So the last leg of our trip was winding our way up the west coast back towards Colombo. It was off-season, so the surf was pretty rough and not suitable for surfing, but still great for a swim.
Mirissa
First stop was Mirissa and while it’s a great place to surf, our airbnb was pretty disappointing and we cut our stay short by a day as we couldn’t bare another day in the grubby hot house – that’s the luck of the draw with homestays. Some are great and some are a bit meh.
Galle
Sean’s grandfather was from Galle so we had to make that a stop in our trip. We spent a day walking around Galle Fort. There are some great shops there and full of beautiful historical buildings. Sean wanted to visit the Dutch reform church in the fort as his great, great, grandfather is buried there and we were surprised to find a huge plaque commemorating him in the church and we managed to find his graveyard as well on the church grounds.
Click on the images below to expand them.
There are lots of great places to eat and once we started talking to one of the owners we found out the cafe had been in the same family for over 200 years. Someone couldn’t help himself and ended up in the kitchen talking food.
Hikkaduwa
We moved on to Hikkaduwa, which is normally pumping around January, but it was super quiet as there is no surf in the off-season. We made a habit of walking around the back streets and met some really lovely people away from all the touristy shops and hotels. Two young boys just walking in the same direction as us invited us to have a tour of their local Buddhist temple which was really sweet of them. We found an old hospital that had been turned into a restaurant by a few Aussies and so we sat and watched guys fishing by sitting on poles in the ocean while we ate dinner.
Just North of Hikkaduwa is a museum and memorial for the Boxing Day Tsunami. We had a tour through and it was a little sobering to see how many people were affected by the tsunami is Sri Lanka. The giant Buddha was built as a memorial to those lost in the tsunami.
SandSZeAdventures 