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Day 17 – 21st February – Marissa

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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.

Day 2 – Tuesday 6th February – Another Great day in Sri Lanka.

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Today was our day of rest to get over the flight…however, after another sleepless night I needed a slow day …I think my body clock is up the creek, finally nodded off at 5.30 and got up at 7.30….I guess 2 hours sleep is better than none. We had selected a British breakfast rather than a Sri Lankan one because Brenda had told us the later was very spicy 🌶 🌶🌶…….They call it spicy here rather than hot, where as we tend to say spicy is flavoursome…so now we have to say ‘ not too chilli spicy’… So we had a large bowl of fruit followed by scrambled eggs on toast with bacon, sausage and tomato…all rounded off with toast and marmalade and washed down with some rather nice Italian coffee….a great start to the morning. We went back to the room and packed up because the Ayubowan Guest House had kindly agreed to move us downstairs to a room which was en-suite and didn’t involve me climbing Mount Everest 🤣🤣🤣.

10.30 am prompt Suminda picked us up and we headed off to the Muthurajawela Visitor Center on the mangrove canals. Today Suminda had suggest that we took an additional boat trip along the canal, around the mangroves of the Muthurajawels sanctuary and on to the Negombo Lagoon. This is an important area for migratory bird life. After a brief introduction about the sanctuary by the guide we paid our US$80 and made a rather inelegant boarding of the boat. Suminda was cheap as we didn’t have to pay for him as well!! and he was still allowed to accompany us.

it was a thoroughly pleasant way to spend 3 hours meandering along the canal and into the lagoon. We were fortunate enough to see, lapwings, bitterns, water monitor lizards, egrets, herons, migratory terns and swallows from India and many more. There were other intriguing sights such as net fishing and fishermen punting their boats.

All of this was topped off with a real treat seeing the trees moving first with a colony of fruit bats and then again later, only this time with shy Macaque Monkeys…. Our patience paid off as a couple came along the waterside and took no notice of us as the foraged for food.

Having returned to the very welcomed air conditioned car Suminda took us on a sightseeing trip on the way back. We stopped off at the fish market, where they were drying fish in a similar way to that which I’ve seen in Malawi. The remnants of the mornings catch was still on sale by some ever hopeful stallholders. The only customers seemed to be some beady eyed egrets…

Evidently there would have been a lot of fruit and veg on the market much earlier in the day. It was interesting to see Jack fruit in its entirety as well as what it looks like when mature and ripened. We eat a lot of Jack Fruit at home, it comes as young fruit in a tin and we use it as substitute meat, it tastes a little like pulled pork and is supposedly good for lowering blood sugars for diabetics.

As our tummies were rumbling Suminda took us to Koko Beach club for lunch. We each had Coke Zero. John and I shared a beef and cheese rotti, which was chilli spicy and a plate of French fries, whilst Suminda had a chicken curry and rice. It was nice sitting looking at the sea and the beach whilst under a ceiling fan!! Lunch cost us £12, it turns out Suminda is a cheap gentleman to take for lunch as his was free!!!
Then it was back to Ayubowan Guest House. Brenda had kindly had our bags brought downstairs to our new room and we were quickly into the air conditioning and under the crisp cool sheets for a siesta.

After a refreshing snooze we readied ourselves for Desmond and his tuk-tuk chariot and off we went onto the high street to try a different restaurant for our evening meal. This time we tried another recommended Seafood establishment The Sea View. A little ironic as it has a view of the Main Street and unless you had X-ray vision you have no chance of seeing the sea! It’s a lively, bright place which has a really buzzing ambience.
We took the last table and quickly ordered seafood noddles for me and sweet & sour chicken for John.

We followed it with John having his usual ice cream and I had banana fritters…all very tasty for about £16 including the normal coke zeros…..we’ve found the food to be reasonably priced and so far all the restaurant’s we’ve eaten I have accepted MasterCard so that’s a thumbs up. Desmond Tuk Tuk was waiting for us and soon returned us to our Guest House. Tomorrow Suminda is taking us sightseeing in Colombo and then to his home to meet his wife and she is going to cook us a Sri Lankan curry for lunch. We were very touched when he invited us and we are very much looking forward to the day, so more about that tomorrow..