We are now in Arugam Bay, a beautiful beach on the east coast of Sri Lanka. We arrived here two nights ago from Nuwara Eliya, where I convinced Dave we needed to spend an extra night. We spent the extra day in Nuwara Eliya attempting to climb Mt Pedro, the highest hill in the area, but we couldn't find the trail so we spent three hours walking around looking instead.
The road to Arugam Bay couldn't have been more than 250km, but it took over 8 hours by bus to get here as there was construction (the road winds through the hill country and was only really wide enough for one vehicle on the corners-so even without construction it would have been a long trip). One particularly large jolt sent us at least six inches out of our seats.
Arugam Bay is my new favorite beach- the sand is perfect, the waves are small so it's easy to just float around in the water, there are people here, but not too many, the food is great, nobody tries to sell you a carved wooden statue, sarong, bracelet, bows and arrows or anything else useless you don't need anywhere, especially on the beach- and it's not humid- just hot, sunny and perfect.
We are, again, staying very close to a mosque. I'm not sure if, because of Ramadan, the calls to prayer are starting at 4:44am, or if this is a regular occurrence in Arugam Bay, but Dave and I wake up every morning, while it's still dark, to the loudest, most forceful calls I've heard yet. The worst part is, when the wailing stops the roosters wake up and start their own calls, shortly followed by a variety of birds that nest in the trees right outside our door.
We had thought about going surfing today, but stayed up all night dancing, so we slept in too late to go. Tomorrow we'll make more of an effort. On the plus side, Dave lay in the sun all day and developed only a minor sunburn on his back.
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