---
type: Video
title: "$200 New Jungle Hotel in Ella, Sri Lanka 🇱🇰"
description: Two nights in a hotel built into a hillside above Ella that had opened four days earlier — an infinity pool over the forest, a shower that finds your body temperature, and a Sri Lankan breakfast alongside an English one.
tags: [sri-lanka, ella, hotels, breakfast, hoppers, wifi, monkeys]
timestamp: 2026-08-06T15:10:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY3Lm9rR7nI
video_id: HY3Lm9rR7nI
upload_date: 2022-02-27
duration: 1329
---

# $200 New Jungle Hotel in Ella, Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

Two nights in [Ella](/places/ella.md) at a hotel cantilevered off the hillside
with forest on every side, which had **opened four days before they arrived** —
and the newness is most of what makes the video interesting, because he keeps
finding both the things that work brilliantly and the things nobody has got
round to yet.

*Obs: the hotel is named in the video description along with its website, so
under the bundle's rule on advertising it is described here but not named. Harry
does not say whether the stay was paid for or hosted, and this page does not
guess.*

## The building

- **Built into the hillside**, with a lift down to the rooms and the structure
  visible below them.
- **An infinity pool** looking straight into the forest — cold, which he blames on
  the altitude; mornings are around 20°C.
- **Monkeys in the trees around it**, close enough to be a running feature. His
  own line, from Pakistan: don't mess with monkeys.
- **Owned by a Sri Lankan doctor living in the UK**, per Harry.
- **More is planned** — a meditation centre and a spa — none of it built yet.

**What you can see from it**: Ella Rock, and a peak Harry names as Adam's Peak
that they intend to climb. Which climb he means is still not settled here.

## The room, and its two gadgets

- **A shower that sets itself to your body temperature**, which he demonstrates at
  length and rates the best he has used: it climbs to about 36°C on its own and
  stops there, instead of the usual all-the-way-hot-then-adjust.
- **A tap-and-touch entry system** he has not met before and enjoys, while
  noting it will be less charming after a drink.
- **A router per room** — the intention, anyway; it isn't configured yet.
- **The fridge is empty**, as everywhere in this period.
- **No bottle opener**, which is his example of a four-day-old hotel's snags.

**The wi-fi test: 16 down, 26 up.** He is delighted, and the reason is specific —
**the upload is higher than the download**, which almost never happens and is the
number that actually matters to him. He also says the connection is patchy in
places and declines to hold it against a hotel that opened last week.

## Breakfast, both kinds

**The Sri Lankan side**, which he calls his first proper full Sri Lankan
breakfast:

- **Hoppers** — a very thin, soft bowl-shaped bread, softer than he expected
  rather than crisp — with chicken, coconut sambol and a spicy onion relish.
- **Roti and dosa**, which he eats rolled up like a pancake and says so.
- **Dal**: creamy, and not spicy at all.
- **Milk rice**, sticky, with a chilli on top, which he had at the previous hotel
  and asked for again.
- **A chicken thigh**, spicy, which is the only spicy thing on the plate.

**The English side**, ordered alongside for comparison: omelette with vegetables,
potatoes, beans, tomato, and **chicken bacon and chicken sausage** — which he
approaches sceptically and rates highly. His honest verdict is that he loves Sri
Lankan food and that the English breakfast wins on nostalgia, because his mum made
one every weekend when he was a child.

## Key moments

- `[00:32]` Built off the mountain, and open four days.
- `[01:33]` Ella Rock, and the peak they plan to climb.
- `[02:03]` Owned by a Sri Lankan doctor living in the UK.
- `[03:36]` The infinity pool over the forest.
- `[05:07]` The room, and the new-building smell.
- `[07:45]` The shower that finds your body temperature.
- `[09:47]` 16 down, 26 up — and why the upload is the number he cares about.
- `[11:18]` Hoppers, dal, coconut sambol.
- `[15:00]` The English breakfast, chicken bacon included.
- `[20:15]` Teething problems, forgiven.

## Extracted pages

- [Sri Lanka](/countries/sri-lanka.md)
- [Ella](/places/ella.md)
- [Mac](/people/mac.md)
- [Ali](/people/ali.md)
- [Book for the wi-fi when you work on the road](/tips/book-for-the-wifi-when-you-work-on-the-road.md)