Asia trip: 14 days around Sri Lankan beaches 2/2

After those beautiful days spent on Pitiwella beach where we enjoyed real paradise right on the beach with delicious local food and beer, we moved further south to other well-known beach destinations – Unawatuna, Mirissa and Tangalle. These places are definitely more touristy, but there is always something new to discover.

Unawatuna

27. – 30. 3.

After 3 days in 30 degrees without any air conditioning, we decided to treat ourselves with some great accommodation. We chose Paradise garden hotel, but we have to admit that paradise didn’t really feel like paradise. Apparently, the owners of the hotel should be some Italian couple, but the only thing that felt Italian there was….well nothing to be honest. Most of the staff didn’t speak english at all and they were just chilling there, sometimes in front of our door on our seating area where we had our stuff haha. The room was the most expensive we had had so far, but it looked like the worst one so far. At least it was very close to the main beach and we didn’t spend much time in our room anyway.

Unawatuna is probably the most touristy place in Sri Lanka. The long beach is perfect for swimming and is covered by many bars and restaurants. After being for most of the time alone somewhere, we did enjoy even the crowd. And so many little coffee shops – that is something for us.

The first day we headed to Jungle beach. It used to be a secret beach, but now it is even on maps. Still, it is the nicer beach than the main Unawatuna and trees are providing some shadow there. It is a 30-minute walk to get there through the jungle, but there are plenty of wooden signs leading you there. We combined it with Japanese Peace pagoda that is on the way. In the evening we went to see the sunset. We had to climb over some rocks without shoes – it was in sacred land so no shoes, but it was well worth it. Later we continued to one of the restaurants. This time we tried chicken curry and even that it was very hot – like everything here, but the taste was amazing.

The second day we took a bus to see Wijaya beach. The sea was very rough that day, so the whole beach was under the water and the famous swing? There is a queue for it and it felt horrible. Having to queue for it, someone needs to assist you just during the swing, for what? To have the exact same photo as everyone else on Instagram? Where is the fun? I bet that at the beginning of this trend there was just a guy who found a swing that guys from Dream cabana made and he had fun with it so he decided to capture that moment. But now, there is no fun, there are just people, snapping tons of pictures and swapping who is on the wing and who holds the phone. After seeing it we just walked past.

Mirissa

30. – 2. 4.

Originally we wanted to stay here only for one night but we ended up staying 3 haha. We loved Mirissa that much. It is a very tourist place, but much smaller than Unawatuna so it doesn’t really feel that way. We booked accommodation, but on our arrival, we found out that it was on booking.com under a different name and the hotel we “booked” has horrible reviews. Fake photos of a pool that is actually pool next door and so on. So we decided to not even go there, contact booking.com and find other accommodation. It ended up being quite easy and we stayed 50 meters from the main beach for a really good price in a great looking room. Lucky us – well :D.

There is a little island that is dividing Mirrisa beach called Parrot Island. When there is a low tide you can easily climb there and observe either the sun going down/up or surfers doing their stuff. We did both. The first time we went there was to watch the sunset, but there were just too many people so we spent just a couple of minutes there, watched surfers and went down. We agreed to wake up at 6 am and go there to watch sunrise instead. We weren’t alone, but still, it was amazing to see the sun appearing with those amazing colours! Most of our days we spent on the beach jumping into the waves, trying to not drown ourselves and most of our nights we were drinking mojitos and eating some delicious food.

From Parrot island, you can see little palm forest in a far distance. After some persuading, we decided to go. On our last day just before heading to Tangalle. We had to walk more than 30 minutes in 31 degrees. We were sweating our ass off and then we had to climb over some rocks in the water. Later we realized how stupid we are as we could see the normal path a few meters next to it. Well, we got there and that is the main thing. It is probably the most photogenic place we have seen so far on our trip. And as a bonus, you can spot some amazing street art on the way there.

Tangalle

2. – 3. 4.

Because of our long stay at Mirissa beach, we had only one night stay in Tangalle. We are so happy that we chose to stay in Mirissa rather than in Tangalle. Where we stayed, there is not a very nice beach and not many things were open during our stay. Maybe if we explored it more, we would find some hidden gems and more beautiful beaches – I am pretty sure, but we arrived quite late and had to head off early as well. The owner of our accommodation was on the other hand amazing. He cooked dinner just for us that was delicious but almost killed us 😀 – veeeeeery spicy. We had a nice chat and his hospitality was just incredible.

Next day we are finally heading a bit north to see the wild elephants and other animals in their natural environment. Can’t wait for it!

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