After waking briefly at 0230 I managed to sleep until 07:00, appreciating the earplugs as well as 11 hours of sleep, can’t really think when I enjoyed that the last time. It was in other words a good time to join the morning Yoga class at 0730 while Mona slept on.

Fewer participants and different postures and exercises, except the sun salutation which seems to be a standard part. We did head stands which was surprisingly easy, but in general a little less taxing than the previous setting, still not flexible enough after two sessions though, I’m impatient 😉

A quick and steady breakfast with Mona before heading out surfing again, this time at Nilwella, which was a really good looking beach more resembling a bay. I skipped instructor this time and headed for the larger green waves, I managed a few long runs but also did a few nose dives at high speed. And the constant paddling caused some marks on my lower ribs despite me wearing a tank top but just as the day before – great fun and good exercise! When we got back to the (open) truck one backpack which had been left was missing, it contained nothing more than sunglasses and towels but still. We spoke with some locals who found(?) the bag just 20m further inside the jungle, probably some of the kids we saw earlier asking for money, everything left but searched through – the locals were not proud of the incident but it was a good reminder to indeed not bring valuables…

Avi’s wife Annelie and the kids were at the restaurant and Avi soon joined so we had lunch together. After lunch we enjoyed the pool and I did some blogging before our scheduled massage at 17. It was a good full body massage for 90 minutes (80 in practice), Mona was really happy with hers and mine wasn’t bad by any means but neither spectacular. That said the body felt much better afterwards.

The dinner was nice, but the tuna the other day was a notch tastier. I can’t recall myself having full plates of backup so I’m wondering if my appetite has improved. The rest of the evening was spent in bed reading and relaxing after another day of hard work.

After a night of tormenting by some unholy sadist inspired by Clockwork Orange we woke up for the last time at 0930 and the beers from yesterday didn’t help the lack of rejuvenation either. The lovely shower helped getting rid of the grumpiness quickly though. We later learned that it’s the bread-man on his tuk-tuk who had invested in a weapon of mass sleep-disruption, an impressive loudspeaker playing only 8 seconds of Für Elise before looping back to replay it over and over and over again. Since his vehicle of torture was constantly moving it at times so far away one could only just hear it but at times you could swear someone left their Nokia cellphone from -98 in your room with an alarm set. Anywho, the breakfast buffet was nice and once again I could get omelets, fresh fruit, yoghurt to start the day.

After some blogging and slacking we saw Avi who was having lunch with his children in our restaurant. He had also been ravaged by the Für Elise tune and his wife’s first reaction had indeed been to hit the wall to the neighbor so they would turn off their damn alarm some time. I had a surf lesson scheduled for 1330 and wasn’t hungry yet so figured we would instead try the dinner later tonight and settled for mango lassies.

We were surfing at SK Town and I was the only one receiving a lesson so I got the instructor by myself which was really nice. It was much easier here than what I recall for Jeffrey’s Bay in South Africa so more or less every white water wave allowed me to surf standing until I reached the beach again. Lots of fun, but no photos this time to prove my skill 😉

Back at Talalla Resort and just in time for a Yoga class. I should be honest and state that I have some prejudices related to this area but tried to enter the class with an open mind. Let’s just say that there were people there who’s bodies bent in ways I’m pretty sure the body isn’t designed for, and Mona or yours truly was not the most flexible ones present. There were quite a few exercised that required strength as well as stamina though so I at least wasn’t the worst in class in all aspects and left sweaty, tired and now really hungry.

The dinner was awesome, a guy grilling tuna the way you wanted, a nice salsa to that, nice salads and lovely curries as well. The nice buffet was topped up with a beer to share before returning to our room. I’m usually not one who cares for e.g. flowers placed on the bed when you arrive but I have to say it was quite nice to see this time, and this was part of their daily cleaning routine. I was exhausted after the exercising and fell asleep like a baby at 20:00 but this time with earplugs inserted.

After breakfast we took a stroll along the beach and I took a few photos of our immediate surroundings as well as some action shots of the, from what I could tell, rather talented surfers. It looked like great fun but also quite tricky with the sharp rocks so I bided my time for surfing. After a while we reached Midigama and the notorious Ram’s Guest house where there were plenty of surfers or surfers in training – Midigama offered however little outside surfing so we turned back.

We took the bus to Mirissa for another lunch at Dewmini Roti Shop, and it was as nice this time as the previous one, but it was not as crowded so we got our food really fast. We stayed there reading for an hour before taking the bus to Weligama. I really can’t explain how convenient the bus system is without sounding like an ad. Walk to the road, wait 1-3 minutes, get on the bus, pay less than half a euro for two people, get off at your destination. Why paying more to go in a tuk-tuk (which seem to be worse off in a collision than a bus) I fail to understand.

We withdraw cash in Weligama so we could settle our bills when checking out and stocked up on some chips from a supermarket before heading back to Villa Naomi, with bus of course. We took a swim in the sunset and then spent the rest of the day reading on the balcony or in bed. I finished “The Thousand Emperors” by Gary Gibson, quite good that one as well but perhaps time to move from a Scottish SF-writer to a British one?