We were lucky enough to stay at Pooja Kanda for 2 nights. We arrived early in the afternoon to meet the villa manager and team of staff. The villa sits high on the hill and with the colonial design is quite impressive. The columns and arches that house the veranda add to the colonial charm and when entering the villa you really have to admire the furnishings and Sri Lankan antiques. A lovely breeze flowed through the villa all day to the late evening.
The bold white pillars, the open-space living, lounge and dining area design, as well as the endless side rooms and terraces provide guests with individual privacy to spend time reading and relaxing.
5 Spacious Bedrooms
There are 5 bedrooms in total: three upstairs with ensuite bathrooms, and a master bedroom downstairs with an adjoining bedroom – perfect for parents with young children.
Ordering meals in a villa
We ate like kings throughout our stay and were always served with a smile by the attentive in-villa chef and his team.
When staying at a villa with a full time chef, the food and beverage system is simple. There is a menu to choose from with an extensive selection of traditional Sri Lankan dishes or classic western meals. You order the meals with the staff and they will purchase the ingredients based on the order and the chef will prepare everything for you. The cost is calculated based on the total grocery bill plus a small surcharge of 15.5% on top.
Virgin White Tea
One of the most popular tea plantations in Sri Lanka is just a 25 minutes drive from the villa. The estate is known as the Virgin White Tea Factory – it produces a white tea completely untouched by human hands.
The process of plucking white tea follows an ancient Chinese Ritual where the choicest of teas were cut by virgins who never touched the tea with their bare skin and offered the resulting produce up as a tribute to the Emperor. They mimic this tradition, although these days the ‘virgin’ concept only applies to the tea, not necessarily the plantation workers!
This white tea is rich in anti-oxidants and is said to be the healthiest tea in the world. Coincidentally it is also one of the most expensive teas in the world fetching over USD $1,500 per kilo. According to the latest testing Virgin White has an anti-oxidant content of 10.11%, which is said to be the highest naturally occurring content of anti-oxidants in any beverage.
Getting Online in Sri Lanka
It was Ministry of Villas’ first time in Sri Lanka and we didn’t know what really to expect when it came to the Internet speed. The Wi-Fi at Pooja Kanda was amazing given the four of us were online at the same time.
We purchased SIM cards when we arrived at the airport, just in case, but they were not needed at Pooja Kanda. Instead, we used the mobile Internet in the car, updating Instagram with cool photos we took on the way to the villa including the fisherman balancing on wooden poles on the beach nearby.
