It should be emphasized that however Adisham Bungalow is not a commercial guest house and guests should NOT expect hotel amusements or facilities.Since Adisham Bungalow is run by a community, those who visit the place are expected to be considerate of the rules of the community.
Our good friend and one of the badminton champions of our company, Tharindu insisted that we need to visit Adisham Bungalow while we were planning the Haputale trip.
We reached Haputale Fox Hill place at about 10:30AM. after taking a few photos, we drived to Adisham Bungalow Haputale based on our friend Tharindu’s directions.
For those who are interested to know it is also called as St. Benedict’s monastery. if you search google for more information, make sure, you use both key words: St. Benedict’s monastery & Adisham Bungalow
we took this photo in Haputala 16km mile post where Srilanka military academy and Fox hill are located.
Left to Right: Vinesh, Malith,Tharindu,Dilen,Diluk,myself and our Van Driver. Since Kusal took the photo, he is not in the photo.
You have to turn to the left side of Haputale Station in order to reach Adisham Bungalow. Although It is a very narrow road I noticed some big tourist buses going on this road.
Brilliant Drivers of Sri Lanka!!!. They know how to drive in the Mountains.
When we reached Adisham Bungalow, we were greeted with drizzling rain and mist which is one of my favorite combinations.
I love to relax my mind and body in this condition and I can forget everything in mind and be in the present. For me, it gives an opportunity to refresh all my five senses.
St. Benedict’s monastery is the best place if you like to relax in these misty mountains.
Adisham Bungalow is located in a secured sanctuary, Thangamale Sanctuary but the Bungalow is owned by one of the Roman Catholic Monastery.
It is surrounded by a lot of trees and you find lot of monkeys too 🙂
You have to take a ticket if you want to pass the gate and go in inside Adisham Bungalow. The price of the ticket is Rs 20/= rupees and Diluk, our Treasure of the Trip paid the required amount generously.
Security guards or gatekeeper was very friendly and they issued the ticket and opened the gate with a warm smile.
Since this St. Benedict’s monastery, they would have been trained to be polite :-).
A smile cost nothing !!!!
This is the entrance road to Adisham Bungalow and we saw a lot of young girls and boys were taking photos of each other in this beautiful atmosphere.
I smiled with few girls but nothing much. I am a very friendly guy :-). There were taking a lot of selfie photos with other friends and boyfriends.
Tell you frankly, St. Benedict’s monastery has quite a romantic atmosphere 🙂
I wished if I had come with my wife 🙂
St. Benedict’s monastery had Beautiful Garden and it is maintained very well.
Hundreds of varieties of Orchids, Roses are planted in the Garden.
The bungalow upsides to a bird sanctuary, forest while downsides to a wide range of mountains and valleys.
if you love flowers, then it is the very best to be and enjoy the beauty of these flowers.
Adisham Bungalow has a lot of inspirational quests since it is a monastery. I clicked some of the best quotes which I though , It is useful.
These quotes ver simple but very powerful too.
I am a fan of reading and collecting quotes. it helps me dramatically when I want to move my sprint to a different level or when I am discouraged.
This Adishm Bungalow was built by a British nobleman and a planter Sir. Thomas Lister Villiers, a British governor in 1931 and you can see this beautiful bungalow.
A lot of people talk about the architecture of the house and very specially the roof of the house but also the doors, windows, staircase and floors were all covered with flat Burma teak. All the materials, used to build the bungalow were imported from England.
St. Benedict’s monastery is a luxury house and according to historical facts, it took 4 years to build this Adisham Bungalow
According to history, this country’s legendary Luxury house was designed by R. Booth and F. Webster in accordance to the Tudor and Jacobean style. If you been to England countryside, you find a few old houses like this still.
The beauty of this house is, the bungalow is made of vigorous granite stone walls and long narrowed windows and chimneys.
The most impressive part of this Adisham Bungalow is the wall of the house and roof. Just look at the size of this Adisham Bungalow. it is massive.
We are not quite sure, how many people would have lived in this Adisham Bungalow but there is space for many people:-0
This is the entrance to the Main Hall. There is a person who explains everything about this Adisham Bungalow. you do not need to pay anything to this person but he acts as if he needs something 🙂
We gave some tips
If you work, right up the corner of this footpath, you should be able to enter into the main hall of the house where Sir Thomas Villiers live.
You can NOT take photos of this hall section, library, and other sections but I took very special permission to take these photos for you.
A person who explains about Adisham Bungalow, may not allow you to take photos but if you get permission, you better tell him otherwise he does not allow.
Do not ask me how did I get permission to take these photos.
This is the living room of Sir Thomas Villiers and his wife
This is the Library of Sir Thomas Villiers and his wife. Nobody can use these books. It has a great collection of book.
Since I am a book lover, I spent a lot of time in this section.
This is the fireplace.
Another review of the Library section.
Another review of the living room.
Most of the areas are restricted to visit and touch.
Sir Thomas Villiers came to Sri Lanka in 1887.
He was a grandson of Lord John Russel – PM of Britain at that time.
First, he was a trainee planter at Elbedde estate, Bogawantalawa.
He married a daughter of a tea planter. Since she was a skillful painter she decorated the library and dining room of Adishm with her paintings.
Anyway, history factors say, Sir. Thomas Lister Villiers toured to Brazil for 4 years and returned to Sri Lanka.
After his arrival, he started his own tea state, the Dakota group. Soon he joined with George Stuart estate agency and he became the chairman in 1928.
We are not very sure whether he bought the George Stuart estate and became the Chairman of the company.
At that time Adisham bungalow provided residency for many noblemen, governors, and reckoned visitors.
After getting retired Sir Thomas Villiers sold the bungalow to the Sedawatte Mills.
In 1961 it was purchased by the Roman Catholic Church and transformed into a Roman Catholic Monastery.
This is the painted photo of Sir Thomas Villiers
When Sir Thomas Villiers lived, this the boiling room in which the entire house was heated when it is too cold.
Bear in mind that, everything was imported from England to build this house. I can not imagine, what type of hassle he would have gone through to bring these things into this place from Colombo port.
Still, it is best of hassle to reach this place 🙂
Since this Adisham Bungalow is converted into Monastry, Adisham community also maintains the orchards surrounding the monastery. We did not visit the orchards of the monastery.
They maintain these orchards with the help of Monks and a few village workers. They cultivate strawberries, guavas, Seville oranges, and other vegetables.
There are a lot of testimonies Adisham Bungalow orchard products. There are a lot of events prove that the fruit of the orchards is used to produce natural jams, cordials, and jellies for which Adisham has made itself famous in every nook and corner on the island.
Most of our friends bought jams and cordials from this place since I did not buy, I have no idea of the price
But you can find the correct prices of this product from the Adisham Bungalow web site
http://www.adisham.org/adisham-products/
The income gained through sales is used for the maintenance of the place. Adisham Products are natural,
Do not expect these sales staff to be very polite and provide the best customer services. There is just staff.
Malith and Dilen bought new DSLR cameras before going for this trip :-). Since there was a drizzle, they went inside take photos
We did not check how to book this place to stay as the Adisham Bungalow web site clearly mention the process.
As of the 12th of April 2016, the Full board price for a single person is Rs 3,000 per night and they charged Rs 1,500 per child.
This check URL for accommodation booking of Adisham Bungalow:
http://www.adisham.org/reservation/
