Day 3 - An awful lot of not very much.

08:45
I feel like I’m an experienced enough traveller to know how jet lag is going to effect my sleep. Flying to the sub-continent means I’ll be awake for a couple of hours during the night, but ultimately, I’ll sleep ok. Last night was no different. I could barely keep my eyes open when we went to bed around 23:00. I tried reading to let Vicki drift off before me, but as my eyes scanned down each page, it became increasingly difficult to lift them to start reading the subsequent page. I fell asleep almost instantly.

Around 02:30, I woke and was awake for a good 90 minutes. Still tired - but just incapable of sleep. I listened to an audiobook for a while, and finally drifted off again sometime after 04:00. I woke again around 08:00, feeling fairly chipper and well rested.

Now, I have a Garmin fitness tracker that gives me a nightly sleep score. It’s programmed with an algorithm (because everything is) that looks at various factors like the amount of light, deep and REM sleep I’ve had, how stressed I was when I went to sleep etc etc. My watch thinks that the couple of hour stretch of being awake is sign of disrupted sleep, and has given me a low score. I know it’s because of jetlag, and that I actually *feel* pretty good. But my low sleep score is stuck in my brain now, and I shall have to have an afternoon nap as I’ll feel tired.

Moral of the story is that technology is great, until it isn’t.

18:30
We have managed to do an awful lot of absolutely nothing today - and I believe we deserve praise for doing so. We head out for some breakfast around 10:00. We make it all of 20m from our apartment. The upstairs deck at Funky Café has a lovely breeze, some tasty sounding food options, and a sense of wellness. I have my first hoppers of the trip - those pancake type things that usually have poached eggs in the bottom. They’re delicious, and accompanied by an amazing onion sambol, and my absolute favourite - a Sri Lankan breakfast dhal. Banging. Vicki and Shenda have more than decent omelettes, and Simon has a full English that is missing most of the components of a full English. Coffee’s good though.

Back at our room, Vicki and decide a nap is in order. She ‘only’ had nine hours last night, and it turns out my watch might’ve been right to call out my broken sleep.

3. Count them. 3 HOURS later, we awake, and feel decidedly better for doing so. Si and Shenda have wandered down the beach, and we make a vague plan to meet with them.

Vicki and I have data plans while we’re here, but Si and Shenda don’t. As a result, we send a last message before heading out, in the hope that we’ll collide along the way. Vicks and I make about 40m from our rooms, and settle down with a beer. Well, for me - obvs. There’s a power cut just now, and the blender that would have delivered Vicki her preferred iced coffee is not working. She settles for a coke and some water. It’s perhaps the first time on this trip that we both properly zone out. It’s incredibly peaceful.

We sort of try and keep in touch with Si and Shenda, but without data, it’s a tricky challenge. Vicki heads up the beach in search of a work out, and some additional steps, and bumps into them = WINNING.

They join us at Sands Beach with our new friend Ashok. We make some vague plans for dinner, and repair for some showering.

23:40
We have some balcony drinks. Spiced rum with mango juice. Very tropical. Reminds me of rum punches in the Caribbean. We head out for dinner to a place Si and Shenda saw earlier called One Love. Rubbish name, amazing food. It’s rice and curry night. Sri Lankan rice and curry has more than a little shared DNA with an Indian thali - multiple curry dishes, served with rice, chutney, sambol. One Love’s is amazing. Hot. Properly hot. And huge! In hindsight, we could probably have managed one between two. I have the prawn curry, Vicki and Shenda the fish curry, and Simon the chicken curry. All are sensational. But hot. I think the spiciest thing on my tray is one of the veggie curries. SO tasty… With some drinks, we’re in and out for about £15 per head. Awesome value.

Si and Shend head back to our accommodation, but Vicki and I decide to have a wander. We end up in a rooftop bar with some cool tunes, and I have a throughly decent gin and tonic.

We stumble (me) back to our room, and cue up the latest episode of The Night Manager. If you haven’t watched this series, do it - it’s awesome.

Our day has been incredibly successful. We deserve much sleep.Läs mer