Mirissa and Hambantota

Original posting 26 February from Hambantota

MIRISSA 
Sorry for the delay in getting round to this posting unfortunately we were unable to find a working computer with Internet in Mirissa, even in the very smart new hotel Silan Mo we were staying in, due to the
absence of a reliable Internet connection. We got on a bus at Galle bus station bound for Matara immediately after an earlier one had departed, being empty there was little problem in storing one of our cases on on top of the engine as usual, the other alongside. Buses seem to run at around 15 minute intervals I forget the fare but it is so cheap as to be irrelevant around 300rp for a couple of hours. 

They dropped us in the guest house/beach area of Marissa so we immediately went to take a look at the GH opposite the bus stop Ocean Moon which was OK but I was looking for a/c so as to get the first really good sleep of the holiday, entirely untroubled by heat or mosquitoes. Across the road a little further on  was the Silan Mo with B price-rating and the price was right in the middle of that bracket at 90 USD for half board. On paying the bill as we left we were pleasantly surprised to find that unusually the price was inclusive of 13% tax and 10% services, though they did add 3% for using a card, inevitable as there was no ATM in the village. For that price we had a large well fitted room with an almost as large a balcony and a superbly comfortable huge double bed as often found at hotels in the tropics.

Our favourite haunt in the afternoon was to take tea at Surf Sea Breeze GH at the west end of the beach.

Marissa itself is a small beach resort in a bay with a series of beach guest houses of varying quality along the foreshore, each with their own restaurant on the beach displaying a fine selection of fish in the evening together with a happy hour reduction on drinks to tempt you in. The sea was full of bathers all day and at the west end there was a reasonable amount of surf approaching the off shore rocks and the headland. Beaches are not our forte these days never having been fond of sunbathing and no longer too confident to getting out of the sea with dignity these days whenever there is the slightest undertow.

The West End at sunset

Another chance discovery was curd and honey, usually referred to as treacle (derived from palm sugar) at a small shop opposite the hotel. I tried to buy a large tub of curd but the owner refused to sell it on the basis that it would be too sour (based on the taste of a sweet toothed Asian). He pointed me to a superior product in the cold display and it was delicious. High quality curd, sweet or neat, was one of the finds of this trip.

Breakfast and dinner were both buffet arrangements with a fine selection of fruits including papaya, my favourite, and unripe mango as frequently used in Thailand, and a sharp tasting passion fruit. Eggs would be cooked to order. Dinner choice always included pasta as well as curry and fresh vegetables with fruit and sweets for desert.

The newly built hotel fitted into the slope of the hillside 3 rooms per tier plus two lower tiers for the kitchen and restaurant and a swimming pool on the very top floor. Having shown me a room on the lowest tier Joan soon convinced reception that this was a real attraction for her with her artificial knees. Just before leaving we got talking to a working English couple who sang the praises of the pool and said they were the only ones to use it. We tried later that day only to find it closed for the day! A favourite evening pastime was drinking tea at the very end beach guest house in the fading light watching the surfers. They had five second storey a/c rooms for the same price as our hotel.

MATARA

Delivering Rice

White interior of mosque

Drawbridge to Star Fort, protected by moat with crocodiles

Wall built of Coral

We found it easy to get on a bus 25rp each to Matara and had a look around the Star Fort and museum and the Book Fair which had transferred on from Galle, and importantly to locate the platform for our bus onward to Hambantota. Without a timetable with no help from the guide book and with great difficulty since nothing but the most basic English was spoken. A man with just a very few items to sell was the most helpful of all and went to talk to the conductors for us, so gradually we found that the bus sitting there now would depart at 2.25 the next was 4.35. Joan quite rightly gave him a tip for which he was most grateful saying it was a lot for a poor old merchant like him (50rp is just 25p). In the early stages of a holiday it is difficult to judge a correct level for tips, especially when the exchange rate is over 100:1.

HAMBANTOTA

Fishing Harbour from Rest House

Hambantota from where I am writing this is due to change rapidly from a small town to a modern city a little to the west, stage one was an International Cricket stadium which was use as a venue in last years ODI world cup, an International airport which is due to open later this year, the biggest conference venue in Asia and a large harbour which is being built by the Chinese and although the breakwater is already in place to the west of the local fishing port though they say will not be complete until 2020. This area was one of those which suffered badly in the tsunami with low lying areas being wiped out but with the town centre largely protected by the huge strong structure of the concrete bus station.

We are currently staying in the newly built Happy Beach Hotel owned by two very helpful men the chief being Thaliph. He said that he lost his previous property in the tsunami but since it was built on land which he could not prove strictly belonged to him he had no claim to a replacement, though he eventually got his present plot and starting first with two particularly nice sturdy rooms has added three more with a/c, of which we have one. Two more low cost rooms are almost ready and judge from the materials arriving plus a new wheelbarrow driven by a old willowy labourer they are laying the foundation for more. 

Thaliph approached me as we got off the bus with talk of his new guest house, but true to style I walked away intent on the nearby Rest House. This had a fine position looking over the fishing harbour with 15 rooms and yes there was one free, well thirteen as it turned out. A large a/c room for 400rp, it was owned by the MOD, ie it was a government affair but a cut above the state owned guest houses in Tamil Nadu. We arranged with them for a safari by jeep to the nearby Bundala National wetlands park, which is renowned for the selection of birds, especially at this time of year during the migratory period. 

We were unable to stay the next two nights as they were full with a party of 45 Sri Lankans for lunch, dinner and breakfast. It's a shame this Rest House (government) is not more used more by tourists. We asked to the Rest House to advise where we should stay and they suggested non other than Happy Beach Hotel, so we walked over and there of course I again came face to face with gently chastising Thaliph. Originally we had booked the to the wetlands for a start at 6.30am but Thaliph  correctly persuaded us that 5.30am was much better, for it was at its best at daybreak.

 BUNDALA National Park (wetlands)
Joan was delighted with the range and enormity of the birds and is fast becoming an expert on recognising Sri Lankan birds with the help of a book loaned to her by Thaliph and our  schoolboy guide. Originally we had booked the trip for a start at 6.30 but Thaliph  persuaded us that 5.30 was much better, it was at its best at daybreak. It was an excellent trip with a driver and his young son as spotter. Joan has made detailed notes which I will invade on return!

Painted Stork

 

Bee Eater

Open Beaked Stork

Black Faced Langur

Joan (sizes from her Indian Birdbook are in cm) recorded seeing with the help of her schoolboy guide, Little Cormorant (51), Indian Cormorant (64), Indian Darter or Snake bird (85-97), Spot billed Pelican (127-140), Indian Pond Heron (42-45), Little Egret (55-65), Intermediate Egret (65-72), Great Egret (85-102), Grey Heron (90-98), Painted Stork ( 93-102), Asian open bill Ibis (68-81), Black Ibis (55-65), Black Headed Ibis (75), Spoonbill-Eurasian (82-90), Lesser Whistling Duck (38-42), Brahminy Kite (44-52), Sri Lankan Jungle Fowl (66-73, Indian Peafowl (180-230), White Breasted Water Hen (32), Comon Moorhen (30-35), Purple Swamphen (43), Pheasant tailed Jacana (29-34), Black winged Stilt (32-35), Red Wattled Lapwing (32-35), Little Stint (13-15), Little Tern (22-24), Spotted Dove (30), Alexandrine Parrot (48-58), Common Concal (48), Pied Kingfisher (29-31), Little Green Bee-eater (25), Chestnut headed Bee-eater (21), Common Hoopoe (28-32), House Crow (40-42), Common Myna (24).

I'm impressed to think I saw nearly all them, plus a peacock as well! 

On return the Rest house gave us a fine breakfast huge quantities of fruit, omelettes cooked to order toast and jam. The night before we had eaten a dish off the vast menu and chosen Sweet and Soar Prawns which were nicely spiced too with lots of sweet red onion (as it turned out that for food this was as good as it got).

UDA WALAWE

Few Trees left (natural destruction) see elephant in distance

Male Elephants walk alone

Females & Young are gregarious

Speckled Pigeon

Rare Sri Lankan Safari Party

Walking and Drinking (35 litres /day)

Crossing the Lake

Joan is first to spot a Malabar Pied Hornbill

Although in some ways it seemed better stay somewhere close to the Uda Walawe National park and its elephants, we agreed to a trip there and back with Thaliph using his 4x4 for the main journey (at a cost of 1200rp) where he picked up a jeep he had hired plus guide for the trip into the park. Leaving at 5.30 it took only 45 mins to make it to Embilipitiya, the recommended start point, and only a further 15 minutes to pick up the safari jeep and enter the park. Cost of an entrance ticket for two plus including the jeep was 5600rp whereas it had been 4070rp for entrance only at Bundala where we had a four hour stay. Good guides again, ours said he was a student acting as a volunteer guide and he certainly knew his stuff. By the end of this second successive bumpy dusty safari I was in no fit state to want to continue, so was rather glad we stayed only two hours but a very sore throat made swallowing bad enough but coughing was intolerable.

Joan bird sighting included White throated Kingfisher (29-31), Common Myna (24), Blue tailed Bee-eater, Little (green, juvenile blue throat) Bee-eater, Serpent Eagle, Adjtant Stork, Indian black Robin, Barn Swallow, Stilt, Water Hen, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Brahminy Kite, Bush Pipit, Green Pigeon, Ring-neck (Alexandrine) Parrot, Common Kestrel, Red-vented (common) Bulbul, Pea Hen, Cuckoo Shrike, Blackheaded Gull, Spotted Dove. Plus Elephant and Lizard crossing road.

Happy Beach

On our return Thelak immediately suggested a Ayurvedic remedy for my throat and went off home to return with a plastic bag full of a crystalline sugar mixture which he told me allow to drip slowly down my throat, and advised me have only hot drinks and avoid curd and milk. First assumptions were that this was similar to the Barley Sweet treatment of our youth. This mixture was remarkable and quickly helpful for not only was the soothing effect of the sugar but there were other ingredients which had the effect of loosening the phlegm in my throat. Within 45 minutes of trying the cure I was singing the praises of my new found doctor. Next morning I felt much better, the first positive move for several days, though we eventually decided on a further night to increase my fluid levels and to ensure progress was consolidated.

Thaliph

Equally friendly Thelak

Happy Beach was also memorable for the food they specialised in BBQ fresh fish, though the fish was wrapped in foil with added spices/herbs before cooking on the BBQ. We had high quality big fish on days one and three, the other slightly cheaper fish was less successful. In addition the Sri Lankan breakfasts were always changing and good. 

Thaliph will book us a seat on tomorrow's special bus leaving for Madura up in the tea plantation area. We will probably get off in Ella which sounds like a guest house village in a very pleasant tourist resort area at a pleasant altitude of just over 1000m. That will leave us just 12 nights before returning to Colombo where we shall get little use of our bed on the second night before the flight at 4.50 in the morning.

Several villagers, presumably without work, decided to rescue the engine from a sunk fishing boat and sell it as scrap steel. Not only had they to separate it from the hull of the wrecked boat but they had to haul it up a 25 degree sandy beach, really hard work inch by inch over several hours. Having rescued it from the sea they were determined not to see their prize stolen and so guarded it overnight by sleeping alongside it on the beach.

Fishing for engines

Sleeping to protect an engine

Oh I almost forgot we were aggressively hassled for money in the centre of town overlooking shore by a late teenager when Joan again did the trick by shrieking at the top of her voice. This startled all those in the street but had the effect of getting the aggressor to disappear back to the bus station and the second lad attracted by the first also disappeared. When the second guy appeared I was thinking we were about to be robbed not a pleasant thought since at the time we were carrying all our valuables, passports, credit and debit cards, a reserve of Travellers Cheques and a few always marketable US dollars. Joan said she was just protesting at the continuously following hassler. Shades of Santiago Chile and the attempted robbery by four youths in the main shopping street several years earlier.