Una? What una?
I’ve heard a couple of stories of how Unawatuna got its name, the one that sticks in my head is about how one of Rama’s (of Ramayana fame) warriors (Lakshman I think) was injured in battle, and Rama sent Hanuman to the Himalayas to bring back some herb which was apparently the only cure. Unfortunately Hanuman had some confusion as to what herb was required, and so brought back a large chunk of the mountain, which promptly fell just off that precious bay on the outskirts of Galle. So ppl saw this huge chunk of mountain fall and said “onna watuna!” Which soon became Unawatuna. It is still beyond me as to why Hanuman returned from Indian via Galle, specially with excess baggage in the nature of a mountain or part thereof. Anyway, this is clearly bastardized so I came up with my own story, which I feel is far more apt. Back in the time of the British Raj, the government offices of the Galle region were plagued by workers taking time off to go to the beach and relax. They’d show up at work the next day and tell the boss, “aiyo sir, I got una sir.” The British initially being the proper chaps they are decided that ill health demands rest and maybe these poor devils are just plain sickly creatures. However with time these sickies became a very serious issue. One day the governor himself was visiting when several of the workers failed to show up, and were obviously being quite merry on the beach. The next day they were all summoned by the governor, demanding explanation. Naturally they prompty replied, “sir, una sir!” and the governor in utter exasperation yelled, “una?! what una!! all fired!” And away went the excuse of una, from it arose the name of one of my favourite places in Sri Lanka.
I was there last weekend, fingers and toes crossed hoping for some decent weather. I had a heap of background reading to catch up on for work, and there’s no better place to do that than by the beach. A couple of friends decided to join for Saturday but I was going to stay on a bit longer. The drive up is always lovely. It usually takes about 2 hours to get to Galle if you leave at 6, but a twenty mins delay in leaving saw us arrive closer to 9. It’s always nice to walk around Fort a bit, it had just rained and so it was very fresh and the air was crisp. Fort was quiet despite it being a Saturday morning, and we walked around into a couple of churches, the Dutch reformist and the All Saints, the former being far more interesting than the latter. I love the architecture of the houses and buildings around the fort. You find the classically styled old houses with the massive mada midulas, separated by the narrowest roads and the odd old government building. I saw my grandmother’s old school Southlands, and it’s funny how she used to describe it in stories and I’d imagine this huge place with strict nuns running around, when in actual fact it really is quite small but quaint. We saw a boy diving into the ocean from the ramparts, I first thought he was committing suicide, but it seems he (and some others) does it for money. He saw me from a distance taking photographs and waved me over, but we didn’t have time to go all the way there, couldn’t afford to lose beach time.
We stay at the Zimmer as always, but Tilak was away for the day and would only be back in the night. Nevermind though, we leave our limited belongings and take the short cut to the beach, passed the Lucky Tuna and a short walk along the beach to the Western edge of the bay. That first dip in the water is always the loveliest. Nobody says a word as everyone is just too eager to get out of shirts and other excess clothing and dive in. And then you hit the water, drowning out all other sounds, and its just you and the ocean, for a precious few seconds it feels like you’re where you belong, at home, and there’s no greater calm. You splash out, shake your head like a wet dog and join in the giggles of pure, spine tingling, childish excitement. We spent ages in the water before venturing back onto the beach and just lay down in the sun, soaking up its splendour and smiling to ourselves. The kids in us came out to play so 5 22/23 year olds went about making a sand replica of the Welle Devalaya, with a moat, a bo tree (a bo twig in this case) and a priest to boot (a thambili kenda). That was followed by digging a massive hole and burying the smallest among us. More giggles as our mental ages dropped exponentially.
Hunger eventually got the better of us so we dragged ourselves off to the Lucky Tuna for some lunch. A quick shower downstairs and we were all far hungrier than we realised. The LT is a solid place, the upstairs has a nice view and the shade protects you from the brilliant sun. Lucky Tuna special fried rice, devilled cuttlefish and lime juice was the order of the day. And how it went down. I love walking down Welle Devala road after a sea swim, everything moves so slowly and its nice to say hullo to some of the shop keepers that know us. We headed back to the Zimmer armed with ice cream to relax and put a chat. But before long we were out in the sea again. This time we got planted outside the Happy Banana, I brought my books, notepad and cigars along. Lighting a match on the beach is a bit of a mission. Being a the rookie I am i tried to light it with my back to the sea and using one match. One of the guys at HB watched me with amusement and said to try two matches, still no luck. I gave up soon, but the guy took the cigar from me, turned to face the sea, used about 4 matches and lit it in a flash. I was a happy bunny. After an hour or so of reading and mouth cancer inducing behaviour, it was time to get back in the water. I could see the clouds gathering in the distance so we wouldn’t have much time. The water was rougher and less pleasant than in the morning, but it’s really hard to complain about the sea in Unawatuna. It was time for the friends to depart so we headed back to zimmer, sorted out the little expenses and I waved them off. Tilak still wasn’t back and I didn’t know the new guy who was manning the place so I had a shower and went back to Happy Banana since I had promised the woman there to come back for dinner.
It was still early, around 6, so I ordered a pot of coffee and got back to my books. The only complaint about the HB is the music, 50 cent and the like isn’t very appropriate for laid back unawatuna. That said they were playing Marley for most of the early evening. I’ve really begun to like Sri Lankan coffee, the stuff at HB was super, good strong body and gives a kick. I’ve got a pack of Hansa at home and it gives my Jamaican Jabalum coffee a good run for its money. The manager walked by with a glass in hand and smiled at me. He didn’t look Sri Lankan, so I asked him if he’s owns this place and if he’s Sri Lankan. He said no and yes, and I told him that he looks Carribbean, to which he laughed heartily. We had a chat about the work I was doing and it turns out he knows my boss from some earlier work, and he seemed to take a quite keen interest in what I was reading. I was getting hungry so I asked about the fish they had available but there wasn’t anything that tickled my fancy. The waiter suggested I try the sea-food platter. I wasn’t too keen on this bc sea food platters usually have a sameness about them. But then this apparently had lobster, king prawn and calamari in it. The waiter reassured me that it’ll be worth it. And how. It was possibly the best sea food I’ve ever eaten. There was a huge, and i mean giant crab in it, half a lobster, 3 massive prawns, calamari, some wonderful fish steaks and chips. But the best part was the sauce that it was marinated in. It was a lemony, garlic sauce that was wonderful, complemented the seafood perfectly. I spent close to an hour eating it, partly bc the dish was huge, the crab shell challenging and the flavours demanded savouring. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been that satisfied after a meal, and all for 750 bucks. I left a good tip and promised that I’ll return the next time as well.
From there I went back to the Lucky Tuna for some curd and treacle. I took the table on the beach, books, pen and candle light, feet on the sand and the sound of the waves. It beats any library in the world. I worked for another solid couple of hours with a Santana CD playing in the restaurant and my two old canine friends Sana and son at my feet. It was getting late so it was time to head back to the Zimmer. Tilak still hadn’t arrived so I sat down for a chat with Dulantha, a new caretaker/manager of the place. We had a long chat about the tourism situation, politics and life in Unawatuna. He told me about how the ppl in the village are an “amuthuma set ekak” who have been completely warped by the influence of tourism. He said about how he’s trying to start up his own place in Talpe, a couple of villages beyond Galle, but that with the current situation things are really difficult, specially after the attack on the Galle naval port. And finally he said that there’s no military solution to this war, that without an apt devolution of political power we have little to hope for. I nodded in agreement. Another overnight guest joined us for a chat. He’s a young guy just out of uni, literally a week ago, and working for a cellular phone company that has sent him outstation to do some work on one of the towers. It turns out we were in the same school a long time back, he was just a couple of years senior and knew most of the ppl I know from that school. The three of us continued to chat for a couple of hours, three strangers alone in the same place, but all three feeling strangely at home.
The next morning Tilak was back, it was lovely to see him after a couple of months. Breakfast at the Zimmer is always wonderful. All the guests and Tilak sit at the same table, share the same food and have a chat. One of the guests is more like a tenant, she’s taken a year off after uni, taken the upstairs room (the room where I stayed in on my very first visit a little over a year ago) and has been working in SL with some of the tsunami affected schools for the last year or so. She’s a Sri Lankan, born and bred Brit, and from the little I know of her, a good solid sort. The other guest was an oldish french lady who could speak a few words of English. The celltell guy had to leave a bit early so he missed out on the wonderful indi aappa prepared by Tilak. The food was excellent as usual, sour fish curry with indi aappa and pol mallum. Tilak taught me a great trick, I was having the fish head, and he said to squeeze some fresh lime over the curry and strings just before mixing it. The result was lovely, a little extra tangy kick. Our fourway conversation was quite amusing. Sam speaks excellent french from her time in Uni in England, Tilak is pretty fluent too, not just in French but in English, German and a couple of other languages, amazing guy. I could remember a bit of OL french, so our conversation was mainly French with a bit of sign language for my benefit. We spoke of all sorts of things, exchanged our tsunami experiences, the situation in Colombo, international opinion of Sri Lanka and so on.
I was keen on getting to the beach early in the morning, but the breakfast banter was too much fun to leave so I stayed on for much later than planned. Just before I got ready to leave there was a bit of a commotion on the street, a whole bunch of ppl were running up WD road towards Galle road. Sam looked quite nervous bc she explained the last time she saw ppl excited like that was when the Dakshina was under attack. Indika and Dulantha went to investigate and came rushing back saying that they have caught a Tiger. This was not good news, it was quickly ascertained that it was indeed a 2 legged tiger, and he was apparently being beaten up on the road. From the sketchy details we got, it seemed that there was a Tamil chap who was staying at the Blue Moon, who had wandered into some of the tsunami housing early in the morning. He had failed to produce ID and apparently tried to attack those who questioned him. He was then beaten up and the cops are now handling the situation. The village was abuzz after that, but I decided to head to the sea before any further complications arise. The weather was not very good and a storm was imminent. As a result the water was choppy and I was alone in the sea at 9 in the morning. Nonetheless it was nice and refreshing, but I waded out when the water got a bit too rough for my liking. I worked for another couple of hours at Zimmer before heading back to Colombo.
The drive back was gorgeous, open Sunday roads, sea breeze, shutters down and radio on, perfection. The only danger is when you get a bit closer to Colombo and the traffic increases but you still drive aggressive and try to overtake everyone going under 60. It’s always nice to get back to Colombo as well, spent the last hours of the weekend with the family and took the dog for a walk. Home sweet home.
