Oliver B and San Diego, Greetings!

I will try to write in more detail later, but briefly, I can see Kandy as a day trip, but N Eliya would be much too far for me and the reward (?) disappointing and not worth the trip. Tientsin easily adds a good hour on to any trip. Much better to overnight, road conditions can be very unpredictable.

Most of the tubs are the footed ones. IIRC: all of them.
Tate and Jamieson are the lake view rooms . Tate has the tub in the window.
The room (Palmer) with the chair with the red upholhstery is the one I recommend. It is not the largest, but the bay window you can see has the lake view and the bed faces a glass door which leads directly to a garden where you can sit with lake view.

There is no way to have a reservoir view from Alston or Baker be it from the room or the garden.
Castlereagh
and
the others.

I agree that the pictures of Summerville may not be so appealing, but the exterior architecture is what it is: a house from the '50s (or whenever). It really is quite nice though.

Norwood seemed so empty in the halls, while the other villas were more inviting and cozy.

Sounds good that they are offering more local cuisine. Probably due to customer demand.
Seriously one day lunch was Soup, pork chops, mashed potatoes and dessert.

As I said, all that way just to have things just like they are where you came from????

Maybe i will make it to Tientsin one day!