

There are two buildings belonging to this hotel. One is found at the entrance of the hotel and the main building is located a bit far inside the hotel. We were warmly welcomed by the reception and we spent some time to explore the place. The place was more like the shape of a holiday bunglow and had a pool table, a piano and a projection tv to be used as leisure items.

There are bicycles that one could hire(which we did) to be used for trekking along the small footpath like road that curves around the hotel as well as the adjoining rubber estates. We hired three of them ( so we had to pay a small sum for them separately) and went down the above mentioned road. It was a bit tiring because of all the slopes and hills but a worthy experience as we could observe the nature more effectively in this way.

When we returned it was time for a good bath and the pool was also in a nice secluded place which we had to climb a bit and dive in ;-).There's a small fact to be mentioned when talking about the pool that it has no changing rooms near by so we had to organize a room inside the main building to be used as a changing room. ( the matter could have been worse if all the rooms were full that day...) The pool was designed to give an infinity look as the edge was a slope but I must say that it was not that successful as the view was not too good. It had a leaking problem also by which they tried to avoid by putting some empty fertilizer bags in to that hole. Except for the few short comings mentioned above, we had free and quite time at the pool.

Lunch we had after the swim was also magnificent and it was served well, and i have to say that it was well worth the price, considering the Ala' carte at the Wijaya Resort. We played a game of pool after the lunch and spent some time there enjoying the birds chirping quietness. It was altogether a nice place to visit after making a prior reservation and ideal for nature lovers as it is covered with all the greenish backgrounds...

**There's an important message to deliver about the latest situation of this place, as it has been temporarily shut down and pending further information. The date which it will be reopend is not sure at the moment and we will post it as soon as it opens!

Clunes Villa, Awissawella. - getting to the place....!!!

This was our third destination or the second proper one actually, since we visited Wijaya Resort twice. Clunes Villa is a small holiday bungalow situated  in the midst of a rubber plantation in Dehiowita, which is 6km from the Awissawella town. It is easily accessible by any kind of vehicle because the road conditions are quite good in the area, and of cause we traveled in Viras' good old  Swift :). And it took us about a 90minute drive to get to the place from Maharagama. and if you are travelling from Colombo town it will altogether 2hrs for entire drive.(considering that there is no heavy traffic on the high level road.)

But i do remember that we had a hard time finding the place since there was no post guiding us to the exit from the main road that we had to take to get to the hotel, so as always we had to get directions from the locals. Which revealed that some locals are not so familiar with the place thus had no clue about what we are talking about (eg : one of the taxi drivers we met :) ). So if you decide on visiting this place, my advice is to get directions from the hotel staff by calling them prior to your visit.

Snaps of the Panoramic View, Natural Pool and the Natural Waterfall, at Wijaya Resort taken by me........!!!

Panoramic view of the surrounding mountains at the Wijaya Resort.

The small stream that flows through the vicinity ...!!!

The tea plantation and the "thotupala" near the stream....!!!

The Natural pool and the waterfall.........!!!

The first three illustrates the panoramic view. Have to say it really is breathtaking, but the weather has to play its part too, an overcast day is the best, as far as the view is concerned. But you have to watch out heavy rain because it will make the small stream really overflow with flood water and the Natural pool will be useless and dangerous on such a day, as we found out in our first visit. Actually these are snaps that were taken before the heavy downpour. It was completely different after about 30 minutes of heavy rain that happened during our lunch. And when we returned with a nice bath in our minds, we were utterly disappointed to see a surge of flood water instead of the quite stream u see here and a pool of muddy and deep water. So we had to quench our thirst of a bath only using the man made pool.....!!!

Wijaya Holiday resort - Kiriella.. Inside view

The Wijaya Holiday Resort is located at Kiriella, Rathnapura( one can easily find the location from the link given by Hasi) and the environment and the surroundings are superb and hard to believe that we are still in Rathnapura.. Hotel (more like a leisure Park actually) is built on a mountain so we can get a Nice Panoramic view once we stand there. This Hotel has three Artificial Swimming pools, and many natural ones too.

When it comes to the pros and cons of Wijaya Holiday resort, there are few things that will be crucial to be pointed out. There are Positive things as well as Negative things... First to the Positive side. The very first visit of us to this place happened on a day where it was filled with some school girls. A muslim girl's college had a day outing there. So the management had put up a buffet lunch which was awesome. We really had a great time there. The boat ride is 50 Rs for 15 minutes and it is a safe ride which is normally on the stream flows inside the hotel estate. The stream is not deep and they provide life jackets along with the dingy so there's no way one can get drowned in that!

There we can play many Games such as cricket, Volly ball, Badminton, Table tennis....etc. But if it is a crowded day there will be less chance of doing them due to the competition. There's a nice waterfall also in one corner of this hotel and we can jump in to the pond there and have a cool bath while the waterfall falls on to our head. The pond which is at the end of the waterfall is not that deep so not to be afraid of drowning. But I had a remarkable experience with a water snake which came and bumped in to my left hand. No harm was done he just went away!(pooor thing must have got frightened of me ;-) ) Same thing happened to me when I went back there on a different day(as in it appears again swimming along in that waterfall) so watch out for that thing when stepping in to the natural waterfall!!

Apart from that incident, the lunch and the day out package which was offered to us on that day was good. But the story turns the other side when it was not a crowded day! We went back there again on a weekday and it was only we were present there. So we were told that the day outing package could not be given and we have to pay separately for the expenditures we incur.. So we paid for the pool and for the lunch only. The lunch was not good as the former day, and the fried rice menu we ordered was not up to the standard compared to the previous buffet lunch as it had not properly prepared. It was a disappointment for us I must say to see the difference between a crowded day and a lonely day. Even though the lunch was bad and all, we enjoyed maximum freedom that day as we were the only ones present there...

We never tried out the adventure package which is also in the Wijaya holiday resort but as I understood Adventure sports are being guided by a professional instructor and all the necessary equipments and clothing which will be needed for that will be provided. So no worries if one needs to try out that also!

So altogether I must say that Wijaya Holiday resort is a nice place to visit and have a wonderful day out, departed from the day to day burdens. Only thing is that there are few issues to be corrected with regard to the maintenance of the place and to the service... If all those issues were addressed by the Management no need to say it will be a marvellous place for a nice

Spend-the-Day!

Wijaya Holiday Resort - Getting to the place

This was the first destination in our traveling endeavorers. Wijaya Holiday Resort is situated in Kiriella.(Map) Its easily accessible by any vehicle (We traveled by a Swift) and the road conditions in the area are quit good. Its easy to find since there is a large post alongside the road.