Hey there readers. I hope things have been going well for you. I have actually just now finished my first week back at work, but I am determined to keep pushing ahead with these Sri Lanka entries so that this does not become either another unfinished trip report like when I was in Argentina (Yes, I hope to still circle back to that one.) or simply a very delayed report like when I was in Beijing. Incidentally, did I ever tell you that even the fastest of these entries takes me at least ninety minutes, and sometimes as long as four hours? So that means that I am either a very slow writer, (please no negative comments about the quality of the writing in addition to the tardiness 🤣) or writing is just really a lot harder than most people realize.
So, on Day 10 I was up at 5:00 AM, and happy to report that despite the balcony opening out on the main road, I had not found it hard to sleep at all. Given that this was still a vacation day, you might wonder why I would get up so early. Well, while I was trying hard to keep my expectations low, one of the big reasons I had come to southern Sri Lanka was to go out on a whale watching tour. Like most day trips which I select while traveling, this one had been booked through GetYourGuide, in this particular case costing $67.32 USD. I had always wanted to do one of these tours in Costa Rica but had found them too expensive. With that in mind though, I also suspected that this might be a case of you get what you pay for. Still, if nothing else, it would probably be a pleasant trip out on the ocean. Again though, anytime when booking something involving wildlife or weather, be prepared to be disappointed.
Nevertheless, I admit that right before I headed out the door at 5:58 AM, I was quite sad to see that my 6:00 AM “snorkeling with sea turtles” trip for the next morning had been cancelled, as the company was now saying that there were not a lot of turtles around at 6:00 AM, so it was better to move it to 8:00 AM. This did not seem to make sense, because the previous day I had been told by the same company that early morning was the best time, since after early morning feeding, most of them would head out to deeper waters. In reality, I suspect that they simply did not have enough signups at 6:00 AM, so they wanted to move it to 8:00 AM. Yes, I probably could have done the later tour, but that would have made it almost impossible to safely arrive for my bus trip from Galle to Colombo at 12:00 PM . . . so, I guess it wasn’t in the cards. Still, the main reason for me coming to Mirissa had been to do this whale watching tour, so I thought that I should just focus on enjoying what was already in motion.
Really it was a bit silly that the rickshaw driver had been scheduled to pick me up at 5:58 AM. The ride itself wasn’t even five minutes, and I was the first to arrive at the dock. On the plus side, I had no problem getting what I figured would be a prime seat. As more participants started arriving, at 6:14 AM the organizers started serving tea, which I politely declined. By 6:31 AM, I was starting to think that there really were quite a few people on this boat. In fact, it looked like it might already be near to full. There was both an upper and lower observation deck, both with comfortable chairs. Near us, I could see several other similar boats, doubtless preparing for the same sort of outing. It wasn’t until 7:00 AM that we finally pulled out of the dock; however, I wasn’t annoyed by the wait.
At 7:08 AM I noted that there had been a crying baby almost the entire time. This wasn’t such a big deal for me, but some of the German speaking passengers near me were clearly bothered. As a teacher, I guess I am just pretty good at cancelling out unwanted background noise. As we moved out to the open sea, different from when closer to coastal waters, one really appreciates the constant crests and troughs, even when the water was is quite calm like it was on Day 10.
Right at 7:18 AM, no doubt going with the strategy of “keep them fed to keep them happy” a guy came around passing out sandwiches, one of which I accepted. Unfortunately, it had tiny raw onion bits on it that were impossible to remove, so after just nibbling a bit on some of the bread, I wrapped it back up and put it in my bag to be disposed of later on. Evidently distracted or simply happy to have the sandwich, the constantly crying toddler stopped crying for a bit. Keeping us guessing though, he started up again with the wails at 7:24 AM. I did sort of wonder if it made sense to take such a little kid on this sort of a trip, since there were several others who also did not seem particularly interested nor pleased with the experience, but maybe it comes down to individual personalities. While it was pleasant to just watch the sea, there wasn’t really much to do as we headed out to deeper waters aside from observe those around me and engage in personal musings.
So here come more random thoughts and observations. As there were at least 100 passengers on this boat, and presumably most paid a similar fee to what I had paid, that meant that this outing had cost more than $6000 USD. Having noted that there were several other similar boats, the implication was clear. This is a big business. At 7:37 AM, after being enveloped in the cloud of vapor for at least the 10th time, my attention kept being drawn back to the two British woman in front of me who were constantly puffing on their sickly strawberry scented vapes the entire trip. Maybe this was better than constantly breathing in burning tobacco, but I’m actually not sure. As of 7:45 AM, all we had seen were other boats, fellow passengers, and of course water, but in the far distance I could see a line of 8 boats which appeared to be stationary. I suspected that those were other whale watching boats and that was the place to be, but I wasn’t exactly an expert on the topic.
So, it appeared that I was right about the other boats, since at 8:07 AM we pulled up in the general area of the other seven double decker boats and a couple of smaller speed boats. At 8:12 AM I did “sort of see” a few dolphins breaking the surface of the water. Like I said, when on a “nature tour” you get what you get. Still, while my logic may have been wrong, I thought that with so many of these boats, maybe the dolphins and whales don’t like to come close. Then at 8:25 AM I DEFINITELY did see several dolphins in the distance, and I tried to get a video, but with so many people it was very easy to have the view blocked. Furthermore, the sightings tended to be just glimpses, so if you blinked then you missed it.
Then at 8:35 AM I heard one of the boat hands say that we wouldn’t see any whales in these waters, since the water was not deep enough. I thought, fair enough, so wouldn’t it be more honest to call it a “dolphin watching” tour? But then I had to shortly thereafter eat my internal words, since at 8:56 AM we were clearly moving in a fixed direction further out into deeper waters. No doubt dolphins are an easy crowd pleaser, so it’s best to at least make sure that happens before heading out to deeper waters where whales were far less probable to emerge. As we were moving, I reflected on the fact that while there was no doubt that we were clearly “chasing” these animals, if your goal was to get as close as possible, the smaller speed boats had a clear advantage with the dolphins, but I was not sure how that would play out with the deeper waters. I wondered, just how far out could the smaller boats go?
At 9:06 AM a woman with a different crying kid sat down next to me, but he mercifully quickly quieted down. Then at 9:16 AM, as we seemed to have no clear destination in mind, just deeper water, I wondered if that was the strategy. Hang out in deep water on the offhand chance that there would be a whale? Then as an added bonus, at 9:21 AM we saw a massive container ship passing by. Maybe they should have added that to the tour description? I mean it really was rather impressive to see in person out on the ocean, maybe even as impressive as a whale? However, despite the excellent image quality, certainly it was not as photo worthy.
Then at 9:27 AM in the distance I could see about 4 boats in the distance which seemed to sort of be parked. I suspected that several more would come together to join a fleet of whale watching tourists, and that is exactly what had happened at 10:02 AM. We were 19 boats in total, 9 of them similar in size to the one I was on, and 8 being smaller crafts. So as mentioned earlier, this whole “whale watching” thing is definitely big business. While I was resigned to the fact that I probably would not see any whales, at 10:12 AM some people saw something which could have been a whale. Even I thought I saw something which might have been a whale blowing water out, but frankly it could have just been sea spray for all I know. Nevertheless, everyone was quite excited. The boat operators told us that it would be another 10-15 minutes before there might be a chance of the whale coming up to breathe again.
Knowing that I had at least 10 minutes, I decided to focus on other things, and once again noticed this long line of something sort of yellow floating on the surface of the ocean. I had seen it several times during the trip and had assumed that it was some sort of sea life, but I figured it could also be a type of pollution. Noting though that we were still seeing it this far out, I decided to ask and was a bit surprised by the answer. The boat worker told me that the yellow was mud, since when it rains a lot (which you will remember it had been doing) when the river runs into the ocean it takes a lot of mud which stays on the surface of the ocean for quite some time before eventually mixing in and sinking down.
At 10:25 AM the fleet was on the move again, presumably heading towards a spot where someone’s sonar had picked up a whale? Just in case, I decided to stand up for a bit to see if there might be a better chance of seeing something. However, by 10:50 AM it seemed to me that we might be heading back to the shore. Then, at 11:00 AM, for a tiny moment I saw something break the surface which I thought was probably a dolphin, but the boat hands claimed was a whale. Yes, I DID see it for sure, but don’t fool yourself, it was more of a tiny glimpse rather than anything clearly noticeable. Nevertheless, reenergized, they went in pursuit again, and at 11:15 AM I actually was fully confident that in the distance I did see a tiny bit of a whale’s back as it breached the surface and then sprayed out water. Again though, this wasn’t a National Geographic photography moment . . . still, it was a bit satisfying.
Then at 11:19 AM it was clear that we were on a mission to get back to the dock as soon as possible. So, things had been about what I expected, although I did secretly admit that I had hoped for a bit more. Yes, I had definitely seen several wild dolphins off in the distance, and I am “fairly confident” that I had sort of seen glimpses of a whale a couple of times. However, as I had mentioned before starting the tour, if you decide to do something similar in Sri Lanka, temper your expectations A LOT. There were however a lot of pluses which merit mentioning.
The boat seats were very comfortable, and whether or not I actually was, I felt completely safe at all times. Furthermore, while the sunny weather meant the sea had been calm and the sun strong, the covered roof of the boat along with the constant breeze coming off the ocean meant that I was comfortable throughout. However, since sunlight reflects off water, I had been extra cautious about wearing my sunhat and even reapplying sunscreen during the trip, and it seemed that my caution had paid off. There were also the multiple times that food was cleverly distributed, despite the fact that it was not always of the most notable quality: the tea at 6:14 AM, the unpleasant (for me) sandwiches at 7:18 AM, the slices of watermelon at 11:25 AM, and the cheap yellow cake and tiny bananas at 11:45 AM. Especially leaning into the cheap food strategy near the end of the trip was smart, since people will tend to remember that even if the tour itself did not otherwise meet expectations. Of course, there were also many nice views along the way, in particular if like me, you do not usually live on the coast nor frequently go out on a boat.
At 12:16 PM I was stepping off the boat and a short walk later, I reached my lodging where I paid 10,000 LKR total in cash for both nights ($33.80 USD). As with my lodging in Galle, I had booked on Booking.com, but it seems to be quite normal in Sri Lanka that one pays in cash once one arrives. They had not been pressuring me to pay nor anything like that, but I wasn’t sure when I would leave in the morning and also did not want to have to hunt around for someone to pay the next morning. I actually was a bit hungry since I had only eaten one tiny banana and a very small piece of cake, but it seemed to me that the sun was too strong for me to go out wandering around. Thus, I resolved to work on my blog for a few hours and then go out later once things had cooled down a bit.
At 4:12 PM I had finally finished the Day 4 post for my October-November trip to Beijing and got it posted. It would have been faster, but the internet was quite slow with uploading photos. So, between today and the previous day I had spent five hours working on my writing. One might debate about whether or not that was the best use of my time, since I am definitely not writing Pulitzer Prize winning content, but it filled my time and still allowed me to get into a different “vacation zone” while making me feel that I had done something productive and personally fulfilling as I waited for the weather to get a bit cooler. When I decided to leave the room at 4:51 PM, I was a bit cautious since I really had been very comfortable working in my artificially cooled room the last few hours, but the previous day I had made a resolution to try to see the sunset again. It turns out, my fears were completely unjustified.
At 5:01 PM when I stepped outside of the comfortably lit cocoon of cool which was my hotel room, I was extremely pleased to find that the temperature outside was just perfect! Given that I had a bit of time before wanting to be on the beach once more for the sunset, I wandered around a bit on a couple of the interior roads of Mirissa, and it was not until 5:37 PM that I arrived once more near parrot rock.
Of course, the previous day had certainly not been unpleasant, but at 6:02 PM I was a bit giddy since I had been able to see the entire uninterrupted sunset on the water. I remembered an old colleague Molly Schneider who I had visited quite a few years ago when we were both working on a mutual project between our two universities. She worked at University of California at Irvine, and when I was visiting there in order to promote the program in 2007 (I think), she had told me that she tried to finish each day watching the sunset on the beach. I had thought this seemed a bit silly, but I was starting to see the attraction. During the time we were working together to setup the program, it had been such a big deal for me, and I had even passed up an invitation to be principal at a school I really admired in Costa Rica in order to finish the project and make sure it was running smoothly. At the time it had almost seemed like a legacy for me . . .I wondered if the program was still running all these years later, but I suspected that it wasn’t. However, the sunset on the beach was certainly just as impactful as it had been all those years ago.
Enough memories of an old guy. The moment the sun disappeared; I headed back to the side roads of Mirissa to see a bit more of life off the beaten tourist track before it became too dark to be prudent to be walking around the mostly unlit streets. I was not able to get photos, but at 6:26 PM I saw two gigantic bats fly over as I was walking. They really do have massive wingspans!
Back on the main street at 6:39 PM and looking at all the restaurants and various smaller shops, most of which only took cash payment, and otherwise required a 3% service charge to pay with card, I reflected on how it was interesting to see how Sri Lanka appeared to be an almost entirely cash based economy, at least for tourism related things. I suppose that shouldn’t have surprised me that much since not long ago it was the norm everywhere, but it did. Also, as I decided to enter Big Belly restaurant at 6:40 PM, I reflected on how quickly it had become completely pitch-black outside in such a short time. Anyway, I ended up ordering a Lion Lager and at the suggestion of the waiter, garlic mushrooms with white rice. Similar to where I had eaten the night before, the food arrived after only twenty minutes, and in general was something I would recommend.
A7 7:42 PM it seemed that if I wanted to pay anytime soon, I would have to just go downstairs, so that’s what I did. They certainly don’t hassle you to pay and leave here. The bill was 3740 LKR ($12.79) which seemed a bit expensive for mushrooms and rice, but it had tasted decent and given that it was the only meal I had eaten that day, I was happy to have had it. Deciding to repeat my same routine of the previous evening, at 7:47 PM I left to go get another ice cream stick and soda from the same little shop from the day before, paying 400 LKR ($1.35 USD) for both. Then after a short walk, I was back in the hotel at 8:05 PM.
I get that today was probably not the extravaganza of humpback whales leaping from the ocean which you had been hoping for, and sure, even I had entertained a few fantasies of something similar. Regardless, I had been relaxed, done something different, and been able to get a bit introspective throughout the day. Does that seem like something you would also like, or are you more in line for the jam-packed adventures of my earlier days in Sri Lanka? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Travels with Jay 