Today we woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed after a super supper and a great nights sleep…there’s nothing like listening to the waves breaking on to the beach. We had a slow start to the morning and went for a late breakfast. We were greeted like very welcome customers, smiles and pleasantries were exchanged. Our breakfast started with fresh lime juice….that made our cheeks tingle… followed by fresh fruit salad topped with granola/ muesli and buffalo curd on top, all in what we would describe as a sundae glass. This was followed by breads of all sorts even a twist with chocolate inside and a cheesy topped roll etc, jams and marmalades. A cooked breakfast was then produced, we opted for poached eggs with sausages, bacon, tomato, mushrooms and baked beans…it was all scrumptious. All this while watching surfers chase the waves and occasionally catch and ride one. The manager checked we had slept well and that our breakfast was to our satisfaction, he was a really nice kind man and genuinely wanted to make certain we were happy.

After breakfast we returned to our room and once again packed our bags ready to move to Sea World Botique Hotel. Suminda had told us our room would be ready after 12.00 as that was the checking out time. We took one more look at the fantastic view and headed for reception.

Having paid the drinks bill we bade the staff and manager a fond farewell. It was hard to believe we had only been there for a night, the friendliness of the staff was second to none….a big shout out for Beach & Bliss Mirissa…a very high recommendation if you are planning a trip around Sri Lanka.

We headed off with Suminda and as our new hotel room wasn’t ready we went in hot pursuit of a Sri Lankan t-shirt for John. The necessary item was quickly purchased …just another to add to the hundreds he already has…either we’ll have to stop travelling or we’ll have to buy another wardrobe!!!!
We arrived at Sea World Botique and our room was ready….but what a disappointment it was to learn it was on the 2nd floor….4 flights of stairs up….we had been promised by dialaflight and Jetwing Travel, only last week, that we would have a 1st floor room….not only this but the room was not sea facing in fact it overlooked the very close busy noisy road outside with all its beeping and honking from mopeds, lorrys, cars, buses, tuk-tuks etc…. I hadn’t requested Sea facing because I had incorrectly presumed they would all be and I certainly hadn’t expected a main road literally on the doorstep. The room was what in the UK we would be call bijou, a very small double or as my father would say ‘A Kylie Minogue room’…everything there, in the right place but in tiny compact proportions….So….no sound of the waves for us….such a huge disappointment but tired of arguments and tired of wasting our holiday time waiting for responses and actions to put things right which should never have gone wrong…I struggled up the 4 flights we put on our swimwear and descended the pesky stairs to enjoy a cooling dip whilst looking out at an azure blue sea with white foaming waves rolling in…followed by several hours and another dip on the sun lounger whilst still soaking up the view……The climb back up stairs to our room didn’t seem as bad after a sun soaked snooze and an overload of the wonderful view.

We got ready for supper and went downstairs. The food in the restaurant is supposed to be very good according to the reviews…..alas foiled again….the cook is off sick, so they’re not serving any food……….this is really turning out to be an episode from ‘Fawlty Towers’ !!! ….We will not be defeated !!! …so we hailed a tuk-tuk and went about a kilometre along the main road into town to a beach restaurant called ‘Salt’ although the sign looked more like ‘Solt’ …we were shown to a table just up from the waters edge on the sand…such a lovely spot…the whole beach was littered with different restaurants and tables and lights. Having been given our seats we were then taken to a table covered in fish. Our waiter suggested a large fish which he said was endemic to Sri Lanka…it looked like a white Mullet, obviously locally caught. We had it filleted and grilled and served with a few potato wedges and salad…it was divine…a really great experience.

It was quite an expensive meal by Sri Lankan standards with the fish costing about £20 and the other bits £10 but it was certainly worth it. We had asked our tuk-tuk driver to come back and pick us up …it’s amazing what a 25 pence tip will do….and he dutifully did and unlike other tuk-tuks, we’ve experienced he carefully returned us to the hotel, gaining him another 25 pence tip !!! An earliest night was required due to a very busy day of sunbathing and swimming tomorrow.