The Owl and the Pussycat, Sri Lanka: what a beautiful hotel it is, it is

A whimsical hideaway stunningly located on the edge of the Indian Ocean

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“From Seyllan to Paradise is forty miles”, says the legend, “the sound of the fountains of paradise is heard there”. It goes some way to describe the lure of Sri Lanka, as recounted by the Sri Lankan-born, Booker Prize-winning novelist Michael Ondaatje in his semi-autobiographical memoir, Running in the Family. After all, the island was once known as Serendib, which later led to the coining of the word serendipity.

Edward Lear, author of the famous nonsensical poem, The Owl and the Pussycat, might not have agreed. He spent an irritable month on the island in 1875, and, just like other fastidious Victorians who visited Sri Lanka, he found the climate deeply disagreeable. “I did not enjoy Ceylon,” he declared in his travel journal, sourly; “the climate is damp, which I hate; it is always more or less wet.” D.H. Lawrence, who also visited the island, agreed. “...Ceylon is an experience - but heavens, not a permanence”, he complained.

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