I'll take a pass on Pasikudah, but Trincomalee is the place for me

After a wonderful last meal in Polonnaruwa (Sri Lankan breakfast),

New food! Some delicious fritters and something sweet wrapped in a leaf

we headed out for a secluded hotel north of Pasikudah on the east coast. We were looking forward to a relaxing few days here, but our expectations were a bit high. I could spend a whole post recounting our adventures on the shadeless, rocky, nearly un-swimmable beach; bitch and moan about the dirty, over-chlorinated pool surrounded by sand with a liberal sprinkling of cow shit, which was blown at us painfully in the gale-force winds...

View from our balcony, only picture I took here..

But I've spent the past week putting it out of my mind, and the less said about it, the more I can concentrate on our stay in Trincomalee, a little further north and a world away. We arrived after that nonsense I don't want to talk about really yearning for some beach time. We had booked five days in a little cottage run by a couple of British ladies, and within five minutes of arriving and checking things out, we extended our stay for our last three remaining unplanned days.

Gajari and his gang of gregarious geckos, guarding our gate from gruff gnats and grasshoppers

The view from our room

and from the cafe

Our door was mere steps from a beautiful stretch of sandy beach: sunrise every morning at 6 with a swim to wake up, little morning nap (because who wants to get up at 6 on a vacation), coffee outside of the room to watch the beach traffic pick up, score some prime seats on the beach for some serious relaxing, jump in and play in the waves when you like (or when you have to pee), watch the daily volleyball game, shower off and take a little walk along the beach (for western options) or back to the road (local fare) to find some food... That pretty much sums up the most relaxing week I've had in awhile.

The beach area was a nice mix of the backpacking crowd, which we haven't run into much here, couples, and families. Very relaxed, with excellent people-watching opportunities. We also got to watch gangs of 20 fishermen lay out huge loops of nets by motorboat right in the middle of the swimming area, then drag them in by hand to stock up on fish.

Catch of the day. The photo even captures the ubiquitous Sri Lankan crow, always ready to scavenge, annoy the piss out of you, and occasionally poop on Rani's leg from the shade tree while you're trying to relax on the beach.

We did a little bit of diving with the shop next door, which was ok, but lacking a little in wildlife. We did get a nice close encounter with a cuttlefish and some rockfish (on the day we didn't bring the camera), but weren't overly impressed. It was nice to get back under the water, though; can't believe it's been a year since I've done any diving!

Dum-de-dum, where's all the fish?

They were hiding from us!

We got a little bored and started taking selfies.

Freeze!  I had a little altercation with the diving cops, but it just turned out to be a big misunderstanding (they thought I stole all of the fish).

As soon as they left, I continued punching the crap out of every fish I saw!

We also took a day trip into the city of Trincomalee to check out the big Shiva temple, and had a nice lunch in a hectic local cream house (don't ask me, that's what they call lunch places here).

Super Shiva

Front view of the temple

Little dioramas all around

Prayer boxes in the tree

Hi there!

Back of the temple

mmmm! lunch!

Yesterday morning we said our goodbyes and headed west, all the way across the island to Negombo where we're splurging a bit before we fly out in a couple of days. The hotel here is definitely meeting our expectations, and our room has one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in, which I may not leave until we have to fly home (except, of course, for the occasional massage and feeding frenzy).