Lazy Beach

Marakolliya Beach, near Tangalla on the Southern Coast of Sri Lanka.

Lonely Beach, Lazy Beach, whichever.  There really isn't too much to say about a day spent lolling about or going for walks or watching Ghost crab zip around the hot sands.  Days are hot here, and midday is best spent in the shade.  The mornings are delightful and the evening sunsets give way to the coolness of a moonlit walk along the sands.  Four species of turtles lay their eggs on these beaches, but it is a bit early in the season and we did not see any.  

A late and lazy breakfast is essential nutrition for a long and lazy day.  Once you eat the papaya and bananas that grow here, you will be ruined for the chalky imitations that are sold in the stores back home.  

When laziness gets to be too much, it is time to hike out to the road and find some non-resort grub.

Our little road-side shack was only able to comeup with fried rice.  Sri Lanka is unique in SE Asia in that food is harder to come by.  Breakfast and lunch are easy, but Sri Lankans tend to eat dinner at home so most of the good curry-rice stands are long closed by 4 PM.  Oh, how the Thais would suffer if this was the case in any market in Thailand.  Anyway, its best to remember this fact.  While we only had fried rice, it was damn good and the dry chili paste that was served as a side was one of our favorite flavours in Sri Lanka.  It packed a great fiery wallop, but it is also mixed with a dried fish paste that gives the chili concoction a wonderful backnote of fish sauce, like a Thai stir fry.  Seriously yummy, we are hoping to find some version in a jar that we can bring home.

Another day fades on Lonely Beach

We have climbed into the hill country since Lonely Beach, and had adventures along the way.  Wifi was not one of the adventures, so I have some catching up to do from the hill country here in Ella.  

We started out our journey in Colombo, which you can find on the West side of the island one third up from the Southern tip.  Our next stop was Galle, in the Southwest corner of the teardrop of Sri Lanka.  Along the bottom of the southern coast, if you look, you will see Tangalla.  Lonely Beach is a few kilometers to the East of that.  There is more to follow of our adventures in Yalu National Park, but that will take another post.

Before I close the chapter on Lonely Beach, I want to sketch in what the night is like here, or more precisely  what the night sounds like.  Sitting on our balcony, we are serenaded by tree frogs.  They send there warbling calls out across the Lagoon at a volume that is astonishing given their tiny size.  The little chipmunk tree squirrels throw a fast chirping to anything that disturbs them, which is everything.  Birds and monkeys compete for the weirdest unidentified night noise, causing the tree frogs try harder to be heard.  On top of all of this is a whirring, clicking, buzzing symphony of insect noises, from giant crickets to unknown goes-creepy-crawly-in-the-night things.  And close at hand our faithful geckos hunt skeeters on the walls and remind us of who they are with cries of "gek-gek-gek-GEK-GEK-OOOOO."  If you are a person that requires silence for sleep, it will be a long time coming here.  The trade off is drifting off under the mosquito netting while being seranaded by the jungle symphony.  Sometimes it does keep me awake, but usually it is so cool that I don't mind, and eventually I drift back off to sleep.  

From Ella, Sri Lanka, Ciao for Now.  I hope to catch things up over the next few days as we will remain in Ella for awhile.