Sri Lanka Jetwing Yala - Our Hotel on the Remote Edge of Yala National Park

We took it easy our first full day at the Jetwing Yala, enjoying a big breakfast, reading by the pool, going into the ocean, and generally relaxing.  We made friends with a cool British couple at the bar by the pool in the late afternoon.  Tomorrow is when we go on our first safari, and we are going to try to go deep sea fishing the day after.

The hotel breakfast is very generous, a huge buffet spread of bread, salad, fruit, Sri Lankan curries and chutneys, Western eggs, bacon and sausages, traditional Sri Lankan curd and treacle, and hot stations for waffles, omelets and a Sri Lankan specialty, the hopper.  There are also a variety of fruit juices, such as banana lassi, coconut water, and wood apple juice.

Clockwise from top: buffalo yogurt (curd) and treacle (date sauce), egg fried in a pancake (the hopper), some good old fashioned bacon, and string hoppers

A close up of the string hopper

An entire plate of fruit, consisting of passion fruit, mangos, star fruit, papaya, pineapple, watermelon and guava

Another egg hopper, paired with a variety of chutneys, milk rice, dhaal and yellow curry.

Another plate of fruit, with sugar apple in the lower left hand side of the plate.

Two cups of king coconut water.  I tried the wood apple juice and nearly choked, it was such a weird, sticky, sour consistency.

This hotel is very beautiful, with unobstructed views of the water and access to what is practically (given its remote location) a private beach.

 This is the view from our hotel room.  Admittedly the view is a lot of sand dune, but after the 2004 tsunami I can kind of understand their concern.

We have the deluxe rooms which are located on the third floor, which contain a nice sun deck with lounge chairs.

They take conservation seriously here, and I actually do think that they mean what they say, and they practice what they preach.  It has just been incredibly lovely.  I feel like all of the stress and the knots in my shoulders, neck and back have melted away, and I haven't even tried a Sri Lanka ayurveda treatment yet.  One of the most amazing things about this hotel is how much they live with and in nature.  We spotted wild monkeys on the roof of the hotel on our way to dinner last night, and we saw wild boars rooting around in the dirt right outside our room this morning.  The locals don't even bat an eye.

 There are a lot of birds around - today, there seemed to be a lot of black crows.  Yesterday, I didn't notice many birds but there were a lot of cows (just grazing the grass on the property).

 The beach is also amazing.  I could not stop marveling at how Michael and I were the only people on the entire stretch of the entire beach, for the entire time we were there.  Wow!!

 I kept snapping pictures of the water because I thought it was just so meditative and relaxing.

Amazing.