Sri Lanka was my ‘must’. When we sat down, many times, to work out the basic itinerary of this walkabout, we all had some degree of input. Mike and I, for obvious reasons, had veto rights and a bigger voice, but we tried to take into account everyone’s ideas. Mike wanted to explore history and ancient civilizations at ruins like Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu. The kids wanted to see Africa. But Sri Lanka, for me, was a non-negotiable. And I know where my obsession began. Books. Plain and simple. Authors.
Michael Ondaatje has been my literary hero since Queen’s. I read Running in the Family as a 20 year old and I sorta fell half in love with the man, also a Queen’s alumni. I devoured every thing he’d written. And then I read it all again. Born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Ondaatje moved to Canada as a child, but his writing is often infused with his Tamil/Sinhalese roots. And all blah-blah-blah aside, I really, really love him. I love how he writes, what he says and how he says it. Disclaimer: while an undergrad, it’s possible that I semi-stalked him by spending the odd weekend at his then ex-wife’s bed and breakfast, hoping to glean some intimate info. Didn’t work. Just looked weird.
And then, a couple of years ago, I read the heartbreakingly beautiful book Wave, by Sonal Deraniyagala, a Sri Lankan professor living in London. It’s a post-tsunami autobiography of unspeakable grief and loss, but still manages to convey her love for her homeland – the beauty, the people, the landscape. Read it, if you haven’t. It’s possibly the most moving book I’ve read in years and so, so beautifully written. Vik and Mali. If we were anywhere near, I needed to see Sri Lanka. End stop. Non-negotiable.
We started with the beaches. And I can’t tell you how many times we were told, in no uncertain terms, that we’d planned our Sri Lankan itinerary all wrong. Apparently, beaches come LAST. Didn’t we know that? But alas, we were Sri Lankan newbies and knew no better. Tsk tsk.
We landed in Colombo late at night and were ushered through a duty-free corridor consisting almost entirely of appliances. Fridges, dishwashers, washers and dryers. Huh. A quick line-up to secure our visas-on-arrival (where the customs officials wanted to chat about Justin Bieber) and we were on our way.
We spent just a single night in Negombo, near the airport, before moving down the west coast to the surf town of Unawatuna or “Una” as it’s known. It was backpacker heaven and so very chill. We stayed at a great guesthouse and bumped into friends-of-friends staying in the cabana next to ours (hard to miss the Swiss-Canadian accent). We spent our first few days on the beach, with a few day trips mixed in for good measure.
Hotel Flower Garden – our favourite guesthouse ever
We quickly lapsed into a sunshine and beach induced lethargy. We don’t have a ton of photos because the days consisted of swimming, homework and eating. At dinner time, we’d wander down the beach to check out all the fresh seafood on display and try to figure out where to plop down in the sand.
But mostly, it was all about the water. At one point, Tom was bodysurfing and emerged from the water crying. He’d been stung on the chin by a jellyfish. Immediately, some older Sri Lankan men ushered him into their restaurant and made him shower (all restaurants on the beach have an open-air showers). Meanwhile, Mama Sri Lanka was quickly muddling together a paste of various herbs and saffron. They covered his face with the orange paste, brought him a drink and towel and clucked over him for a good half hour. The sting was eased and all was well. Just one of a dozen instances of kindness and genuine caring shown to us by the wonderful people of Sri Lanka.
After a few days, we mustered up the energy to visit Galle Fort. Amazing. First settled by the Portuguese in 1588 and then by the Dutch a century later, it’s a UNESCO Heritage Site that fairly vibrates with history. A hugely important port on the Spice Route, the fort is surprisingly intact. The ramparts are, for the most part, original and date back centuries, withstanding even the 2004 tsunami. The labyrinthine alleys and streets are packed with galleries, churches, spice shops, silk shops and restaurants. We all squeezed into a tuk-tuk and spent an afternoon walking and jumping the ramparts, wandering the streets and eating delicious crepes at a restaurant run by a former Seattle-based financier. It is, as we keep discovering, a very small world.
Between beach days and day trips, we discovered king coconuts and how to bargain for them with limited success. We bumped into this happy lady in the middle of nowhere while walking from Jungle Beach to Una. Tom was so keen for a coconut that he bargained her down to a reasonable price and then paid for it out of his savings (about .60cents). And then refused to share, duh.
After Una, we hopped a minibus to Mirissa Beach on the south coast of the country. To this day, Mirissa remains one of our very favourite spots on our trip. It’s another surf town, even more chill than Una. Like the rest of Sri Lanka, it has no chain stores, no big hotels, no electricity (some of the time). We spent a nearly record-breaking 8 nights there and our days took on a routine of sorts.
We’d wake at our modest digs (across from the beach) and lug our day’s supplies, (school books, sunscreen, laptop etc) to the oceanfront Mirissa Paradise Beach Club. For the king’s ransom of $12/day, we’d install ourselves at our ‘regular’ table (saved for us by the cabana boys), complete with access to the pool, towels, beach chairs and a bazillion-dollar view. Then, we’d spend all day there, doing homework and bodysurfing.
The waiters, cabana boys and other tourists were positively fascinated by the nasty Canadian parents making their kids do homework at the beach. They’d often stand just behind the kids’ shoulders trying to do the math themselves. Made it a little hard to concentrate, but generated big giggles from the Sri Lankans. And we got heaps of thumbs-ups from every Japanese tourist who passed by. They were clearly impressed by our commitment to academics while on ‘holiday’. Hahaha.
Homework aside, the boys (all three of them) declared the bodysurfing at Mirissa to be the best they’ve ever experienced. Big waves, warm water, white sand. I loved the fact that the beaches are patrolled by very serious lifeguards, so much so that I could actually relax and read. We spent so much time in the water that we finally had to force the kids to wear zinc. They’ll thank me one day, I’m sure.
Traditional Sri Lankan curry dinner for one
Bag full of schoolwork – nasty parents!
After a number of days of beach-bumming, it was time to try something new.
We spent a day in Weligama taking surf lessons from Jack-from-England. I was getting so much 1:1 attention from the blonde, surfey Jack that I started feeling pretty good about myself. I was fairly certain that Jack was falling under my frizzy-haired-bikini-brief-mom-spell until I realized that he was taking the “money-back-unless-you-get-up” policy quite seriously.
When I finally called “uncle” and released Jack from his obligations, he was gone like a shot. Whatever. I still think I rocked it – even the head injury part. The kids were naturals while I wound up half-drowned with scraped knees, a bumped noggin’ and a plastic bag wrapped around my ankle. And until Henry pointed out the fact that I’d split my bikini bottoms, I was feeling pretty “Hang 10”. After that, not so much. But still, we surfed in Sri Lanka. How many people can say that? Unless you’re from Sri Lanka….
After eight days in Mirissa, it was time to move on. It was, possibly, the first time that we all felt reluctant to move. But Sri Lanka is so much more than just beaches – for a tiny island, it’s awesome in it’s diversity. We still had mountains and jungles and national parks and tea plantations and trains and Buddhist temples waiting to be explored. And so with a fond farewell to Mirissa, we climbed into a minibus bound for Yala National Park in search of leopards, peacocks and wild elephant. And Michael Ondaatje, of course.