22.-24.10

I know we have had a fab birthday weekend, but as the half term holiday approached just over a week later I felt we had an opportunity to get out of the polluted city so booked a two night stay at the Avani Kalatura Resort on the East coast, about 1.5 hours south of Colombo.  Due to business commitments Steve could not unfortunately come with us, so just the three of us took a taxi to the nice hotel, which together with sister hotel Anantara forms a peaceful resort on a peninsula of the island round a lagoon and the Laccadive Sea.

The tourist industry has been badly hit by the sad Easter terrorist events and the hotel was only 20% full when we arrived. In one way it is sad to see such an idyllic place empty, with buffet food going wasted, not many to enjoy the environment, the sun and the peaceful nature, so many staff have nothing to do and no money been generated to keep the place fresh and kept.

On the other hand however, we had the swimming pool for ourselves, a deserted beech on which to jump the waves of a warm sea – not like in England with overcrowded beaches and a cold sea – but unfortunately you can’t swim unless you are very strong swimmer as the waves are very rough and the undercurrent powerful.  All the staff were attentive and waited on hand to please you with a smile all day long.

A nice coincidence was that Emi’s classmate and good friend Sarang was staying at the same hotel so the girls enjoyed each other’s company.  Misa spent some time with them and some with Pokémon Go when leaving the girls to it.

We will remember feeding very tame chipmunk looking animals (we later found out they were Indian Palm Tree Squirrels) with pizza crusts and chips, as they were freely around the hotel grounds pleasing us with their presence.

The last day of our stay was raining unfortunately, but that didn’t stop us to sneak into the sister hotel Anantara and take a chance to use their spacious swimming pool. We were not the only crazy people there and one member of staff brought us each an ice cream in a cone. We will always remember eating ice cream being in the swimming pool while pouring down with rain!

I managed to get a tremendous deal with full board which we all enjoyed. We ate really well (real bacon and baked beans for breakfast, pizza and burger for lunch, pasta and grilled meat for dinner), and slept deeply whilst listening to the constant splashing of waves onto the beach and rocks in front of our room instead of the constant horns and construction site sounds in the city. For 52 hours we breathed clean sea breeze instead of the dirty city fumes and just being in the nature was a lovely way of spending time just the three of us, having time to talk about life and being exposed to a different experience.

The best:
Rennie: Watching the power of the sea and listening to the waves
Misa: Gadgets time, relaxing with mummy and Emi
Emilka: Everything

Rennie