September 2019

Welcome to our latest newsletter keeping you up to date with life at Jungle Tide. As always, let us know if you don’t want to receive them and we’ll unsubscribe you.

Our new website
If you haven’t already done so, please take a look at our new website. It has been produced by Ben and Emma ww.bebusiness.nz who have been looking after Jungle Tide while we were in the UK until recently. We think it’s marvellous, and we’ve had great feedback from lots of people. As well as being more visually attractive and very mobile-friendly we and they have focused on providing lots of helpful information to people planning their holidays in Sri Lanka.

A great time to visit Sri Lanka

We returned home from the UK recently and went into Kandy a few days ago. We saw hardly any white faces the whole time we were shopping in the city. Western tourists are still reluctant to come to Sri Lanka, it seems. Since the country is now perfectly safe, and there are terrific bargains to be
had, from accommodation to souvenirs to free tourist visas we can only guess at why.

Many people might still associate Sri Lanka with terrorist threats. And sure enough, when they check out the UK government travel advice it states that there is a significant risk of terrorist activity in Sri Lanka. The same is perhaps true of other European and Western governments. But what they don’t realise is that the UK government says exactly the same about France, Holland and indeed pretty well everywhere else. Because in an age of global terrorism that is true. But it is understandable if people think that the advice is specific to Sri Lanka and so don’t want to risk a holiday here.

The Sri Lankan tourism industry, one of the most important parts of the nation’s economy, has collapsed and is only slowly starting to rebuild. Our own business suffered 80% cancellations after the bombings and we’re only just starting to get new bookings. But we believe that Sri Lanka is as safe as anywhere in the world and safer than many places right now. So if you or anyone you know is thinking of coming to Sri Lanka please come and take advantage of great deals and uncrowded beaches and tourist attractions – places like Sigiriya, Ella, Mirissa and Yala which until recently were mobbed with tourists are now once again relatively quiet. And you can even get seats on the Kandy to Ella train!

Progress with the road

Just before we left for the UK in May we had the news that the last 800 metres of unsurfaced estate road down to Jungle Tide was to be surfaced with concrete. Well, nothing in Sri Lanka happens exactly how and when it is promised but we can report that about 200 metres of road has been surfaced and we’re told that the rest will be done early in 2020 – which may have something to do with the elections due around then. Here’s how the new bit looks.

Some goodbyes

As mentioned above we have said our goodbyes to the truly wonderful Ben and Emma who managed Jungle Tide so well during our three and a half months’ absence in the UK. They didn’t even complain when England stole the cricket World Cup from their New Zealand homeland! We will certainly be staying in touch – they are now hosting our website, for a start – and hope to see them back here again sometime in the future.

We have also had to say goodbye to Gauri and Dars who decided to move back to Jaffna. Dars had been doing a grand job as our groundsman but his doctor told him that his hand injury (not received at Jungle Tide) meant he should no longer do any hard physical work so we have had to part company. He’s found another job back in Jaffna and he, Gauri and their baby – whose name we still haven’t worked out! – have left Jungle Tide. Until business picks up we can’t afford to replace him so the real jungle tide will have to be kept at bay by the rest of us, hopefully with a few volunteers from next month.

Finally, and very sadly, we have to report that Martin and Rani’s dear old dog Kuta has passed away. He was very old for a Sri Lankan street dog and they gave him a great life at Jungle Tide over many years. Kuta died a week or so before we returned from England so we didn’t have the chance to say goodbye, but his end was peaceful. Here he is in his pride, a few years ago:

Garden produce

There are a few advantages to not having a busy summer season this year and the main one is that our staff have been able to spend more time in the gardens, and particularly producing vegetables and fruit in quantities not seen before at Jungle Tide. Home grown chillies, tomatoes, sweetcorn, okra, brinjals, beans, passion fruits, avocados, papaya have all been on the menu for our guests, as well as a continuing supply of eggs from our free range hens.

Jerry’s book: Broke’n’English: Learning to live in Sri Lanka continues to sell steadily both online via Amazon or Kindle, at Barefoot bookshop and from Jungle Tide. And do follow his blog https://brokenenglish.blog for more amusing musings.

With all best wishes,

Jerry and Sally