Day 4 – 24 January 2019

Sri Lanka – Mirissa

Mirissa Beach Inn

Total Spent 13,500 LKR ($103)

We woke up early this morning with no intentions for the day. Our morning started with a visit to a cafe we found on google which felt all too familiar…smashed avo on toast. But again, good coffee. We’re going for a proper Sri Lankan breakfast tomorrow, no more Aussie brekkies.

There’s not much else to report on today, we hit the beach and lay there sunbathing and reading. The water is very warm here so nice to swim in and very salty. I’m reading Big Little Lies at the moment, not quite the classic literature theme I’ve been going with but it’s easy reading which is good for the moment.

Part of tropical beach life includes getting a coconut cracked open for you and sticking a straw in it, I did that as well as getting a pineapple sliced up to take home. I don’t even like pineapple but this stuff is good, very sweet.

The amount of rubbish all over the ground in Sri Lanka stresses me out a little, there is crap everywhere, particularly plastic. It makes me appreciate how fortunate we are to live in countries that promote recycling, or at least trying to do something about it. You see a lot of small businesses here trying to be part of the movement, although there is a huge culture change that would be needed in countries like Sri Lanka and India. I feel like they must be used to chucking stuff to the side of the road or off the trains. Anyway, it makes me want to just live here and go around picking up rubbish all day. I thought it would be a good idea for us to do little beach cleans while we’re going for walks whilst we’re on this trip, maybe we’ll start now.

To continue on my constant self reflection, I’m proud of myself for letting go of control, just a little. I recognise that I am a control freak and feel the need to perform everything myself to make sure it’s done to a standard that I am happy with, even if this standard goes way beyond what is required. The amount of planning that has been required over the last few days is too much for me to do myself, or want to do myself. So I’ve been asking/allowing Tim to take more control and do his own analysis and make decisions for the both of us. I hope this continues, not only for the rest of this trip, but for the rest of time. I have to let go of the need for everything to be perfect. The world will not end if we have a bad meal, or stay in a crap hotel or get on the wrong train. I am learning, I just hope it sticks.