Mirissa
There is nothing better than waking up and jumping into the sea. Nothing. You tend to lose track of time at the beach, I never wear a watch and keep my phone in the bag so the only indication of time is sunlight and the biological clock. On Sunday morning I dragged myself out of bed, a quick brushing of the teeth, change into bathers and I’m out of the room, shading my eyes from the bright morning light. A is already in the water, and I join her slowly - two steps into the sea, testing the water, it’s cold but welcoming. I step over a small wave and through the clear water I see the gentle drop - up to my knees now. I stop, look up and brace myself. The world stops in silence as I close my eyes and dive in. Crystal clear cold water wraps around me in an exhilarating burst of energy and life. I glide along the bed, my arms parting the water in front of me and gently disturbing the soft sand below me - eyes wide open, taking in the dead corals and shells scattered everywhere. I keep swimming along the seabed and want to go on forever. I need air eventually and head back up. One drag, another, almost there, I see the sun breaking through the water, warming it up as I get higher, little bit more - the sky wobbles above me now, light glittering on the surface of the water - one final push and I break through - exhale. I see nothing but blue around me and I inhale fresh, morning air. I’m awake, I’m alive.
It’s strange how far you can go while swimming below the surface without even noticing it, whereas on the surface you can swim forever but barely move an inch. A was back on the shore by the time I returned to where I could stand. I played around a bit more and went to get some coffee. Upul from Tartaruga brought coffee and we had a chat about the day’s plans. He wasn’t too impressed by the Mirissa plan saying there’s nothing great to do over there but that the beach is quite nice - good enough for us. We decided to do Jungle Beach on Monday since Sunday would probably attract more people. I don’t know where the next three hours went but by 11am we were in the car ready to go to Mirissa. A three wheeler had blocked the road just near the Lucky Tuna so while waiting for the chap to show up I decided to change the tire to placate my nerves. The old one was a mess - I’ll need to sort out that alignment back home. It took about 20 mins of thoroughly pleasant driving to get to Mirissa. We passed Weligama Bay which looked gorgeous as well. There was also an interesting looking rock in the sea off Ahangama which we found out could be climbed - more things to do next time. Getting to Mirissa I parked somewhere near the middle of the bay at a bare patch next to a restaurant like thing that said rice and curry somewhere on its wall. We wondered if the place was open but when we climbed down to the beach we got our answer. The place had not been touched since the tsunami - the walls were broken, the arch minus door was tilted about 30 degrees off the vertical and the place was dead inside. Ominous start.
The bay itself was magnificent - the sea was turquoise, a sign that it was shallow a fair distance, the beach was wide and I could count the number of people in two hands. Unlike Unwatuna and Hikkaduwa the beach isn’t peppered by shacks spouting up every 14 meters - there were just a few little spots with accommodation and food. Now the problem with Mirissa is that most of the places have the rather distasteful sign “Foreigners only” - that pisses me off. I also see where they’re coming from - still not a good enough excuse. This is our country. Anyway, there are enough places that don’t have the sign and in this day and age the others will have to loosen up. We made our way to The Mirissa Wadiya which looked a nice and laid back shack, had good chilled music and the werala kollas running the place put a grin and a nod. There was a big picture of Bob Marley on the makeshift wall, a hammock, spent joints on the sand and the few patrons knew each other and the atmosphere was perfect. After beers, tonic and juice we were ready for water - it was around noon, not the best time for the sea but it looked more than welcoming. I went first and the water felt great - it was shallow, clear and I waded in a good 100m before I was in chest high water. The waves are playful and break very close to the beach so where we were the water was very calm - I tingled imagining the water at dawn. I loved Mirissa in an instant and so did everyone else. A went as far as to say “That’s it for Unawatuna.” As scandalous as it sounds I felt the same.
After playing around for a couple of hours our stomachs called us back to the Wadiya where Jayasuriya, the old uncle who oversees the place, took our order of assorted fried rices, devilled prawns and R’s parippu. Jayasuriya said that they have rooms for about 600 bucks a night so I took down one of the guy’s phone numbers for future reference - we’re set. The food was excellent - super prawns, classic fried rice and all generous helpings. Unfortunately for M her boss called and wanted her back at work on Monday so she had to get back to Unawatuna to catch a ride to the City. We had time to climb the rock on the Southern tip of the bay - the view is stunning. To the North you can see the whole of Mirissa Bay, to the South you see another bay with a less expansive beach and more up-market villas and so on. In between there are lovely rock pools and expanses of gorgeous light blue water which would be havens for snorkeling. I could not wait to come back. We headed back to Unawatuna around 4, a hollow feeling descending on us, which only increased as M left. But one friend took the place of another as G, who was in the general area, dropped in to Unawatuna for an evening dip. Spirits rose with the prospect of another evening of Unawatuna fun.
