Hey there readers, so as those of you who have been following along regularly know, Day 8 did not end up in an ideal fashion, but it certainly could have been worse. No doubt partially as a result of that, I woke up at 5:00 AM and couldn’t really get to sleep again until about 6:30 AM. Then at 7:52 AM, I was fully awake once again and resolved to start dealing with whatever the day might have in store. At 8:19 AM I was out of the door, but it took a couple of minutes before anyone noticed me and then handed me a bill for my lodging in Mirissa. You may remember that I had booked with Booking.com, but like many places in Sri Lanka, you have to pay in cash after you arrive. Finally, at 8:25 AM someone noticed me, and I was given a bill for 9065 LKR ($30.91 USD), which means that for the second night which I had cancelled due to weather, they only charged me a $3.91 USD cancellation fee, which I understood was simply the commission which they would need to pay Booking.com. Honestly, I had been expecting to pay the entire $27 USD for the unused night, so only paying $3.91 USD was a much-appreciated good start to the day.
Walking out of the guesthouse at 8:27 AM, I was thankful that my only luggage was my maximum carry-on size backpack which really was quite comfortable. This meant it would be easy for me to wander around a bit before figuring out how to head over to Mirissa.
I had a general idea that I wanted to see a tiny bit of the actual city of Galle, get more cash out of the ATM just in case the smaller beach town of Mirissa did not have plenty of ATM machines, and perhaps also go to the Rumassala area. After getting cash out at 9:01 AM, I soon discovered that PickMe does not work as well in Galle as it does in Colombo, and I also had a very hard time making drivers understand where I wanted to go. I decided to take that as a sign to just look around a bit more before trying again.
Thus, when I saw Arpico Super Center at 9:32 AM, I thought that it might be a place I could get some simple sandals. Unfortunately, they only had flip flops, which I find very uncomfortable to wear, so I ended up just buying a small black umbrella for 1190 LKR ($4.02 USD). On my way out I checked again with PickMe to see the projected cost to go the Japanese Peace Pagoda – Rumassala, and the app said it should be 300 LKR. So, when a random tuk-tuk driver asked me where I wanted to go, and he said that he knew the place, I thought it would be fine until he told me it would cost 2000! Keeping in mind that it might just be worth it to get there and be done with it, I offered 1000, but he refused until I just said no thank you and walked away. At which point he begged me to let him take me for 1000, but I completely ignored him and kept walking. Yeah, I don’t do bargaining well . . . I mean I ALWAYS give a decent tip to drivers, but it really upsets me when I feel like they are trying to take advantage of me. So again, I took that as a sign to keep walking, and sure enough, I came upon a little stand selling the slider type sandals which I wanted for the low cost of only 1000 LKR ($3.38 USD).
Encouraged by my success with the sandals, I tried the PickMe app again at 9:53 AM. This time it worked, and I was on my way at 9:58 AM. When we arrived at 10:09 AM, the stated bill was 270 LKR, but I paid him 500 LKR ($1.69 USD). The driver at first thought I did not understand the correct price and kept trying to give me the change, but then I was able to explain to him that I was grateful for his honesty, but that I really did not want to give him something extra due to his excellent driving and great service. Thus, he earned a 46% tip, and we were both very happy with the transaction. Going up, I also saw that it while it would have been possible, the to reach the pagoda would have taken way longer than I wanted, and I would also have arrived rather worn out had I simply decided to walk the whole way. The pagoda itself was pleasant enough, as was the view from that general area.
I could have also gone down to a nice beach from there, but I had really only wanted to see the view from the spot before figuring out how to get to Mirissa. So, at 10:31 AM I started walking down to the main road where I had a vague idea that I would either try to get a taxi from there or if possible, maybe even just flag down a local bus. As I walked down, I reflected that if I were to return, I would probably not actually stay inside the fort. There would still be plenty to see, with even the possibility of going to walk around in the fort at night, and it would also be less expensive. It would have been possible to get a vehicle down to the main road, but I felt that I needed the exercise, and most of this road always had good shade where I could walk.
According to Google Maps (admittedly not always the best source of information) and a couple of other sites I had read online, near the road heading up to the Peace Pagoda from the main road, there would be a bus stop where I could wait for bus #350 heading to Mirissa. I however quickly realized that a flaw in my plan was that most of the buses either did not have numbers, or did not have numbers that I could read. Nevertheless, it all worked out since at 11:10 AM a random bus going by sort of slowed down a bit and when I called out Mirissa, the guy hanging out the door motioned that I should jump on, which I did without the bus ever actually having stopped. Once I had sat down, the same guy came to charge me 200 LKR ($0.68 USD) and even gave me an automatically printed little ticket from a machine on his belt. Looking at the route on Google Maps, it seemed that as long as we stayed on the main coastal road, we would get to Mirissa, but I resolved to look periodically just in case. The bus itself was clean, comfortable and not at all crowded. There was even a convenient rack to put my backpack.
It looked like it would be around 45 minutes until Mirissa, so I decided to get a head start checking how I would get back to Negombo on the 24th. Unfortunately, it appeared that there was no way to easily go directly from Mirissa with the times that I wanted, so I decided to go ahead and once more use 12Go to book an express bus back from Galle at 12 PM on the 24th. I had been pleased with their service before. This time, as I really wanted to make sure that there would be no issues with me getting back to Negombo before 5 PM on the 24th, I decided to pay a bit more and get “premium support” whatever that means. The cost for the bus back to Colombo had a cost of $8.98 USD, which I happily paid, remembering how well the company had handled things on my way here the day before. With a 12 PM departure on the 24th, it also meant that if all went well, I would be able to squeeze in early morning snorkeling with sea turtles in Mirissa on the same day.
It is kind of fun making travel decisions on the fly like this, but it is certainly not a luxury afforded to everyone. As we passed Welligama on Matara Road at 11:55 AM, I saw a really amazing huge tree which appeared to be growing right out of the ocean, but I unfortunately could not get a picture. In general, it was a rather scenic route, and with the windows open, it was perfectly comfortable in the bus. However, as my stop neared at 12:01 PM I started to become a bit unsure how I was supposed to signal that I wanted to stop. There were what appeared to be signal buttons on the roof, but nobody seemed to be using them, and the driver was definitely not stopping at all of “the stops” which appeared on the map.
Whether or not the button actually did anything, I pressed it at 12:05 PM, and one way or another the driver got the message, and I was off the bus almost immediately in front of my lodging in Mirissa at 12:07 PM. Similar, to the boarding process, it was more of a leaping off rather than a leisurely stop and step down, but I was used to that from travelling on local buses in much of Latin America. My initial impression of Isindu Sky Lodge was very positive, despite the less than stellar ratings on Tripadvisor. I was a bit nervous about noise from the street, since it I had a balcony facing the main road, but the room itself looked great.
After getting fully settled in, at 12:33 PM I decided to go try to find some food, as I had not eaten anything since my exorbitantly priced yet elegant “cream tea” of the previous day. As I stepped outside, I noticed that there was also a local school nearby, which had what appeared to be a large pool of stagnant water next to it. I hoped that it was something temporary which would drain very soon, as it would otherwise be a big mosquito risk for the students, and those who were staying nearby (including myself).
There seemed to be quite a few options for food, but after a short walk, at 12:50 PM I decided to give K40 Mirissa Restaurant a try. The place looked simple but pleasant, and I decided to order Rice and Fish Curry with Ambarella Juice.
I had already learned that unless getting a buffet, Sri Lankan restaurants appear to generally cook meals from scratch, so I was not surprised nor upset that it was not until 1:34 PM that my food arrived. The meal was tasty and also tasted great. When I paid and headed out at 2:23 PM, the bill was 2000 LKR ($6.84 USD).
Walking back towards the hotel, at 2:35 PM, I was a bit surprised to see these graves so close to the beach. My initial thought was that maybe they were from the tsunami of 2004, but I then decided that was probably wrong, since they seemed to have different dates, and the plot did not look particularly well cared for.
It was a bit hot out, so from 2:58 PM to 5:23 PM I stayed in my hotel room working on my travel blog. I thought it might have cooled down a bit, and I had also read that nearby parrot rock was the best place to see the sunset. As I reached the general recommended area at 5:38 PM, I saw that going up on the actual rock was not something that made sense for me with my shoes, and frankly also did not seem necessary. However, the beach itself was beautiful, and I resolved that as long as it was not an undue burden, I would make sunsets on the beach part of my routine for the rest of my days in Sri Lanka.
As I waited and watched, I noticed that despite having put on SPF sunblock on my face and neck in the morning, moving to the shade whenever possible and also always wear a sunhat, I clearly had quite a bit of red on my face and of course also my arms, where I had neglected to put any sunblock. I decided that I would need to be a bit more careful the next day, also putting sunblock on my arms and reapplying to my face and neck every three hours. I certainly did not want to have an unpleasant sunburn for my final days in Sri Lanka! As there were some clouds in the distance, I didn’t get to see the sun as it touched the water, but I did catch it in the final moment as it appeared to sink into the clouds at 5:50 PM.
I left the beach at 6:06 PM and walked a bit more until arriving at Maggie’s Roti Shop at 6:20 PM where upon the same being suggested by the server, I ordered Fish Devilled and Mango Juice. The food came out much quicker than I had expected, and I was finished at 7:00 PM. While I had “liked” the food, I did not find it to be fabulous. Notably, I had told them to please use a “normal/standard” amount of chili, since I was used to the same, but I did not find it to be spicy at all. The bill was 2400 LKR ($8.11 USD), and while I personally did not find this to be a huge amount, I was starting to wonder if this was how much average Sri Lankans would always pay when eating out. I had intentionally tried to find “simpler looking” places the last couple times I had eaten, and while this was definitely not expensive for a foreign tourist, based on what I knew of earnings in Sri Lanka, it seemed to me that it might seem quite expensive to common people. Of course, so far, I had always been eating in what I guess would be considered “tourist” places, so maybe that was the reason?
On my walk back to the hotel, I bought a small soft drink, a bottle of bottled water and a standard ice cream on a stick from a simple looking place, arriving back to the hotel room at 7:36 PM.
After showering and putting out clothes for the next day, I was in bed at 8:30 PM, since the following morning I was supposed to have a rather early pickup from the hotel, and I definitely did not want to miss the tour which I had planned. All in all, I felt that it had been a very successful Day 9 in Sri Lanka. A big part of my plan this second week had been to have more relaxation time, but I also had wanted to still see some interesting things along the way. What do you think? Would you have liked this first full day in southern Sri Lanka, or do you think I should have tried to do more? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Travels with Jay 