Enforced chilling

Sunset through the palms

Last night was our penultimate evening and as you can imagine, we were not hugely delighted about said milestone. Why? Well, I guess we’re in a bubble of beautiful service, stunning weather, awesome scenery and with the best will in the world, the UK doesn’t quite come up to scratch on a number of these elements.

After our beer lunch, Nick rattled the hotel with his merry snoring sounds and then woke with that look that just says “what!?” As I dutifully apologised to anyone within a KM radius of us.

It was a bit of a shocker when, whilst chilling on our lounger, we get a message from the office and our presence was required for a quick job. That was a struggle to suddenly get our work brains into gear. But when we’re called, naturally we deliver, wherever in the world.

There was a stunning sunset yesterday evening and I noted that we weren’t the only ones getting in on the action. Nick was muttering away, willing someone to get out of his shot so he could capture the perfect moment.

Yesterday was Poya and having done my research before we came away, read that alcohol was not available on Poya day. Poya is celebrated every month as Poya is the full moon. Apparently no alcohol is sold or served on Poya. However, it becomes fluid if you’ve bought it the day before or you buy it at your hotel. Ok, we’re happy to play the game. However, the main drama was (and please feel my genuine pain), the hotel didn’t have any red wine left. What!? How does that actually work? A hotel running out of wine? They had lashings of white, but not red. Yikes, ok, we’ll just have to slum it with a bottle of white. One of the guests even recognised my plight and offered to swap his red for our white. What a gent. However, no, I decided I would have what was available.

After a number of curry free days, it was lovely to see prawn curry on the menu for dinner and very lovely and spicy it was too. After dinner, we went in search of Poya and very beautiful it was. There was a hazy mist in front of the moon, but still utterly exquisite.

The hazy mist continued this morning with splatters of rain every now and then with a constant humid 28 degrees. We have started the process of “thinking” about leaving this stunning place, but that’s as far as it’s got. The sea is mesmerising with its constant churn and crashing waves. There’s a brief silence when the sea recedes and then the exceptional din as the waves break within metres of our room.

Over the last couple of days/evenings we’ve found ourselves being a little more sociable and hearing others experiences on this trip. We’ve all booked through Secret Escapes but have had a variety of different experiences. One couple were teamed up with another couple they’d never met before and their tour of Sri Lanka has been in a standard 5-seater car but with no seatbelts in the back. The four have alternated who goes in the front while the other three cramp together in the back, insecurely. Another couple who have been on their own in a car with a driver who has barely gone over 30 MPH the whole trip and doesn’t want to start later in the morning. A family of three from Denmark who lost their driver through illness and who was hospitalised. Another couple who lost their driver because he suddenly died. And us, who have been teamed up with mother and daughter Ronnie and Leah. We have all got on, supported each other, but also given each other space. For all our mutterings about Atulah’s driving, at least we have had space in our vehicle, the seatbelts have worked (once Nick learnt the technique for his) and our van has been spotless every morning when we’ve started our day.

As the rain increased this afternoon, we simply stayed on our balcony reading and chilling, hoping we can emblazon this beautiful place in our memory banks for as long as possible.