Galle to Weligama Bay

Later the guests get up and venture to the Dutch Fort and to Nico’s on Talpe beach while Avnish was looking after all the arrangements. He was a lucky bugger as he managed to slip away and get some Sri Lankan crab curry at Unawatuna beach, but so was I too, as you will read.

Monitor lizard at the Lighthouse

I had a filling fall out during the voyage and our agent, the trusted Mr. Upali, took me to see a Professor in dentistry (sorry, forgot his name). The outfit looks worn out and run down but I can see the equipment is better than foot driven drills. After some sitting waiting for the examination room to be prepared from the last patient I chat with the Professor and he tells me he has practiced dentistry on Harley street in London and still goes every year to UK for lectures in medical universities, then the nurse announces the room is ready and we get down to real business. 

The Lighthouse restaurant

Artwork at the Lighthouse

He takes one long look in my gab and fixes the tooth in no time. The Professor tells me that the cost of the procedure will be 5000 LKR and I tell him straight away to go ahead. Afterwards Upali tells me he nearly fell off the chair as the price for a filling in Colombo is the double. In Thailand the price is somewhat the same as of the good Professor.

Weligama Bay

Note the table legs are made of old engine blocks

After this we go for lunch with Upali to Lighthouse restaurant. The venue is very nice with seating out in the shade with the Indian Ocean swell crashing onto the rocky beach promontory in front of the establishment. The entrance to the restaurant is lined with metal sculptures picturing people at war several hundred years back. 

The Japanese designed house in Weligama

Mirissa fishing Port

We are being served by a beautiful Sri Lankan lady named Jaisha (if memory serves me right). Lunch was curry and rice and this is in the Sri Lankan way served almost like a South Indian Thali. I was brought a plate and several bowls of curry and vegetable dishes, the main being crab. The food was very delicious and we washed it down with local Baron Beer which I found better tasting than the other local brand Lion Beer. After lunch Upali brought me back onboard and the evening goes waiting for the guests to return back.

Lucy & Avnish

Indian Empress at end of infinity pool at the Japanese villa

Next morning we depart Galle at 6am for whale watching with a naturalist onboard to guide us. We sail out tothe 1000m depth contour and head east towards Weligama Bay and Dondra Head. After some 4 hrs of circling back and forth the whales still eluded us and I think also the other local whale watching boats also did not catch a glimpse of anything else but us. It was not that nice to look for whales as this is the southern point of Sri Lanka and is the place where all commercial cargo ships converge enroute to Malacca Strait or Middle East, so the traffic was quite heavy going. As the morning had gone and whales were not being cooperative we headed for Weligama Bay and anchored off Mirissa Point.  

Lucy & Jessie

Baron's - local beer

After arrival we went ashore with Avnish and checked out various places to have BBQ and so on. Eventually some local expats joined up and ferried us around to different venues. One building we visited was in a fabulous location but looked like an unfinished building site as the cement slabs had not been painted.

Beach beauty at Mirissa point resort

Finally we had a very late lunch at Mirissa Point and I went back onboard to coordinate BBQ and Avnish to set it up. When I was arriving IE it was being the focal point of the village and had small boats of every size and shape buzzing around the ship like flies on a fresh cowturd. On some fishing catmaran I counted up to 15-17 persons, maybe it was the whole family as the people onboard consisted from small kids to elderly matrons.