Welcome to Weligama

20/3/22

I arrived by bus in Weligama, a short walk from my hostel. I navigated to the temple which was near the hostel and found Wake Up Weligama pretty easily. I was greeted by two barking dogs followed by Mahesh, the friendly owner. He asked me if I wanted to go surfing with him and a friend and I agreed. Marie, a French girl, came to the hostel, and we set off to the beach together. I was going to book a lesson, but Marie said she would teach me, so I hired a board instead. Sadly, they didn’t have a beginners board, but I didn’t know how much difference this would make so I got a smaller one! It was not very successful, someone told Marie that the locals would get annoyed if they saw her teaching me on the beach, so we went into the water quickly. I managed to get to my knees a few times, which I thought wasn’t too bad, although I realised after a lesson that you should never be on your knees at all!!

After ‘surfing’ for an hour or so, we went to ‘Mama’s’ for food. We had a mix of curries, which were nice enough, but very bland – Mahesh said that Mama had cut the chilli out of her cooking because she thought tourists didn’t like it – how sad!!!

Marie wanted to go to the town to get threads to make bracelets, so I went for the wander and we had a mooch round the supermarket before Marie got the bus and I walked back along the beach to the hostel. I chilled at the hostel awhile, before the power cut out, and then I had an hour or so conversation with Mahesh outside in the dark. He’s a great guy! Once the power returned, we watched a film – Mahesh, a Swedish guy called Joe and me.

21/3/22

Today, after a Sri Lankan breakfast in the hostel, I took myself off to get a surf lesson. My teacher taught me the basics on the sand before we moved to the water. The problem was that my teacher was a skinny bendy man and he leapt up to stand on the board by pushing off only his big toe!! I explained that this was impossible for me, so he changed his tack to teach me, and then it was a little more possible for me to stand up!! The teacher thought I was slow, but I was pretty happy as I managed to stand up in my first lesson, which I was thrilled about!! Afterwards, I was exhausted, so I ordered a fresh lemon and mint juice to my sunbed followed by banana and chocolate pancakes – it was glorious! I chilled on the beach awhile, before heading back to the hostel.

Monday meant open mic night at Hangtime, a nearby hostel, so we went and Mahesh volunteered me to sing, which was fine but there was no guitarist, so I had to play rusty guitar too! I played Little House from Dear John and Country Roads, before handing back over to someone more rehearsed!! I then bumped into Carlo the Aussie from Hikkaduwa, and he invited me to dinner with him and some mates. We went to Froggys for (a very bad) pizza – I ordered sun-dried tomato and mozzarella pizza with a pesto base, but it was just cheese bread with a few sun-dried tomatoes. Also in the squad we’re two German girls and two Brits, both travelling in pairs. One of the Brits was sooo hungover, he had paid $150 for a private hotel room with AC after deciding he couldn’t hack the dorm room he had booked in advance!! He headed home, and the rest of us returned to Hangtime before moving to a different rooftop bar. When we arrived, some fireworks were going off from the veyr steep and narrow stairs! I had a gin and we chatted before I headed home.

22/3/22

I woke up pretty knackered, so had a rest day (no surfing). I headed to the Marriot, had a coffee and a muffin in the cafe in the AC, and read my book for an hour or two. Then I headed to the beach through the hotel and ordered a margarita. I lay on a sunbed and got talking to the guy who arrived back to the sunbed next to me. I forget where he was from, but he’d been to English boarding school and was a vet. We had a nice chat before he left and I went to admire the sunset on the beach.

Afterwards, I went to use the pool in Marriot before I headed home. Back at the hostel, Mahesh and a new German guy Luca were about to go out for food. I showered quickly and we headed into the town. I ordered prawn fried rice – it was biiiiig, pretty tasty and very cheap!! We chatted awhile back in the hostel and then I went to bed to watch some of the new season of Top Boy.

23/3/22

Today I was back to the surfing!! The rest of the guys went for a 7am surf, but I did not fancy the early wake up so I headed down a little later. A guy outside the Marriot told me the day before that he’d give me a lesson for 2000 SLR (around $8), so I went in search of him. Of course, I couldn’t find him, so I went somewhere else nearby. The teacher told me pretty early on that my previous teacher had taught me wrong, which I didn’t appreciate, and he had me practice on the board on the sand in front of a group of Sri Lankan men, which I was not a fan of, and I told him as much! Once we moved to the water, things went a lot better and then I improved a fair bit I would say.

After the lesson, I showered at a nearby pool in a complex with lots of cafes and then I got an ice cream and spent the afternoon sunbathing. The teacher was chatting to me awhile and we were trying to arrange a lesson for the next day. I explained I was going out so didn’t know when I’d be up by!! 😂😂 I would WhatsApp to confirm!

On returning to the hostel, Mo and Luca (both German) were heading out for food. I got them to order for me so I could sheet and meet them at Mama’s. I ordered daal with coconut roti, which was quite nice, but not as good as normal roti!! I love the bread life too much!! Then we did a booze run before the much hyped Doctors House! We played ring of fire and chatted before heading over to Doctor’s House in Matara around 7pm.We were a male heavy squad – it was me, Simon (a British fireman) and Mahesh in one tuktuk and the two Herman’s, and a Swede Jo, who had been waiting weeks to go on a boat trip to see blue whales in the other! The vibe of Doctors House was very cool! It was a biiiiig outdoor space with lots of light, people and some tunes. We got drinks and ordered pizza! We chatted – Simon and I had a longish chat before we had a dance!

Around 10pm, things started slowing down as it was time for the next place to begin. Most of our group were heading home, so Simon and I took a short beach walk and admired the stars before getting a tuktuk home. We also saw a fair few little crabs scuttling around in the dark!!