Beach bum in Hikkaduwa

17/3/22

Got off the train at Hikkaduwa to find that my hostel was metres away from the station – ideal! I was pretty hungry, since I’d pretty much skipped lunch as I was on the train, but two Dutch girls in the hostel invited me for burgers with them so I just chatted to another newbie (a Kiwi) until it was time to leave.

It was in Hikkaduwa that I became aware of power cuts that were taking place! Apparently, there was a while schedule for them for each region in Sri Lanka (mad ayyy?!). We got tuktuks for food and the Kiwi guy, Carlo, came too. Not long after we arrived the power cut out and they resorted to a generator. We had our burgers and I had a mango lassi and then we walked back to the hostel passed the beach, along the road.

18/3/22

Today, the Dutch and the Aussie were all leaving. I had the hostel breakfast of eggs and bread and then enjoyed a much needed chill day at the beach. I wandered along the road trying to pick which beach bar to go to before selecting a fancy one! I ordered a gin and settled in with my book, and admired the view.

After a few hours, I went in search of a good coffee. I found an ‘Italian’ cafe and ordered a cappuccino and pancakes. I sat in an old man style armchair in the shade and tucked in!

The owner of the place chatted to me awhile and told me about a party that night. After leaving I wondered up the street further and bumped into a guy who said he was a designer and liked my style and wanted to go for a drink. I decided there was no reason not to go, so got on the tuktuk and went a little further up the road, to another beach bar. The beach was much wider here with glorious white sands. We had a gin and chatted – Janaka said he had borrowed his sisters tuktuk and was touring all round Sri Lanka in it – he was half Sri Lankan, half Indian and he spoke Hindi, so obviously I showed off the little Hindi I know!! and then he dropped me home for me to shower before dinner.

I wanted to go to the No Name Rotty Shop, but sadly it was closed so we went to another simple rotty cafe instead. I got kottu which is a typical Sri Lankan dish of chopped fried rotty with whatever else you fancy – I had cheese, tomato and egg with mine and it was pretty tasty. The rotty itself was almost like pasta!! Afterwards, we got some arack from the booze shop (wild after my arack night in Jerusalem!), and headed to back to sit on his balcony with tunes. It was nice. Around 11pm, we headed out to check out the party that the restaurant owner suggested – I was allowed in free as a tourist but Sri Lankans had to pay 2000 SRL, around 8 USD. I did a reccy and decided everyone in there was wasted and it wasn’t quite my vibe that night so instead we turned back for home, stopping for a few games of pool (of which I won both – yaaaas!) in an English ‘pub’ before walking home.

19/3/22

Today was check-out day. I packed, ate my eggs, got shown some monkeys that live on the trees above the hostel, and then got a tuktuk to the Tsunami Museum to learn about what happened in 2004. First it explained the cause of tsunamis linked with the movement of tectonic plates, early warning signs of tsunamis and how to prepare, and then it showed graphic images of bodies, swollen and purple from the acid from the earth’s centre as well as a few determined survivors clinging on to tree tops and such like. After that came the rebuilding of society, the houses and schools and I think it took around ten years to get everything back to normal (as normal as it can be when so many people have lost loved ones). It was interesting to learn about, and I also thought it interesting that the Israelis were some of the first on the ground to help with the clean up, although I guess the aid workers/volunteers are very different people to the military?!

I stopped by a huge Buddha on the way back, which had not been affected by the tsunami miraculously, although the tsunami had reached the Buddha’s shoulders!! Then I popped into the localarket before grabbing my things and heading for the train to Galle.

On my way to the station I noticed a longgggg queue of people waiting for gas. They were returning their empty gas canisters, hoping to buy new ones, however, there is a gas shortage and many of them had already been waiting for hours!