Just nature and you, away from the cacophony of Colombo
“Give me a price,” the owner of Templeberg said when I asked her the room rate to stay in her bungalow near Galle. “Everything’s negotiable.” She went on to explain that sometimes young foreign volunteers teaching in a local school come to stay, and they pay a token rate for a room. For tourists, the master suite would probably start at US$120, according to the season.
I heard about Templeberg purely by chance. It is a newly renovated bungalow built in 1864 in five hilly acres of coconuts and fruit trees and lush wilderness just a few minutes from the Galle exit of the Southern Highway. Thus, peace and simplicity is only 60 minutes by car from the cacophony of Colombo.
It’s the ideal country retreat for a writer or a painter to work as there’s nothing else to do there except contemplate nature. Of course, if you’re on holiday, there’s plenty to do – explore Galle Fort, laze and booze on Unawatuna beach or nip into Colombo for nightlife.
I visited Templeberg because I have been asked by the sponsors of the inaugural Templeberg Residential Writing Fellowship to be a guest judge. The Fellowship is being offered in conjunction with Writers Victoria to an Australian writer to stay in the Writer’s Cottage at Templeberg for one month, with air ticket, accommodation, meals and a stipend all provided.
The Writer’s Cottage is a two bedroom, clay tiled building with a bathroom joining the two bedrooms, at the back of the inner lawn of Templeberg. It looks like the perfect place for a guest, whether a writer or not, who wants to be independent but also enjoy the facilities of the main Templeberg bungalow.
The bungalow has only recently opened for guests. For decades it was owned by a German family, who acquired it from its British planter owner and who used it for holidays. Now it is run as a guesthouse to give visitors a taste of plantation life although it’s so close to Galle. Visitors from Hong Kong, France, New Zealand, the USA and Italy have already found the place and made it their holiday base here.
It’s very well suited for families. The kitchen is open so guests can help with the cooking, and even take cooking lessons from the lady who cooks amazingly fragrant local dishes. Menus are prepared after prior consultation with guests. There is cold tea, refreshing cold cucumber water and local juices available on demand.
The master suite leads off the entrance veranda and is furnished with original colonial furniture including a four-poster bed and a wonderful almirah of wooden latticework that keeps the air circulating inside it so clothes don’t get musty in the humid climate.
Guests can cool down too in the small pool in the garden. It was a former lotus pond filled with rubbish when the new owners moved in. They have converted it into a water filled space with boulders left in place as seats for chilling out as the sun sets.
Meals are taken in the semi-open parlour with a view of the inner lawn and are prepared using locally grown ingredients where possible. Three bedrooms lead off the corridor running alongside the lawn and these are suitable for families or friends as, at present, they share a bathroom.
The bungalow is full of surprising nooks and crannies with antique furniture originally in the building, augmented with the owner’s own treasures and some gaudy paintings. There is even a rustic Jacuzzi tub in the water tank tower.
Getting to Templeberg from Colombo is easy. After leaving the Galle exit of the Southern Expressway, turn left at the first set of traffic lights into the Akuressa Road. After driving about 300m the first lane on the left, before a new housing subdivision, leads up hill to the plantation gates and the curving drive up to the bungalow.
Templeberg Bungalow,Kaduruduwa, Loressakanda, Wanchawala, Galle; tel: 077 7108477; email: templebergplantation@gmail.com; www.templeberg.com
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