It’s official: the best holiday hideaway on the shores of the Indian Ocean is in Kuchaveli, a twenty-minute drive up the east coast of Sri Lanka from the forested turquoise coves of Trincomalee. That’s the expert opinion of World Luxury Hotel magazine, which offered this prize accolade to Jungle Beach, the so-close-to-nature-you-can-taste it resort hotel at Kuchaveli owned and run by Uga Escapes. Jungle Beach was also rated the best resort hotel on the East Coast last year by the world’s most popular and authoritative online hotel and resort review site, tripadvisor.com.
Kuchaveli, where, in the old days, a ferry across the lagoon connected Trincomalee with the vast jungles of the Wanni, is a fabled beauty-spot where forest, sea, salt-marsh and lagoon come together to create an explosion of biodiversity on land and in the air and water. Dozens of species of birds inhabit the area, the lagoon and ocean teem with fish, shellfish, turtles and cetaceans. Apart from fishermen who still work using traditional methods, the beach is broad and mostly empty, stretching up and down the coast as far as the eye can see.
Jungle Beach, as its name implies, is built on a site that was – and effectively still is – part of the surrounding forest. The ten-acre area was selectively cleared of scrub, but the 180 mature trees growing on it were all spared and the hotel was built around them. With its low, thatched-roof buildings and absence of walls in public areas, Jungle Beach blends almost invisibly into its surroundings. Its 48 cabins, all crafted from indigenous materials, offer complete privacy and seclusion. Their luxurious appointments – king-size beds, top-end entertainment systems and just about anything else you can imagine – seem unexpected (but very welcome) in these rustic surroundings. The spa, gym and open-air restaurantand bar also nestle modestly amid the greenery, which has been enhanced by the addition of about two thousand new shrubs and saplings.
Now celebrating its second anniversary, Jungle Beach used to be a well-kept secret, but with these recent accolades and the publicity generated by them, more and more people have begun to visit, and advance booking is now strongly advised. For a weekend – better make that a week – of luxurious living, feasting all your senses with your feet in the sand, there’s no other place like it around the Indian Ocean. And that’s official.
Jungle Beach & Kuchaveli Hospital
Though Kuchaveli is a small community, its local hospital is the main source of medical and health care for almost three thousand families who live in the area. Opened in 1948, it has been improved over the years whenever funds permitted, but money is currently scarce and the hospital has been in need of rehabilitation and refurbishment for some time.
Having become resident in the locality themselves, the management and staff of Jungle Beach were quickly made aware of the need to improve the hospital. They decided that it would make a great second anniversary project for the resort. ‘This is a busy hospital,’ observed Mr V. Sivapriyan, who is Resort Manager at Jungle Beach. ‘Apart from regular medical care, it also treats accident and emergency cases 24 hours a day. But the most urgent need was for better maternity facilities.’
On the advice of Dr. Yogasigham Ruthraa, a member of the hospital administration, it was decided to concentrate, initially, on refurbishing and maintaining the hospital maternity ward. ‘Our team dedicated their best efforts to the completion of that task,’ says Mr. Sivapriyan, ‘and within a short period of time we had turned this ward into a first-class facility. This is a first in the history of Kuchaveli hospital.’
For resort staff and management, there was the reward of connecting with and giving something back to the local community. According to Mr. Sivapriyan, Jungle Beach has committed itself to support further development and maintenance of the hospital as, he says, ‘an example of how private businesses can contribute to public welfare in the Trincomalee area.’
It’s also an example of Uga Escapes’ policy of supporting the communities around its properties, according to Priyanjith Weerasooria the company’s Managing Director. ‘We do this wherever we can,’ says Mr. Weerasooria. ‘Uga Bay supports a large school in Valachenai town, and at Ulagalle we’re involved in various projects with local villagers and the local temple. We strongly believe that it is our responsibility not only to protect the environment but also uplift the local communities our businesses have an impact on.’
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