Mihintale to Nilaveli: Buddhas and Beaches

I’m writing now from the balcony of our room at CBeyond – a gorgeous little low-key place right on the ocean at Nilaveli – looking out over the Bay of Bengal. It’s a beautiful white-sand beach that makes reminds me of the wonderful beaches we have in Australia, 8 miss them.

We got started at 6.30am am and our car and driver took us first to Mihintale, not far from Anaradhapura. This hill is supposedly where Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka by Malinda, the son (or possibly brother) of Emperor Ashoka. He met King Devanampiya Tissa, who was doing a spot of hunting in 247 BCE, tested his intelligence with a riddle, and proceeded to convert the king and his 40,000 attendants (!) on the spot.

A flight of stone stairs led up the hillside past various ruins to that spot. We left our shoes behind and climbed steps cut into the side of huge boulders to the Aradhara Gala, where Malinda preached his first sermon. An incredible view over the my misty fields and jungle into the distance. Carol did well climbing the steep steps, out of her usual comfort zone. 

After descending the rock, we climbed more steps to a nearby modern sitting Buddha, then back to the terrace and up to 2 dagobas, shining white in the morning air. An absolutely lovely and peaceful spot (save for a burst of drumming and piping at one point).

Retrieving our shoes we leaded back down the hill, checking out various ruins on the way. Back in the car and a few hours easy drive to the eastern coast, stopping at an ATM for more cash on the way.

The guy from the Ivy Lake Hotel called the driver at one point to us he’s forgotten to charge us for our first lunch – we were going to pay the driver, but he called again and  said don’t worry about it after he’d checked with the boss. Probably helped that I’d had a long friendly chat with said boss last night! Anyway it was nice of them. 

Really looking forward to a few days relaxation here, and some excellent seafood fresh off the boats. 

A couple we met when we were checking in said it was so good here they were staying an extra night.

We had a nice lunch after checking out our fantastic room. After a bit of reading and relaxation I walked down to the beach and had a swim in the warm water. There’s hardly anyone around and although it’s still off-season, it’s hot and perfect beach weather, and our room gets lovely sea breezes.

In the afternoon I read some more while lying on the balcony (Return to Sri Lanka: Travels in a Paradoxical Land by Razeen Sally) and about 4.30 pm we took a table down by the ornamental pool (there’s a swimming pool to the side of the man building – by the way the building is architect-designed and raised on short pylons over a pool of water) for a few drinks. The other 4 groups of guests slowly joined us at small tables. I had a fantastic meal of huge prawns – one was the biggest I’ve ever seen – fresh off the local fishing boats. Heaven!

25th February

About now is that wonderful time in every trip when you feel like you’ve been in the country for ages, even though it has only been a few days. As always, days full of interest and incident seem to pass move slowly. And yet today we did a whole lot of nothing relaxing by the beach, and it was wonderful.

I did plan to go snorkelling off Pidgeon Island – a marine reserve nearby – but the weather was too windy. Carol wanted to sleep in and relax at her own pace, so I ate breakfast alone downstairs – fruit, pancakes with syrup, a very light curry, bread, and coffee – I knocked back the proffered omlette.

Most of the rest of the day was spent reading on the balcony with a view of the sea.

I went for a swim in the warm, shallow water off the beach – a sandbank makes a perfect protected little area for swimming – swam a few laps in the pool, and before dinner Carol along the beach. Not another soul in sight.

Dinner was delicious, sitting outside by the large ornamental pool between the building and the beach. We both had rice & curries; Carol’s vegetarian, mine prawn. Sri Lankan curries are light and flavourful, not the heavy stodge of so many curries l’ve had travelling in India. I finished my book. The weather is a bit overcast, but that cools things down and is very pleasant.

26th February

A very lazy day at CBeyond, reading and relaxing (and eating and drinking). I slept quite well, though packs of stray dogs are often howling enough to make the night a doggie Bedlam. Thank goodness for earplugs. I woke with a slightly blocked ear that dogged (!) me all day, but hopefully it’s temporary.

I spent some time reading (William Dalrymple’s The Anarchy) in a comfortable hammock, swam In the ocean and the pool, had a tasty lunch of seafood noodles, and… well, that’s about it really. The weather isn’t perfect – a bit windy and overcast – but it keeps the temperature down and the occasional light rain shower is lovely. And the greatest advantage of this time of year is that the beach is virtually deserted. There”s only 5 rooms in the hotel and everyone is keeping to themselves – last night there were only 3 tables of couples, including us.

Tomorrow we return to backpacker mode, which will be weird, but I’m ready to get moving again. Doing nothing by the ocean is nice and all, but it’s not something I’ve never done before, let’s face it!

There was a downpour in the early evening and we put the lounge cushion on the floor by the doors to the balcony and enjoyed the cool breezes blowing in as the rain came down. I had delicious huge BBQ’d prawns again for dinner – my absolute favourite.