Drinking coconuts by the roadside
I started to panic in Hikkaduwa. Crowds of tourists were walking everywhere along the road (mostly Russians). The beach was nowhere to be seen — the entire coastline was built up with hotels, and you could get to the beach only by going through them. I fell into despair — it reminded me of a resort in Crimea, like Alupka. We stopped near some hotel — Volchiy suggested taking a look at the beach, and I also wanted to find out how much accommodation cost, out of curiosity; I really didn’t want to live in this cesspool.
Probably I’m not always capable of calmly and adequately assessing what’s happening. Looking back, I understand that in principle I shouldn’t have been so upset about all this. However, as is known, expectation is the worst of enemies — I had expected something completely different. Although now I understand: what else should a popular seaside resort look like?… Exactly like this. What upset me most (and scared me) was that most likely it would be like this all the way to the end of Sri Lanka’s southwest coast…
After the hotel owner showed us a rather gloomy-looking room and we (purely out of sporting interest) bargained the price down to $15 for the room instead of the $25 he had quoted at first (and said that at such a price people book rooms on Booking — poor people!) we went through the hotel restaurant out to the beach. The beach was not wide, and it was packed with sun loungers. There were people everywhere. Just like in Crimea when you don’t know where to squeeze in with your mat, I thought again. I lost all desire to swim here.
We went back to the scooter. Sat on the curb. Our plans were falling apart. Volchiy was studying the map in search of an alternative beach. I sat next to him and whined that Hikkaduwa was complete crap and that we should have stayed on that wonderful almost deserted beach in Moragalla where we had been yesterday. What can I say — I was of little use.
In the end we decided to drive to the far end of Hikkaduwa; according to the satellite maps, that was where the village ended, and with it all those numerous hotels and sun loungers on the beach.
So we did. We drove a couple of kilometers and found a narrow passage to the beach. Here everything was completely different — the beach was wide. There were almost no people, and the hotels didn’t weigh on the psyche because they were located much farther from the water.
We returned to the scooter — it was time to look for accommodation somewhere around here. Right across the road I saw a nice hotel — we decided to go and ask. I wanted to find a hotel as soon as possible.
The hotel owner turned out to be a Sri Lankan with an intellectual appearance. He took us to show us a room, which turned out to be very nice — with a huge 2x2 meter square bed and a balcony. After a short negotiation, he named the final price for the room — $18. We agreed.
