Kandy – Ella – Unawatuna
Unawatuna is a town stretched along the Indian Ocean coast. We arrived in it late afternoon, hungry and sweaty after two bus rides that took practically all day. The heat was sweltering and the buses were not air-conditioned. We were now only 6° above the equator. It felt like being a wet sauna.
Hotels, big and small, lined up in the beach area. We checked a few of them and no rooms were available. We changed our tactic; instead of walking on the main long and dusty road with no pedestrian path we crossed the row of hotels onto the beach and started new inquiries from the beach front. The ocean breeze was refreshing and it was easier to breathe there. On the other hand, backpacks on our backs made the feet to sink deep into the soft sand and walking became strenuous. Slowly we reached the end of the beach and still did not find accommodation.
We stopped at almost the last hotel, took off the backpacks and contemplated the world around us. People sat at restaurant tables, stretched out under beach umbrellas or soaked themselves in the ocean. Nobody seemed to have issues or concerns except us who needed a room. We heartily wished to join the happy crowd that we could not do until we found a place to stay. My husband Sergey offered to run around the area once more by himself while I stayed there with the backpacks.
A young woman heard us speaking Russian, came over and introduced herself. Her name was Olya and she was from Ukraine. Several years ago she moved to Sri Lanka to switch to a relaxed lifestyle. Olya bought that very hotel at which we were standing and she had a room. We went to look at it. Olya’s hotel strongly resembled that dingy hotel in Kandy where we spent two nights. The same filthy walls with peeling paint and blood stains from squashed mosquitoes, broken tiles in the bathroom, furniture that barely held together – I wondered how much it cost Olya to buy that place. The room did have a wide balcony that overlooked the ocean which was its only advantage over the hotel in Kandy.
Hesitant to take the room, we returned to our backpacks on the first floor and Sergey went to look for something better. In the meantime, Olya and I talked. Olya left Ukraine before all the trouble with Donetsk and Lugansk, the regions that declared their independence and became at war with Ukraine. Life in Sri Lanka was worry-free. Sunrise and sunset were always at the same time, the air temperature did not vary, there was never a need for warm clothes and everything was cheap. Day in, day out, Olya unhurriedly ran her hotel and was content with that. I don’t know if Olya had a family in Unawatuna; she did not mention it.
The gently smiling and softly spoken Olya wore baggy clothes and moved leisurely about her property. She gradually convinced me that her room was not that bad. I asked if it was hot at night because the room was not air-conditioned. Olya reassured me that the night temperature was quite moderate. In fact, she slept under a blanket because a sheet was not enough to keep her warm. Since the room was open to ocean breezes it sounded probable. Olya promised to replace the old and dirty mosquito net over the bed if we took the room. After spending days inland it was so tempting to have a room with an ocean view, Sergey still was not back and I agreed. Olya told a maid to hang a new mosquito net.
Sergey returned exhausted, but with good news. He found a room with air-conditioning, although not on the beach, but much better than at Olya’s hotel. By that time I already made up my mind to stay and was too tired to walk anywhere else. In vain Sergey tried to convince me to go with him to the other place; I did not listen to his reasoning and he gave up remembering too well how in Kandy I succumbed to his pressure and we stayed at the hotel of his choice. We paid for two nights, had a quick meal, changed in our room and at last rushed to the ocean for a swim.
The water was almost at body temperature, so warm that it failed to refresh after a long day. We only felt wet entering it. Nevertheless, we stayed on the beach until the sunset and returned to Olya’s hotel when it was dark.
The new net did little to improve the room’s appearance. Sitting on the balcony turned out impossible because of mosquitoes. We opened the balcony door after the light was turned off to air the room and retired to bed. There was no breeze from the ocean. Instead of the cool of the night,” the balcony door let in mosquitoes. I closed the door and walked around the room killing as many of those annoying insects as I could. Mosquitoes still managed to get through the net, God only knows how. The heat in the room was unbearable. We hardly slept that night and I could only blame myself for that. This time it was me who made the wrong decision.
We got up early since we did not sleep anyway and went to the beach before the sunrise. It was much better outside than in our stuffy room. We swam in the ocean until the sun was up and started to beat down on us without mercy.
After breakfast, we broadened the search area for a better place to live in Unawatuna. By then we realized that good hotels were not located on the beach, but rather were hidden in the thick of narrow shopping streets. We asked about a room at one place. Its owner apologized. His hotel was under renovation. There was a room on the second floor ready for guests; however the works were going on the third floor, a concrete mixer made a lot of noise in the front yard and getting upstairs required stepping over construction materials. After the night at Olya’s hotel, we could put up with anything as long as a room was clean and air-conditioned. We begged the owner to show us his room and once we saw it we begged to let us stay in it. The room was beautifully designed in Zen style with a Sri Lankan twist. Brand new furniture and appliances, crisp white bed linen, pleasantly cool air and a spacious shady balcony with flowers – it was like heaven. The room rate was $25 per night, only $5 more than we paid Olya if my memory serves me right. The hotel owner beamed happily; so did we. He did not expect to get any money for this room until the hotel renovation was finished and we found a perfect accommodation for ourselves.
We returned to Olya’s hotel to pick up our belongings. Sergey stayed outside while I went to tell Olya that we were leaving. She did not seem to be concerned by that and did not offer to refund the money for one unused night. Instead, Olya smiled sweetly and recommended us to eat at her hotel’s restaurant. I doubted very much the cleanness of her restaurant’s kitchen after seeing the hotel room, but did not comment and just left. We planned to go to the city of Galle. The day would be hot as it always is in this area and we needed to get going.
Great photos! I love your picture in the black hat!