Sri Lanka – Mirissa

Mirissa Beach Inn

Total Spent 12,600 LKR ($96)

Another beach day. 

We went back to No1 Dewimi Roti Shop to try a traditional Sri Lankan breakfast of string hoppers, dhal and coconut sambal. I imagine anyone who doesn’t like spice would struggle to enjoy authentic food here. The string hoppers were little nests of vermicelli noodles which were served with a spicy lentil dhal and the coconut sambal was a mix of shredded coconut with chilli and red onion. It was such a tasty and filling breakfast, washed down with another papaya juice.

After a few hours of relaxing on the beach and swimming in the ocean, we headed back to the hotel to have a beer and look into our trains for India, which we’ve realised we probably should have booked a lot sooner. 

After dinner, which was another visit to the roti shop for kothu and dessert roti, we went for a walk along the beach before heading back to the hotel. We saw a group of people gathered on the beach with torches, turns out it was a giant sea turtle nesting in the sand. Can’t believe we stumbled upon this and got to see a turtle laying its eggs. I read up about it and apparently this is the only time that you could be so close to a turtle as they are in a trance state, their behaviours are driven by the task of nesting. We’re looking into doing some snorkelling while we’re here to see if we can spot any.

When we arrived back to the hotel in the afternoon the owner rushed up to us apologising, explaining that while they were cleaning our room they had whipped the bedsheets off and my phone had dropped and smashed on the floor. I instantly told them that it was fine and not to worry, I felt bad as I know that would have worried them, I don’t doubt there’s people that would have gone crazy and demanded payment for it. Luckily my phone is pretty old and I don’t have any emotional attachments to technology, other than the photos and memories they hold. This has shown me how little I cared about my phone, and I was glad of that. It just felt like a mild inconvenience, I wasn’t bothered by it at all. I think this was a blessing in disguise, a sign from the universe, that I needed to get off my phone. If I’m honest, since I got my SIM card I’ve barely been off my phone. I think when you go on holiday it’s such a good thing to only have wifi when you’re in the hotel and then once you’re out, it goes off. But since we’re in countries for a long time and doing a lot of moving around we need it for the maps. I have been glued to it, not always on social media, but googling where to go, where to eat etc. Although this is helpful for the trip, it stops you from making decisions based on your feelings and movements, instead of asking locals or taking a walk and going somewhere that looks and feels nice, you google and go for the place with the most or best reviews. This is good sometimes for a one time experience, but it also creates this culture of one or two booming businesses as they get bigger and bigger and the others fall behind, not because their standards are low but because they don’t have as many reviews. And often you go to the places that has thousands of reviews and it’s not even that good but you think it’s great just because everyone else does!

Losing my phone has forced me to reevaluate my decision making process. I’m actively working on my decision making whilst on this trip, I think this will be greatly improved if I learn to make decisions without the use of my phone.

We’ll try and get the screen fixed when we get to Kandy which is 8 days from now, lets see if I can finish my book by then with all the extra time I’ll now have.

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.

Sri Lanka – Mirissa

Mirissa Beach Inn

Total Spent 17,000 LKR ($126)

We’re sleeping surprisingly well considering our last hotel was a mattress on a concrete block and this one was a thin piece of foam. I’m glad we’re not too fussy, our lack of expectations means we’re never disappointed. We decided to go for breakfast at an Aussie owned cafe, I’m not proud of it, but we really wanted coffee. It was a short 12 minute walk and the local coffee was good. 

Even with a tight schedule in place we managed to be late to the train station which meant there was no time to go to the reservation office to pre-book tickets for future journeys. We got our 2nd class tickets for Matara and went to the platform. It was pretty packed and there’s no reserved seats so when the train arrives it’s a case of piling on and hoping for the best. We were somewhat fortunate that we got space in the aisle of a carriage (which was better that being face to armpit with people in the doorway) where we stood with our bags for the first hour of the journey. Eventually people started getting off at stops along the line and we had enough room to sit on the floor, an hour after that we bagged some seats. The last two hours of the train were spent looking out the window at the jungle scenery and doing a bit more planning for the rest of the trip.

A guy came over and told us that if we were going to Mirissa, there was a train leaving Matara station which would stop at Mirissa station. We bought new tickets and jumped back on the train as he instructed, arriving in Mirissa to find it was a station in the middle of nowhere at the end of a dirt road. Both luckily and unluckily, there was one tuktuk driver there. He must make a small fortune waiting there for clueless tourists. 

We have splashed out (and by splashed out, I mean not chosen the cheapest hotel available on booking.com) on a nicer hotel and arrived to a comfortable bed with a great mosquito net (very important in Sri Lanka). We headed along the edge of a river to the No.1 Diwimi Roti Shop to get lunch since it was almost 3pm. Along the walk we encountered a huge lizard thing that looked like an alligator and a bunch of non-violent monkeys. The roti shop has good veggie options and we both got roti with egg, cheese and vegetables with a spicy sauce. I also tried papaya (or papaw, as they pronounce it) juice which was tasty. This place was pretty busy, it has great reviews and turns out it’s a little restaurant they run out of their home.

The rest of the evening was spent doing a painful amount of planning and organising. We were looking forward to taking this trip as it comes and moving where we wanted, when we wanted, but that just isn’t going to work here. We only have three weeks and there’s plenty of places we want to see. Also public transport books up fast, and so unless you want to sit on the floor for 5-7 hour train journeys, you need to plan your itinerary and book your tickets. So with the amazing help of our Sri Lankan friends, we put together a plan and booked all our accommodation and trains.

Sri Lanka – Colombo

Backpack Lanka Hostel

Spent 11,800rps ($90)

Today has felt like a whirlwind. We’ve only been travelling for 2 days and it already feels like two weeks. I think because so much changes in a day, it’s hard to think back to what you did that morning, let alone the day before.

Today we got the train to Colombo, this journey started out with Tim experiencing his first tuk-tuk. After the driver getting pretty lost he ended up taking us to the central rail station, 10 minutes further than where we needed to go, and we paid 100rps (70c) for it. Even with the detour we still caught the train which cost us 100rps each for a 3rd class ticket. 

Luckily there was only two platforms in Negombo so the train station was easy to navigate. We hopped on a quiet carriage and stood with our bags next to the open doors. Doors do not exist on Sri Lankan trains, even the ones that have doors have them jammed open, I don’t think you could close them even if you wanted to. On speaking to Gill, my Sri Lankan friend, about this she described the culture as “number one priority is a cool breeze, safety is at your own intelligence”. I guess this is something that western people would never even be trusted with. Either we’re idiots, or the incidents in less developed countries go unspoken/unactioned. Anyway, what a feeling being able to sit on the floor next to the open door and watch the world go by. I chose not to take any chances dangling feet over the edge or trying to get the perfect Instagram photo swinging out of the carriage. It was a great first experience, but not one I’m willing to push the boundaries of life and death for. There was so much observing to be done; people walking down the tracks, hanging out their washing and the landscape was so colourful. We sat next to locals for some of the journey, people here are just the friendliest, smiling at you all the time and offering you seats. 

We arrived in Colombo and were extremely grateful for the PickMe app (equivalent of Uber) to book tuktuks. Haggling a good price can be such a task when you have no idea what you should be paying. This way everything was metered and the driver had our location on a map. 

After dropping our bags at the hostel we headed straight for the Galle Face Hotel, a five star hotel which was built in 1846. It’s right on the oceanfront and has the most beautiful view when sat in the Verandah restaurant. From here we could see where China is creating its own part of Sri Lanka, literally extending the country by dumping sand in the sea. 

This is where we had our first Sri Lankan curry. I had yellow vegetable and Tim had chicken coconut. It’s presented with the rice wrapped in (what I assume is) a banana leaf, with five little dishes of different curry/condiments and two poppadoms. The curry is served on the side and you just dump it all onto the rice together and enjoy. There were so many flavours, so many combinations to try. I’m so excited to have more curries here, I could eat curry day and night for the rest of my life.  

To finish the day off we decided that we’d go watch the sunset from a rooftop bar called OZO. We only had an hour until sunset, so we walked back to the hostel for a quick costume change and jumped in a tuktuk to the bar. Luckily the guy took the route along the oceanfront so we were able to catch the best of the sunset from there. His driving shaved 10 minutes off the estimated time of arrival, centre road markings mean nothing to anyone here. If there’s space on the road, they’re driving in it, even if it’s into oncoming traffic. I’ve not seen one crash yet, they must know what they’re doing.

A few side notes/stories to remember:

• During our post lunch tea/coffee I had marks all over my arms and legs, panic set in and I googled what it could mean. Bartonella or Lyme Disease was the diagnosis. After half an hour of research, we realised it was how I was sitting on the chair, leaving imprints of wicker. This level of paranoia is new, I hope this isn’t a sign of ageing…
• Once we got to the top of OZO, I struggled to enjoy any views of the ground below, fear of heights is getting worse. It’s the thought of falling off the edge, I get flashes of it happening and then it hurts to go near the edge or look down. Somehow need to get over this, will look into

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.