Come with us - on a journey back to basics, living with nature. We believe in basic comfort and offer a nature retreat extremely well integrated in our wonderful surroundings; the virgin forest, the rocky hills, and the wildlife. Via the dirt track to the lodge you leave the world behind and end up in elephant country. This jungle, the Weliara forest, is hidden between Yala National Park and the Arahat Kanda mountains a 15 km long chain of steep rocky hills, seperating civilisation from wilderness. Situated in uninhabited jungle bordering Sri Lanka 's largest protected area, the 1300 km2 Yala NP, we live amidst the whole range of animals found in the neighboring sanctuary.

Most prominent among our wild visitors are the elephants. Nights in the jungle is an experience of darkness and strange sounds. When elephants pass by they are usually very silent but sometimes heard breaking branches or trumpeting. The lucky ones will hear the 'song of elephants' herds long distance communicating with sound wawes, like whales. Birders need no luck. 161 species are recorded in our area. A few of them are: Sri Lankan Hanging Parrot, Alexandrine Parakeet, Sri Lankan Jungle Fowl, Grey- and Malabar Pied Hornbill, Green Bee-eater, and Baya Weawer.

Jungle life
Living at Tree Tops is an extraordinary trip, back to nature. You'll bath at a freshwater well, there's no electricity, and meals are cooked native on wood fire. The basicness is balanced by spotless service and a staff eager to create greaet experiences for visitors be it tasty meals, jungle treks, or wild elephant spotting escorted by local trackers. We do offer a true jungle experience but not a safari park or zoo. Observing wild animals isn't easy. Yet - it might be there… We expect that guests respect the wild nature of our place and contribute to own safety, behaving responsible and using basic instincts.

Living at an unfenced lodge in an awesome landscape in the really wilds, among wildlife, is the element of adventure at Tree Tops. Even without actually seeing animals you will experience a unique athmoshere feel the soul of the jungle. Safe sleeping is secured by vigilant night watchers who are well qualified guards. Grown up as hunters these native guys are experienced in the jungle, highly skilled in interpreting nature's signs.

The huts
Our clay huts are simple and rustic, quite similar to traditional huts of the local area. We combine traditional building methods with fresh ideas about design, strength, and function. The architectural style is based on a radical principle of being integrated with environment. Materials used for the huts are very local: an inner wooden structure (from fallen trees found in the surrounding forest) plastered with a thick layer of clay dug from our land. Walls and floors are polished with a mix of clay and cow dung to make a soft look and prevent insects from finding a place to live inside our walls. The tree huts are made with inspiration from the traditional 'chena tree huts'. From these huts farmers watch their cultivated plots in safety from wild animals, especially elephants.

From the jungle lodge we are not in touch with the outside world (no phone, handy, e-mail).

Meals
Morning bed tea or coffee. A choice is organic highland grown Sri Lankan coffee made french press style. The menu is native style. For breakfast usually 'rotties' flat bread baked on wood fire. Another traditional dish is 'string-hoppers'; a spaghetti-like pasta made from rice flour. Both rotty and hoppers are usually served with 'dhal' (spicy lentil soup) and grinded coconut. If the hot stuff is too much for breakfast, there is a selection of fruit and delicious waterbuffalo yougurt which goes very well with kitul-palm syrup. The youghurt is homemade first quality, produced by a villager who is the owner of the herd of waterbuffaloes often roaming the scrub outside the lodge.

Lunch is served early afternoon about 1.30 pm and dinner between 8-9 pm . It's all flexible and depending on treks and individual preferences. Manager Kushan who is also the cheff - prepares delicious traditional Sri Lankan vegetable curries using exotic ingredients such as banana flower, manioc, green bananas, jack nut and fruits, as well as herbs and spices often found in the jungle. You can also experience well known vegetables (grown in the cool climate of the mountains) as potato, carrots, beetroot, pumpkin, and leeks, prepared Sri Lankan curry-style. Kushan arrange colorful displays of the variety of fruit vegetables used so that you can see the raw version of the curries you eat. The menu is flexible: meat and fish dishes can be prepared upon request and Kushan could fulfill a wide range of individual wishes.

Relax –in a hammock with a cup of Ceylon tea, while enjoying the cacaphonian sounds of the jungle. One don't need to walk about – nature comes to us...

Focus - on sounds, try to figure out what makes what.

Watch – birds, the open landscape makes birding excellent from the lodge.

Study - small library with books on the Sri Lankan elephant, nature, and Theravada Buddhist philosophy and history.

Enjoy - cool down with a native style bath at the freshwater well. Stay a while in the sun, be one with nature and enjoy the spectacular view of birds and rocky mountains covered by virgin forest.

Go - on jungle treks to the Weliara Lake at the border of the national park. Especially during dry periods herds of elephants are attracted to this waterhole.

Climb - up to the peak of the Hill of Enlightenment and wonder at the construction of an ancient irrigation system built 2000 years ago.

Try - an alternative trip with bullock cart trips through the wilderness to ancient temples.

Camp - in no mans land. Dinner and night in tents at the Weliara lake.

Join - an excursion to a dry zone rainforest in a mountainous area 20 from the lodge.

Be inspired - from the native art of cooking rice & curry; why not learn to cook healthy and tasty vegetarian food at home.

Experience - an ancient and living Buddhist practice. The Budugalena 'vanavasi' (forest monk) retreat with a beautiful rock cave is a hermitage where meditating buddhist monks concentrate on the Nirvana way of Theravada Buddhism.

Admire - Buddhist rock monuments nearby. Two excellent examples dating back to the 10th (Maligawila) and 6th century AD (Buduruvagala) are remote and off the beaten track without the swarms of tourists found at Anuradhapura , Polonnaruwa or Dambulla in the north of Sri Lanka . The 11m high Maligawila Buddha is regarded to be the largest freestanding Buddha rock statue in the world.

Visit God - Kataragama , Sri Lanka 's most popular religious shrine.

See - the 2000 years Yudagannawa Dagoba 5 km from Buttala was the largest dagoba in Sri Lanka . It's still 'authentic'/not restored.