Is there really a tree that can still the universe? And if so, where in Sri Lanka might you find it?

How the obvious is almost never true – at least on the surface in Sri Lanka.

What is it about planting modest herbs that can keep the busy world at bay in Sri Lanka?

No other thing, except perhaps Buddhism itself, water technology or Sri Lanka’s island status, has had so marked an impact on the country as cinnamon. But what did Michael Ondaatje have to say about it that will set you free?

What might you discover? There is much to find within the sprawling plantation gardens that disappear off into the jungle around Sri Lanka’s Flame Tree Estate & Hotel.

What might you find as you amble gently around a home garden, wrapped in green and red, at Sri Lanka’s The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel?

Some of Sri Lanka’s most beloved spices came in the ships of the Portuguese, Dutch, and British – but why were they brought here, and how did they throw off the trauma of transplantation to prosper and proliferate?

Few people ever packed light as they headed to Sri Lanka. But what are the spices that arrived in the carry-on baggage its visiting traders, travellers and superpowers?

Three spices hold the key to every dish in Sri Lanka. But which ones are they, and why does their consequence stretch far beyond the humble kitchen?

Enslavement is a condition that takes time to undo. So how did it help to make a spice garden in the jungles of Sri Lanka?

If too many cooks spoil the broth, what ingredients best make it all up?

If walking the dogs is anything, it has to be “Ordinary Special,” especially when taken down a path of flame tree flowers. But of all these flamboyants, which is the most recalcitrant?

City though it is, Kandy - sequestered within high mountains and deep valleys – has numerous secretive wild pockets of utter bewitchment. But where will you find them – and what will you find when you get there?