Rewarding myself for making it the 7 hours on the train from Kandy, I ditched the originally planned bus ride and splashed out for a taxi from Ella to Tissamaharama (Tissa). It took about 2 hours and honestly I was warming to the idea of paying for a relatively cheap air conditioned taxi instead of public transport.
As the mini van descended from hill country, winding around and around hugging the mountainside road, the driver kept it pretty slow and safe for the most part as we were stuck behind several buses, but soon as that slim chance he could overtake and possibly (maybe, perhaps) not have a head on collision (maybe, perhaps), the accelerator hit the floor and we’d power past the snail driven buses as I looked out the window praying to Buddha that I wouldn’t see another bus coming in the opposite direction. We survived, praise Buddha!
Tissa was a welcome change from the tourist beehive of Ella. Not only were there no tourists, it was a pleasant surprise how much I liked it here. This town is mostly used as a one stop jumping point to visit Yalla National Park for safari. I had no interest in another safari and what I found instead was a normal charming Sri Lankan town.
Taking a very long miscalculated walk up to the towns dagoba, it was really nice to see the temple in such a normal setting rather than some major event site. There were no stalls selling all matter of junk, instead I only spotted two ice cream trucks as it was insanely hot at the time and my shirt clung to me like a damp smelly rag. Just nearby was an old Buddhist monastery which I had thought would just be an archaeological site, but it’s dagoba was surrounded by dozens of woman clad in white praying and singing. There were a few glances in my direction, and I couldn’t tell if it was because I was the only man in the area, or that I was wearing a black t-shirt – a colour that is disrespectful at temples. I didn’t wait nor need an answer, I upped and left, continuing my wanderings around Tissa.
There is a large man-made lake here that connects to a series of canals running along side the road leading to the town dagoba. What was the surprise were dozens and dozens of people bathing in the canal water. Some were just getting out of the oppressive heat, while many others lathered up with soap to wash themselves. The entire length of the road had van’s parked everywhere to bring their families for a day to cool off and get clean. I was really not expecting this, and at one I was point goaded by some locals to come in, a serious temptation considering I was pretty sure my temperature was about to break the boiling point for internal organs.
I took the next day to visit the town of Kataragama, a major pilgrimage site for Buddhist, Tamil, and Muslim religions. It really was nice to see a mix of faiths all coming together to the same sacred site and each with their own temples to pray at. People walked around with flowers and bowls of fruit to pay their respects, while the ubiquitous monkeys ran amok from tree to tree. In July the devotees would make a 45 day pilgrimage from the Jaffna Peninsula, making their way from the northern end of Sri Lanka to this spot in the south, following in the footsteps of the god Kataragama. Impressive.
After a few power outages in town, family made breakfasts (I even meet the owners mum), the next stop would be to finally hit the south coast at the beach side town of Tangalle.
Keeping with the satisfaction of just catching a taxi rather than a bus, the owner of the hotel offered to drive me to Tangalle which was just over an hour’s drive. We made good time and soon enough the rumblings of the waves crashing, the smell of the sea, and the beaches of yellow sand shaded with palm tree’s greeted us. It was beach bumming time!
The popular season here is December and January, and for November the sky was blue, the sun was radiant, and there was barely anyone about. To say I had the beach to myself isn’t an exaggeration, at the guest house there were only 2 other couples taking up my private beach space. Around 5pm it would rain, but even so, getting caught in the rain when you’re at a beach like this is just fun and enjoyable.
For the most part it was a day of lying by the beach, headphones on, listening to music. Then deciding it might be time for lunch, and taking a lazy stroll down the beach side road for some good (and a little over priced) fresh seafood and mildly cold beers. Most of the restaurant owners would come over to chat, usually asking if I was interested investing in their new hotel or how hard it was for Sri Lankan’s to get work in Australia.
After two nights in Tangalle, I had to make a hard choice to move onto Galle or stay another night. The owner of the hotel laughed as he didn’t think I had it in me to leave these sun soaked beaches and go to – in his words – overly busy Galle. Why would I want to leave these beaches, he asked me earnestly, and I struggled to argue otherwise.
Naturally I stayed another night, bumming around, chatting to the friendly locals, late nights at a local bar with Mishee (who arrived the day before me), and simply enjoying the beach before preparing to venture back into city territory.
So after three nights it really was time to wrap up this trip and head to the final destination of Galle.