Updated on Tuesday, April 25, 2006, 00:00 IST

Norwood, Sri Lanka, Apr 25: With its stunning views over Sri Lanka's rolling green tea hills, the Norwood Plantation Manager's bungalow was designed to compensate British tea planters for their lonely lives far away from home.

The plantation remains, but the bungalow has been refurbished and converted into a boutique hotel to woo high-spending tourists who want a few quiet days sampling the colonial tea estate life.

''We have had mostly British visitors,'' says Asela Wavita, manager for tea trails, a firm set up by Sri Lankan tea company Dilmah to manage the bungalows.

''I guess it's the concept, the British colonial feeling, that appeals to them -- they can experience what their ancestors enjoyed.''

Tea trails has refurbished four former managers' bungalows set in well-kept gardens, deep in the hills that have produced Ceylon tea since the 19th century. The plantation is about four hours drive from Colombo.

While there is no immediate threat of violence in the hills, tea trails hopes there will be no return to the two-decade-old civil war and that Tamil Tiger rebels and the government will resume talks that have been indefinitely postponed.

More than 100 people have died in just over two weeks in suspected rebel attacks, ethnic violence and killings in the island's north and east.

Two British tourists were wounded in an attack on a military convoy earlier this month, but embassies say they believe the rest of the island remains safe.

Bureau Report