25th to 27th February, 2022

The chosen destination for my birthday long weekend was Birds Resort at Hambantota; a haven of tranquillity with villas dotted around the site, ours overlooking a river and lush greenery.   The peacocks on the roof of the adjacent villa shown above were a nice surprise on opening the door at dawn to go and play golf on the morning of Sunday 27th; the light level was still low but they demonstrate the calm silence hanging in the air, broken only by the occasional bird call. 

The resort welcome was friendly and genuine and we were served the most delicious fruit juices, made from pressed fresh fruit from the resort’s adjacent 9 acre completely organic farm.  This set the scene for a weekend of superb catering from internationally trained chef Rohana and his kitchen team, they always going the extra mile to delight us.  An example of this will be shown in a post about Cassava crisps and another is the dessert pictured in the images below.

Rohana took us on a buggy tour of the fruit and vegetable garden of which he and the team are so rightfully proud; neat and tidy and very well laid out, wonderful fruit and vegetables were bountiful in the extreme and it was clear come meal times that the food miles were all of a few hundred metres.

Rooms were very spacious and comfortable, the a/c being very welcome after the heat and humidity outside and the peace and quiet a tonic.

A huge debt of gratitude is due to our friend Aruna, he surprising us at the end by insisting that the weekend be a treat on him.  What an incredibly generous birthday gift – especially as he’d already insisted on us travelling in his new car and lending his driver, he travelling with another friend who joined for the weekend.

I hope that you get a feel of the place from the images.

Steve