3rd - 5th May - Yala to Mrissa

Ayabowan from Mrissa,

We had a fantastic sleep in at Chaarya and took our time over the breakfast buffet - which was very good. We then got great leg massages - on the tables rather then in the chairs, as old mate explained that's it's easier to get both front and back on the bed. After that we jumped straight in the resort pool and swam the rest of the kinks out. In the words of the late, great Nina Simone... And I'm feelin' good!

We are nearing the end of our time in the Lank and we don't want to withdraw anymore cash. We have have some cash for Vish's tip packed away but we are running low on actual cash, so we put everything at Chaarya on the card. I paid the bill upon checkout and for last night's booze, dinner, water and today's massages, the total came to 83AUD! When I get a massage in Taree it's $90!! Even the schmick joints are cheap in SL.

We reluctantly checked out - we could have easily stayed another few nights - and jumped in the car for the two hour drive to the bottom of the island, the famous beach town of Mrissa.

Our resort was called the Randiva and was directly across the road from the beach access and had a coffee shop, infinity pool and restaurant! Great start.

It also had a Danish University class staying here. We thought that they must have been P.E. teachers or something as they are all young and fit and always in the pool. They also like drinking Carlsberg and shit techno music, so it's a safe bet.

After we got settled, we walked over the road to check out the beach. The day was overcast and the surf looked grey but there were some decent sized waves for swimming rolling in. We went for a walk along the beach and discovered Thai style that they had restaurants on the sand. Yes!

A big Phil Lynott looking dude talked us into eating at his restaurant - W & D - and we were not disappointed. Jen had coconut breaded fried prawns and sesame encrusted yellow-fin tuna sashimi. Unbelievable. I was still full from breaky buffet, so I just had a grilled chicken, tomato, avocado and lettuce salad. It was all so good that we promised Phil we'd be back for dinner.

Later in the day we had a swim and I got pounded a few times in the surf. We then went back and had a few laps of the pool with our stealth goggles before the Danes invaded and we retreated to Wessex (sorry Utrecht joke)

The surrounding streets were pretty dirty and ironically the beach side town was our least favourite for street appeal. Every second shop or building was in ruins and the amount of rubbish everywhere was too much to ignore.

Anyway, Vish had a surprise in store for us at sunset and we took drinks to Coconut Point. It was quiet instagrammable, as the number of posing influencers validated, but the cloud cover made it a bit drab. We got a few cool pics and it was a nice spot to smash a few Lion Lagers and the rest of the Double Barrel bought in Bangkok. He then dropped us back off at the resort and we bid him goodnight.

We then headed straight back to W & D and got the same entrees plus we also went for a giant garlic prawn each and a grilled whole white fleshed fish - picked out from the stall on the beach - called a butter fish. I don't know if we even have them in Oz but it reminded me of a bream crossed with a salmon if that makes any sense at all! This was all served with turmeric rice and stir fried veg and will probably rank as one of the great dinners for years to come! Total price with booze - 10K - $40. I told Phil that we'd tipped Vish into this place and he said that he would bring his next guests. Smiles, hugs and good karma abounded as we headed back to the room for A/C and sleep.

The next day was chilled.

Breakfast buffet complete with many Danishes...

We were hot and tired and read, wrote and napped all morning.

For lunch we walked along the main drag to the Beach Club Resort, but the restaurant wasn't opened - even though the resort was schmick.

We grabbed a tuk-tuk to a Google recommended place called No, 1 Roti House where we ordered Roti - chicken, veg, egg and cheese and Kottu - chicken, egg and veg. Kottu is alot like fried rice but instead of rice they smash up roti on a flat grill with metals bashers. It was the final SL dish that we hadn't tried and it was delicious. We had a coffee and walked back home. On the way we had a scare as we walked passed someone's yard and a 2 metre goanna appeared from nowhere! Fuck me, scared us shitless.

We got back, I collected our laundry and Jen got picked up for a massage. I stayed and finished reading Dan Brown's Origin, Meh, it was ok, but his twists are now predictable.

We looked at another Google recommendation for dinner and not far from the resort was De Tano's Woodfired Pizza and Pasta. We shared a veg pizza and beef ravioli and it was as good as any we've had across the globe - including in Italia.

Early sober night, except there was a doof party next to the resort and they played that shit until 4am! Even with earplugs our sleep was shite.

We were up at 6am and drove an hour to Gaull Fort.

It was pretty good and there were many wedding parties getting photos done, but again, the litter was pretty confronting and we were just thinking about flying to The Maldives - (pronounced Mol Deves)

Vish then drove us to the airport at Colombo. I gave him our tip 25,000 rupiah - 100AUD and half of my bottle of arrack. We read a forum about tips for drivers and they recommended that we give him half of that.

He was a great kid and we felt that we could help him and his family a wee bit with this cash. Sri Lanka is struggling big time at the moment with their political system and the supply chain interruptions. All the driver's spoke about it everywhere we went, but Vish kept all of this from us and showed us the tourist bits. We wished us a happy life as we left and we wish the same for him. Legend!

We then got the 90 minute flight to Mali, Maldives.

We had a stuff up with the booking and the lady took us to another hotel - after taking our cash, and here we sit in this booze free town.

We are in a crappy room, but it has WiFi and A/C and we've just feasted on chicken fajitas, quesadillas, chips and picco de gallo.

Tomorrow at sparrows we go back to the airport for our 5 amazing days on Kooddoo Island.

I'm not sure how much I will write, I'll just play it by ear.

Anyway, Sri Lanka far exceeded our expectations. The people, the food, the jungle, the animals, the plants, the nature, the culture, was all second to none and our great young guide and driver made it so much easier for us.

Sri Lanka, we'll be back one day

Ayobowan