After crossing a stretch of forest bounded by an electric wire, a clear sign that the elephants could pass and passing through here, is possibile to see the first houses that, with their shimmering colors, stand out among the various shades of green nature.

The views of the sudu (as we call the Singhalese by referring to our white skin color) spell curiosity among the local people, who greet us giving us great smiles, still unused to see tourists passing through this road.

In the last stretch, the road becomes dirt and a bit bumpy and forces the car to proceed slowly but allows us to focus more on watching the surroundings: two peacocks chasing, a Mongoose hastily crossing the road, a boy riding his bicycle with toothbrush in the mouth and the towel on his shoulder is going to the river to wash himself, the big black eyes of a child who is a little intimidated, spy us behind mom’s skirt, huts on the tree in near the rice fields where a farmes sleeps during night to protect the crop from any elephants passages.
All daily life scenes far away from the reality we live in Italy everyday.

Five years have passed, since then we have traveled hundreds of times in the same way, yet for us it has not lost its charm yet, and when we are at Kuwera, at the most beautiful moment of the day, when a particular light comes during the sunset, We often go by feet or by bike, across the village exploring new roads that often lead us towards some homes allowing us to meet local people always happy to communicate (as possible) with us.

Unlike the “Tour in a Typical Rural Village” that is advertised by many agencies, often a “staged” organized for tourists, those who stay at the Kuwera have the opportunity to live an authentic experience in a real Singalese village, Simply by going to the hotel gate.
Precisely because here nothing is prepared and artificial the experiences of our guests are always different: Lucilla and her friends during their walk, have been invited by a family to get a tea in their courtyard home; Ms & Mr.Robinson were greeted by the school kids during class time; Frida and Ciro and parents invited Kavindiya, our gardener’s daughter, riding to the lake while the little Christian still remembers his new friends of the village with whom he played crickets.

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70% of the population follows and puts into practice even today, in a very active and heard the teachings of Buddhism, especially in the villages.

Entering any place of Buddhist worship is possible to feel a spirituality atmosphere due to the presence of many pilgrims strictly dressed in white clothing, barefoot, collected in prayer, often holding lotus flowers, fruit, rice to offer to Buddha.

The monks play an important role in the spreading this doctrine and they are held in high esteem by the people.

Following an ancient tradition that has been handed down for thousands of years, the families of the Buddhist faith, in turn every day preparing and carrying on offer lunch to the monks of the nearest monastery.
The Kuwera’s staff has given its availability in a spontaneous way to participate in this initiative and, in agreement with the village people, they decided that the first day of each month is our turn to prepare dinner for the unique monk who lives in the temple of our little village of Udawalayagama.

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On this date, our two chefs Nissanka and Niroshan, after finishing serving breakfast to hotel guests, set to work cooking and bringing to the Temple a few local dishes, including rice & curry, mainly of vegetables , and fruits.
The delivery is by Tuk Tuk and is accompanied by a short ceremony, where the Monk leaving a small portion of food in front of the Buddha statue as an offering (food which will then be eaten by all the animals in the backyard), reciting some prayers and concluding with the sound of the gong, before eating his lunch.

The monk usually preserves part of this food for children and needy elderly of the village.

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“Bumpy Road” are the two words most written in our guests reviews, to report how rough and bumpy is the road to get to Kuwera.

In part this is true, last 2 km are a little bit rough, and so you need to follow it slowly by car and, especially for those who arrive in the evening, in the dark, maybe tired, could be a little bit heavy.

Contrary to what many people think about this, for us is a plus and not a penalty, otherwise we would not be able to realize our desire, which was to create a hotel in the middle of nature and inside a real Sri Lankan rural village.

Is really impossible to enjoy the uniqueness of a typical rural village being close to the main roads; everything becomes very fake, very touristy and very commercial.

If you want to see the real life of a typical Sri Lankan village you are necessary to go into the countryside away from the main roads; all that remains close to the main roads can not be classified as “typical and unspoiled”.

Udawalayagama village can not be considered pure, now some comfort are here too, of course, but always retains the peculiarity and authenticity of a typical rural village.

Most of the entrepreneurs, who invest in hotel business, have as its primary goal the profit, so they go searching for a land close to major roads, easily accessible, with beautiful paved roads, sometimes surrounded by restaurants and other shops for tourists, all that hardly manage to transmit the true essence of Sri Lanka.

We did not want this for our guests.

Our dream was to make known to our guests the true life of a typical village, where the children go to get water at the well, same well that during the day becomes a meeting place for women who gather here to wash and talking happily to each other. In the morning at Kuwera Eco Lodge we wake up with the sounds of peacocks and birds, sometimes interrupted by the neighbors’ radio  transmitting music (unfortunately not always moderate volume level) or sometimes Buddhist prayers.

Children playing directly on the beaten earth road and farmers who bring grazing buffaloes, are other scenes of daily life that you can hardly see on a main road.

That’s why we have chosen the village of Udawalayagama.

In the village there are no shops and not all the inhabitants have electricity; you will not find people who will want to sell something or drivers who call you insistently to offer a paid passage on Tuk Tuk, everything here is genuine and we hope to remain so for much longer…

We smile when we read the reviews about the bumpy road, we also know that often this observation is also conditioned by their drivers who think more to the dampers of their cars instead to explain the originality of the place to their clients.

We hope reading this post, our future guests will be able to understand the importance of the choice of this location and consider a virtue these last 2 km that separate us from the perfectly paved road.

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The posts are not necessarily in chronological order but will be placed randomly, that’s why we decided to begin from the initiative started on December 1^st 2016.

Since the beginning all three partners we agreed to create an eco lodge that had minimal environmental impact and, although in Sri Lanka it is not easy to implement, we tried to move in that direction, one step at a time.

In November, we took an important step forward when Upasena, one of the three partners, had THE idea to eliminate the use of plastic bottles… immediately we studied how to implement it.

We calculated that during the 2015/2016 year in our Lodge were consumed about 3,000 plastic bottles of water and we definitely want to limit or reset this amount.
Ms. Isabel from More-than-travel, during a class on eco-sustainability held at the Hotel to the staff, calculated the impact that these 3,000 plastic bottles have on the environment, the result is 1 Ton CO2 emitted into the atmosphere in a year !!!
(Note that a roundtrip flight between Europe and Sri Lanka emits approximately 3.3 tons of carbon dioxide per person)

An impressive number for a small hotel with 7 rooms like ours. Imagine how many plastic bottles are used in all the hotels in Sri Lanka and consequently all over the world every day.

So starting from the 1st of December we decided to eliminate water bottles at the table and complimentary water in the rooms, replacing them with a dispenser with 20 liter reusable tank, providing filtered and certified water for free to our guests in the rooms and during meals.
Our guests will not have to pay for water during lunch or dinner and they can fill the glass jugs provided in their rooms by themselves as many times as they want.

This for internal use at the Hotel

If a guest wishes to fill his bottle to carry outside the hotel, maybe during an excursion, we will only ask a small contribution of Rs.50 Lt.

Guests collaboration is essential and the first feedbacks received during this first month of trial are very positive, everyone is very excited to work together to achieve this.

We believe deeply in what we are doing and we hope to be an example for our colleagues in Sigiriya, in Sri Lanka, and why not, in the rest of the world.

We are aware that all of this has an economic cost, because it is a loss of profit, but we think we’ll all pay off in the future for every little action taken to safeguard our planet.

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