5/4/22
I arrived on the outskirts of Trincomalee by bus, before switching to a tuktuk to take me to my hostel instead of the town centre. I checked into my hostel and had a chill, before heading to the beach for food. The beach was beautiful. I went to Fernandos, a beach bar for food. I really fancied a bacon sandwich and after enquiring about the bacon and whether it was genuine or not, I ordered a BLT. When it arrived, I was of course bitterly disappointed – the bacon which I had been assured was legit was in fact salted pork, it was small, and there was no lettuce whatsoever. When I asked about it, they said it was bacon they ‘made’ themselves and it was all they could do at the moment with the government problems. While the government situation is dire, I told them they should just call it a pork sandwich instead!! What a to-do!! 🤣🤣🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ I sunbathed on the beach, and also dared to order an iced coffee, which they were surprised to have on the menu and which was also pretty bad! It was nice and cold though!! I swam, read and chilled awhile before heading back to the hostel. On my trip back to the hostel, I passed many fishermen hauling in hugeeee nets from the bay. They drove the mets out by boat maybe 50 metres from the shore and then pulled them back in by hand, many hands in fact!! The men were tugging the nets in tug-of-war style. I watched them quite awhile, as did at least thirty crows, who were keen for a lazy dinner! Then, they tipped all their catch onto the sand and sorted through the fish. The ones they were not allowed to sell/could not sell, they threw back. There were many puffer fish and some particularly big and spukey fish that had to be thrown back too. While this sounds relatively sustainable, it was not as many of the fish were already dead when they were thrown back. No doubt the crowd would see to them later!!
On returning to the hostel, I showered and talked to my roomie, Alex. We realised later on that we had also been roomies in Hikkaduwa, but that we had only met for ten minutes or so that time! Small world! Then I went out for food with some other people in my hostel – a Dutch brother (an engineer – of course!), and younger sister, Mirre, a German girl, Lena, and a French ED doctor, Lucile. We headed to another place recommended by the hostel for food. I had squid noodles which were pretty good! Then we headed back to Fernandos for a drink. They made a small bonfire there every night, so it was pretty tempting. We were joined by two Brits from a different guest house, as the Dutch guys knew one of them from elsewhere. I would term him a ‘Brit abroad’, someone who is always drinking and regaling stories about being in far flung places taking drugs and being a mess!! He told many a story, some of which were interesting, some of which were not! The guy he had come to Fernandos with, Dave was older, from Brighton and very chilled. I sat opposite him and whenever the ‘Brit abroad’ got silly, we made faces at each other!! The rest of the hostel lot also agreed that he was a stereotypical Brit abroad!! A bit later, I left the stories and headed back along the beach to the hostel, navigating through many a barking dog! Annoyingly, when I went to cut through a hotel to get to our hostel the usual way, it was padlocked for the night. I tried to find a way to get through, but eventually turned back and went a longer, darker way! Thankfully a different hotels security man let me through a different shortcut, which saved a bit of time, which was all important since I needed a wee!!
6/4/22
Today I got up relatively early to go in watch of breakfast before an excursion. I was going to go to Pigeon Island National Park to go snorkelling and both Alex and Lucile were also going. The breakfast hunt was a little stressful as nothing opened before 09.00 and pick up was from 09.30 from the hostel. After trying a few places to no avail, I got a tuktuk to a local bakery and got one sweet and one savoury item along with a yoghurt drink, before getting dropped back to the hostel.
We then got a tuktuk to a hotel on the beach, where we got our equipment before all working together to push our boat into the sea. Then we scrambled in, and off we went. Within had an hour or so, we reached Pigeon Island, with its turquoise shallows, dark blue depths and white sands, littered with cream coloured cylindrical coral. We got our flippers and face masks on and in we went. There was even a one way system through the main bit of the reef, to try to protect some parts from us tourist oafs! Although when we arrived, the one way lane seemed very full, people quickly dispersed and I took a small detour from the main lane along with some others. While I was on my detour, I heard some German excitement so looked near where they were swimming to find a turtle!!! It was big and beautiful, and was just chilling on the ocean floor, resting. I looked around for the people from my boat and raced to get Lucile! The turtle was still there when we returned. I also spotted two separate sharks, which were big enough, but not so big that I was scared! I also swam directly towards a large shoal of fish which just swam around me unfazed. I was pretty pleased with this, as I used to be terrified of accidentally going too near a fish or touching it!! I also spotted many different types of coral and fish including a glorious fiag with wide pink and yellow stripes with narrow turquoise stripes in between! So iconic! If I could be a fish… After losing my bearings a little since I was just blindly following fish, I made it back to the beach. The boat’s captain prepared watermelon for us before we went to the beach on the opposite side for another snorkel. Sadly, on this side, I was a tourist oaf, and accidentally bashed my foot on a bit of coral, so I too had damaged the reef! We returned to the boat, pushed it into the sea and scrambled in again before an exhilerating dash across the sea back to Trinco.
Lucile and I went to a coffee shop I had been eyeing up for lunch before I headed to the beach. I had pancakes and iced coffee because I’m a real adult! 🤣🤣 We bumped into the Irish/German couple, Glen and Madeline, I had met in Sigiriya on our walk back. Typically, we had all got more than a little burnt while snorkelling, but since it was only my back I headed to the beach to tan the belly (and go for another swim). While I was on the beach, an English-Sri Lankan guy, Aaron, that I had been talking to on Tinder came to meet me. Some ‘aunties’ came round to sell clothes while we were there and they chatted in Tamil. We chatted awhile afterwards before heading back to the hostel, stopping to watch the evenings fishing haul. We bumped into Dave by the fisherman and stopped for another chat. We would re-meet later.
After showering, I headed out for food with Lucile and Aaron. I had told Aaron that I did not really rate Sri Lankan food, so he was on a mission to find us the good stuff. He ordered a spread for the three of us to share – we had fish curry, chicken curry, daal and devilled squid, which is a little like sweet and sour but much nicer!! To be fair, the food was very good, especially since they stated cooking it in the darkness of the power cut!! Lucile went home and we headed to Fernandos. We met Dave at the bar (the Brit abroad had left in the morning) and we chatted. I got some recommendations for what to do the next day before heading back to the hostel.
7/4/22
Went back to the same coffee shop for breakfast pancakes with Camile and Aaron, before I headed out on my own, for a cycle tour of Trinco. I cycled from the hostel along the main road towards the Fort. The fort is much smaller than in Galle and people were playing cricket by its remaining walls. I bumped into Glen and Madeline on the road and they too were heading to the temple at the top if the hill past the fort. They were motorbiking but I figured I’d see them again there. I parked my bike next to some deer and walked up the hill. They were drinking juice when I arrived.
We templed together, with a Dutch couple too. A hazard of temples in hot countries is that often if its Hindu they like you to take your shoes off as a sign of respect but the floor is absolutely boiling! We ran across the tarmac to the shadows scalding our feet in the process! The temple was very colourful and pretty chilled. It also had a lookout to sea. A few boats were stopping at the bottom of the rock. Apparently they were fishermen praying and asking for blessings before they went out fishing for the day. I appreciated the practicality of just nipping your boat to the bottom of the rock instead of trekking up every day!! Time saving life hack, yano?! Afterwards, I got a fresh juice with a view and Glen and Madeline stayed to chat awhile. Then we left.
When I returned to my bicycle, there was a stag guarding it!! I bumped into Dave on the way down who was also on a bicycle and said he’d show me where the temple on the beach was. We set off back towards the town. The temple was down a side street and along the beach amidst small local houses thay backed right onto the beach! There were many colourful boats and noisy crows on the beach and two boats in the sea – it looked like some sort of celebration was going on. We chilled awhile before I thanked Dave and said goodbye before refilling my water at a friendly local lady’s house and hitting the road. I cycled back, stopping to buy aftersun (lol) and then for an iced coffee pitstop at my fave coffee shop.
In returning to the hostel, I showered and packed as today was the day I was finally making it to Jaffna! Aaron and I were sharing a tuktuk, which I hoped would be better than the bus. The novelty of long bus rides, especially when it’s packed, wears off quick, and as my nanna would say, a change is as good as a rest! 💛💛
wanderingwelshie travels 