A couple of days in Marissa

---

Staying in a lovely guest house (The Spice House) here in Marissa. We would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who is coming here, probably about six or eight rooms and a lovely pool with quiet gardens all around. A nice respite from the hustle and bustle outside.

This is a beach part of the holiday so a fair bit of r&r and so not so much activity to report on. Hence bi-daily blogs.

We did on the first morning suffer the inevitable navigational issue, this time,however, with Marie and Donna in tow. Decided to walk down to the fishing harbour and after getting there hot and tired decided to get tuk tuks to take us back to the beach. The tuk tuks dropped us of on a corner and we headed off up a road that looked like it went to the beach. Unfortunately disorientation had taken hold and we were in fact heading inland! Needless to say Marie and Donna were not impressed, and to think they're letting McVet and I head off to Nepal again where we can take getting lost to an entire new level.

Finally after getting another couple of tuk tuks (including one who off loaded his wife to get the fare) we arrived back at the beach. If nothing we're keeping the local tuktuk economy going.

Found a place with loungers on the beachfront and set up camp there, it would appear the cost of loungers here is three lime and sodas and one Diet Coke. The place we chose was on its first day of reopening after a renovation, I suggested it is traditional to comp guests on day one but that didn't seem to resonate. We did have lunch there as they had a nice sounding and wide range of items on the menu. Unfortunately it became apparent the only items actually available were toasted sandwiches and jaffle, the difference between the two being jaffles have crust on and sandwiches crust off! Anyway the toasties (collective noun to describe the entire menu offering) were good as was the cold beer/shandies.

Given it is a bit of a slow news day, worth expanding and explaining one of the traditions on these trips with the four of us is the two beers, bottle of sprite and four glasses order. Very eighties! McVet and I drink beer, the girls shandies and all that is missing is perms for the girls and moustaches for the boys.

We then split up, Chris and I off to Weligama to buy some beer and Donna and Marie enjoying a bit more beach then getting a tuk tuk back to guest house. Again to prove Chris and I really do need to concentrate when let loose alone we forgot to ask tuk tuk driver how much for the return trip, consequently when we got back he advised we owed him 1000 rupee. It should have been about 700 but given there was no preagreed price we were really at his mercy. The only benefit of making such a mistake here is the consequences are immaterial (to us, probably not to the tuk tuk guy) with 100 rupee equalling NZ$1, the penalty for forgetfulness is $3!

Dinner tonight at a roti place, highly recommended although given it was down a little dead end ally hard to know how anyone actually finds it. We had a pretty good meal of a couple of stuffed rotis, kotu roti (the chopped roti with veges) and fried rice together with a couple of sweet rotis for desert all for $20.

Next day, up early and I ran around the loop that got us so lost yesterday, really not that difficult once you know the way! But so hot and humid even at 6.30 in the morning.

Decided to to go to Weligama beach. Interesting place, a large number of leanto or thatch shelters on the beachfront offering surf board hire or surfing lessons. Presumably in peak season they are busy but this time of year the vendors significantly outnumber tourists.

We got loungers at a pretty flash resort/hotel, seems at this time year even the best loungers can be had for the price of a lime and soda.

Back to guest house pool, via Zephyr (the restaurant on the beachfront we went to last night).

Special dinner for Donna tonight. The sunset at the Navy Hotel was highly recommended. This presumably was once an old hotel sitting on the promontory at the northern end of Marissa beach. It has more recently been rebuilt but has retained a bar/restaurant with open sides looking out over the bay and beyond to the west. So it would seem they got the location right, the architecture right and on our night even the sunset right. However, and it is big however, in their excitement of having created such a nice building on such a spectacular spot they forgot to give the staff even the most basic training and filled the space with tables and chairs that would not have looked out place in the staff canteen of the Russian Sputnik space programme.

Donna and Marie were full of anticipation looking forward to the cocktail menu and having an exotic concoction while sitting watching the sun drop below the horizon. Unfortunately the only drinks on offer were shots of spirits, beer and juice. It took a number of attempts to negotiate a shot each of rum with a bottle of coke on the side. This was Donnas night and she floated the boat right out by ordering a second rum, there was consternation when it arrived as it appeared to be materially less than the first. Obviously with wait staff not speaking English, and perhaps lacking an training, this was one of those conversationsthat once started are almost impossible to finish. Needless to say we capitulated.

Dinner, again chosen by Donna, was an Italian cafe/eatery. When we arrived really didn't know what to expect especially as when we arrived we were the only people there. Despite my desire to max out on curries while here after a bit over two weeks it was nice to have a change.

Saved some money ($2) on the way home by getting only one tuk tuk for the four of us.

---

Photos

Remains of crab curry
If you think this looks messy you should have seen me once I'd finished working on this. It was, as expected, a superb curry.

Selling sprats roadside
At regular intervals along the roads people are selling these sprats that they have caught.

Walking towards the harbour
This was on the beach before we lost it!

McVet
No he's not in jail! The liquor stores all have these bars and customers stand n the outside and order through the window. In our case we were allowed in due to the issues translating what we wanted.