A Writer's Retreat

Nostalgic for the splendour of Sri Lanka’s shores and abundance of art, author and T+L India’s A-List member, SIDDHARTH DHANVANT SHANGHVI returns to the many riches of Cape Weligama.

- Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi

I first met Malik Fernando in Yala around three years ago, where I told him about my leopard sighting from my morning in the park: within moments of entering the reserve, a thrilling silhouette of the big cat perched on a rock pressed against a milky violet dawn sky. Stretching its form, without a whisper of fat, it gave a lazy yawn before darting off into the shrub. On my way back to camp, an elephant crossed our path with her calf, pausing briefly to size up my jeep with her dark, liquid eye as she juddered her head and marched on.

Fernando listened to me intently, filling me in on the lush, peculiar geography of Yala that made it supportive leopard turf. In beige shorts and a linen shirt, he could pass for another hip, sharp, eco-aware wildlife enthusiast at Resplendent Ceylon’s magnificent Wild Coast Tented Lodge. Fernando, for the record, is the founder of Resplendent Ceylon and heads the Sri Lanka Travel Alliance, which works assiduously to promote Sri Lanka as a safe and spectacular travel destination. As the Tented Lodges in Yala had delighted me, I decided to return to Fernando’s perch on the cliff, Cape Weligama—my third visit to this splendid resort in five years.

Set dramatically, like a crown on an emperor’s head, Cape Weligama overlooks a tremendous flank of Indian Ocean, the water blue as a sapphire, a dramatic fray of rocks at its base. Cape Weligama is a collection of gorgeous rooms and private villas, served by incredible restaurants, a fabulous gym, an oceanfront bar, a surf school and more. I stayed in a villa named after Samuel Butler; all private villas are named after writers, including one after sci-fi superstar, and island resident, Arthur C Clarke. My villa was flawlessly appointed, wood tones and calming white, with a sprawling bathroom and a sandstone bathtub overlooking the ocean. Birds called out from the frangipani outside the villa.