Back in 1933, science fiction writer James Hilton, in his novel The Lost Horizon, allowed four Europeans who fled from rebellious India to Pakistan, were kidnapped in Afghanistan and flew towards Tibet to see what the great scientists, mystics and philosophers searched in vain , - the mysterious Shambhala, which received the name Shangri-La in the novel.
Shambhala, like its literary allegory of Shangri-La, is a mythical country somewhere in the vicinity of Tibet, according to other versions - in the Gobi desert, in the Himalayas and even in the territory of modern Syria. After the Muslim invasion of Central Asia in the 9th century, the kingdom of Shambhala became invisible to human eyes, and only those who are pure in heart can find their way to it. As Elena Roerich wrote in her letters, calling Shambhala the stronghold of Great Knowledge and Light, this kingdom has existed "from time immemorial and has stood on a permanent watch of the evolution of mankind, observing and setting the course of world events in a salvific direction."
It is not known for certain whether Hong Kong billionaire Robert Quoc, the sugar king of Asia and the largest palm oil producer in the world, read James Hilton’s novel, but when he decided to build his first hotel in Singapore in 1971, he named it Shangri-La. Today 98 Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts hotels under the Shangri-La Hotel, Shangri-La Resort, Traders Hotel and Kerry Hotel brands operate in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, India , Maldives, Mauritius, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Fiji, Turkey, Great Britain, France and Canada.
In the summer of 2016, the chain announced the opening of another Shangri-La hotel - this time in Sri Lanka, a no less mysterious and exotic country for us in the very south of Hindustan. Translated from Sanskrit, the name Sri Lanka means "glorious, blessed land." Shangri-La (Shambhala) in Sri Lanka - what could be more mysterious and fabulous, right? And so we thought, planning to fly from Dubai to Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was called until 1972, being the British dominion.
We are a group consisting of popular Kazakhstani bloggers and journalists, employees of the Shangri-La chain, to whom we, in fact, flew to visit, and representatives of flydubai airline, which kindly provided its boards for the trip from Kazakhstan to Dubai, from Dubai to Sri- Lanka and back.
We flew, as I wrote above, in order to form our own opinion about the new Shangri-La Hambantota Resort & Spa, which was built on 145 acres of land from a former coconut plantation. On July 2, 2016, 300 spacious rooms with a view of the green golf courses and the picturesque beach, where high ocean waves driven by a fresh breeze, solemnly opened their doors.
Of course, Shangri-La was not the first five-star resort in the country, 10 percent of the GDP of which falls on the tourism industry, but in the south of the island there were definitely no hotels of this class. Therefore, before, in order to visit the popular Bandala National Park, tourists had to travel from Colombo, the capital of the country, to the southern coast almost across the island. Anyone who has ever visited Sri Lanka or India, where traffic is not very different, understands that five hours from Colombo to the south, two or three hours in the park and another five hours back to the nearest five-star hotel is a pleasure, for true lovers of extreme sports. Now you can board a flydubai plane, fly from Dubai, land in Colombo, and without leaving the plane, after 30 minutes, land at Weerawila airport in the south of the country. The road from the airport to the Shangri-La Hotel takes only 30-40 minutes along the new and safe four-lane highway with a chipper in the middle.
The flight from Dubai to Colombo departed on schedule, at 11 a.m., and early in the morning we reached the final destination of our route, where it seemed that all the hotel staff were headed by the general manager. Despite the more than comfortable flight in the business class lounge of flydubai, we were given time to stay in our rooms and put ourselves in order. They also offered to visit the CHI The Spa SPA-salon, where not so tired travelers were waited by various (optional) Ayurvedic treatments using 100 percent natural ingredients. I don’t know how anyone, but I traditionally chose a general relaxing massage - the best way to relieve fatigue from a busy week.
On the second day of the visit, the hospitable hosts planned for us what many fly to Sri Lanka for — a meeting with animals in the Bandala National Reserve. Of course, Sri Lankan safari cannot be compared with similar adventures in Africa, where the parks are larger in size and there are more wild animals, but we were lucky - in the two hours we traveled in specially equipped cars around the reserve, we managed to see almost everyone its famous inhabitants.
Apart from relatively small animals, such as half-wild red dogs, peacocks, monkeys and mongooses, even deer and wild boars came out to see us from the tropical thicket. Particularly pleased with the brown bear, which we did not even hope to see, but which set aside other, more important matters and gradually led past us to a watering hole along the road to the lake and back. He drank long and greedily - probably the day before he was at Mowgli's party. We also saw the elephant, but it was apparently without makeup and therefore showed us only its loin with a short tail and trunk. Only a leopard refused to meet with us, who, most likely, found a better breakfast that day than bloggers from Dubai and Kazakhstan, greedy for sensations.
After such a successful photo shoot, the road back seemed much shorter, especially since the hotel had a lunch with the general manager and other entertainments in the form of yoga, swimming in the blue water of a swimming pool stretching over the horizon, and even jumping from a circus trapeze to a safety net stretched over five meters below.
In the evening, we abandoned electric three-wheeled scooters, known as “tuk-tuk”, and walked along the shore to the sound of the surf to the village next to the hotel, looking along the road to a picturesque pier with fishing boats and making another photo shoot on the coastal cliff, right against the setting sun. The staff accompanying us at Shangri-La Hotel reported that they plan to arrange a special romantic dinner for lovers in this place.
By the way, Shangri-La already has a special package for honeymooners - a 50% discount on everything from the cost of luxurious rooms to lunches and dinners in hotel restaurants and Ayurvedic treatments in the SPA center.
On this life-affirming note, perhaps I will finish my narrative, leaving room for beautiful illustrations for the material. I’ll only add a few words for those who can’t imagine their life without the Internet and social networks - free Wi-Fi is available for guests throughout the Shangri-La Hotel. And for especially addicted, I’ll inform you one more news - besides Dubai Airport, where free Internet is available for all travelers, you can stay connected and in flight, as already today eight out of fifty Boeings of flydubai airlines are equipped with special satellite equipment and their number will be only increase.
Have a nice trip!
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And be sure to read the article about Sri Lanka in the magazine "Russian Emirates" No. 75, which went on sale September 1, 2016.
