TV Times

TV Times

Colonial nostalgia at Glendower
By Sanath Weerasuriya
The amount of glowing praise crammed between the pages of the fat Visitor's Book is testimony to how much guests have raved about this hotel. A five-minute walk from the centre of town, this rambling Tudor frame building is surrounded by an immaculate lawn and garden neatly decorated with bright arrangements of flowers - the Glendower has scooped the top prizes for lawns and blooms in the annual Nuwara Eliya Flower Show for several years.

Virtually nothing has been overlooked in the owner's attempts to bring as much colonial nostalgia for English/Scottish country life into a Sri Lankan hotel as possible. There's a tavern-style bar -The 19th Hole pub, with imitation beer kegs serving as bar stools, a vintage over-sized billiards table ( over 100 years old ) in an attic games room, croquet on the lawn if you want it and a couple of lazy lounge/reading rooms with plenty of sofas and fireplaces for whenever you need to shelter from a rainy afternoon.

With only nine rooms (three of which are suites), and friendly staff, the Glendower feels more like the private home of some hospitable countryside hosts than a hotel. The rooms are sizeable and charmingly old fashioned with plenty of quaint dark wooden furniture.

The suites have wicker-chaired lounge areas in sunny bay windows and fresh flowers are put on the writing desk daily. Internet access is available and the Chinese restaurant, which absent-mindedly fuses East and West by serving Sweet and Sour Chicken in front of a roaring log fire, is highly recommended.

Glendower Hotel, however is a popular place in Nuwara Eliya for its Chinese cuisine. James Daniel Muspratt, Manager of the Glendower Hotel, points to the fact that his hotel has been full each weekend this year and has never suffered less than 60% occupancy even post-tsunami as evidence that away from the coast, tourists are as happy as ever to holiday in Sri Lanka.

He says that foreigners still make up 50% of his trade, despite the tsunami's effect on foreign tourist numbers elsewhere on the island. However, he feels that Nuwara Eliya represents the general tendency in Sri Lanka for cities and tourist sites to fail to 'develop their tourist potential' and thinks it could benefit from the introduction of a nightlife scene, even if this was 'just one disco', which with proper planning and sensitivity need not affect Nuwara Eliya's charm as a quiet hill station retreat.

'After 8.00pm everything is closed…when people are on their holiday they like to spend their time, not go to bed early…they have the money, we should know how to get it out of them. But on other hand Nuwara Eliya is not a huzzle and buzzle city.' Muspratt said

Top