So I was last in Colombo Sri Lanka waiting for the night bus that would take me to Arugam Bay, which is on the Southeast Coast of Sri Lanka. I had a long day waiting for that bus, and it was terribly humid and rainy in Colombo, I don't think I've ever quite experienced anything like it.
So the bus ride is something of a story in itself, as I find out I'm on one of the crappy local buses, which when compared to Nepal buses that we were taking everywhere, are arguably the worst thing in the world. I have never quite experienced such an uncomfortable ride, but oh well. I was crammed into a small seat, with all my bags, which then had to be crammed beneath me, or on my lap, while another man packed in beside me....now the bus was sooooo hot and humid, and the roads here are quite terrible to be honest, so it was next to impossible to fall asleep, although the locals seemed to have found a way to do it without issues....one very funny moment of the bus ride was that we hit a bump so hard that a man that was sleeping in the seat behind me actually flew airborn and landed in the aisle, waking up in the process.....all his friends were quick to help him up, but I couldn't help but laugh, I've never seen anything like that!! At one point we stopped for food and water break, and I saw another passenger bus that I wished I was on....here's my bus followed by the one I should have tried to get on ha ha
So on the way to Arugam, there was a fairly friendly gentleman sitting in front of me who was giving me tips on what to see and do, as well as criticizing my plan to simply take the first bus out of Colombo and go straight to the East coast, as he figured there were several spots I should take in along the south coast, and on the road to Arugam, buuuuut I do things a bit differently than most people would I suppose, so I dealt with his slight criticism and just smiled and said I don't make plans, I just go with the flow. I found out we weren't going to get to Pottuvil until about 5 am, so it was going to be an interesting event trying to get to the resort where Amanda and Devon were staying so I could meet up with them, as I really had no idea what I was doing. The gentleman in front of me talked to the young guy sitting next to him who was from Pottuvil and offered to help me find a tuk tuk to take me to where I needed to go, and to help me do it without getting ripped off, which was quite kind....so I was all for their help, but then during one stop I was asked by another man where I was from, to which I replied Canada......and at this point my Sri Lanka experience took on a whole new meaning of generosity and kindness.
This fellow's name was Roy, and he explained that he had several family members in Canada and that it was his second favourite country in the world after Sri Lanka, and how he worked with many Canadians and hosted others at his place....now at first, you've always got to be leery about random strangers that approach you, as they are often just touting and trying to sell you something, so I didn't think a whole lot about it, but he mentioned he was living in Arugam Bay, and that he would help me get there and find a place to stay.....he then pulled out a packet of pictures he had just developed showing him with a bunch of other white tourists staying at his places, and they seemed quite genuine....I often go with my gut instinct, and mine told me to trust the guy, so I did.
We arrived in Arugam around 5 am, and being the only tourist I was immediately overwhelmed with tuk tuk drivers trying to pull me into their cabs when Roy popped his head out of one and said hop in...so I obliged and he drove me to the Beach Hut...we got there and found no one awake so Roy went about trying to wake one of the staff members up to see if there were any rooms...it took around 30 minutes of waiting until someone finally woke up and let me know that there were no rooms until later in the night....I was pretty tired and was just going to sleep under the table but Roy said he had a place nearby and that I could sleep there if I wanted to....so I took him up on his offer and had a nice relaxing sleep. Here's the house of Roy and the view from the backyard....not too shabby.
I awoke the next day thinking I would go check into the beach hut, but Roy first took me for a great Sri Lankan lunch at his neighbours place, where he showed me how to eat like a true Sri Lankan (with my hands) ha ha....it's a pretty fun experience eating with your hands here, as you really get to enjoy the texture of your food, although it's a funny backwards step in one's life, after being told it was wrong to eat with your hands as a youngster, and now as an adult, going back to that manner
....either way, the food was amazing, and I was really starting to get a feel for what Sri Lankan food is all about. After lunch, Roy let me know that I could continue to stay at his place for as long as I liked, and I liked the guy so I figured why not....
I finally made my way over to find the girls that afternoon and we had a nice chat over the past few months of our adventurous lives, over some beers and iced coffees and other treats offered by the Beach Hut.....if any of you ever do make it to Sri Lanka, and are looking for a decent guesthouse, I would recommend that place for sure....anyways.....the girls had been there for quite some time and had developed quite a social circle...there was an older surfer from New Zealand who had actually walked past me the previous morning on his way to surfing and had mentioned to the girls that "some dude was partying till past 5 am", as well as an English surfer dude named Jonah, a Polish girl named Isabela (who had become basically their closest friend), and a whole whack of French, British, and European characters.....I met most of their group and we had a pretty fun social night of playing cards and drinking Arak which is some Coconut rum that's pretty cheap....I decided that night to present to them the gifts I had purchased for them before I left Nepal so that they could be sweet like me...here's me modeling them in Nepal..
yes....a chicken and a pig...excellent additions to the beanie family! The girls also had some crazy Malaysian cat hat that they gave me in return for their gifts, which Isabela modeled for us so kindly....
And here's the delicious Arak that we mixed with Sprite to provide a nice cheap cocktail to help us through the night!
Eventually Roy popped by and joined us for a drink as well, and I introduced him to the girls. At one point he had some beef brought over that one of his helpers had made, and we all indulged in the amazing curry and hot savoury taste of the cuisine...Roy then offered to have a dinner party one of the nights and to invite the girls, which we eventually did several days later. The girls were fairly tired so we shut down relatively early for the first night.
I awoke pretty early, as my sleep patterns were a bit out of whack and decided that I would take up running in the mornings...that lasted about 3 or 4 days in total as eventually I was getting up around 1 in the afternoon, by which time it was like 34 degrees and pretty crappy to run in.....but nevertheless I at least got some physical activity in.
The remainder of my days in Arugam Bay were just focused on relaxing and hanging out at either the Beach Hut or at Roy's.....at one point he had 2 helpers over at his place, as well as a few other helpers in the area as he was looking after a hotel project, so he would be in and out of the place...he even left for Colombo for 2 days, trusting me with his house and such! He left his helper behind who pretty much became my assistant for a few days, ordering me things, and doing tasks for me...it was rather strange but kind of funny.
One day Roy took me for a tuk tuk ride, as he had a tuk tuk of his own, but didn't have a license, so he had his helper drive us around...we went and visited his hometown where he showed me all the areas that had been destroyed by the Tsunami in 2002......this is where the sad underlying story of Sri Lanka lies.....pretty much all of the locals that I would talk to lose a brother, sister, child, or wife during the Tsunami.....all in all, 40,000 people perished along the coast of Sri Lanka, but so many of these people have rebuilt and are willing to casually talk about their losses.....Roy's family home was completely destroyed, and they had no insurance, and he lost one sister in the incident.....I was thinking back to when that disaster happened, and how so much of our local media coverage only really touched on the deaths in Thailand, as that's where most of the tourists died, but I never really thought much about Sri Lanka....but now I certainly do, and they really are an amazing group of people......they've also had to deal with the civil war raging on in the country for the last 30 years, where people such as Roy would suffer greatly...he mentioned he often received death threats from the Tamil Tigers during their campaign, because his father was a Sunhilese, while his mother was a Tamil, so he was a mixed race. It's a very sad story but now with the end of the war, and the sheer will of the people, the country seems set for a major rebound.
Here's some photos from the day trip that Roy took me on; including one of us in front of the Canada house that is a church that our gov't helped rebuild for the people after their original one was destroyed. We also stopped at his cousin's place to sample some fresh coconut juice and flakes.....yum!
On the way home, Roy even let me drive the tuk tuk, as I'm always trying to drive new things!
Unfortunately I couldn't go over 40 km/hr as the thing was quite new, and still needed a proper servicing before it could be taken up to higher speeds. Then, unfortunately, my luck with the law ran out as we were stopped by the traffic police, and I didn't actually have a proper license to drive the damn thing....shoot....after all the shenanigans in Nepal, I get busted for driving a tuk tuk!!
The one officer on the right was particularly mean, but eventually I sorted out a way to get myself out of trouble.....I bribed them with beer!
Another win for Rye Rye in his quest to not go to a foreign jail! LOL
Over the next few days I basically just lounged on the beach, ate the amazing local food that Roy's helper would prepare, drank beer, and totally relaxed....it was such a nice time that it was very hard to leave....we had a few good party nights with lots of other foreigners, and of course lots of low key nights where we were in bed early....One day I decided I should finally try the whole surfing thing, since Arugam is quite famous for it's surfing....so I went out and rented myself a board, and set up a tuk tuk to take me to Whiskey Point at 5 am the next day for a few hours of surfing.....well for some reason, I couldn't sleep all night, and actually pulled an all nighter then went out to the surf....needless to say, it was a complete failure as I was out there for about 4 hours and continuously fell.....at some point I actually injured my shoulder and had to call it quits for the day....I returned home in pain and caught up on some sleep for a few hours....and when I awoke I still couldn't lift my arm higher than my shoulder without it hurting so much.
So the next day I decided to retire from surfing for the time being and return the board....surfing 3 - Reilly 0...fml.
We did end up going to the main point on my last day in town to check out some real surfers, and I got some decent photos of them in action...I wish that was me, but it will be a long time (or likely never) that I will be that good on a surfboard.
And here's a view from the main point as we're getting ready to head back home for the evening...as you can see, this place is so beautiful, and I'm actually considering buying land in the area for a retirement home some day.
My last two nights were basically spent having dinner with Roy and then hopping over to the Beach Hut for beers with other foreigners.....here's a few pics from the last few nights including some hilarious French guys having some foot wrestling wars that lead to a huge arm wrestling battle with $20 bets floating around between the locals and the one French guy (who also happened to be a ketchup eater when drunk lol). And of course Amanda and Devon rocking their sweet moustaches/unibrows? ha ha ha
Sooo we had a pretty fun last night and I had planned to leave around 10 am the next day for Kandy for a few days, but of course I had a huge sleep in and didn't get up until 1 pm...oops...I wandered over to say my final goodbyes to the girls and wish them luck on the last leg of their tour, then Roy organized a ride for me to Ampara where I could catch a bus to Kandy.
We arrived in Ampara and Roy found me my bus, but then last minute he found me a family who was driving to Kandy and who would give me a ride in their van for $5...win....so I got into the mystery van and took off for what was a rather interesting ride as per usual....at one point we were driving and passed a police officer who was hitching a ride with a motorcyclist, so the van pulled over and he hopped in....I think they knew each other, but who knows! The father driving the vehicle was pretty much a mad man and was flying down the roads....it was a pretty wild ride, but then his son took over when he got tired and his son was the exact opposite.....soooo slow and timid.....at one point we were stuck on a hill spinning out on gravel because the son didn't know to give it enough gas...hilarious times. Eventually we got to Kandy and I found my guesthouse and crashed.
The next day I decided I was going to go for a round of golf to a nearby course that was voted the best course in the Subcontinent of Asia....so I made my way out there and had a blast...it was great to finally swing some clubs! I shot a 91 which wasn't too bad, had a few miserable holes, but that's always to be expected. An interesting part of this golf round was that I had to have a caddie as well as a ball spotter...never had that experience before, but it was fun...the caddy had good insight and was quite helpful....another interesting part of the course was that there were monkeys everywhere.....and since it was a Wed. afternoon, these guys were pretty much my only spectators ha ha.
So I guess that brings to a close my Sri Lanka trip...I'm leaving on a train in a few hours for Colombo where Roy is going to pick me up and then drive me to the airport for my flight at 12:55 am....See ya'll soon!
Rye
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