Newsletter aus Sri Lanka von Royston Ellis

[Premasiri]

Gut geschrieben! Danke für die Verlinkung, Paula!

Claudia, bitte gern geschehen....

 

[Premasiri]

[h=1][FONT=&quot]Now’s the time to come to Sri Lanka.[/FONT][/h]Yes, it really is. Whatever your country’s government warns in cautiously worded travel advisories about visiting Sri Lanka now, it’s not what we who live here think. After the Easter Sunday bombings, security is formidable. Where minor disturbances followed, they were community-based (not in tourist areas) and rapidly quelled. Sri Lanka has never been more peaceful! It’s not the main tourist season on the west coast, so hotels and beaches are quiet. They are quiet, too, on the east coast where it is the tourist season. Even in the hill country, popular with visitors at this time of the year, there are few tourists. So if you want to enjoy a holiday in Sri Lanka away from mass tourism, now is the time to come. It’s cheaper, too, as hotels give discounts on their usual rates. Just ask. We reckon that now is a great time to discover the charm and hospitality of Sri Lanka. You’ll be warmly welcomed. You could even consider coming here if you need private medical treatment. We have several good private hospitals in Sri Lanka with excellent care and attention that cater for Medical Tourism. We give some information on our website. So whether you want a holiday -- or to convalesce after local private medical treatment -- in Sri Lanka, now is the time to come. Before mass tourism descends on Sri Lanka again. Happy holiday! Warm wishes Royston and the Sri Lanka Holiday Guru crew. [FONT=&quot]SriLankaHolidayGuru.com[/FONT]

Explore [h=1]IS SRI LANKA SAFE?[/h]After the Easter Sunday 2019 bombings by terrorists in Sri Lanka, the question you are bound to ask before coming here is: “Is Sri Lanka safe?” The glib retort to that question is to ask: “Is anywhere safe?” The government travel advisories of many countries advise visitors to Sri Lanka to be wary. If you’re planning to visit Sri Lanka for the first time soon, this is bound to be worrying. However, that’s the reaction you’d expect from responsible governments protecting their citizens visiting foreign countries. So what to do? Should you come to Sri Lanka for a holiday?

Click here to visit SriLankaHolidayGuru.com

 

[Premasiri]

Heute wieder ein mail bekommen von Royston Ellis....

https://srilankaholidayguru.com/

EATPLACES TO HAVE TOP TEA EXPERIENCES IN HAPUTALE


Haputale is worth a visit as the closest place to stay to start a tuk-tuk or van ride or even a hike to Lipton’s Seat (the fabulous viewpoint, although often curtained by mist, where Thomas Lipton, promoter of the tea that still bears the name, used to sit and gloat over his plantations). And for a glimpse of a stately home in the tropics, there’s the neo-gothic Adisham Hall, now a novitiate, open only on weekends or holidays.

Perhaps because Thomas Lipton grabbed so many bankrupt blight-ridden coffee plantations around Haputale in the late 1890s and converted them to successful tea plantations, the town has responded as the place to buy all kinds of tea to take home. But it’s usually ignored by tourists who prefer the artificial comfort zone of Ella, 25km further inland. Here are the top five places to have tea in Haputale.



1. Tea at Website Link Haputale



The best place to shop a lot for tea in Haputale is known familiarly as “Loga’s” but more prosaically as “Website Link” – a kiosk on Railway Station Road that leads from the station to the town. It has kept its name from the days when Loga ran a communications bureau but now stocks hundreds of packets of different teas, ranging from Silver Tips to Dust Number One, via Flowery varieties and beautifully designed packs of special single estate (and even green) teas and his own Masala blend of tea. His prices are special too, as they should be since you’re in the centre of where the tea is harvested and produced.



2. Stassen’s Organic Tea Centre retail
Before you get to Haputale by the A4 road from the west, after Haldemulla, is the amazing Idalgashinna Organic Tea Centre retail outlet. It’s amazing because this genuine organic tea is grown, harvested and created in the hills behind the shop. And organic means organic – not just an absence of chemical fertiliser but growth inspired by organic matter such as ground cow horns and dung, and planted according to the moon’s phases.

Here you can buy organic tea you know in your heart is genuine, including an orange pekoe (OP) green tea that would cost a fortune in a health shop in Europe but is only Rs1,000 for 250g. Being from the world’s first certified organic tea garden, it’s not only wholesome but a bargain too.


3. Golden Hill Tea Centre



Beside the A4 road that leads to Haputale from Beragala (and the junction to the south), there are several roadside tea counters, but tea from them may have doubtful provenance. Continue to the Golden Hill Tea Centre which used to be a real tea factory until it was abandoned in the 1990s then recently had its top floors chopped off the make a single-story tea restaurant and retail outlet for Glenanore Estate Tea.

Step inside the wooden walled retail tea shop and pass through a pastry shop into the old factory, beautifully converted into a plant-filled restaurant with chunky tables made from factory beams. It reeks of atmosphere and is a fine place for tea, lunch or home-made ice cream dotted with estate strawberries.



4. “A Cuppa Tea” at Lipton’s seat

The place for village-style milky tea made with leaves produced by Lipton’s old factory of Dambatenne. But it’s not just the tea, that makes the experience so special, it’s the short walk uphill from Lipton’s Seat and tea with a view in a cool climate. Read on how to get to Lipton’s seat and 7 awesome things to do in Haputale



5. Tea in Haputale at Lettuce & Cabbage

In the shopping complex opposite the Hill Cliffe bar and guest house on the Railway Station Road, close to Loga’s, there is a fancy looking very modern cafe, were nowhere in Hapuatle is such a cafe.

It’s got huge windows overlooking the mountains, serves good tea, cakes and snacks at moderate prices, a very chilled environment and is a good place if you want to relax, sip some tea, check emails and spend a bit of time.



How to get to Haputale
By train from Ella (or Nanu Oya, the station for Nuwara Eliya) both popular stops on the independent traveller’s route or by bus along the A4 from Colombo or Bandarawela.

 

[Premasiri]

[h=1][FONT=&quot]Greetings from Sri Lanka.[/FONT][/h] And welcome to the first of my weekly Sri Lanka Holiday Guru newsletters: "Royston Reports". Our aim is to reveal inside information about life in Sri Lanka that you won't find anywhere else, as a result of personal experience, not as part of official tourism promotion. The diversity that characterises life, people, culture and scenery in this country, alone makes a visit here worthwhile. And on our website, you’ll find greater details about what’s different in Sri Lanka and all you can do to make your holiday here memorable. We hope to see you in Sri Lanka soon. Royston Ellis, Editorial Consultant, Sri Lanka Holiday Guru [h=1]Royston Reports [FONT=&quot]Heritage Marmalade[/FONT][/h] The days of British colonisation introduced many wonderful things to Sri Lanka. The most obvious, perhaps, is the railway network, stared in 1867 when the first train steamed into Kandy, the same year the first commercial planting of tea in the island took place. Administration and infrastructure was the British forte. As well as the railways, they built roads that even today enable public buses to serve the remotest villages. They pioneered the planting of coffee and, when that crop was wiped out by disease, cheerfully turned to growing tea instead. The planters built solid bungalows on their plantations and their wives dutifully took on the task of being home-makers. While plantation cuisine in hill country guest houses has survived, albeit with a Srri Lankan touch, pure Colonial food heritage is lives on in Orange Marmalade. Made to a traditional recipe supervised by the monks of the neo-gothic Adisham Hall, the Catholic novitiate in the hills near Haputale, Adisham marmalade reflects the heritage of colonial days. It is tart in taste with a cloying sweetness but the real kick comes from the chunky strips of orange peel. It is delicious when spread on on buttered toast made from bread baked in a village brick oven. The marmalade costs Rs260 for a 450g jar and can be bought from the Adisham retail outlet just outside Haputale on the road to Bandarawela .

The Sri Lanka Survival Guide for a tourist srilankaholidayguru.com/survivalguide

 

[Premasiri]

Royston's Report. Sri Lanka Holiday Guru Newsletter


LEARN TO PAINT IN SRI LANKA

Here’s a holiday with a difference in Sri Lanka: learn how to paint, in watercolours or oils.

Sri Lanka’s foremost artist, Raja Segar, is opening his house, gallery and studio in Sri Lanka for tourists to learn the secrets and techniques of how to create memorable and collectable works of art.

Segar’s work is distinctive and much in demand, not just in Asia but also around the world. He even painted a portrait of me and the Beatles based on a 1963 photograph from my rock ‘n’ roll past.

The way he works so deftly is amazing so if you want to fulfil a dream and learn how to paint, this is a chance to do it while on holiday in Sri Lanka.

Each master class lasts a week. Art materials and full board are included in the fee of US$1,500 per person. Segar’s house, gallery and studio are located at Ja-Ela, a suburb 20km north of Colombo. The house was designed by a Sri Lankan architect who was trained by Corbusier.

For more information on the artist and his work, search Raja Segar on Google.

To book a week’s painting instruction that could change your life, contact Segar direct on +94 772 259171.

Photo: Raja Segar and Royston Ellis

Happy Holiday
Royston Ellis
Editorial Consultant
SriLankaHolidayGuru.com

Let us know your comments


Sri Lanka Survival Guide

srilankaholidayguru.com/survivalguide

 

[Premasiri]

Kann mir jemand sagen wie ich die Newsletter von Royston Ellis ohne diese Rahmen einstellen kann....

 

[dc0kk]

Da musst du den Text editieren und die eckigen Klammern sowie alles dazwischen entfernen.

 

[Claudia]

Guten Morgen, Paula

Ich hatte deine Frage gestern schon gelesen, war aber unterwegs.

Ich habe die so genannten "Container" entfernt.

Ich setze dir gleich einmal einen Screenshot vom Handy ein, damit du siehst, wie es funtioniert.
Es ist nicht ganz einfach und man muss verdammt aufpassen, damit man nicht die falschen Zeichen löscht.
Aber ich denke, du kriegst das hin, sonst kannst einfach nochmal neu rein kopieren.
Wir schaffen das

Immer darauf achten, dass du beide Zeichen am Anfang und Ende löschst. Das ist schon alles.

Also [ T R ] ....... [ / T R ] oder [ Table ] ..... [ /Table ] und das "Containergedöns"

Alles weg, was nicht zum Text passt bis auf das was fett gedruckt erscheinen soll.
Man kann aber auch immer nach editieren.

Probiere es einfach aus, es kann nichts passieren, das ich nicht wieder hin kriege

 

[Premasiri]

Danke Peter und Claudia werde es das nächste Mal probieren...

 

[MA*R*CO]

Kann mir jemand sagen wie ich die Newsletter von Royston Ellis ohne diese Rahmen einstellen kann....

Jeder PC, jeder Laptop, jedes Smartphone, jedes Tablet, ... hat einen ganz einfachen Texteditor. Dort kann man nur Text eingeben aber nicht formatieren.

1. Text der Webseite in den Texteditor kopieren. Alle HTML-Elemente verschwinden automatisch. Das gilt leider auch für Bilder. Eventuell Leerzeilen zwischen Absätzen löschen bzw. einfügen.

2. Text vom Texteditor in den Forumsbeitrag kopieren. Die fehlenden Bilder eventuell ergänzen.

 

[MA*R*CO]

Andere Variante zu #610, ohne Texteditor:

1. Im Webbrowser den Text markieren. Eventuell gibt es dort neben Kopieren auch die Option reinen Text kopieren (oder so ähnlich). Die Funktion kann man eventuell nachinstallieren.

2. Den reinen Text direkt in den Forumsbeitrag kopieren. HTML wird wieder entfernt - leider auch Bilder.

 

[Premasiri]

Habe das e mail was ich von Royston bekam vom Laptop kopiert und dann ins SLB eingefügt....früher ging es immer super ohne diese " Container " .....weis nicht warum es jetzt nicht mehr geht...werde es beim nächsten e mail von Royston wieder probieren...

 

[Premasiri]

Call 1990

We were sipping sundowners in my garden overlooking the Galle Road, south of Bentota when we heard a squeal of brakes and a loud thump. We rushed to the fence and peered out into the gloaming. Sure enough, a road accident. We couldn’t see too clearly but one vehicle was on its side behind a crunched three-wheeler (tuk-tuk taxi).

While I was wondering what to do, my Sri Lankan friend had already pulled out his mobile phone and dialled One Nine Nine Zero, the government-run instant ambulance service. Frankly, I didn’t share his optimism of a swift response, but that’s what we got.

He reported the accident, gave the location and said there were people injured. He gave his phone number and was told to wait. Within a couple of minutes, he received a call from the ambulance service saying an ambulance had been dispatched. Meanwhile, people were gathering at the scene of the accident but no one seemed to know what to do.

Suddenly we heard the siren of the ambulance announcing its approach. The phone rang again and the caller wanted to know if the ambulance had arrived. “Yes!” my friend said, sounding as surprised as I was. The injured were swiftly transferred to the ambulance and taken to hospital.

The next day, there was a further surprise. Someone from the ambulance service telephoned to ask if we were satisfied with the response time and had any comments. We had: congratulations!

Suwa Seriya, as it is called, is a Government-run, digitally-driven, free ambulance service serving the entire nation. Sponsored by India. In the past three years, the service has responded to 1.2 million calls, dealing with more than 780 cases a day. It has a fleet of 297 ambulances based at police stations throughout the country. Thanks to a carefully-planned network based on an ambulance for every 60,000 population within a radius of 25/35 kilometres and utilising GPS data, the response time from call to arrival averages 11.4 minutes.

The ambulance crews are trained in tactical driving as well as first aid and delivering babies. They don’t just respond to accidents but to any medical emergency (such as cardiac arrest) to which they are summoned.

Our experience that evening of the prompt and efficient manner in which the emergency was handled was reassuring. The number to remember to save a life is 1990.

Happy Holiday,
Royston Ellis
Editorial Consultant
SriLankaHolidayGuru.com

 

[Premasiri]

Elegant Lunch on the Beach.

We went for lunch last Sunday at the beachside Osteria Romana restaurant in Induruwa. It’s a treat for tourists wanting a taste of Italian cuisine after a surfeit of rice and curry. Housed in a modern, artistically designed bungalow by the coastal road from Colombo to Galle, the restaurant exudes sophistication.

There is a bar counter with stools on the veranda facing a garden of palm trees leading to the beach. There the barman gave me tips on how to make a Negroni (gin, Campari and Martini Rosso in equal measures) saying it should be stirred not shaken. (I prefer mine shaken so it gets cooled by the agitated ice.)

We sat at a table actually on the beach, under an enormous parasol shading us from the sun, to enjoy the restaurant’s Italian menu. I’m not a fan of pasta and pizza (a selection of both is available), but there are seafood dishes, salads (the gorgonzola and bacon with lettuce was an appetising starter at Rs1,140) and meat.

That’s how I found myself confronted with an enormous Osso Buco (veal shin) at Rs3,600 smothered with a rich Bolognaise sauce of mincemeat. While passers-by on the beach watched us enviously, we enjoyed the moment of elegant sophistication in a natural setting: no piped music, just the splash of waves on the beach, a gentle ocean breeze and sand at our feet.

Sri Lanka is marvellous for those kind of contrasting experiences.

Happy Holiday,
Royston Ellis
Editorial Consultant
SriLankaHolidayGuru.com

 

[Claudia]

Das hört sich doch sehr gut an.
Vielleicht knnst du es testen im nächsten Urlaub.

 

[Premasiri]

Das hört sich doch sehr gut an.
Vielleicht knnst du es testen im nächsten Urlaub.

Gena das selbe habe ich mir auch gedacht...werde mit Nadee und Siri dort einmal essen gehen...

 

[Premasiri]

Birds in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s birdlife is huge – and I don’t just mean birds in abundance but also the sheer size of them.

In Colombo around the Beira Lake, you can see ungainly gigantic pelicans perched uncomfortably on walls and in trees.

Driving in the south, you’ll occasionally see flashes of blue and green of a peacock foraging beside the road. In my garden the other morning, I heard what I thought was a cat mewing. I looked out and there were two peahens the size of geese, lumbering among the weeds.

Sri Lanka also has many other types of big birds: here are boobies, frigate birds, bitterns, herons, egrets, storks, jungle fowls and owls among others. Sri Lanka is a bird watcher’s heaven given the number of different species of birds (over 400) to be found here.

That’s partly due to the varied climatic zones, a well as the country’s proximity to India from where many birds pop in for a visit. Migratory species holiday here just as humans do - when their breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere get too cold, they fly south to Sri Lanka.

According to the season, I see many birds in my garden overlooking the Indian Ocean. In the evening we watch sea birds circling above the surf to fish and in the morning mynahs (a member of the starling family) strut prettily on the lawn. Kingfishers poise on branches, screeching with delight when they spot a worm. Of course, we have crows too who hold noisy committee meetings at the tops of coconut palm trees when they discover carrion.


Strange bird in Sri Lanka

There was a newcomer to my garden recently.

Very morning around 07.00 I sprinkle lentils on a bare batch of earth outside the kitchen of my cottage for a flock of the neighbourhood pigeons. If I am late, the pigeons patiently line up on the roof, occasionally swooping down to remind me it’s breakfast time. The bolder ones even encroach on the veranda, eyeing me reproachfully for not feeding them on time.

On Sunday, there was an unusual bird pecking with the pigeons. It looked like a pigeon, and probably thought it was a pigeon, but was it? Its plumage was black and white.

A friend got out her bird book and said it might be a Cape Pigeon, probably having arrived here from Africa as a stowaway on a ship. Can any reader identify it correctly?

Unfortunately, it hasn’t returned to my garden so perhaps it’s gone home. A pity, as I am curious to know if I have discovered a new species among all the birds in Sri Lanka.


Happy Holiday,
Royston Ellis
Editorial Consultant
SriLankaHolidayGuru.com

 

[Pak Bahasa]

Hallo Paula,

einen herzlichen Dank hier einmal für die regelmäßigen Newsletter. Macht Spaß zu lesen. Bitte weiter so!

Liebe Grüße
Joerg

 

[Biggi]

Auch von mir Danke für das Einstellen der Newsletter von R.E. liebe Paula!

Liebe Grüße, Biggi

 

[Premasiri]

@ Biggi und @ Joerg vielen Dank für Euer Feedback...er sendet jetzt wieder jede Woche einen Newsletter....jetzt klappt es auch mit dem Einstellen....: smil_dankä: