For our second week in Sri Lanka, we had the awesome good fortune to have friends and friends of friends coming to meet us!! We didn’t know everyone in the beginning, but we became fast friends and we couldn’t imagine a better group to share the time with! In total, we were 11 people, we had 3 Brits, 3 Canadians, 2 French, 2 Czech and an Aussie to round out the group. We decided to chip in on a gorgeous villa and live a little outside our means for the week. There were 6 beautiful private rooms with their own bathrooms, a huge wrap-around patio upstairs, tons of comfy lounge space and a massive kitchen for cooking our epic communal meals. The highlight was the pool in the side yard where we passed many an afternoon and a few late nights playing drinking games in the pool.
Hikkaduwa is a bustling little town on the south coast of Sri Lanka a few hours away from hectic Colombo. We decided to stay in this area because it’s known for surf, sun and fun. Through the rain showers and dramatic thunder and lightning shows, we managed a few great days on the beach playing in the waves. The point break is decent and the waves are crashing one after in other onto the long, beautiful shore of golden sand. Because it’s still on the cusp of the rainy season, the stormy weather made the waves vary a little from a couple feet to a couple meters but there were great spots with a beach break for beginners and a few reef breaks for more experienced surfers. Some areas have a pretty strong rip tide though, so it’s important to keep your wits about you there.
We rented a few boards for just a couple bux an hour and made our way to the point break 😊 paddle, paddle, paddle hard and hop on the board riding the wave… there are no words to describe the rush you feel when you’re standing on the board going super fast… after such a long time away from the ocean back in Canada, it feels so good to be back in the water!!! After catching few waves though, your arms feel like jelly so it’s time for a much-deserved break back on the beach to drink a few beers and snack on some curry.
Cute little restaurants and bars line the length of the beach, all with similar menus and tasty eats from rice and curry to fried rice and noodles and lots of indulgent seafood. The food in Sri Lanka is definitely a flavorful and delicious journey of its own!
While we were in Hikkaduwa we had a couple of birthdays to celebrate so in between our surf adventures we discovered the very delicious Sri Lankan Red Rum.. it’s a tasty amber-colored rum with strong notes of vanilla and spice. Add a little ginger beer and a splash of juice and you definitely feel like you’re in paradise!
On one of our last days in town we decided to hop on the bus and spend an afternoon in the pretty little fort town of Galle.
It’s only about a half hour down the coast, but it’s like stepping back in time to the Dutch colonial days. You can walk the walls of the fort enjoying the view of the ocean in every direction.
When you pry yourself away from the view at the top, you can wander through the small city within the walls.. there are shops and restaurants galore.
We had the good fortune of stumbling across The Pasta Factory and settled in for one of the best pasta meals of our lives! They use fresh, authentic Italian ingredients and the service there is just wonderful. The young guys working there take such pride in a job well done and it really shows.
After a few hours wandering the city and enjoying the sunset, we hopped on the bus and headed back to the villa for our last couple days living the high life.
We want to say a special THANK YOU to our new friend Markéta Turičíková for allowing us to use her beautiful photos from our time traveling together!!!!
Stay tuned for the rest of our journey through the South Coast and beyond!!
!steemitworldmap 6.009459 lat 80.156250 long Paradise Island d3scr
Nice photos
Great photos! Sri Lanka is beautiful
Always appreciate a good comprehensive photo journal of traveling!!
must agree 100% :)
Thank you so much!!
Wonderful travel blog and very beautiful pictures!
Interesting story!
Thanks so much, we appreciate all the feedback!! It's so nice to know that people are followig along and enjoying :)
That was quite a group you got there, people from all around the world. That was a fantastic log of your journey! Beautiful pictures too.
Bountiful post will dony
Decent travel blog. One of the best I've seen in a while. Reminds me of @josiahthomas: another blogger on Steemit I met who does fantastic. I mean this stands out. You sure had a lot of fun with your friends. Ehm... Could you blog a little more often? Please... ;-) Maybe get Markéta Turičíková on Steemit too :-)
Last one, is "Travel Freak" a group?
Aw thanks for the encouragement!! We are working on being more active for sure!! The holidays have just begun but we already have lots of material and quite a bit of catchig up to do!! Travel freaks is not a group as far as we know.. not sure exactly what you mean.. but again, thanks for reading and taking the time to comment!!
You use "we", and freakS suggest it's more than one person's account. Not an issue at all. I was just curious.
Haha oopsie!! Its two of us, we're a couple :)
I spent 10 days with family in Hikkaduwa Jan 2015, snorkelling every day! One of the best vacays we had. I hope you saw turtles in the ocean!
Aw, we're happy to hear that you enjoyed your time here too!! Safe to say, it's one of our favorite countries to visit so far!!! No turtles, for us, but plenty of beauty to keep us occupied!! And the nice beginner waves have been a treat too so we can work on our surf game!!!
SriLanka is the pearl of south Asia. The natural beauty knows no bound. The thing that surprises me most is that people there are so generous & highly educated. They clearly know how to maintain the beauty of the country. The feel of Dutch colonial time really excites me.
We really couldn't agree more!!! The people really are the true gems!! Such generosity and kindness is so endearing!! The incredible colors and scenery and wildlife are hard to beat too!!! The total package!!! It's going to be very hard to leave this place!
This place looks great. Sri Lanka is on my bucket list for sure. As one of the editors for @steemitworldmap’s daily #traveldigest, I would love to see this post pop up on http://steemitworldmap.com. If you're interested, simply go to the website, click on code (down the bottom) and add a short description. It will then generate the code you need to copy and paste into your post to have it show up on steemit worldmap. There’s also a FAQ section if you get a bit lost.
You can find out about the project here:
https://steemit.com/travel/@steemitworldmap/steemit-worldmap
We are so flattered, thank you!! We will definitely be checking that out asap!!
Hi, I've been trying to add the location to the map but I really can't tell if it's working
I see you got the auto response so you did it correctly. However it's not showing up on the map right now as there's some glitch in the code which keeps making pins disappear. I'm not a coder so I can't fix this, but the coders are on to it.
Sweet! Thanks for the update :)
Beautiful photos!
cool travel post :) love the pictures !!
Nice, I and my Family traveled there this Yer :) Very beautiful place to see and as a photographer, I can say, that this is amazing country to travel!
Thank you for the great pictures. It brings it to life in my mind and now it’s on my to do list✨
We're so happy to hear that our story and photos have inspired you!! The hospitality here is really a class of its own!! Such warm and welcoming souls!
This is wonderful!
I know what is it like to meet new people and share good memories directly:)
I hope you will check my travel in Barcelona too!
https://steemit.com/travel/@florence1993/3ryopf-barcelona-what-a-beautiful-city
looks amazing! most def on my list. love your posts
Thank you!!! We hope you get to cross it off your bucket list soon!
Beautiful place!
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Nice. Thanks
Sowhite!
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