Okay, okay, okay. You
know life is good on the road when you just can’t find time to write. Where did I last leave you guys? Ella?
Wow. That was a lifetime
ago. Let’s do a quick catch up (well,
“quick” as in condensed because yeah, you know me.)
After the chilly but captivating tourist town of Ella I
decided to head for the beach. Mirissa
was supposed to be the place to go.
Regular run about lugging bags on and off of overfull buses flying warp
speed down the middle of crowded roads, aging me every minute, then
conveniently get dropped right outside a decent guesthouse and settle in. Decided to stay a few days as an annoying
travel cold was kicking in full force and I thought life would be good by the
sea.
It was so nice to be back at the water. This was meant to be the centre point for
whale watching; blue whales, biggest beauties in the sea, can be seen from
boats shuttling eager camera wielding tourists to and fro. This was my grand plan. The owner of the guesthouse immediately set
out trying to sell me on his best, the only good, government regulations boat
and I stepped back. You know when your
little ding ding bells go off and waving red flags pop up? This guy was all smiles and “I help you!” but
yeah, I said I’d get back to him.
The beach in Mirissa, meh.
Nice and small. Crashing waves way too rough
for me. Some surfers braving a bit of
break towards the cliffs at the end, lots of super expensive but shabby beach
front restaurants, it was pretty, but meh.
Didn’t even take any photos. Hopped
on a bus or two, explored the small towns either side of Marissa, tried to
sleep off my cold, and looked into the whale thing. Turns out I’m a little too early for the big
shows. The boats that had been going out
(4 – 5 hour trips with some big rocking swells) were resulting in one, maybe
two tail showings. That’s it. Hmmmm…
several hours of seasickness and a big chunk of cash for a fleeting
glimpse of a tail – I think I’m going to pass on this one sadly.
I learned very quickly that in Mirissa, when you say no, the relationship is
over. The guesthouse guy, a fat-bellied
horker / snorter who wore nothing but a very dirty lungi, became pouty and angry with
me, even when I caught him in a lie about prices, and stopped speaking to me
entirely. I’d smile and offer an extra
cheery “Good morning!” which was either entirely ignored or acknowledged with a
grunt if others were in the room. No big
deal for me as I didn’t see him that often, but really? Come on now.
The very sweet and slightly senile mother-in-law whose house it actually
was spoke zero English but spent an evening showing me her fabulous wedding
photos and making it clear in the brilliant art of charades that she really
didn’t like her son-in-law, the current man in charge. That was all I needed to put my guilty
feelings right. It seemed like anywhere
that you went to ask for info on various things, if you didn’t commit and buy
right then and there, it was a ‘harumph!’ head turned away, get out of my sight
reaction. Not the nicest people in
Mirissa. A very long and uneventful few
days there.
So off to the next beach town, Unawatuna. Say it.
It’s fun. Wanted to do some
diving. Similar to Mirissa but WAY more
options in terms of places to stay, bigger beach, and definitely more of a
tourist hotspot. Plan – DIVING. Visited a few and chose one that I got a
pretty good vibe off of. Showed up to
dive and they insisted on giving me fins that didn’t fit (I have ridiculously
small feet). Hence, fail. Got into the water and there was just no
chance that the dive was going to happen.
If I lose a fin, I have to pay for it and even with socks, I couldn’t
keep them on. Itty bitty baby fins,
surface current too strong and got nowhere despite massive effort. *sigh* waited on the boat in utter
frustration. *whine. whine.
whine.* I want to dive. Second day tried a different dive shop,
German owned so yeah, everything was tip top.
The dives however, … crap. Always happy to be in the water but I had
really high hopes for this jewel of an island.
The south coast of Sri Lanka was smashed by the tsunami so perhaps
this is why there’s so little to see.
Well, for me, this spoiled dive princess. Murky waters, no coral, hardly any fish, even
the wrecks looked like shadowy mounds of moss.
Only two dives and it was enough.
That being said, if anyone is looking to set up shop, this is the place
to be. I swam off on my own for a bit
and with some serious effort I was able to find a few very cool and tiny hiding
bits of interesting life but the dive guides here just have no idea what to
look for. The few shops in town are all
in the business of scoping out new staff and dives sites as they know their
current ones don’t have much to offer.
Jacques Cousteau’s grandson was diving with the shop when I was there as
he is setting up some new projects.
Being just out of a civil war there is mega business to be found here
and I’m sure with some time and a little searching, Sri Lanka will be on the
map of “world’s wicked dive spots” in no time.
If anyone has a wad of cash they want to invest, let me know; I’d be
MORE than happy to set up shop for you there.
Seriously.
I liked the atmosphere in Unawatuna, but got the boot from
my guesthouse, quite by surprise. It was
THE most fantastic sleep spot so I decided to stay for a while to do some
wandering but when I came back after my dives on the second day, the owner said
“You’re leaving tomorrow.” Thinking it
was meant to be a question, I laughed and told him that I was going to stay as
I might dive a bit more and hadn’t had much of a chance to explore. “No,” he told me, “you’re leaving
tomorrow. I booked the room for someone
else.” A quiet but heated discussion
ensued wherein the rudeness of his behavior and desperately lacking
communication skills despite speaking very good English were clearly outlined
for him. He didn’t care. I was leaving tomorrow.
All was fine though as Eva, the gorgeous German I had spent
time with in the hills, was in the next beach town of Hikkaduwa (again, say
it. Love these names!) and was staying there for a while. She said it was very chilled out and a must
see. So I went and saw.
The biggest of the touristy beach towns but GORGEOUS
beach. Not quite Mozambique, nothing
could be Mozambique, but the closest I have seen. Love, love, LOVED the beach. One long strip of guesthouses, restaurants,
and shops with loads of sunburned Russians and chilled out surfer dudes
lounging about. Oh, and did I mention
the beach? I could walk for MILES on
soft, CLEAN sand and only run into a few people here and there. The waves were big and the strangest currents
came in and swept you straight sideways off your feet in warm, wild water. Despite a few panicky moments of “holy shit
I’m being dragged to my death!”, the water was good fun for playing. A week melted by and I did a whole lot of I’m
not quite sure what. It was divine. The locals even seemed more chilled out
there. Did some city exploring, ate way
too much food, walked and walked and walked, rented a scooter and drove around,
laid in the sun, and even drank wine. I
found out much too late that after my year of yearning in Indo, Sri Lanka had
all the worldly wine you could ever want at really good prices. *sigh*
I still got a good bottle worth in though so all good. All good.
The week was great, it was SO nice to hang out with really
good company and be a tourist instead of a traveller for a bit. I was seriously contemplating extending my
visa in SL for another month but the time on my Indian visa was ticking
away. It was time to go.
Sri Lanka – two thumbs up and on my list for must go back to
countries. I feel like I saw and did
almost nothing of what the country has to offer after only a month. It’s clean (compared to Indo and apparently
to India, of course), the people are LOVELY, you can do the usual ignoring of
the incredibly annoying tuk tuks and touts without any worry of aggression, the
men are still icky and in some towns after a few run ins I was confined to my
room after dark but for the most part, no issues at all, the food is YUM!, and
it’s still all new. Everyone I met who
has had an India experience says that SL is a very soft India, all the good
stuff of India, a warm up for or necessary wind down to India but India aside, I
really, really liked SL. Trains and tea,
climbing mountains or swimming in the sea, SL is an upcoming love affair for
sure. Get here now, before it’s
overdone. And if you need a travel
partner, let me know. I’m definitely up
for it. Definitely.
I’m off to India, completely unprepared, no idea where I’m
going or what I’m doing, and to be honest, a little scared out of my mind. Bring it on.
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