Our journey to Hiriketiya started with a whole lot of rain. It had poured all night and into the morning, and by the time we had to leave, the streets were practically rivers. There wasn’t a tuk-tuk in sight—no matter how much we were willing to pay—so we had no choice but to walk.
We’d arranged to share a taxi with two German girls from another hostel, which meant trekking through the downpour to meet them. I made good use of my oversized raincoat by stuffing my rucksack inside it, while we wore flip-flops to save our other shoes from getting soaked. Not the best choice for navigating steep, slippery roads with heavy bags on our backs, but somehow, we made it—slightly damp but thankfully uninjured!
As soon as we arrived, we threw on our swimmers and headed straight to the beach. Coming down from the mountains, we immediately felt the jump in temperature and were absolutely sweating.
But just as we settled in, the rain we’d been trying to escape caught up with us. It started pouring and didn’t let up for the rest of the evening—so much for a beach day!
Luckily, there was a pool table, so we decided to play a few more games. At this rate, it seems like Sri Lanka is determined to turn us into pool pros—whether we like it or not!
While playing, we met some lovely German girls and a Welsh couple and decided to sign up for the hostel’s family-style dinner with them. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones with that idea—over 50 people joined in! I think the thought of staying dry was more appealing than venturing out into the rain.
We all crammed onto benches under cover and were served small portions of curry and rice. Judging by the portion sizes, I don’t think they were expecting nearly that many people to sign up.
After dinner, they brought out a karaoke machine, which was an instant hit. I was especially proud of mine and Grace’s rendition of Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield—that got people up and dancing on the tables! It ended up being such a fun night and definitely helped us forget all about the rain.
The next morning, we woke up to sunshine streaming through the window and rushed straight to the beach to soak up some vitamin D and dry out our trench foot before the rain was due to return in the afternoon.
We finally got our long awaited beach day, it was very relaxing, I read a whole book and even had a beach samosa for lunch, everything we hoped for and more. The sea had a few waves but was still calm enough for swimming, making it perfect for beginner surfers, whom we watched from our beach beds. We also had a great time bouncing around in the waves ourselves, though we ended up with some seriously knotted hair afterward!
In the evening, we played a game of Pass the Pigs with a Welsh couple we’d met the night before. It was their last night, and apparently, they weren’t too keen on us gate-crashing their romantic dinner. So, after the game, we headed out for pizza and cocktails on our own. On the way, we stopped to listen to the frogs and were lucky enough to see loads of fireflies—it was such a cool sight! Unfortunately, our attempts to capture them in photos didn’t turn out great—just a dark screen with the occasional tiny blip of light.
The next day followed a similar pattern of beach relaxation—not the most exciting thing to write or read about, but a much-needed rest for me and Grace. All this adventuring and having fun is hard work, but hey, someone’s got to do it!
Our next stop is an hour further along the south coast in Weligama, I’ll tell you all about it soon.
Love Alice x