A Heavenly end to a wonderous day. Negombo to Dambula

Our first activity for the day is a visit to fishing village. 

On the way our tour leader Anand gives us a run down on the history of Negombo and snippets of information about the various religions of the region. 

On the way we passed  by hindi temples, magnificent catholic churches, Buddist temples, islamic mosques. There was one of note. I cant say it was amazing in a good way but it was amazing in an obscene sort of way. A privately owned Hindu temple. Anand, like most Sri Lankans is a Buddhist but that didn’t curtail his knowledge of the hindi religion and he explained all the statues in detail. 

We get close to the Fishing villages located on the edge of the Negombo lagoon. Fishermen use traditional fishing vessels and net fishing. There is conflict here between Indian and  Tamil fishermen because of the fishing methods (bottom trawling. Etc) of the Indians which are quite contrary to sustainable methods of the Tamil’s. 

The lagoon is surrounded by natural plant mangroves which enhance biodiversity of water. 

Arriving at the retail fish markets we see the sea front covered in single layers of fish in orderly rectangles. These have been coated in salt and laid out to dry. It’s a common way of preserving fish. 

Our next stop is for lunch at a place where they manually process coconuts.  We see a guy climbing a palm tree with nothing but bits of rope to cling to. He has barefeet.  Once at the top he drains the sap from the coconut flowers and stealthily walks along the ropes strung between the palms to repeat the process on the next tree. 

Coconut harvesting is said to be the most dangerous job but sadly the pay is not commensurate with the level of danger. 

The mildly alcoholic sap is then drunk - we tried it and it was yum. It’s called Toddy. The sap can also be processed and boiled down to form a coconut molasses. That made me drool. 

Every part of the coconut can we used. We watched the guys remove the outer coating of the coconut. This is lined with the husk which is then used for things like coir mats, brooms etc. 

Of course there is the flesh which can be used for a number of things including coconut 🥥 milk which we saw added to one of the two dishes our hosts made for us.  Both the shrimp curry and the cashew nut curry were divine. 

The cashew nuts were in their raw form prior to the dehydration that happens before we get them at home. Raw they are crunchy and rather bland. Cooked the flavour comes out and they soften slightly and taste as we know cashew nuts. 

Lunch was served: Cashew curry, shrimp curry, popadoms, (which we watched our hosts make) coconut and parsley salad, potatoes w chilli, dahl, rice, fish curry. 

What a feast. We ate till we were ready to burst. Each and every dish was divine, each and every one with its own complex and unique flavours. I can see I will love this trip. 

Lunch was followed by Buffalo curd with coconut molasses. Of course there was no way I was eating buffalo curd but the deliciousness of the coconut molasses had me going back for more. 

Our ride continues. We are in a 20 seater bus so have plenty of room to spread out and along the way Anand gives us more info about Sri Lanka. He has props - photos, maps, demographic info to share with us and is such a hive of information. His English is impeccable and he has picked up colloquialisms from all round the world. 

As we drive through the verdant countryside we see palm trees by the dozens, flat wet rice paddies and every now and then groups of monkeys on side of the road. Even a couple of elephants popped out randomly to say hello. 

We arrive at our accommodation for the night. A sprawling resort miles away from everything but rather gorgeous. There are a couple of pools so despite being to far from the township to go exploring I will be well occupied tomorrow when the others go hiking. 

My massive treat for the day was a visit to a divine and huge massage centre. After being welcomed by a lady in a beautiful sari who gives us massage options and takes our money (not too dissimilar to an NZ price). 

Then the heaven starts. I was led down through beautiful gardens, subtly lit with candles, to a long building where I am shown into one of the rooms. I open the door to see one of the ladies from my group starkers and trying to cover up. I realise (as did she at that moment) that we share the same room.  - the two other members of our group - a male and a female - not related - also were put in a shared room which seemed a bit weird. 

Wrapped in towels we are invited to sit, facing each other, when our massage begins. OMG!  That scalp massage was like no other. Take me to heaven. It was so relaxing that I was slumped in the chair with no energy to even sit upright. For possibly the first time in my life I didn’t have stuff going through my mind and I was completely zonked. 

Moving to the massage table I was treated to an all over! Massage. None if this namby pamby rubbish we get at home where half our torso remains covered.   To top it off the last half our was a gorgeous reflexology session that took me to another level. OMG. 

I was in heaven. 

Sadly, or not sadly, there was something wrong with the water connection and I couldn’t have a shower afterwards so what does a girl do but leave the oil where it was put and get dressed.  Why would I not want to savour each drop. The only down side is that both my pillow and my towel have massive yellow oil stains. Oh well, not my problem!  

Our treat over we head back to the hotel for dinner. Dead beat I need to sleep but despite saying I was just going to have a snack I could not go past a pork chop!  Which actually wasn’t a chop but slices of pork with a delicious sauce. Ticked my box. 

I was dead on my feet and went straight to bed only to be serenaded by a mosquito and unable to sleep because of the heat. 

Roll on tomorrow.   Assse