Unawatuna

Sea, sun, sand.

Sun stretching through waves, touching my hand.

Lie back, relax, float.

Tree, breeze, warmth.

Warm wind rushing overhead.

Leaves shelter me as storm lingers.

Waves lap, footprints tread, sea breeze cools us.

Look out, Indian Ocean.

Breakers on horizon, stories from afar washing up, washing away, washing over.

As soon as I arrive in Colombo we leave in an air-conditioned mini-bus for a beach resort just South of Galle, called Unawatuna. On the way the driver stops for a King Coconut – the shop-keeper chops the top off and sticks in a straw – a nice welcome drink! The drive is a hectic dash in and around other vans, cars, tuk-tuks, bikes, buses and people. The narrow gaps that our driver heads for sometimes shrink as the vehicles on either side of us get closer to each other, forgetting what’s in between! There seems to be a strict rule that anything goes – undertake, overtake, drive in the face of oncoming traffic until the last mili-second, tempt fate. I close my eyes and drift off to sleep, telling myself not to worry, the driver’s in control…right?!

3 hours later we arrive at Shangri La, our guesthouse, run by Malle, a South-African ex pat, painted a warm yellow with wooden cabins dotted about the grounds, among palms and banana trees. Hammocks hang from the tiled roof of the guesthouse. It is a tropical haven. This is where Miriam stayed when she first arrived in Sri Lanka. I’ve heard stories of giant spiders in the loos and all manner of insects and weather coming through the hole in the roof, not to mention giant scorpions falling from the trees in the rain. But in the day time it all looks so much like paradise. Rajika meets us outside and offers us a room inside the main guesthouse which we take, favouring comfort over adventure just for now. After being shown our room, we walk to the beach, past a few shacks selling shawls, bags, ornaments and internet access for the tourists. This is by no means a glitzy and shiny tourist resort. Unawatuna is relaxed and still has character.

I get my first real view of the sea and sand at an open front café that fronts onto the sand (they all do as since the Tsunami everyone re-built right on the sand so that there is not much room for the sand before it falls into the sea, a fact that is causing some people to call for emergency action to save the beach before it disappears…but for now it is still beautiful…). I try to take in the fact that I am really here J

For the next ten days activities vary between sleeping, swimming, lying on the beach, reading, eating, sleeping and drinking fresh lime juice and papaya lassis. Yum!

Highlights of our stay in Unawatuna:

• First night eating at Neptune Bay restaurant, an open front restaurant just above the waves - paddling afterwards only to lose a flip-flop in the waves, chasing it under the bemused watch of the waiters and customers, and going back in soaking wet to pay for the bill (you had to be there ;)
• Second evening at the same restaurant. Thunder storm. The rain hits the tin roof and clatters down the drainpipe - an awe-inspiring soundtrack to a very nicely cooked meal. The view changes from pitch black to daylight in a split-second as the lightning lights up the seascape in front of us.
• Visit to Galle Fort in Galle, 10 minutes away. Built by the Dutch as a port in the 17^th C, now a UNESCO world heritage site. A stroll along the walls, sitting dangling our feet above the waves below, a walk through the old streets within the walls. Grand old buildings - some in disrepair, some well kept - an air of calm away from Galle town. We go to Peddlar’s Inn twice – a hang out for expats and tourists, with nice milkshakes and delicious creamy garlic prawn soup ;)
• BIG tree, inside the walls, next to the courts and the Maritime museum. Each branch big enough to be a tree in itself. Cascades of thick vines pour from each of them; they fall down and root themselves into the ground. Below the tree a yellow ruin of a wall, graffittied with inspirational quotes and doodles left by visitors and guests to the tree. Outside the fort walls, along the seafront, are the ramshackle fishing boats, shacks and stalls. Faded pastel blues and greens and bright primary coloured boats waving colourful flags. Fish as fresh as you can get.
• Birthday meal at the Kingfisher - a lantern-lit hut on the edge of the waves - and a drink on the sand under the fairy light stars.
• Fireflies or ‘glow bugs’ in the garden at Shangri La – ‘Like stars, only lower’ ;) My first sighting of these little creatures – they make me smile :)
• April 14^th, Sinhala and Tamil New Year. Woken up to loud bangs of firecrackers (or something bigger!) throughout the village at 7 a.m, lasting for a solid half hour and then throughout the day – part of a tradition to ward of evil spirits (and to give un-suspecting tourists the fright of their lives!). People are happy when you acknowledge their New Year. Our waiter friends at NB give us some Sri Lankan sweets to taste.
• Afternoon spent at NB playing Scrabble and drinking pots of plain tea – very civilised!
• My first Sri Lankan breakfast – string hoppers (thin noodles made with rice flour) with potato and coconut curry and sambol (which Miriam said was slightly adapted for tourists as it wasn’t red with chilli!). The curry was really nice and creamy and the chilli manageable but after that for breakfast I wanted to go back to bed again! I sit there, not looking forward to the prospect of eating like this 3 times a day (soon to get used to it!)!
• Swimming in the rain – after lunch at NB the waiter tells us the weather is not good for swimming, pointing to the grey clouds rolling in overhead. We walk down the steps, onto the sand and then into the water. Shortly afterwards the heavens open. A heavy rain that bounces off the surface of the deep and creates a sheet of misty hills – each rain drop is a drop of silver bouncing off the bubbling surface. Under water the rain crackles and bounces against the surface in rain stick fashion.
• Sitting in the hammock at Shangri La at dusk (covered in mosquito spray!), looking up to the sky to watch the bats fly over (think the tiny bats at home but ten times bigger), like a flock of birds. See the silhouette of a monkey climbing up to the top of a palm tree in the garden (Malle hates the monkeys – the best thing to do when you see a monkey is to shoot at it (with blanks), he says, to scare them off – they steal the bananas, damage the roof and all sorts, but the tourists love them (I’m such a tourist!)). Also sitting in the hammock another evening reading, I hear a scratching noise and peep over the side and there is this wild cat called a ‘godowa’ (that’s how it’s pronounced anyway). Add these experiences to the morning we see a mongoose chasing a monitor lizard across the grass in front of us and Shangri La is like a safari park :)