Video
$200 New Jungle Hotel in Ella, Sri Lanka 🇱🇰
· 22 min · Watch on YouTube
$200 New Jungle Hotel in Ella, Sri Lanka 🇱🇰
Two nights in Ella 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.