Day 6 - Mirissa on my Mind...

17:30
Moving day. Once again, I’ve struggled to sleep, and it’s starting to irritate. We pop out for a quick coffee, and to say goodbye to our new friends at Sands Beach. Our taxi is due at 11:30, so we get ourselves packed up in half decent time, and luxuriate in the coolness of our super air-conditioned room. At the appointed time, we head down to the main drag in Unawatuna. There’s a road leading up to Winsi Villa, but it’s not big/wide enough for a van, so we felt like this was the decent thing to do. We then proceed to wait for 35 minutes, stood like lemons at the side of the road, in the baking sunshine. I have no problem with delays to arrangements, but what tends to catch in my craw is when communication about the delay breaks down. I ping the guy that sent me the booking confirmation, and ask where the driver is. I’m told 5 minutes. After 15 minutes have passed, I ping him again, and… Nothing. As he doesn’t have an answer that he thinks I’ll like, he chooses to ignore me. When the dude finally turns up nearly 40 minutes late, we ask why he’s running so behind schedule. He shrugs, points at an empty road, and says, “Traffic.”

The journey over to Mirissa is around 45 minutes. The van is comfy, and super cool, I spend the ride gazing contentedly out of the window as the coastline passes us by. We pass through some quiet villages, past an apparently working air force base whose runway features sizeable pot holes, and countless surf breaks with highly mixed standards of surfing. Cruising along, I can feel the frustration of the taxi delay ebbing out of my body. It reminds me of times I’ve visited Palolem in the past, and the energising effect my proximity to that beach had on me at the time.

We arrive around 13:00, and there’s a snafu. We have two rooms booked - one of which is air-conditioned, and one of which is not. This is entirely on me. I could give you a long and dull explanation by way of mitigation, but it’s my fuck up, and that’s the end of it. Lalanika explains to us in our her very stilted English (which is far better than my Sinhalese) that they do have a family room available with A/C, but it’s slightly more expensive. That’ll work for us. What follows is perhaps 20 minutes of Lalanika trying to explain that we need to cancel one of the rooms from our booking.com reservation, and me explaining that I can’t cancel one, I can only cancel both. We dance this dance until I can dance no more. I cancel the whole thing, she gets notification that I’ve done so, and we move on from there. We pop out for a beer and some food while Vicki and my room is made up.

We stop in at A++, which I believe was named before search engine optimisation was a thing. I remember it fondly for two reasons:

1) It has the best view of the Mirissa surf break, and
2) They used to have 3 white wines on their menu, all of which were Sauvignon Blanc.

We quickly settle in. Beers arrive, food is ordered, one surfer nearly decapitates another with her surfboard. Of such things will our days be made. Food is delicious. A Nasi Goreng for me, and a fish burger for Vicki. Both hit the spot.

Sated, we head off for a walk down the beach. I think Mirissa is a prettier beach than Unawatuna. Certainly more photogenic. It’s much wider and flatter as well, which makes walking on it that much easier.

Si and Shenda decide to grab a sunbed for some rays, whilst Vicki and i head to the main Mirissa road for cash and supplies - both of which we find in abundance…

23:30
We head out around 19:00 for some dinner. There are a bunch (technical term) of seafood places along Mirissa Beach, but I’ve got my eyes on one I visited in 2024, W&D. I had probably the best prawn I’ve ever eaten, alongside some amazing bass. It’s a lovely temperature as we walk down the beach. I managed to stub my toe on a massive rock sticking out of the sand, but happily don’t come too much of a cropper.

The fish display at W&D is amazing. There’s quite the kerfuffle while the guys working there seat us. The restaurant is basically full, so the only place to put additional tables is right down by the water’s edge. The tide is pretty much at its zenith. The two do not mix brilliantly well. We eventually get seated a few metres further back, up the beach, and spend most of the next 45 minutes cackling at folks who are finding themselves being pulled away by the tide. The prices in Mirissa generally and at W&D specifically are noticeably higher than just 20 miles up the coast in Unawatuna. We reason that we’ve been incredibly good with spends so far, so a treat dinner is in order. I pick out a bass for Simon and Shenda to share, and a massive red grouper for Vicki and me, which will be cooked whole. There’s clearly been a big catch of it today, as there are arrays of this beautifully coloured fish on display at most of the restaurants we walked past.

When our food arrives, it’s stunning. The grouper is delicious. A slightly softer and creamier texture than I’d perhaps expected, but perfectly cooked and ultra juicy. Vicki and I are pretty good at scavenging for some of the best parts. The cheeks and throats on fish this size are always a treat. The slightly chewy and crispy bits around the shoulder are fought over. At one point, one of the waiters moves to take away the fish head, and I emit something approaching a feral snarl, telling him I’m not done with it yet. It’s served with a super hot chilli sauce on the side which is as hot as advertised, and brilliantly tasty. I everso slightly overdo it at one point, and give myself the chilli hiccups. Sami, the manager, tells me it’s very simple to make - puréed green chilli with fish sauce, minced garlic, a squeeze of lime, and quite a bit of ground green peppercorn. I’d worried the flavour would dominate the fish, but it complements it wonderfully. I’m deffo having a pop at making it back in the UK.

It’s a late dinner by this trip’s standards. Si and Shenda are ready to head back, and they leave us at Surf Bar, one of the (many) beach bars I frequented on my last trip here. There’s some banging house kicking out, which is right up my and Vicki’s street. In the hour or so that we’re there, Vicki Shazams 11 tracks. I have a couple of Arrack attacks - local Arrack spirit with lime and ginger - kind of a Sri Lankan take on a Dark and Stormy. We could probably quite happily settle in here for a few hours, but figure it’s time for some shut-eye.Läs mer