23^rd to 27^th December 2021

We were so looking forward to our winter holiday with my mum and Nikolka’s family, especially after recovering from Covid and being confined to our apartment for 3 weeks.

With this being my Mum’s first trip outside Europe and her first-ever beach holiday, we wanted somewhere memorable.  After thinking it through we decided that we’d therefore break our normal rule of not staying at the same place twice for the same purpose and return to where we’d spent Christmas 2019; the luxury boutique resort of Uga Bay near Passikudah with its impeccable service and attention to detail, delicious fayre and calming infinity pool and garden area.  There was the beach too – and jet skiing as Steve will mention for the moments when action and excitement was the order of the day. 

Being East Coast we were taking a risk (as previously) with its monsoon season but decided that this was a gamble worth taking again – and so it proved to be with not a drop of rain during any day and only the merest short drizzle one night.

We set off from home at 6am on 23^rd December with a Toyota KDH minivan and with just one pitstop reached our destination just after 1pm; perfect timing for lunch.  7 hours was actually ok and mummy was surprised how easy it was to travel for so long despite it being rare to get a rhythm going or get much over 30 mph / 50 kph for more than a few seconds at a time; the roads are generally bumpy and with the random acts of driving, pedestrian and animal behaviour normal for Sri Lanka.

Nikolka and her family arrived shortly after us after being in the Hill Country for a few days and were as impressed as Mum with what they found.  Steve had asked for a specific villa right on the beach and the hotel management had kindly obliged; we were all together with three rooms out of four.  No only that, but we had a lovely “welcome back” message on the bed and complimentary bottles of wine as nice surprises.  Steve’s brother-from-another-mother, our dear Nepali friend Rajeev, made the journey from Colombo and joined for two nights too; a lovely bonus.

As we had full board, it was all about eating delicious food, sleeping, enjoying the beach, the swimming pool and the greenery, reading, talking laughing and being together as a group for the first time ever in such surroundings.

Celebrating Christmas in a tropical place is always going to be different for any European and once again it felt surreal to be without jackets, scarfs and gloves, to be looking out on a blue ocean and at the same time to be enjoying wonderful Christmas food (and lovely local curried food for good measure!)

The holiday was far too short to be honest as we could have stayed for a few more days without getting bored, but as they say, too much of good things is not healthy anyway.

We had a really special, precious Christmas; ourselves, my Mummy and our Czech friends-like-family on the other side of the world in a swimming costume and walking barefoot on the sand on Christmas day.  Unforgettable time to cherish forever.

Rennie