Sri Lanka was an interesting 6 days. I had a lot of conflicting feels…the comedown from my sweet, sweet time in the Maldives (and random upgrade by the Emirates…bubblies and massage chairs!) and my mega clumsbot moment. So maybe not conflicting, both were not that amazing of feelings.

Back to reality in my sweet digs in Colombo:

Oh, how I miss the AC and the King bed and the crazy clear waters. I only stayed in Colombo one night. Had dinner with a friend (Hi TJ!) and had bank problems withdrawing money from my debit card. #moneyproblems

Meet some Aussies in the morning that were going to travel all of Sri Lanka by bike. Bicycles. Not motorbikes. Crazy Australians.

Stay: Hitchhike Backpackers – apparently not in Colombo. Yet hostelworld says it is. Stupid suburbs. Wasn’t bad for one night. I had the whole female dorm to myself. Hot as hell doe.

Travel – Train to Ahangama; super duper cheap train to Ahangama. I stupidly followed a white family with 3 kids thinking that they would be in the second class cart. But I don’t think they knew what they were doing either. But. Ended up meeting some fellow travellers and chatted up a local that woke me up at my stop.

Ahangama:

Met up with an old MBA classmate and did it up beach bum style. Took my second surf lesson. 

My surf instructor, a 24 yo local, said he thought I was 30. Which, was not awesome. Because, literally just an opinion based on looks. Poop. He was so adamant about it that he told me twice. I thought tans were supposed to make you look younger?

Did a tea plantation tour. Ate lunch at our mediocre guesthouse and realized how shitty the fried rice was in Bali. #soggyriceisnotrice

Ahangama was also my first of many encounters with Sri Lankans not believing I’m from Canada.

90% of my conversation with Sri Lankans:

Him: “where are you from?”
Me: “Canada.”
He makes pointing gestures at my face: “but you look China.”

Other 10%:

“Are you married?”

Stay: some guesthouse I don’t remember the name of – first time that I haven’t booked accoms on the interwebs. Paradise something? On the beach. Decent enough.

Travel – Tuk Tuk to Mirissa; our Tuk Tuk driver was super funny. He was the dad of the people that owned the guesthouse we stayed in. Pretty much showed us where his entire family lived by making random, unasked for stops.

Mirissa:

Another beach town. More touristy for sure. Attempted to surf some more in Weligama (a nearby beach). First day: randomly got a free surf lesson from one of the locals that surfed within my radius. So much easier getting up on the board when someone gives you a little push. Second day: Ate so much shit. The waves were bigger and I can’t get my little arms to work hard enough to give me enough momentum without a third party.

Had a super local, homemade lunch by a home stay family:

Fave part of Sri Lanka for surreeeeee.

I also almost fell into a sewer. Not fave. Foot kinda bruised.

Stay: Surf View Hotel – “hotel” is an interesting descriptor of this guesthouse. Beach parties every night on various part of the beach. Twice in a roll in this particular section. Not good for ze sleep.

Travel – Train back to Colombo; had a late flight to Phuket so trained back in the afternoon. Got ripped off by the Tuk Tuk drivers that refused to meter from the train station to my friend’s hostel. Had a disgustingly large curry buffet dinner to make up for it.

Ubered to and fro the airport. Average CAD$25 per trip. Adorsies Uber.

Colombo + Ahangama + Mirissa, Sri Lanka Summary: I still have sand in my ear. From getting bitch slapped by the waves.

Duration: Dec 14 – 20

2015.12.14 Sleep Log: Slept okay. Woke up super sweaty. And to a lot of noise.
2015.12.15 Sleep Log: Slept like a log, apparently slept through thunderstorms. What the what?
2015.12.16 Sleep Log: Bad sleep.
2015.12.17 Sleep Log: Kept waking up through out the night. There was this crazy bird (?) that made the most obnoxious, consistently, squawk.
2015.12.18 Sleep Log: Beach party #1 = bad sleep.
2015.12.19 Sleep Log: Beach party #2 = still bad sleep.