Ettukala

So for the last couple of days our adventuring in and around Negombo has been dictated by the weather. Which, to put it lightly, has been pretty rubbish.

We managed to sit outside by the pool for an hour yesterday after breakfast, and even had a chance to walk down the street to a Swiss bakery and cafe for a latte lunch and coffee fix. Our hotel, while comfortable, has no idea how to provide coffee (or service for yay matter). We asked for coffee at breakfast and were given a pot of hot water and two sachets of instant Nescafé. I mean, that’s not quite good enough when you advertise a range of coffees on your menu. By mid afternoon, right after Ant left for his in-house Swedish massage, the skies opened and it poured and poured...and continued to pour down until we came down for breakfast this morning! So obviously we enjoyed another meal here last night - wet stinky feet wasn’t our idea of a fun night out.

Breakfast this morning found us chatting to a couple who live in NSW - they were well retired and very well travelled! They started by asking us where we would rate in SL, despite them being twice before (albeit last time in 1983) but the conversation very quickly moved to British and then Australian politics. Topics of conversation included Brexit, Climate Change, Sco Mo, Education, Health, History, WW1 and POW stories, Western and Developing nation politics. A naturally curious couple, never married or had children, they had clearly spent much time seeing the world after early retirement through forced redundancy from government jobs. Not to mention, spending 3 months a year at their second home, a villa in the south of France.

Shortly after breakfast the torrential rain eased right up to a sprinkle so we took our chance to walk to the local Food City to get more water supplies, and then took the scenic route back. It’s always nice to walk along the quieter streets as you never know what you’ll come across - a beautiful Catholic Church, ‘St. Sylvester’s’, which had a newly placed life sized statue of the madonna out front to welcome visitors.
We ducked into a few gift shops on our way back, including a dusty shop that specialised in gems, jewellery but most importantly - general life chit chat. The owner was very enthusiastic and friendly, demanding to know where my parents were from and if we had any children yet! He was doing very well with one grandchild under his belt at age 50 - we congratulated him and slipped away.
By the time we got back we were soaked in sweat as the sun was peeking its head out and making the streets incredibly humid, so we decided to grab our bathers and jump into the pool. No joke - in the 5 minutes it took us to change and get down to the pool, it was pouring again and they’d closed the pool!
Anthony had spotted a cafe across the street yesterday and, according to many Google reviews, made exceptional food and, more importantly, coffee. We decided that it was worth getting wet - so we ducked across and enjoyed fresh coffee and pancakes.

This makes it sound as though our days now are revolving around meals...and you would be correct!

We had spotted a nice Italian restaurant up the road and decided that was what our bodies were craving for dinner. I’m ashamed to say I was craving Italian on my last night here but Ant reassured me that we’ve eaten our fair share of local cuisine in the last two weeks. I still feel a tad guilty...
It immediately smelt like a good Italian restaurant, was really well presented and had a nice open kitchen. We ordered a pizza and a plate of homemade ravioli to share; those two dishes plus some house red, creme brûlée and some limoncello on the house made for a very satisfying last meal here. The owner, Roy, was really attentive with everyone and clearly had a passion for good Italian food. He told us he had worked for 10 years in Singapore across multiple restaurants run by Italians and had come home to start up a place of his own. Shame they don’t do breakfast!

So we bid you all adieu from SL - I’m not quite ready to leave as I know there is so much left to see, but that’s for next time I guess! On reflection, some of the things that have stood out for us while travelling here are:
- How genuinely interested and eager locals are to make a connection, even simply smiling and saying “Hello.”
- How few people smoke socially (in comparison to some of the countries we’ve been).
- That we have drastically slid downhill in our attempt to be environmentally friendly, especially in regards to buying water. It’s a sobering reality that in certain countries, society just doesn’t place this issue as a high priority, and that cutting costs is always more important, especially in smaller businesses.
- The food here is so unique and different from other Asian countries, even it’s close cousin. The dishes here, and for the most part the curries, are prepared differently and therefore have a certain end result. As coconut milk is king, most dishes that include a ‘gravy’ are quite rich but still remain light - and since you only eat a small amount of each dish you don’t leave feeling ridiculously bloated. We’re feeling more comfortable with chilli again, being so deprived in Europe, and we can’t wait to get home and get cooking!Read more