You wake up to the caress of thick clean muslin sheets, old fashioned and as comfortable as grandma’s. It’s a wonderful sensation you’re not likely to experience anywhere else in Sri Lanka. I haven’t. Outside your window float early morning strains of devotional music from the nearby kovil. Maybe too the call of a local rooster. After all, you’re in a real working village, Kallady to be exact, just across the lagoon from Batticaloa and a five minute ride from the city center or railroad station.You might as well be a million miles away from the crowds. Listen closely to the birds and peepers outside your window, to the subtle chorus of leaves in the breeze. If you’re lucky you may hear the muffled crash of waves. The Indian Ocean is just a ten minute walk away.
Riviera Resort, surrounded by water, is a paradise of understated amazement. Look around the immaculately kept grounds, planted over the past few decades as an arboretum (the owner, Darshan, tells me the guesthouse was conceived after his father designed and planted the extensive gardens. His parents lived at different times in many of the variously-appointed rooms). A small army of sweepers keeps the sandy paths and verges spic and span. Your travel dollar (or euro, or whatever) supports local people in a tight-knit community that values hard work and careful attention to your comfort as well as the environment.
On our second visit here (I admit our first time was spent luxuriating in hammocks along the breezy and gently lapping lagoon) I discovered that the owners are generating their own biogas from kitchen waste. This keeps the burners going on sustainable low-carbon-emission fuel at least four hours a day, up to 20% of the kitchen’s requirements on a daily basis. Not touting itself as an “Eco-resort,” the Riviera nevertheless “walks the walk” when it comes to sustainable tourism. Virtually all of the vegetables and fish you order for breakfast, lunch, or dinner are locally sourced or better, grown right on the premises free of agrochemicals of any sort. Natural curd (water buffalo yogurt set in hand-thrown ceramic pots), a Sri Lankan delicacy, is always available. It’s a great way to sooth your digestive system and bolster those all-important beneficial bacteria. For the hedonist, killer crab curry and seafood delicacies caught just this morning are available and of course, there’s a full bar.
You can rent bikes at the resort or at “East N’ West On Board” (Tours & Travel) where one-on-one tours and cooking classes can be arranged. It’s a rare opportunity to immerse yourself in the unique rural culture of the eastern Sri Lanka, which was cut off from tourism for so many years during the conflict that ended in 2009. Any way you travel, on your own or under the tutelage of one of “East N’ West On Board” expert guides, you get to savor amazing views of the countryside, lush rice fields and dramatic kitul palms (palmyra), literally a stone’s throw from Kallady. But you don’t need to rush around to get a feel for things. Stop for a few minutes on the pedestrian bridge that crosses the lagoon. It was built in the 1920s and replaced by a modern vehicular bridge post-tsunami. Now the historic Lady Manning Bridge is open to foot traffic, bicycles, and the occasional scooter. It’s the best place to encounter locals while watching fishermen cast their lines and nets. Whether they’re bringing up the freshest prawns you ever tasted or delicious fish for tonight’s table, it’s always a treat to hang out and watch them. Look east across the lagoon to the neat, tree-lined embankment. That’s home. From that embankment by the way, you can see the old Dutch Fort on Batticaloa Island. What a great way to get your bearings and also get a feel for the geography of the place. You might also catch a glimpse of one of the many crocodiles that live in the lagoon. They are readily visible when they come up to sun themselves but don’t worry. They stay offshore!
As you walk around the shady, spacious grounds at the Riviera you can visit the lovingly hand-tended vegetable patches, tomatoes, eggplant, pumpkins, okra, and beans, which differ with the season. Bananas, mango trees, guavas, and Areca palms shade the pathways and offer up their tempting fruit. Also on view are the rabbit hutch, a quail colony, a lively duck pond, and a “living machine” in which water is filtered naturally and re-introduced to the groundwater. In fact, groundwater recharge and protection is so important here you won’t run into an inch of paving. This keeps the soil and water healthy and it also keeps Riviera cool!
Did I mention the breeze that stays with you all day? Enter Riviera Resort from any direction and the first thing you notice is that wonderful fresh air. It’s a good deal cooler here on this bit of Kallady, aptly named Dutch Bar Road, where the old Burgher community must have felt at home in the gentle, genial, velvet touch of the breeze. Savor it for awhile, more than a couple of nights if you can afford the time, and see what I mean.
The insouciant, open-air feel of the Riviera extends from the open dining area where third-and fourth-time guests congregate with newcomers past midnight, all the way along the lagoon to the magnificent pool complex. Just a couple of years old, the sparkling clean pool was designed to provide expansive views of the lagoon. The symphony of light playing back and forth from lagoon to sky goes on every day as coconut palms sway to the breeze and sea eagles ride the thermals high above. This low density resort never gets crowded. Each room is different and the buildings are discretely hidden behind trees and flowering shrubbery. Except for the lively dining area where local families also gather for meals, you pretty much feel like you’ve got the place to yourself.
Under the watchful eyes of the top-professional management team and along with the sunny, smiling presence of the host-owners who live right on the grounds, you can seek as much solace or company as you desire at the aptly-named Riviera Resort.
Samuel Hammer, Associate Professor, Boston University
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