leaving Rekawa beach

It's tricky yet to say that we LOVE Sri Lanka, because we've been to Colombo and here at this gorgeous secluded hotel on the beach. How much of Sri Lanka have we really seen yet? How much interaction have we had with Sri Lankan people, beyond those who work here at this incredible hotel, those who are trained to take very good care of us? We have had some brief interactions with people we pass on the road, and they have been without exception warm and lovely people, smiling giant smiles and greeting us in English, "Hello! Good morning!" We are smiling giant smiles too, so very happy to be in their beautiful country, so very happy to make this place ours, a little bit, in our hearts, a place we now care about in a more personal way -- this is what travel does, it makes the world personal for you.

We've been on a lot of beaches around the world, but this beach, Rekawa Beach, is probably the most beautiful, and it's also entirely empty of people. There is no trashy evidence of people either; the only litter on the beach is ocean litter -- shells, plants, weeds. After breakfast this morning we took a final walk along the beach and tried very hard to record it in our hearts, to take an experience Polaroid of it, to bookmark it in our memories in a way photographs themselves can't quite capture: the power of the surf pounding the sand and felt in our chests and feet, the sweet smells in the air, the feeling of the air on our skin.

After the beach, we went out once again on the old bicycles, bouncing on rocky patches of dirt road and trying to avoid the big red muddy rain puddles left from last night's storms. Again we pass people, some we are beginning to recognize -- ah, we saw him yesterday! There she is again! -- and all smile and speak to us.

We'll be leaving at 2pm for Galle, a two-hour taxi ride more or less. Galle is a historic old city with a big fort, and it'll be as different from Rekawa Beach and Tangalle as we can imagine anything being. We're trying to adjust our minds so we encounter it with anticipation rather than just being "not Tangalle," and I'm looking forward to finding Galle's charms, to enjoying more delicious Sri Lankan food. We still have Hatton, in the tea hills, and Kandy ahead of us after Galle, so much more of Sri Lanka to see.

morning beach, elementally quiet but symphonic

beach vegetation

beach vegetation

the morning sun cutting through the clouds

Marc explaining something to me

cold green ocean waves

crashing power

hunting for shells...

....and finding them, orange like Sri Lanka

December 1 already, what a strange thing. Last December 1 my life was little but wreckage, and here, one turn around the sun, I am in this beautiful place with Marc, having a wonderful time, and awaiting the birth of my grandson. Life is long and strange and wonderful.

biking, snarling dogs, and food at the bus station

Yesterday morning we borrowed two bikes from the hotel -- big old-fashioned bikes with a basket and a bell, and one speed -- and took off in search of the lagoon. Which is RIGHT THERE, visible from our room. We'd had no luck the day before, but yesterday we went straight to it. The map we'd been given bore absolutely no spatial relationship to the route, but we found it and that was enough. It was a glorious morning, sunny blue skies, few people around, birds and insects singing. We passed beautiful little homes, an occasional Sri Lankan man or woman walking somewhere, and for me it was one of those experiences that are sharp and defined, a signal experience, one I'll return to when I think about our vacation in Sri Lanka. We decided to go out in a kayak the next day, which requires a bit of coordination with the hotel, who hires a tuk-tuk driver to load the kayak on top of the little vehicle and drive us there, and then wait for us.

quiet and beautiful and so remote

In the late afternoon, we took a tuk-tuk into town to eat at a little restaurant called Prem. In the wake of the last big tsunami, an American man named Prem gave the family enough money to open the restaurant. It's a little covered patio attached to a home tucked away in the corner of the bus station parking lot, next to a cricket field. 

come on in!

the brightly decorated interior, and Marc trying to find someone who works here

We arrived around 4:30pm -- very early, though the sign said 'Open' (it probably always says open) -- and found no one in the restaurant. Finally someone told Marc to wait five minutes, and suddenly the owner, Jeeva, walked in with her washing, kind of surprised to see us. Oh! She smiled, we smiled, we told her we wanted to eat and she waited for us to tell her what we wanted. We kind of fumbled a little then she said, "Rice? Curry?" We nodded, yes yes, rice and curry, and kind of waved our hands around indicating more, other things too. Marc asked for a tomato salad, and she nodded and said an hour and a half. We'd read on TripAdvisor that this is how the restaurant worked, so we were prepared but asked for an hour. She was hesitant but agreed, and we headed out to walk around the nearby market. Our darling tuk-tuk driver waited there.

The market is at the bus station and no sooner had we stepped away from the restaurant than a pack of wild(ish) dogs surrounded us, fell in step with us, and wouldn't leave. They snarled and barked at each other, wound themselves around my feet and tripped me once, and just wouldn't leave. We were right in the middle of the honking buses, the honking cars, the crowds of people, and the hot end of the day, and the frightening dogs were just too much for me. We walked into the market hoping the dogs would leave but they didn't; as we passed a stall, one woman asked me if the dogs were mine, and I said no -- she warned me that they bite, a warning I really didn't need. We decided to leave the market and as we did, an older man walking past me said, "Beautiful flowers!" pointing to my tattoo. I smiled back, yes, beautiful flowers. We walked away from the market, always trying unsuccessfully to lose the dogs, and we turned on a quiet side road. A couple of young boys chased the dogs with big sticks and threw rocks at them, so Marc picked up some rocks for his pockets too. We'd been too afraid to lash out at the dogs, afraid they'd bite us, but seeing how they responded to the boys made us a little less worried about that.

the eternal ubiquity of Che graffiti. 

trucks, motorcycles, and cows.

fish two ways: filets for dinner, or live for your tropical fishtank needs.
I wonder if the live ones see the fish next door as a cautionary tale.

so much orange here -- the cinema, the cabs, so much of the clothing.
and check out that magnificent tree.

downtown Tangalle

that's a poster of the president on the left (the mustaches are the giveaway).
local boy done good.

We wandered around, 35 minutes still to wait for our dinner, and then a tuk-tuk pulled up alongside us. It was our darling tuk-tuk driver -- no idea if he'd come out looking for us, or if he was just killing time too and came across us, but he asked if we'd like to see the harbor. We jumped in and he took us to another part of the beach where the swimming is much easier, a part that's lined with inexpensive little homestays where young backpacker-type kids stay. We walked along the beach, sat in chairs, talked a little to the tuk-tuk driver who told us that the president of Sri Lanka, a man with an enormous, glorious, 1970s-style mustache, is from Tangalle. We'd apparently passed his giant private home without realizing it. The president's eldest son, age 24, is a minister of something, and is building a large hotel on the beach too.

never tire of the ocean, ever

Finally it was time to go back to the restaurant. We took our seats and a couple of women ran in through the front door -- helpers, we later learned, because the owner's daughters weren't there to help and she literally did every last thing from scratch. It was like going to someone's home and saying, "hey, how about some dinner," and she runs out to the market for the ingredients then makes it for us. We were the only guests, though perhaps others were coming later. First she brought out a big platter of the most fragrant white rice it made me feel kind of drunk, and then bowl after bowl after bowl of curries: eggplant curry, okra curry, dal, green pumpkin curry, chicken curry, some kind of amazing cold salad of an herb that was slightly bitter like parsley combined with finely chopped red onion and tomato and fresh ground coconut, sprinkled with lemon, and then a gorgeous little tomato salad we requested, delicious tomatoes and chopped onion and hot little green peppers, topped with crisp curry leaves. There was also a plate of the lightest, crispiest papadams we have ever nibbled. Every single dish was incredible -- rich and delicate, sophisticated and layered with flavors, perfectly prepared. The okra had just the right bite, the lentils were perfect, every single bite was better than the one that came before.

we would dearly love to come again!

So far this vacation has been our best vacation for food, of all the places we've been. It's hard to imagine, but it's simply true that the grilled seafood we had the other night, and the Indian food we had last night, are easily among the top meals we've had our whole lives. 

This morning we went out early on the lagoon for about an hour, paddling our little two-person kayak along the perimeter, floating next to mangroves, peering into shadowy coves, watching bunches of little silver fish hopping out of the water and skimming along the top for a minute before re-entering the water. It was so quiet, so beautiful. We saw beautiful little homes tucked back a ways. A man in a boat, far enough away that we can only guess he was fishing -- we couldn't see well enough to be sure. An older man driving a small number of water buffalos along the road. No mosquitos, no bugs, just a few birds here and there, and a big blue sky overhead. Rings of coconut palms around the bank of the lagoon. And Marc and me, once again in a boat on the water in some place far away from home.

this morning's breakfast:  "all in one," which is French toast with fresh fruit,
buffalo yogurt, and treacle

This afternoon we'll swim and relax, and tonight we're returning to the Cactus Lounge for another round of that amazing grilled seafood we had a couple of nights ago. Tomorrow mid-afternoon we'll leave here and head to Galle, and we are both feeling sad and sorry to leave Tangalle, and Buckingham Place. The owner, Nick Buckingham, is a Brit who not only owns and runs this hotel (ranked third in all of Asia in the 'small hotel' category, we were told), he has also donated a lot to the hospital in the wake of the tsunami. People seem to regard him highly, and we are sorry not to meet him.

And so November winds down and I see on my phone that it's very cold back home, and I know the Christmas season has begun, but here we sit in this sunny color-drenched paradise, talking to such warm and friendly people, shouting hellos back to those we pass on our bikes or walks. I'm so grateful to have the chance to learn how beautiful Sri Lanka is, and how warm the people are.

the lying-around continues

These posts from Tangalle must become monotonous in the way other people's quiet pleasure seems. Delicious food, swimming, lying in the sun, reading, talking walks, repeat. Our hotel is about 12 bumpy kilometers from Tangalle so we go in once a day for this and that, but otherwise we are hanging around the hotel and relaxing. From our room, we see the big lagoon and so yesterday we decided to follow the hotel's map ("very easy!") and after two tries, we just couldn't find it. It's right there!! How can we miss it! And yet we did. Marc went out once, early in the morning, and came back feeling defeated, but together we couldn't find it either. Crazy. It's right there.

i love the delicate colors, in a country that's usually characterized by deep and rich colors

crabs crawling all over the rocks at the beach

the rock pool near our hotel, on the Indian Ocean. so beautiful.

this young monitor lizard lives in that shell by the hotel restaurant

really cute, for a monitor lizard!

this one crossed the road when we were wandering through the countryside.
a little less cute.

And so we swam, we lay in the sun, I read a lot, we snoozed, and in the late afternoon we tuk-tuked into Tangalle to go to the bank and do some errands. The driver took us here and there and waited as long as we wanted, but that always makes me feel anxious. I know he's just sitting there in the tuk-tuk, and it's kind of hot, and I'm aware that he's just sitting there in the tuk-tuk waiting for us. We went into the bank to change some dollars and the young woman who helped us was the most beautiful woman I can ever remember seeing. By far. I couldn't take my eyes off her beautiful face, and her eyelashes were thicker and longer than any eyelashes I've ever seen, even fake ones. Hers were real and unadorned and just beautiful. Her face lit up when we said we were going to Galle next, when she asked about our visit to Sri Lanka. She is from Galle, and she stays in Tangalle while she works because it's a 2-hour drive. I hated leaving the bank because I wanted to keep looking at her. There are uniformed men holding long rifles everywhere; the guy inside the bank lobby was old and toothless, but his rifle was very long and visible.

One thing we wanted to see in Tangalle was the harbor, but it turned out to be simply a working harbor, and since we were there in the mid-afternoon all the action was over for the day.

We decided to have dinner back at our hotel and I WISH the light had been better because we finally had kotthu roti and it was amazing. They crisp-fry curry leaves to sprinkle on top, and they're so light but crunchy and add a nice peppery bite to the kotthu roti. I'm going to miss Sri Lankan food very much, and will probably want it every time I return to New York. Marc will probably learn to make it for me, too.

Today's mission is to find that damn lagoon -- we'll use the hotel bikes this time for a change of pace. We'll swim and lie in the sun. I'll keep reading (books 7 and 8 now, boy will I have a lot of book review writing to do when I'm home!). We'll tuk-tuk into town this evening to eat Indian food at this little place in the bus station, one of the top two restaurants in Tangalle. Another beautiful day in this paradise, surrounded by physical beauty and people beauty and sun and happiness.

Happy day after Thanksgiving, everyone. So much to be thankful for!

food, horses, and tuktuks

We hung around the pool yesterday afternoon, just hanging out with our friend Ginger. I've never seen such a strange horse; she stood next to Marc and me as we sat in the lounge chairs, and when we went to the pool, she just kept standing there, as if she were waiting for us. She put her cheek next to Marc's and just kept it there, and then she rested it on top of his head for a long time. I was in the chair reading while Marc kept swimming, and she stood behind my chair and started bopping her head to the left of my head, over the top to the right, over the top to the left, over the top to the right, over and over and over in a rhythm. She'd whack me on top of my head with her bony jaw and she just wouldn't stop. Occasionally she'd rest on top of my head. She just wouldn't leave us, and finally one of the staff lured her away with a piece of bread. It was so funny.

We hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us into Tangalle for dinner, at the Cactus Lounge. It's not much more than a little shack on the beach with tables stuck in the sand, but it's the best restaurant in Tangalle and we were excited to eat there. The owner asked us how we'd heard of his place -- TripAdvisor, he asked? We asked about lobster and he said we had to order that a day in advance so he has it fresh. He said, "If you like my food, maybe you will come back," and I loved him for that. His food, not the food. I ordered grilled prawns and Marc got mixed grill, with a fish steak, baby octopus, calamari, and prawns. The meal came with a plate of baby shoestring fried potatoes, the best EVER, and a salad of cabbage, carrots, onions, and tomatoes. It was an amazing meal, all the way around.

you can't imagine how great these were

tuk-tuking it into town

always a close call with traffic!

considering the menu at Cactus Lounge -- a lovely view!

lots of delicious food for us

perfect crunchy salad, and so fresh

The road from our hotel into Tangalle is paved in short spurts, with much longer sections of dirt road pocked with holes and giant ruts, so it was a little rough in spots and slow going. Our tuk-tuk driver was a handsome young man who took the rough patches with great care and slow speed; he was constantly passed by other tuk-tuk drivers who weren't apparently worried about the road. Marc and I figured that since one of the very few complaints about our hotel is the rough road into Tangalle, the hotel owners caution the tuk-tuk drivers to take the trip slowly -- and those other speedier tuk-tuk drivers aren't carrying guests of our hotel. It was fun going so slowly, getting to watch the life going on as we passed by. Small markets with young people standing around, people walking somewhere in the dark, other people walking from Tangalle into the countryside carrying bags of chips and other food.

My already-limited affection for the peacocks is wearing thin after a night of listening to it shriek and scream. Bastard peacock. :)

noisy thing, shrieking like a woman being murdered

We were up by 6:15 this morning and since we'd ordered breakfast at 7:30, we decided to take a walk to the beach. It's quite a stunning beach, and so empty of people, always.

Marc's, mine, and a dog's footprints in the sand

someone built this little fort

Marc on the morning beach

rock outcroppings

the rock pool, with striated rocks, and crawling with crabs

For breakfast this morning, instead of ordering the traditional Sri Lankan feast we tried another specialty: chili eggs with bacon curry. It was delicious -- the egg slightly runny, on top of a thick piece of toast, with chilis poached into the egg. The bacon curry was interesting, not quite what we thought (though I don't think we had a very clear idea of what to expect). It wasn't fried, exactly; it was just like bacon with curry sauce on it. It was good, but we decided we'd go back to the traditional Sri Lankan feast breakfast tomorrow.

chili eggs with bacon curry and coconut sambol

The young men who work here are soft-spoken and sweet. This morning our waiter asked if we were from London. Usually, when we travel and people ask where we're from, all we need to say is New York City and they know that place. Here, though, they look at us with deep confusion, it doesn't register. Saying United States doesn't always register either; we have to say America. It's always funny trying to figure out how to answer the question, but this is the first time New York City hasn't meant a damn thing. Our waiter is from "up country," he said, and he asked if we'd been there -- he said he missed it. We told him where we were going and he seemed to understand us but I'm not actually sure he did.

There is something very subtle my pronunciation must miss. Most of the time, for instance, if I say kotthu roti people will eventually guess what I mean. They'll say it back to me and it sounds to me like we're saying the same thing but we clearly aren't. Sometimes I'll say it and the person just looks at me blankly. My Texan mouth must be unable to make (and my ear to hear) the different diphthongs required to pronounce the words so they are intelligible.

Our plan for the day is to take a tuk-tuk into town and do some poking around, a little shopping, some planning, and then have dinner. In the afternoon we'll swim, I'm sure. The weather has been outstanding, although it bears no relationship to the weather reports we see online. In fact, it's the opposite. The skies have been blue, with a few white clouds the last few days and online it'll say cloudy and overcast with rain. Today it says few clouds, but instead the skies are dark and heavy, no blue to be seen. So we'll see.

A few years ago we spent Thanksgiving Day at Angkor Wat, and it was the most unusual Thanksgiving I'd ever spent at that point. But returning home in early December, after missing Thanksgiving at home, left me caught off guard by the holidays -- they seemed to just whoosh by before I realized what was going on. I wonder if it'll be the same this year, since once again we're missing Thanksgiving at home; it seems to mark the beginning of the holiday season in a way I didn't realize. But it's ok. Thanksgiving in Sri Lanka is pretty wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my friends at home in America, and love to all of you.

oh my heavens, the food

Our excited anticipation of Sri Lanka was focused on the extraordinary beauty of the place and the food. OK, quite heavily on the food. We love love love spicy food, it's never spicy enough, and we knew the food here would be spicy. And also spiced, delicately and subtly. Cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, turmeric, this IS a spice island, you know. In my last post I wrote about our dinner last night, but I forgot to talk about the music. The restaurant is small, open air, with fish ponds around the perimeter. We ate by dim candlelight and listened to lots of Ray Charles. Old Ray Charles too, songs like I Got a Woman. Then a bit of softer jazz, then back to Ray Charles. And the trees were full of frogs singing, and birds making all kinds of sounds, and strange insects -- a whole symphony of jungle sounds. Somehow it was perfect and wonderful.

This hotel is amazing; we'd read about how perfect it is, how the staff anticipate your needs but do so in the most unobtrusive way. When we were walking back to our little bungalow in the dark, after dinner last night, I saw a young man in the near distance with a pale flashlight. As we approached he started walking in the direction we were going and it took a few seconds to realize that he was there to light the way for us. He stopped just past our walkway and turned to shine the light up toward our door, and then stepped away when we had unlocked the door. It's a beautiful place, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's beautiful, absolutely, and peaceful, and everyone who works here is so friendly but not in your face, at all.

Unfortunately, the medication I'm taking for this severe itching from the bug bites gave me a second migraine in the middle of the night, so I lay awake for a long time listening to the wildlife outside, including the peacocks doing their screaming-woman sounds, and the roosters doing their thing.

This morning we were looking forward to our big traditional Sri Lankan breakfast at 8am. We were up earlier so we walked around a bit. In addition to the other wildlife here, there is a gentle little horse living on the property named Ginger. Ginger thinks she's a dog, I think. She acts like a pet -- she'll fall into step behind, walk up for a pet, she hangs out by people. She apparently has a little pet of her own, a white bird that walks next to her.

funny tree on the way to the beach

Marc and Ginger

Ginger and her little pet

these kerosene pots hang on every tree; they are flaming torches at night

morning beach

morning beach

interesting plant with leaves like coins

We walked over to the restaurant for breakfast after a little walk around the grounds. I was looking forward to the coffee, which helps this headache, but also the food. In Colombo we had string hoppers, but it's the egg hoppers I've been most looking forward to. We'd ordered the Sri Lankan breakfast -- you have to order it a day in advance, it's a big deal -- and we didn't know what to expect beyond egg hoppers, which would've been plenty. Instead, it was a GIANT feast. A plate piled with string hoppers, and a table filled with bowls of fish curry, dal curry, potato curry, a pea and coconut mix, coconut sambol, a plate of four egg hoppers with the spicy pepper condiment, fresh juice (watermelon for me, mixed for Marc), and a huge pot of thick, dark French press coffee. Playing in the restaurant: ABBY ROAD of all things, the whole album. It was surreal and fantastic and wonderful and incredible and there was much happiness and moaning around the table.

OK, who could even eat ALL THIS? And the egg hoppers hadn't even arrived.

curries on top of string hoppers, coconut sambol atop the whole shebang

thick, fresh juices

how can I ever have breakfast without egg hoppers, ever ever again?

I'm in the room for a while babying my aching head; Marc just came back from the rock pool and said it's the most perfect beach he's ever been on -- one after another peak experience moments. It's so wonderful seeing him be so happy and relaxed. Gosh we are happy. Things are good back at home, things are well with friends and family, and except for my migraines and itching, things are well with me. So very much to be thankful for.