Sri Lanka Part 3: On the Beach at Unawatuna

On the 27th of December, after several rainy and chilly days between Polonnaruwa and Ella, we were happy to get on a bus bound for the south, where we were promised beautiful beaches and sunny weather. The ride was long - about three or so hours to the town of Matara - but the scenery and the sky indeed became nicer and nicer as we moved south. I was happy to watch out the open window as we drove past small towns, eventually hitting the sea and following the beach road for the last stretch. From Matara we hopped on a second bus, which wound westward along the south coast until we reached Unawatuna Beach. We walked through town to the hostel - passing lots of hawker stands selling beautiful batiks, bags, pants, and skirts - where we sat and had lunch while they prepared a room for us (thanks to a mix-up with our booking they hadn't been expecting us, but the staff was very helpful and accommodating and everything worked out). It was early afternoon, so I decided to take a walk along the beach to find the dive shop I'd been emailing with, so that I could pay and sort out the timing of the course I'd be taking over the next couple days. When I arrived, they plopped me down in front of a TV so I could get all the boring classroom stuff out of the way, and spend all the rest of the time in the water. I ended up spending the entire afternoon there, met my instructor and planned to meet the following morning. I made my way back to the hostel, where Megan and I met a couple other travelers and the four of us went to have dinner at one of the restaurants on the beach.

Lots of goings on at Unawatuna in the evening!

The next morning, I left early enough to grab breakfast and have the beach more or less to myself. I got to really admire the view in the daylight for the first time. The beach is pretty narrow - even at low tide. It's lined with restaurants and bars whose outermost tables can get hit by the stronger waves, and in some places there are huge collections of black rocks stretching out to the sea, so that for most of the walk across the beach you are either walking in the water, cutting through a restaurant, or scrambling over the rocks. It's possible to take the back way and walk on the road, but where's the fun in that?

When it was time to head over tot he dive shop, I did so, and the instructor and I set up our equipment for our first skills dive. It should have been in the pool, but he said it was too cold, and we'd better forget the pool and just head to the ocean. Seemed like a better option to me! We finished all the skills by lunchtime, so we took a break, agreeing to meet again after an hour or so for the first official ocean dive - we'd be going deeper and just practicing moving and breathing in the water. We were joined by one other classmate - he'd done his pool learning the previous day. The first dive was great - we saw stingrays, pufferfish, lots and lots of butterfly fish, beautiful coral, and even got to swim around a wreck down there! When we'd finished for the day, we set a time for the following day - early enough to get everything else done in one more day - and then I made my way back to the hostel. Megan and I befriended a few other guests and went out with them for another beachside dinner, but I was exhausted from the day, so headed to bed relatively early.

The next day I was up early again and out the door. I spent a little time sitting in a little patch of dry sand I found studying for the written exam I'd have to take in the afternoon, and then made my way to the dive shop. We had a busy, busy day! We did one dive in the morning, where we practiced most of the skills we'd done in the shallow water the previous day. Then we (successfully) took the exam, before we grabbed a few bananas in the way of lunch. After we'd had a long enough break, we headed back out for another dive, intending to practice a few surface skills. Unfortunately, the water had become too choppy for that, so we decided to save them for later and have a fun, skills-free dive instead. My mask was pretty foggy for that one, so I didn't get to see much, but still had a great time! When we came back in, we completed the swim test and treading water test - easy enough in the incredibly salty water! - and then went out a final time for the last dive. One of the skills necessary to pass the course is the ability to remove and replace a mask underwater, and I'd been struggling with it. It was definitely what I was most nervous about, and after a few tries I was unsuccessful. The instructor was very patient, and only said that I'd have to come back the following morning to get that done. Back underwater, I was determined to try again, so I motioned to him, forced myself to stay focused and not panic, and was able to get it off and back on! I was so thrilled with myself, and relieved that this last, final, impossible thing was finished - the rest of the dive was great, and I just kept reminding myself that everything necessary for certification was done. Back on shore, we filled out necessary paperwork, took photos for our diving cards, and celebrated with a few beers at the bar next door, with a bunch of diving people from the surrounding shops.

The next day - our last full day on the beach - I woke up early and let Megan sleep while I went for a walk on the beach. I wanted to walk up to the Buddhist temple visible from the beach, so I headed that way, just walking in the sand and water. The beach kind of opens up to be much wider in that direction, so lots more sunbathers and loungers than on the way to the dive shop.

View through the trees on the way to the temple

 The temple itself was up a small hill, and it was such beautiful weather that it was a perfect place to look out from.

Temple and shrine on top of the hill

View of the water. I couldn't leave this view, so I ended up sitting on a wall here for an hour.

 I went back down to the hostel to meet Megan for lunch, and then another guest - Wendy, a woman from the Netherlands - and I walked to famed Jungle Beach - I'd heard a lot about it, and was excited to check it out, but when we arrived we were pretty disappointed. It was far too small for the number of tourists there, and the beach and the water were dirty - full of trash. The walk over was pretty, though - through the jungle (as the name might suggest)

 It also turned out not to be too far from the Japanese Peace Pagoda, so we wandered up there to check it out. That was really beautiful - another incredibly peaceful place, with amazing views over the water.

Tip of the dome, sticking up over the jungle

View over the sea, across from the city of Galle

 Back at our beach, we picked up a few people for one last dinner at the beach, and then spent the night at the bar at our hostel. We were all exhausted from so many days in the sun - and diving, for me - so we didn't last long, but it was still a nice last night. Wendy was also leaving on an early January 1st flight, so the three of us decided to spend New Year's Eve Day on the beach at Unawatuna, and then head up toward the airport in the evening, where we'd celebrate midnight and then head to the airport.

New Year's Eve, I spent the morning on the beach with two British guests at our hostel. We were all early risers, so we were some of the first people there. It was nice to beat the crowds and grab the first beach chairs and umbrellas as they were being set up.

Early morning at Unawatuna

It was a relaxing and fun day - Megan and Wendy joined us when they woke up, and the five of us spent the day in and out of the water. We were feeling bummed to have to head back to work, but we tried to focus on our last day and enjoy it. It was some of the best, hottest weather we'd had in Sri Lanka, and the water was cool enough to feel refreshing, but not cold enough to keep us out. In the late afternoon, the three of us said goodbye, showered, took one last look at the sea, and boarded a bus bound for Galle, where we could change to the express bus to Colombo. The express bus turned out to be not, and by 7:30 we were feeling antsy. None of us really cared too much about Colombo anyway - most people we'd talked with had advised "get out of Colombo as fast as you can, there's nothing to see there" so we decided to follow my diving instructor's suggestion and get off the bus at nearby Mt. Lavinia, apparently a very nice beach town. We found the beach, but the restaurant scene didn't seem as low-key as at Unawatuna: most of the restaurants were far outside our price range, and the one we ended up at was not very good. We spent the night at a sandy BYOB restaurant, but as we had not brought our own bottle, the staff was helpful enough to run around to nearby hotels, buying beers to sell to us. It seemed that most of the tourists had found somewhere else to go, and we were surrounded by locals who were just a little too friendly as they got just a little too drunk. It was a strange but fun New Year, as we listened to the show going on at the hotel next to us. Around 2, we went back out to the main road, where we grabbed a tuk tuk to take us to the airport. We checked in, said goodbye to Wendy, who was on her way to Myanmar, and then slept at our gate until it was time to go. It was a short and easy flight, and (sooner than we'd have liked) we were back at Kuala Lumpur's International Airport, making our way back to HQ, where we've been lounging around ever since. Tomorrow we have a quick meeting, and then it's back to the jungle - classes resume on Tuesday and then I've got less than two months left! Time is going to fly!