Spice gardens in Sri Lanka - getting ripped off?

Now we have visited one of all the spice gardens in Sri Lanka. In a way, we had a really good and interesting experience here. At the same time, afterwards we had that feeling of having been cheated. But all this happened before we read the reviews on Tripadvisor. We take it from the beginning!

From Sigiriya, on the way to Kandy

We travelled with our driver from Mount Sigiriya to Kandy, with a planned stop on the way: Dambulla. After the successful visit to Dambulla, our driver asked if we wanted to visit a 'Spice Garden', and at that moment we were in a good mood and said yes. Moreover, we had, slowly but surely, started to trust our driver.

Spice gardens in Sri Lanka

We now realise that there are many spice gardens in Sri Lanka, all with a similar concept. You are invited to take a guided tour of the spices and medicinal plants used in Ayurvedic medicine. The tour is really interesting, and afterwards you are offered a massage to try some of the Ayurvedic oils.

Neither the tour nor the massage has a price, but instead you are expected to tip. Afterwards, you are taken to a shop where you can buy spices, oils and creams, at high prices. Drivers often receive a commission for taking tourists to these places.

Ayurvedic medicine

Ayurveda, or Ayurvedic medicine, is a form of Indian medicine. According to some sources, the Ayurvedic tradition dates back to 5000 years BC and originates from the Veda, the oldest collection of books in Hinduism.

There is no scientific evidence that Ayurveda is effective, but some of the plants used may be healthy. The Indian government is supporting further research into Ayurvedic preparations. While Ayurvedic medicines are herbal and natural, some of the medicines have been analysed and found to contain excessive levels of lead and other heavy metals.

Old Ayurveda Village No 27

We visited a spice garden called Old Ayurveda Village no 27, located in Matale north of Kandy. When we were here, we had no idea that there are many similar spice gardens in Sri Lanka, but it was only afterwards that we read on Tripadvisor about exactly similar experiences at other spice gardens around the area. We simply jumped out of the car without knowing anything more than that this was a spice garden, which our driver recommended.

Guided tour of the spice garden

The first part of the visit was really good! You can possibly complain about being "sucked" into a tour without asking for it, but apart from that it was a very interesting tour. We learned about fresh spices and flavourings, such as vanilla bean, coffee beans, cocoa beans, cardamom, cloves, turmeric, nutmeg and pepper. The guide kept us guessing and tasting, making the tour interactive and engaging.

We also learnt about the medicinal effects that plants are thought to have. For example, many of the plants are thought to have effects on food digestion, liver problems and various skin conditions.

Massage and sales

The guided tour of the spice garden slipped imperceptibly into a light shoulder massage, performed by a group of young guys who, according to the guide, were students. The promised shoulder massage then slipped just as imperceptibly into something resembling a full body massage. And suddenly we felt that we should give both the guide and the masseurs a decent tip, for services that we never intended to order in the first place. Then the shopping list came out!

I (Helena) am naturally sceptical about alternative medicine. I can possibly imagine that some creams are good for the skin, but since I myself do not use any skin creams, it should have been easy to say no to this as well. If it had not been for that hair removal cream that seemed completely magical …

I usually use a razor, and razor blades are very expensive. If the cream would be as effective as they claimed, it would save both time and money in the long run. At this particular moment, it seemed like a great idea to buy a few cans of this very expensive cream.

When I then got in the car and googled, I found all the reviews on Tripadvisor that describe these spice gardens in Sri Lanka as outright scams. Most of them say that the creams and spices are far too expensiveand some even write that the jars do not even contain what they claim to contain.

We don't know if the latter is true, but we do know that in Kandy we found exactly the same jars as in the spice garden, but at less than a third of the price. Of course, we can't be absolutely sure that the contents of the jars are identical, we can only be sure that the products look exactly the same.

So, are you being cheated?

If you read the reviews of spice gardens on Tripadvisor, you are inundated with warnings that most spice gardens in Sri Lanka are tourist traps and outright scams. Our conclusion is that it is easy to get 'carried away' if you are not prepared, and thus pay more money than you intended, and buy things that you would not have bought in a different situation.

However, the spice garden tour can be very interesting, and if you like it, you should of course tip the guide. You can choose to accept or decline the massage and there is no obligation to buy anything in the shop. If you visit a spice garden under these conditions, you don't have to feel cheated.

And what is actually in those expensive jars? We will test the hair removal cream for six weeks, as prescribed, and report back on the results here on the blog!

Hotels for the night in Kandy

All the excursions along the way meant that we arrived in Kandy relatively late in the evening. We have so far booked all hotels ourselves via Booking.com. Our driver convinced us that it is better for him to choose and book hotels for us, so we gave this a chance.

The hotel we arrived at, Chaya Hills, had ok rooms and excellent breakfast, but was very far from Kandy. The saddest thing was that there was no patio where we could socialise together, but that we had to sit indoors in a small apartment kitchen. Maybe it's hard for someone else to know what we're looking for. No, now it's probably time to start planning ourselves!