A week in beautiful Sri Lanka

You may have noticed from my last blog that I had grown tired of the hawkers, gawkers and conmen of India. Thankfully Sri Lanka proved to be the perfect antidote to this.

Although so close to India they almost touch, Sri Lanka has a completely different feel. For a start the women seem less opressed - they look happy and actually smile. I also saw females working in quite important jobs and, shock horror, the Sri Lankan men didn’t seem to mind. I’m not saying they’ve managed to pull off the seemingly impossible (and by that I mean equality) but they’re certainly a step ahead of India.

After arriving at the airport in Colombo we went into the city to the bus station and Luke went off to find out about bus times. While I was waiting alone no one stared at me or asked for a photo and I felt perfectly safe to be on my own – this felt very liberating after 10 weeks of constantly feeling like I was only safe by Luke’s side.

When we were planning our week in Sri Lanka we initially devised an ambitious itinerary which involved three nights in the hilltop station town of Kandy, a night or two in Sigiriya to see Lion Rock and then the remaining few nights by the coast in Mirissa. However, we decided to learn from the mistake we made in India (an overambitious itinerary) and headed straight for a week by the sea in Mirissa. This turned out to be a good base as the beach was beautiful – perfect for lazy days – but there were also a few interesting places nearby for day trips. More importantly there were more roti shops than you could possibly visit in a seven-day period.

Tranquil Mirissa beach in Sri Lanka.

We hired a moped for our first day trip and went to the town of Galle which is a 50-minute moped ride from Mirissa. After Indonesia, Sri Lanka was the second most affected country in the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami but driving along the coastal road, there was no evidence of the devastation it caused. The biggest loss on the day was 1,700 people who were in an overcrowded train from Colombo to Galle which took the full impact of the huge wave and nearly everyone on board was killed. In total 35,322 people in Sri Lanka were killed and over 500,000 people displaced.

Today, the coastal path is busy with shops, hotels and restaurants and palm trees line the shore. In our travels we hadn’t yet visited an area which was badly affected by the tsunami and I went to Sri Lanka expecting to see some physical evidence of the impact – but all I saw was a perfectly normal tourist area. The ever-smiling locals didn’t speak of the psychological effects it had but you can’t help but think there must be some.

Sri Lanka has also made the headlines recently, particularly the Channel 4 News in the UK, due to its alleged war crimes and human rights abuses during the final stages of the civil war which recently came to an end. Again, it's hard to imagine these atrocities taking place somewhere that looks so much like paradise.

On our way to Galle we got as close to a con as you probably get in Sri Lanka. We’d heard of the iconic stilt fisherman of Ahangama and when we saw five of them lined up, we decided to jump off and take a photo. It turns out this must have been happening for years because, almost immediately, a man popped up with his hand out and demanded 200 Sri Lankan Rupees(lkr), so £1, before we were allowed to take a photo. Wanting the iconic photo, we decided to pay up.

The stilt fishermen of Anhangama, Sri Lanka.

As we neared it became obvious that the men weren’t even real fisherman – they had no lines off their sticks and were just sitting there, bobbing the sticks up and down for show. Therefore I have renamed them the Fakerman of Anhangama.

A stilt Fakerman of  Ahangama hoping to reel in money rather than fish.

It must be quite a lucrative gig as, in the five minutes we were there, about three minivans pulled up with people dutifully handing over wads of cash in order to be allowed a few camera clicks – on public land, might I add. Stupid tourists and I’m including myself in that statement.

Tourists pull over to hand over wads of cash to take photos of fake culture.

Galle itself was well worth the journey (and sore bum on the moped). It’s a pretty Portuguese/Dutch colonial town with narrow streets, a pretty harbour and pristine lighthouse.

Pretty Galle town.

It's also home to lots of quite expensive restaurants and coffee shops which tourists seem to love so much. Thankfully, we found a cute and reasonably-priced restaurant called Lucky Fort where we enjoyed a feast of ten vegetable curries and rice. This is a traditional dish of Sri Lanka and something we fell in love with while we were there - the curries were always fresh and really healthy without too much oil. Generally it was five curries and rice, so having the offer of ten with rice for just 900 lkr (£4.50) for the both of us was heavenly.

Me chowing down on 10 curries and rice.

Lucky Fort restaurant, Galle.

In Mirissa we lived on rotis which came in every flavour - egg, vegetable, cheese, chicken, nutella, chocolate - and are basically really thin pancakes that are folded over whichever ingredient you choose to put inside. They were delicious and cheap (about 80lkr, 40p) and we found a really friendly place called Dewani No.1 Roti Shop which we think sold the best - the perfect level of saltiness.

On another day trip we went to the nearby surfing beach of Weligama which was the perfect beach for beginners as it was really long, therefore less chance of collisions, and the waves were nice and predictable. This gave Luke a chance to hire a board for a few hours hone the skills he learned during our surf lessons in Varkala.

Unfortunately it looks like quiet, laid back Weligama won't be that way for long. I spied a monstrosity of a Marriott hotel being built on the sea front - it's a whopping 12 storeys. I'm not sure how they got planning permission but when it opens it will undoubtedly oust any cheapo surfing backpackers.

Laid back Weligama with the looming Marriott hotel on the horizon.

On the whole Sri Lanka is more expensive than India and our £35-a-day budget was tested, but the standards were oh so much higher – things were clean, like properly clean, there was toilet paper in the bathrooms and we stopped feeling the need to smother our hands in anti-bacterial gel every five minutes. So the extra few quid for accommodation and food was worth every penny in my book.

Sri Lanka was a bit of an accidental addition to our itinerary (we extended a stopover on our way to Thailand) but I'm really pleased we went there. The people were warm, the food was good and it turned out to be a tonic after the stresses of India.

I think it's safe to say that: Sri Lanka, we will be back.

USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT MIRISSA:
Accommodation: We stayed in a lovely family-run guest house called Sahan Guest House on Vihadagoda Road, a five minute walk from Mirissa beach. It was spotlessly clean and cost 2,500 lkr (£12.50) a night.
Eating and drinking: We loved No1 Dewani Roti Shop which was across the road from our guest house. On beach days we'd normally head to Sunny Side Up Restaurant which is part of Mirissa Bay Resort - it looks posher than the rest of the restaurants but the prices are actually the same as everywhere else along the beach.
Getting there and away: From the airport in Colombo we got a bus to Colombo Bus Station (120lkr, 30 mins) and then got a air-conditioned 'express' bus to Mirissa (400lkr) - however, this turned out not to be express at all and took nearly six hours. On the way back we got a tuk-tuk from Mirissa to Weligama (150lkr) and then took the express train to Colombo which took three hours and only cost 100lkr - this was much more relaxing. We then hopped on a bus to Colombo Airport (100lkr, 30 mins).