Unawatuna, Sri Lanka we will miss you

This has been a great vacation in a beautiful place. The kids have loved the beach, so have we.  The fresh fruit, fruit juices, local beer and food have been fantastic.  The beach atmosphere here is great, everything is right on the beach.

I am now motivated to make fresh fruit juices at home, this will just involve opening the blender, and throwing in an entire pineapple (minus the rind) and seeing what happens. That seems to be the fruit juices we've been getting here and their wonderful- mango, papaya, banana, pineapple, mixed, passion fruit, sour sop.  Not sure I'm going to be able to find all these at home but we'll see what we can come up with!

Its been interesting to see where people are from. Its definitely a tourist destination. One of the neat things about our hotel, is the owner has a sign up each day someone new arrives with their name and where they're from.

During the week we were there, our hotel had visitors from (its only a 12 or 16 room hotel)
Russia
Italy
Australia
Qatar
UAE
Spain
China
USA (us)

And on the beach we've met people from
Poland
Germany
Ukraine
Canada
(we've heard a lot of languages we don't understand)

Makes sense that there's almost no north americans, as its so bloody far! Of the people we've met though, we flew the shortest trip coming from India.

Apparently Sri Lanka is a stop on flights to the Maldives so there are a number of people we've met that were originally looking at the Maldives that decided to stop here and reduced the cost of their trip or do both.

If you're ever on this side of the world Sri Lanka and Unawatuna beach should be added to you to do list!

Sri Lanka, an island paradise and an emotional visit.

While this was in fact a family beach vacation for us, it was also a personal journey for me.   Sri Lanka was the spot my Great uncle and namesake Leonard Birchall, flew out of in WW2.   While he was only in country for 2 days before being shot down by the Japanese and beginning his arduous journey as a POW.  Sri Lanka was and is intertwined with his legacy.  The actions he and his crew took that fait full day would save the inland and the fleet stations there from significant destruction.    With distance and age between myself and my "Uncle Len" I only have a few personal meetings with him that stick in my memory.  He was a caring and direct person and even in his 80s drove his station wagon like a bat out of hell.   The rest of my image of my namesake is from books and stories from my father over the years.   I think of the life a lot of my generation has lived and I am truly thankful that I have never been tested in such a way.  I hope that if I was I would react with such courage and tenacity.   I try to approach the more mundane challenges of my everyday life with a level of confidence and leadership that I hope would make him proud.

Flying in to the island the sky specked with a few clouds I had an erie feeling of what the men flying that day must have been enjoying before the source of their history changed.    Thankfully for us the anything eventful about our flight was a bit of a bump on landing.

The landscape was markedly different then what we had left in Hyderabad, India.  The lush tropical island whizzed by with rolling hills covered in coconut palms as we drove toward our Villa.   Once we arrived at Ridee Villa we truly were on a island paradise.  

Within steps from the beach and treated to holpitaltiuy beyond expectation our stay was exceptional.   We had a tour of the old city of Galle and the fort in a Wolseley convertible that must have been circa 1960s.  My father would have been in love.

After a few days of sun and fun on the beach eating fresh fruit and seafood and drinking local Lion beer we had arranged access to the Koggala airbase with the help of Sumith from Ridee who had send our letter fax to the CO of the Air force and Minister of Defense.   Within one day of that we had a response and an appointment the next day at 2 pm to enter the base.   A quick car ride had us arrive at the base and we were shown to the monument 

After that short but emotional and very very rewarding visit we headed back to our hotel and continued to revel in the tropical heat and beach life.   I can see why Len enjoyed the time he spent visiting and working to help improve the life of the people here.   They are so friendly and easy going we had a great time.   If you get an opportunity to visit this area take it.   If you need a place to stay go to Ridee and say high to Sumith and Vasana for us. http://www.rideevilla.com

Info on Len.

http://canadiansrilankanpartnerships.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/leonard-birchall-the-saviour-of-ceylon/

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/020407/plus.html

http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/vo7/no4/doc/stuart-eng.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Birchall

Tuk-Tuks

So driving has been an adventure in both India and Sri Lanka. We don't drive we are driven.  The Sri Lankan auto rickshaws are called Tuk-Tuks and they are much more colorful that the ones we've seen in Hyderabad, which are all yellow.  In Sri Lanka we have seen green, blue, pink, black, red, and only one or two yellows.  They seem to have better seating for the drivers and are more up to date, more bling including advertisements and some of them have some sound systems in them!

The driving we've seen mostly has been on smaller roads, where busses, tuk-tuks, motorcycles and cars share the road.  And they pass a lot. Its a game of chicken sometimes or it feels like it. I'm glad I'm not driving.

The stereo on this one was pounding!

Fresh Seafood Unawatuna

Seafood is abundant here, not surprising as it is an beach front town. Every night at dinner time restaurants have fresh fish out so you can pick your actual fish you want grilled if you want.  There is lots of fresh fish curry, as curry and rice are a Sri Lankan specialty (not as spicy as Hyderabad which is nice! but very tasty).

The kids are having fun with the camera, so here are a few pics they took of the fresh fish display at dinner last night

Not absolutely sure but I'm going with probably red snapper, butterfish and maybe coral fish. 

These are not even the jumbo prawns!

These are the jumbo prawns I think!

These for sure are red snapper, butterfish and coral fish (only because we asked this night at dinner)

Breakfast and Dinner at Ridee Villa

There are many perks at staying in a small guest house/boutique hotel. I'm not sure what you'd call Ridee. It has 12 rooms, and two hosts that are amazing.  They will arrange car rides for you (see trip to Galle in the vintage car), get a Tuk-Tuk, make sure someone comes and gets us quick when one of the kids hurts themselves at the beach and then brings us supplies to clean it.   The kids have asked to stay with Sumith and Vasana while we go to the beach, I think they like it here.

There is a very nice breakfast each morning, with lots of fresh fruit, fresh fruit juice (have you ever tried woodapple or sour sop juice!), eggs and some local treats, hoppers, roti, these crepe things they call pancakes with jam inside and buffalo curd (yogurt), which I'm sure is home made.

One of the other perks is Sumith and Vasana and their staff will make you dinner.  Wow what a spread, we're not eating here every night because we can't possibly eat that much!

Fresh seafood is abundant in Unawatuna!  I don't think we asked what type this was but we have seen red snapper, cuttle fish, coral fish, butter fish to name a few. 

There far one was an okra, middle was potato and onion curry, the near one, I'm not sure but was some fresh herb and garlic or something, very refreshing.

The one on the left was a green been curry.

The fish, oh and the coleslaw has pineapple in it (definitely adding that at home) and lentils.

One of our new friends was nice enough to take a family photo.

And dessert, was custard with fresh pieces of banana in it.

We were stuffed!!!


Other than that, they'll always bring you a king coconut or fresh fruit juice, or lots of candies and chocolate for the kids (no wonder they like it here)!

A Trip to Galle care of Ridee

We are staying in a town called Unawatuna, about 15 minutes from Galle which is a larger town and has an old fort and lighthouse, a fish market, etc.  On our first day at Ridee Villa, our host sent us in his vintage car with his driver for a short tour of the Galle which mainly included the Fort and a stop by the owners brothers jewelry factory.  Attached are some pictures of the car, oh and of Galle!

National Cricket Stadium

Vintage Car and the clock tower in Galle Fort

Galle Fort 

Lighthouse in Galle Fort

Fish market in Galle - this was just the start of probably 50 m of fresh fish caught that day for sale. 

The family overlooking the cricket stadium from the fort.

Bride and Groom

Sunset at Galle Fort

Going into the Fort

The fort walls

A silver bracelet being hand made. All of the individual stone settings are being joined together by hand, then they'll add the stones. 

The men at the shop creating masterpieces by hand. We saw bracelets, earings and rings being handmade.  There is a larger factory/shop in another town, but there are 6 silversmiths here that work on repairs/custom orders for those in Galle.

And the vintage 1956 british car, that Sumith said is very hard to find spare parts for now!

Ridee Villa

So when booking accommodations in Sri Lanka, we didn't really have any plans other than beach and near Koggala (in hopes we can get on the air base to see the memorial to L's great uncles WWII squadron).   So we used some online booking sites and found Ridee Villa.   WOW, we've been spoiled.

http://www.rideevilla.com

The driver they sent to the airport to get us, stopped at the grocery store for us since we needed to buy some items we couldn't pack on the plane.  And when we pulled over because we thought one of the kids was going to be sick, he bought two king coconuts so we could drink the coconut water.

Upon arrival at Ridee we were created by owners Sumith and Vasana, cool face clothes, delicious fresh (we heard the blender going) pineapple smoothies and two bottles of local Lion Lager in the fridge in our room!

The villa is located just off the beach and is three stories tall. All concrete, with beautiful inlays in the floor. There is a terrace out back built into the hill that overlooks the building out to the ocean.  We thought we were going to get a cot in our room for our extra bed, oh no its a four poster single bed that matches the king fully equipped with mosquito net.

The Villa building has been here for a long time.  Prior to the Tsunami it housed Sumith's silver workshop and business.  That was wiped out by the Tsunami.  Apparently the water was about 10 feet high, which would be the entire ground floor.  After that they opened the villa where they make you feel like you're home.

Bathroom

Ridee - top two floors

Path to terrace

View from terrace

Villa at night from across the street

First view of the beach