Wednesday, 5th february, 2019
I could not sleep due to the pelting rain on our tree house corrugated rooftop. It rained constantly all night and sometimes we also had the monkeys clambering over the roof. So by 4.30 I got out of bed and decided to try and finish my blog entry and with any luck add some pictures. The only place to do this was in the bathroom so as not to wake up Gerry. Well I did finish Sunday’s entry even though I could not get all the pictures added in. I will have to do that when we have a better Wi-Fi service.
The alarm went off at 6.30 so I showered first and washed my hair which was still greasy from the head massage I got yesterday during the Aryuveda massage! Of course Gerry had to first have his smoke but that was good as both of us could not fit in the tiny bathroom!
When I went outdoors on our verandah, the rain had created quite some mist and due to this we lost sight of our big boulder rock of Sigiriya – yesterday we could see the people walking up the side of the rock but this morning the great big boulder was hidden by the mist. Again, we won’t be climbing this rock today – and we had planned to do this early in the morning before driving to the east coast. We had ordered an early breakfast as Indika was going to collect us at 8.30 am.
Our breakfast was a really healthy one – fresh fruit, rice flour pancakes (two filled with a fried egg) and coconut rice chappatis. While we had jam, we did not touch this as we also had a local concoction of coconut shreds with honey and cinnamon- so tasty on the rice pancakes and chappatis!
We were ready to go when Indika arrived and the room boy carried our bags down to the car. He’s used to doing this as he practically ran down the stairs……. while we took a step at a time!
Indika also suggested that we don’t do the Sigiriya Rock climb as it was still raining and the trip could be quite hazardous – he proposed that when we leave the beach, he could make a detour back to Sigiriya, weather permitting, prior to proceeding to Kandy. With this plan in mind, we arrived round 12 noon at the Amethyst Beach Resort in Pasikuda.
Luckily, as the hotel is not busy at all, we were given a beachfront bungalow and we could check in immediately. We were greeted with a string with sea shells – ever so hospitable……
The view from our room is just heavenly and it is so relaxing to hear the crashing of the waves. This is normally a bath tub temperature beach – the water is so shallow that it heats up very quickly inside the reef. We were lucky that by the time we reached Pasikuda, the rains had stopped and the sun came out and temperature was well over 28 Celsius. We made a date with Indika that he would pick us at 5.30 pm so that we could have an early dinner as we would be skipping lunch.
After settling in , we walked around the beach and enjoyed the view. This is so good to have such a break. By the time we walked back to our bungalow the clouds gathered again and it started raining.
At 5.30 we were ready to be picked up by Indika and by this time it was raining quite hard so he suggested we do not go too far and only went down the road to another hotel complex – The Calm – and we were able to have an early dinner. However this hotel was just as empty as ours…….
Gerry went for the local beefsteak – which was as tough as leather!!! But he had been warned and I went for the typical rice and curry which was elegantly served!
We were back in our hotel quite early so we could check our mails and catch up with our social media. My niece, Danica chatted with me through Messenger and she told me that down south there is a “Maltese” village built after the Tsunami by funds donated to the Maltese Red Cross and actually 3 members had come over to build 26 houses in 3 months. This place is Tangalle and is on the way for us from Yala to Galle so I have to make arrangements to stop over there.
And tomorrow we are promised a sunny, though somewhat blustery day – good enough for us to relax on the beach !
