Kamburugamuwa, Sri Lanka

We were up early to be ready for the tuktuk that was picking us up at 6:15am for the whale watching excursion.

It was a quick 15 minute drive to Mirissa harbour. We zipped through the fishing boats unloading their catches, and selling the fish on the docks. It looked pretty cool, but we had bigger fish to fry (haha).

We paid our $60 each and boarded the whale watching boat. It was about 50% full, with a steady stream of tourists arriving by tuktuk. The boat had a covered upper deck, where we grabbed two seats. Staff came by with tea and ginger cookies for everyone, and also Gravol for those who wanted it.

By the time we left at 7am, the top deck was rather crowded. It was hard to keep an eye on the horizon with all the tourists standing at the railing. Fortunately the sea was pretty calm.

We headed straight south for at least an hour. No blue whales, but there were a few dolphins that most of the other tourists rushed to one side of the boat to get a glimpse, obviously not understanding the physics of a floating boat. It was going to be a long excursion...

The blue whales are hit-and-miss in the Indian Ocean and we had a miss day. After a few hours of puttering about looking for blue whales, we finally headed back to land.

On the way back, we had the misfortune of spotting some right whales. That meant another hour of circling around, with most of the tourists doing their inadvertent best to tip the boat. Heather and I just wanted to get back to ashore, and go for lunch.

Finally around 2pm, we got back to the harbour. We both agreed it was one of the least enjoyable excursions ever.

Our tuktuk driver took us back to our hotel, where we had a late breakfast. (The hotel does breakfasts made-to-order, and serve you breakfast after a whale watching excursion, no matter how late you get back). It was a plentiful breakfast, although about average taste: fruit platter, eggs, assorted breads, yoghurt (not plain :( ), cheeses. It was also the first place that didn't have loose leaf tea.

Booked the fish special for dinner, and then relaxed around the hotel. It's one of the few places where the wifi doesn't reach the room, so we had to hang out in the common areas to surf.

For the sundowner, Heather tried the hotel specialty, a cocktail based on arrak, a local distilled alcohol from coconut. It was excellent. I stuck to my beer.

The fish special was also really good, pan-fried barracuda in a penne pasta with lemongrass sauce. Mmm good. Dessert was amazing, a molten chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream.

...

We were up even earlier the next morning, at 5:10am so that we could get to Mirissa harbour in time to see the fishing boats come in. We had driven through the fish market yesterday on the way to the whale watching excursion, which turned out to be the best part of the excursion, so decided to get up early just to see it on its own.

Dawn was just starting to break when we arrived at Mirissa harbour. There was a 50 cents entrance fee (we didn't have to pay that yesterday cause we were just passing through).

It was pretty cool to wander about taking pictures, mostly just trying not to get in the way. The fishermen were helpful when we asked about the type of fish. At first they didn't understand the question, but if we just pointed and said "tuna?" they'd tell us the actual name. The biggest were the yellow fin tuna, which we recognized by the yellow fin (oddly enough). There was no smell at all of fish - it was fresh from the ocean. Buyers and sellers bartered and selected their fish, weighed and then sometimes carted away in wheelbarrows, depending on how much they bought.

Around 7am we headed back to the hotel, and had our breakfast. We then walked down the beach to a point about a km away, before it got too hot outside. The south coast of Sri Lanka is favoured by surfers, as there was constant pounding of large waves. We had a friendly dog follow us the whole way, just like trekking in Bhutan.

Somehow it was already 11ish and so we had lunch. It was sandwiches and fries again, not very exciting. With the great dinners, we had hoped for better lunches, but oh well.

Napped / read / daydreamed away the afternoon. Had some drinks at sundown - Heather tried another cocktail, a coconut daiquiri, which was one of the better daiquiris she's had. My beer was also good. This hotel didn't have coolies so they poured out a glass, and then kept the bottle in fridge until I was ready for the 2nd half.

We had the grilled seafood platter again, which our resident seafood expert (Heather) said wasn't quite as fresh as the first time we had it. It was still pretty good though. Dessert was a pineapple slice inside a banana fritter, topped with vanilla ice cream. Mmm good yet again. There were more mosquitos out tonight so we called it a night early.