A lovely introduction to Sri Lanka at this peaceful coconut plantation learning about the estate and village life.
After flying into Colombo our driver, Ruwan, was there to meet us and take us to Horathapola Estate. He took smaller roads so that we could see something of of life in the towns and villages . It was very busy with lots of people in the streets and on the roads. Ruwan stopped to get us some of the local small bananas - half a dozen yellow and a couple of the red-skinned bananas which are quite different.
Horathapola Estate is a lovely plantation house surrounded by a huge coconut plantation. As we arrived the staff came out to greet us and check us in. Our room was big and cool with a large bathroom. The house has lacquered timber or tiled floors and is furnished with period furniture and old photographs. With ceiling fans and A/C in the room it was cool indoors.
I enjoyed bird spotting in the grounds and we saw palm squirrels and even a giant tree squirrel!
After showering we had tea on the veranda, very civilised, before embarking on a bullock cart around the estate followed by a walk around the kitchen gardens. A bullock handler and a member of staff came with us on the bullock cart trip to explain about the estate and produce .
The estate was originally 500 acres until the government decreed that each person could only hold 50 acres, the rest was confiscated and redistributed to the population.
The number of things produced on the estate for their own use is incredible: cows for milk, many fruits including bananas, pineapple, small mandarins to make marmalade, small cherry-like berries for jam, dragon fruit, papaya, guava and mango. They also have lots of aromatic leaves including curry leaf; tamarind, pepper, cinnamon, coconuts, spicy small green chillis, cashew nuts, and rice in a paddy field.
Fully 85% of what they use in the kitchens is produced on the estate.
We finished with a visit to the kitchen where the chef was busy preparing dinner - it smelled wonderful!
Dinner fully lived up to the preview we'd had, it was excellent.
On a table decorated from frangipani from the trees in the garden, nine dishes were set before us including small papadams, a very good aubergine dish, bitter gourd, dragonfruit gourd, shredded passion fruit leaf (a bit tough), coconut and rice, of course. Lots of different flavours but nothing too spicy for us. Enjoyed it very much.
On a beautiful morning on the day we were leaving we had a lovely breakfast on the veranda: pancakes - one dish of plain, one stuffed with a cinnamon mixture, Mildly curried manioc, excellent tomato sambal, toast and local jam made from the estate berries and a lovely selection of fresh fruit.
Afterwards the same member of staff who had escorted us on the bullock ride took us on a tour of the village. First to a coconut factory which was in operation. It's a labour-intensive process: the coconut shell is removed (it's used for oil then charcoal), then the fibrous husk which is used to make things like matting, leaving the round, white nut with its white flesh and full of water. The flesh can be compressed to get coconut milk or shredded.
Then through the peaceful village to cashew "factories" - women who shell the nuts wearing tough gloves to protect against a very nasty liquid which is bad for the skin. The nut is then lightly roasted so that the skin can be rubbed off leaving the cashew nut. I felt sorry for the women doing this for hours on end in such a hot climate.
Our short stay here was a lovely low-key introduction to Sri Lanka.
Back at the hotel Ruwan had arrived to take us on to Wilpattu.