Dial up inner peace minus the price tag at this wellness resort in Asia

For an authentic and well-priced health reset, this rural retreat fits the bill.

I slap a mosquito from my ankle while doing trikonasana and note from the corner of my eye, a grey snake making its way via the hanging terracotta flowerpots to the roof of the yoga shala. Monkeys shriek and rattle the leaves in the trees above and in the distance, a tinny Greensleeves starts up, as the bread van makes its evening rounds of the village.

Plantation Villa is not your typical health retreat. Almost definitely it's not what the Russian woman, staring down at her bowl of rice and vegetable curry in consternation because she "only eats raw food at night", was expecting. What it's not is exactly the reason I've made a return visit five years after my first. There are no individually tailored diets, nor guests in designer workout gear. No workshops in finding your inner goddess, no pilates studio, pillow menus or influencers twerking by the pool.

Surrounded by rice fields and palm plantations interspersed with humble village homes, with the dense jungled slopes of Mount Nehinna at its back, Plantation Villa is a rural retreat about an hour south-east of Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo. Guests come here for all kinds of reasons but, generally, to improve their health or practise yoga in a serene environment. I've come for both - to have a mental and physical re-set.

Plantation Villa is an ayurvedic retreat. A form of traditional herbal medicine practised in India and Sri Lanka, ayurveda espouses the philosophy of good health being the result of balancing the body, mind and consciousness according to one's own individual constitution. How this manifests at Planation Villa is through the daily treatments and natural medicines prescribed after a consultation with the on-site doctor. Accommodation is in 22 rooms, either in the main villa or in small blocks dotted through the garden, some air-conditioned, others with fans. While guests are from all over, there's a strong bias of Europeans and a dearth of Australians. In fact, throughout my 16-night stay, I'm the sole Aussie.

The days begin here at 6.30am with an hour of yoga, followed by breakfast - generally fruit picked from the sizeable gardens: sweet red papaya, finger-sized bananas and watermelon, some grain-free pancakes or soup and, always, herbal tea. There's no caffeine, meat, dairy or alcohol and no wheat served, but the food is so good, it's not even noticeable. Meals are eaten together, with a natural rotation of shared tables as guests arrive and depart.

After breakfast, everyone disperses for their treatments, or for those who are on the "yoga and meditation" program, perhaps a sun lounger by the pool. I'm on the "detox" plan, which includes two treatments a day, delivered in the open-air pavilion by a team of women from the village, who've been trained in ayurvedic practices. Helping local people rise above poverty is part of Plantation Villa's charitable ethos and all the staff here, from the manager to the gardener, share in profits and any tips. The retreat also supports the village school, local temples and a host of other causes.

Treatments usually conclude with a steam bath in a contraption that surprises first-time guests. It's a grid platform with a hinged wooden lid. You climb in and lie down and the lid is lowered with your head poking out of a hole at the end, with fierce heat delivered from underneath. Afterwards, wrapped in a black sarong, you're invited to take a "sun bath" on a lounger outside the treatment pavilion while the therapist spreads a gritty turmeric mask on your face. Liberally used in Ayurvedic massages, oil is a constant. My fellow guests and I wander around with oil-soaked hair beneath cotton turbans, our clothes also unavoidably impregnated with it.

After a lunch of rice, vegetable curry and accompaniments, guests often set up at the pool, always an agreeable temperature, or maybe attend an informal ayurvedic cooking class. The retreat purposely keeps activities minimal and low-key, disconcerting at first to those of us used to busy days, but designed to give the opportunity to truly relax, to "be" rather than "do".

Despite the dripping humidity, however, I generally take a walk in the afternoon. In this tropical climate, everything is fecund, with roadside hedges and telephone poles covered in a tangle of flowering vines. Out the gate and to the left, the road becomes a rocky, red-earth track, winding up the mountain, through the palm plantations to a jungled plateau with a view of the verdant valley and distant hills. To the right are rice fields and village houses, where children call out "Hello! Hello madam," and walk alongside me, eager to practise their English. There's a small school and, further along, a large Buddhist temple with kindergarten. Mangy but friendly dogs wander out of yards, and water buffalo, with their ever present spindly legged stork companions, regard me without expression, before ambling reluctantly out of my way. The only other traffic is men on bicycles, selling fish or lottery tickets door to door, or the occasional lavishly decorated tuktuk slowing down, in case I might want a lift.

It takes four days for my thumping caffeine withdrawal headache to abate and five for my insomnia to disappear. I do the evening yoga class, but usually skip meditation for a book and a ridiculously early night. One evening, I take a walk with another guest, and we come upon a rice field filled with dancing fire-flies, like our own private fireworks show.

By the time I leave Plantation Villa, I feel energised, utterly stress-free and, as a happy bonus, six kilos lighter. And the entire 16 nights have pretty much cost me less than a week at a fancy health retreat at home. Of course, Plantation Villa is not for everyone. It's comfortable, but the luxury it offers comes from a "lack" - a removal of the things we usually use to distract ourselves. The pay-off is the very rare opportunity for uninterrupted self-care.

Getting there: Sri Lankan Airlines flies from Sydney and Melbourne to Colombo. Plantation Villa offer private transfers (extra charge) or you can make your own way there.

Staying there: Prices from $US115 ($170) per night for Yoga, Mindfulness and Mediation Program, including meals, twice-daily yoga and meditation classes, plus other activities, to $US165 for the Full Ayurveda package, which also includes four treatments per day and ayurvedic medicines.

Explore more: plantationvilla.com

The writer stayed at her own expense.