Travel / Lifestyle

World Spice Food Festival from Oct. 18-28

The World Spice Food Festival, the biggest food festival of the year will be held from October 18-28.

Organised by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), this event has become an annual fixture that enlivens Colombo with a veritable jamboree of unique culinary experiences.

Encouraged by the tremendous response and positive feedback from visitors to the fair in the past, this year too the event is organised by the Corporate Services Division of the SLTDA together with the five star hotels and top restaurants in the city.

The Sri Lanka Tourist Board will open the food festival on October 18 at the Hilton Colombo. Each participating hotel and restaurant will conduct a food festival for one week in one of their restaurants, with world class chefs who are specialists in the cuisines on offer.

The SLTDA has envisaged the upcoming festival on an even more extravagant scale in a bid to promote Sri Lanka as a vibrant tourist destination.

Chairman of the SLTDA, Renton de Alwis is confident about the successful outcome of this year's World Spice Food Festival' and is taking a personal interest to ensure that every aspect of the event will be a success.

A highlight of the main event of the festival is the 'Hawker Street', to be held on October 19 and 20 at the Nomads Grounds, allowing visitors to the festival the ease and facility of browsing through the food stalls along with friends and family. A live band will be in attendance.

An attractive kiddies' corner will provide endless fun for children, allowing parents to browse through 'Hawker Street' at leisure.

A surprise also awaits visitors to 'Hawker Street', where every hour a lucky recipient will win a free dinner voucher from one of the participating stalls at 'Hawker Street' drawn on the entrance ticket.

Visitors to the 'Hawker Street' can sample a mouth watering array of dishes made to perfection by master chefs revelling in their culinary skill. All the chefs are internationally renowned culinary experts with many awards to their credit.

HSBC, one of the largest banking institutions in the world is the main sponsor again of the World Spice Food Festival.

Malaysia Airlines increases frequency to Colombo

Malaysia Airlines will add a fourth weekly frequency every Thursday on the Kuala Lumpur-Maldives-Colombo-Kuala Lumpur route, effective October 28.

The national carrier currently offers three weekly flights on the route, every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday departing Malaysia at 8.05 p.m., arriving in Colombo at 00.45 a.m., departing Colombo at 1.45 a.m. and arriving again in Malaysia at 7.50 a.m.

Malaysia Airlines Regional Manager South Asia, Christopher Yek said, "We are delighted to offer this new weekly service to cope with the increasing demand from Colombo into Malaysia. Yek also said there has been high demand from North Asia and China into Colombo and Maldives.

"As Malaysia Airlines expands its network in China to strengthen its market presence, we find Maldives has become increasingly popular among holidaymakers from China.

SriLankan launches flights to Coimbatore

SriLankan Airlines will launch services to Coimbatore on October 29, making this South Indian city the airline's 11th destination in India.

Coimbatore, near the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, provides an ideal gateway for travellers from East Kerala to fly to the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Far East. A major industrial city, Coimbatore is the second largest metropolis in Tamil Nadu.

CEO of SriLankan, Peter Hill said: "SriLankan Airlines has positioned Colombo as the gateway to India, and we are continuously increasing our services there. This includes the addition of more and more cities across India to our route network, and we are proud to add Coimbatore to this list."

The airline will initially operate four flights a week on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday using Airbus A320 aircraft. It already has services to three major cities in Kerala - Trivandrum, Kozhikode, and Kochi; and two in Tamil Nadu - Chennai (Madras) and Trichy.

Head of Worldwide Passenger Sales, Manoj Gunawardena said: "our new service to Coimbatore will provide convenient access to and from all regions in our international network, we are confident that the new service would be useful to many segments particularly business traveller, leisure traveller, those travelling to visit relations and friends and for employment ."

St. Clare's tea centre reopened

St. Clair's tea centre in Talawakelle which was taken over by Maskeliya Tea Gardens Ltd., was re-opened for visitors after refurbishing and renovating.

The 100-year-old planter's cottage has been restored to bring back its old world charm. the Centre offers the traveller a place to reminisce days gone by, enjoy the panorama of two of Sri Lanka's most beautiful waterfalls and relax with a cup of pure Ceylon Tea.

Completing the perfect tea experience, visitors can enjoy a variety of snacks including the famous St. Clair's cake as well as fresh hand picked strawberries.

St. Clare's Tea Centre is equipped to cater to 35-40 visitors at any given time and is located en route to Nuwara Eliya.

Sri Lankan and foreign tourists who patronise the tea centre in search of a perfect Ceylon tea experience are guaranteed an excellent cup of tea direct from the finest portfolio of estates owned by Maskeliya Plantations Ltd.

The Tea Centre boasts one of the widest selections of single garden and unique region range of orthodox Ceylon teas.

In addition to the traditional black teas, slimming teas, silver tips, golden tips and herbal teas, tea varieties such as herbal bath teas, and detoxifying teas can also be purchased.

Many of these teas are packed in a wide selection of speciality gift packs which are very different to those found in other tea shops around the country.

A company official of Maskeliya Tea Gardens said, "The tea centre is mostly patronised by tourists from Japan, Britain, Middle East and Germany.