Sri Lanka - My first taste of the sea!

Thursday 19^th March 2015

After such a late night last night I thought it would be a struggle to wake up this morning but actually it was so hot that I was awake before my alarm went off which was good as it meant I could relax until we needed to leave (I headed to Hikkaduwa while three others in the hostel went on to Galle on the same train)

When we were all ready we walked down the road to the bus stop and it wasn’t long before we got on a bus, it was a tad busy so we had to stand for about half of the journey but I was just grateful it wasn’t a can of sardines full because that’s awkward with big bags!

We got off the bus across the road from the station and had to walk up an overpass to cross the road. At the station we had about 15mins until the train left we bought tickets.  Mine was only equivalent of NZD $1.60 (train tickets seem to be the only really cheap thing in Sri Lanka)

We made our way to platform five which was a hive of activity clearly the coast is a popular destination. When the bus came everyman and his dog crammed on and we had to walk through several over flowing carriages until we found one that was virtually empty. (By the time the train pulled away it was full) we dumped our bags in the overhead compartments and settled in for the ride.

I was hungry but it seemed all the touts wanted to overcharge and so I didn’t end up getting anything. As the train left Colombo the scenery became more and more stunning the train soon hit the coast where for the most part ran parallel only a metre or so from the breaking waves.

The city was soon left behind replaced by the ocean stretching as far as the eye could see and the occasional hotel or restaurant built right onto the sea front (in a move that is damaging the coastline and also a huge risk if ever there is another tsunami as they would all be washed away) I stared out the window listening to the sound of the sea and being dazzled by its brilliant blue. I was shocked to see at one point a ruin of a building about 20m out to sea with just its crumbling roof peeking out from the waves.

The train was hot and a bit dark (nowhere near as nice as 2^nd class to Kandy!) and the rocking motion soon had me nodding off like a baby, I woke up feeling I had only been dozing a few minutes and was surprised to see that it was after 12pm and that the train was due to arrive in Hikkaduwa in 10-15mins.

When I pulled up to the station I wished the others happy journeys and jumped off looking for the exit. There was a throng of rickshaws competing for the tourists attention and all spouting rip off prices I tried as hard as I could but still paid more than the journey was worth which was even more frustrating when the driver got lost and was driving around aimlessly asking people and then when we did arrive asked for more money (which he didn’t get)

I checked in and the guy at the guesthouse carried my bag up to the room. The guesthouse is a beautiful villa with stone walls and exposed timber and wooden window frames. The room has a huge four poster bed and a big bathroom and a weird changing room space. Just outside the room on the balcony are comfy chairs and a little table. The place is set back about a 10min walk from the beach so is peaceful and quiet.

It was a sweltering day so I decided to get my washing done and head out later to avoid the midday heat, once it was all on the line I grabbed what I needed and headed to town.

First stop was the beauty saloon (I love that spelling mistake that is all over India as well!) to get my eyebrows threaded. With that done I wondered along the main road looking in all the shops trying to find some cheap trousers and a summery dress for the beach. My search was unsuccessful despite finding things I liked the prices were outrageous and so I gave up.

On the way back to the guesthouse I stopped at the beach and went for a paddle the water was really refreshing and so clean and blue I just wanted to dive straight in fully clothed! I walked along and grabbed a popsicle and ate it as fast as I could as it was melting faster than I could eat it.

I spent the remainder of the later afternoon waiting for verity to arrive in a comfy chair with my book. Her bus should have taken six hours but was the local bus and ended up taking nine so it was close to 7pm before she arrived.

By that time I was starving so we headed into town to an Indian restaurant I had seen earlier. Unfortunately it was a Sri Lankan interpretation of Indian food so although tasty it was extremely oily and not really the curry we were after.

The restaurant was right on the beach and while we waited for our food we watched the waves lap on the shore which was when I noticed something moving, it was a hermit crab! And on closer inspection there were heaps of them running here and there all over the beach. They were so cute! Earlier in the day walking from the guesthouse to the town I had seen three huge lizards so I felt it was a good day for wildlife.

It was only about 9pm but both of us were shattered to we walked back stopping at the supermarket for more popsicles along the way. Once back we showered and climbed under the mozzie net onto our huge king sized bed and zonked out.

Friday 20^th March 2015

Despite being so tired we woke early this morning but lounged about and took our time getting ready so that it was almost 10am before we got going. We both fancied eggs for breakfast so stopped at the first place we saw that had them. The food took its sweet time coming but was pretty delicious.

Feeing full we headed to the beach stopping a few times along the way to look at the shops but not buying anything as the prices were just too high.

We got onto the beach and started walking along, there were local woman selling Kurtas on the beach in beautiful bright colours their starting price was 1500 LKR (about NZD$15) they asked what we wanted to pay and we said 300 LKR they said 500 we said 400 they said no and we walked away. We were about 50m down the beach stripping off to head into the sea and they appeared again and so we both got one for 400 LKR each.

With the sale finalised we put on sun screen and headed into the water. We were about knee deep in the sea when we saw a giant sea turtle it swam right up to us, a few metres away was another one being hand fed seaweed by a local guy we then saw a third one. They are huge and beautiful and so majestic especially when they raise their heads out of the water to breathe.

As much as I loved how close they came I was a bit upset by the crowds of people petting them and grabbing hold of their shells, they are obviously used to humans and I think they must get fed often to allow people so close constantly. We didn’t touch them we just allowed them to swim around us as we grinned ear to ear and occasionally squealed like the girls we are.

We stayed in the water quite a while, even without a snorkel it was possible to sea tropical fish darting about and we were absolutely awestruck by how beautiful the place is (even if it is a bit over run by package holiday tourists)

Out of the water we found a place to lounge on the beach, in the sun for me and the shade for verity. We spent the next wee while tanning napping and reading and every now and again we would pop into the ocean to cool off.

Eventually I needed to move into the shade as even for me (sun worshiper extreme) it was getting too much. After several hours on the beach we needed to hydrate so headed off the beach to find a cool drink. At that point we realised that despite the sun cream we were both a bit burnt.

We had a spot of food at a beach front restaurant where the waves were crashing right against the building. It was decorated like a tired old English sea side village in gaudy colours with tacky Knick knacks made out of shells on the tables.

On the walk back to the guesthouse we stopped at the supermarket for aloe vera gel and snacks while we were there I found an entire range of ayurvedic medicines and spent a good deal of time reading all the labels quite intrigued by them all.

Once we were back it was about 4pm and the day was still pretty hot. The garden was all in shade and there was no one about so I took advantage of the peace a quiet and spent a bit of time on my mat enjoying a bit of yoga (even if I did slide about in my own sweat and got bothered by a million crawling insects)

I then found my new favourite chair on the balcony and breathed in the peace and fresh air while reading my book.

When we got hungry we walked into town for food earlier in the day we had scoped out an organic Indian/Sri Lankan curry restaurant and so we headed there the food was pretty great but was still a bit oily for my liking. We both ordered the set menu but the guy thought we only ordered one portion to share which worked out great for us as it was huge and we didn’t even finish it and was half the price we expected to pay so it was a winner all around.

Back at the guesthouse we flopped into bed ready for a super early start in the morning.

Saturday 21^st March 2015

This morning we awoke at 5.45am ready for some sunrise yoga on the beach unfortunately for us we were actually on the wrong side of the island for the sunrise to be over the ocean but it was still a beautiful morning doing Surya Namaskar facing the breaking waves.

Despite the early hour there were quite a few people about so it wasn’t the deserted quiet we were after but it was still pretty peaceful and an invigorating start to the day. I practiced my handstands for a while and managed to hold one (slightly wonky) for a few seconds before crashing (gracefully) back to earth.

It wasn’t even 7am and we had worked up quite the sweat so decided a swim with the sea turtles would be just the refreshing treat we needed. I had my camera with me so we took a bunch of photos and I even managed to get quite a few good underwater shots.

We were relaxed and didn’t touch the turtles and in turn they rewarded us by following us about, to the point where I was standing about waist deep looking out to sea when the biggest turtle swam between my legs knocking me off my feet. For a few seconds I was sitting on top of a giant sea turtle it was rather magical (although it also scared me half to death and from that point I was always aware of where the turtles were!)

We came out of the water when it started to get a bit too crowded with tourists and walked along trying to find a quiet patch. Unfortunately for Hikkaduwa there are restaurants and guesthouses built right onto the beach for most of its length meaning you can’t really find a secluded quiet patch. Along the way we past a huge section of dead coral it has formed rock pools and we stayed a while looking at all the tiny fish and crabs swimming about in it. 

Finally we found a good spot and sat on the beach to meditate. I made it to 28mins before the insects crawling all over me finally broke my concentration completely.

We ate breakfast on the beach with an uninterrupted view of the sea there was a lone surfer right in front of us who managed to catch most of his waves which were pretty big. We left as the sun was beginning to get really hot and headed back to the guesthouse to relax and nap for a few hours.

About 2.30pm we set off for Galle. The sun was beaming down strong so when we got to the main road we sheltered in a little patch of shade watching out for a bus. They come hurtling through town at such a speed they barely register people actually wanting to get on!

The bus was crammed and we didn’t get a seat luckily it was only about 30mins down the coast and the scenery along the way was pretty stunning. We got off just before the bus station and walked towards the fort. We passed the cricket grounds where a match was on and the stands were full as well as people pressed up against the fence and on the fort walls looking down, we later learnt it was a two day match between two universities (Richmond and something beginning with M that sounded like Mahindra but wasn’t. in case you care Richmond won)

We walked into the fort and browsed some ridiculously expensive shops full of beautiful things before making our way to Crepology for a late lunch. We went a bit nuts in there and ate all the pancakes as well as having delicious cold drinks. It was stiflingly hot and lounging on sofas seemed lie the best way to spend an hour or so.

As the day wore on and it got a bit cooler we made our way through town to the fort walls. We walked around watching the sunset and taking pictures. We saw some mad local dive off the wall into some very shallow rock infested sea in an extreme busking stunt and then continued on our way.

Verity stopped to watch the sun go fully down and I walked right around I had read in some very unreliable place that the walk took one to two hours so I was marching along and taking in as much as I could and got right around in about 30mins! Along the way I picked up a follower who I couldn’t seem to shake he stayed with me while I waited for verity and consistently asked for my number (I don’t have a phone so good excuse) my Facebook (I lied and said I didn’t have one) my email (I told him “my husband” wouldn’t be happy for me to give it out) eventually when Verity arrived we gave him the flick and ran away.

We had another wonder about the shops and made our way slowly out to the main road to get the bus back. I managed to get the last seat but we didn’t move until it was rammed with people despite being almost 8pm it was still a hot sweaty day so it was good when the bus got moving and a little bit of air was coming through.

Back in Hikkaduwa we passed the supermarket and got popsicles and headed back to the guesthouse where we chilled out for a bit before I crashed after such an early morning.

Swimming with sea turtles at sun rise.

Walking around Galle Fort

My Follower!

Sunday 22^nd March 2015

This morning I woke up in a strange mood after having very strange dreams. We had a slow morning in which are brains were also a bit slow.

We paid for our guesthouse and had to have quite a debate about the price after they added on 11% VAT and 10% service charge to the total bill after we had already confirmed the total bill price with them. Needless to say we weren’t overly happy as it wasn’t the cheapest place to begin with.

We walked into town and grabbed breakfast on the beach I also had a wee paddle before we headed back I wanted to swim but there was a huge undercurrent and the waves were rather monstrous so I settled for a waist deep wade to cool off.

Back at the accommodation we showered and packed up and then lugged our things downstairs we were going to leave our stuff there but decided to just take it with us which ended up working really well.

We got a rickshaw to the Tsunami photography museum we left our bags out front while we wondered about. The museum is a bit tired and could do with a revamp but the overall effect is still powerfully strong. A lot of the images are extremely upsetting and the stories to go with them are even sadder.

We spoke to the woman who runs the place, the museum now stands on what used to be her house her and her entire family survived the disaster by running as soon as they saw the first wave. When they could come back they lived in a tent on the site until a house could be built the floor of the museum still has the bolt holes used to tie the tent down.

The woman was lovely the only thing that put us off was when she blatantly lied about how much we should pay in an auto back to Hikkaduwa (the museum is about 2km out of town) turns out her husband is a rickshaw driver…

We got the bus back with all our stuff and from there got the bus on to Thalpe we were going to take the train but it didn’t leave until about 4pm and it was just after 1pm. The bus didn’t take too long about 45mins (Thalpe is just the other side of Galle) and dropped us off right outside the guesthouse we wanted to be at.

We went in and had a look and agreed a price then walked along the road looking for a place to eat. Along this stretch of beach is mostly luxury hotels so finding a cheap option on a Sunday proved a bit hard but we got there in the end and had an ok curry and rice.

After eating we walked back to the main road and hopped on a bus to Unawatuna. It’s the closest tourist town and also where Verity is going to do a Padi diving course in the next few days. We went in and checked out her booking as well as wondering around the shops and the supermarket and then having a (disgusting) pancake while watching the (beautiful) sun set.

We got the bus back (and they charged us half of the price of the way there!) and went straight to the guesthouse where I tried in vain to find some sort of schedule for Sri Lankan buses. Then packed a bag ready to take to the hill country tomorrow (I’ll leave my big pack with Verity while I go climb a mountain)

With everything organised it was time to relax and get a good sleep before my long arse day tomorrow.