Blogs from Hikkaduwa, Southern Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 2

On first impressions Hikkaduwa was nice, we walked into a bavarian style bar with people enjoying jugs of beer, a huge, fat black German Shepard greeted us vigorously, like old friends and we were shown to our room which was the cabana nearest the sea. It all seemed wonderful, we were possibly high on nitrogen or something from diving because we walked round our basic room that was kitted out with appliances from the 1970's in awe, proclaiming how nice it was. We had dinner in the hotel, the night got even better from there as I was STARVING and on the menu was mixed grill with steak, chicken, egg, sausage and BACON!! granted it wasn't the best bacon but it was bacon nonetheless! I shared the scraps with the beach dogs and then we went ... read more

As many mornings went spent with David and the Frenchies, we began in usual fashion- coffee and beach. This particular morning, I felt particularly energetic. It was before 7 am when I went on the beach to practice Muay Thai. I was the first one awake. Doing anything on the beach makes almost any experience better. Muay Thai was no exception. I moved as the waves approached and retracted. There was a meditative quality to the thunderous crashing of the water upon the shore. I felt a part of everything, of life, of nature. I remembered that I had my very large camera and heavy tripod. I had to get some more use out of them. I set them up on the beach and began filming myself doing what Master Danny had been teaching me to ... read more

A rooster crowing is a powerful alarm. It definitely works. As it crowed, my eyes fluttered open. As usual, laying in bed was not an option. I would be unable to return to a deep slumber. Besides, we all had plans together, an early start on our last full day/night in Tangelle. Audrey, David and I headed for a swim down the beach. Marion stayed behind. The waves in front of our guest house were too powerful to frolic in. Audrey's small frame wouldn't allow it. Even David and I had been tossed around violently by the waves the afternoon prior. I also wanted to visit a temple to pray, something that I had not been able to do in a few days, since the boys three day party fest in Hikkaduwa. it was time to ... read more

Hikkaduwa beach weekend! Hi everyone! This weekend Amie,Tamsin, Jonathan and I travelled down to Hikkaduwa beach, which is down in the southern province of Sri Lanka about 10km from Galle. We decided that after our extremely active and somewhat torturous hiking weekend that we deserved a chilled out trip this time around! We left at 11am on Friday morning and headed to Colombo on a public AC bus. They have 3 different standards of public buses here; your standard public buses, then slightly posher ones and then your top of the range Sri Lankan AC buses. To be completely honest, they're all pretty horrendous! Anyway, it took about 3 hours to get from Kegalle to Colombo, and from there we switched onto another bus to Galle which stops in Hikkaduwa on the way, which takes another ... read more

On our final day in Negombo our travel guide took us to see a “toddy tapper”. We drove to a neighbourhood nearby and went into a local man’s garden. He used coconut husks which were tied to a palm tree to climb up the tree. He climbed the tree in no time at all like a ladder. Once he’d reached the top he cut into the palm tree with the blade he was carrying and collected the juice that came out of it inb a bucket. He walked between the trees on ropes. He collected the “toddy” from about 4 trees.This is a Sri lankan tradition. We had a chance to taste some of it but neither of us actually liked it!! Can’t describe the taste for the life of me. To our surprise our guide ... read more