My one extravagance for the trip………….and I sure am ready for it.

Two nights at this award winning and understated hotel.  The Kandalama Hotel designed by Geoffrey Bawa and built adjacent to Sigiriya and with views across to the Sigiriya Rock.  Utterly beautiful  and to quote ‘Its effect on the visitor parallels that of Sigiriya, as a nuanced ‘third space’ between landscape and architecture  is developed through the thoughtful integration and juxtaposition of building and environment’. 

Hotel wraps itself around a rock face

Extensive undercover and open walkways for birding as the hotel is 1km long

You arrive in the lobby which rather than being the ground level is the 5^th level of the building and an enclosed walkway abuts a cliff around which the hotel wraps itself.   The hotel is 1km long and the walkways on each level are open and feel a part of the forest that surround it, providing viewing from ground level to canopy level of the forest.

I’d read about the hotel in a birding trip report when it was described and the author made reference also to the fact that it offers great birding given its location at the northern end of the Knuckle Mountain range and so making possible both wet and dry zone wildlife species.

I was happy to be upgraded without asking and enjoy my personal view across to the Sigiriya rock – the bathroom has a spa with large French windows that open out and I will be bathing in that this evening and inviting the outside in (not people just the environment……………….)

Happy me to be here!