A room with a view at Talalla beach

We longed after some beach time in Sri Lanka after the very busy rickshaw week (see earlier posts). We had booked a hotel at Talalla beach in the south of Sri Lanka, a place we had read nice things about. We took a taxi from Colombo (3 hours, 170 km and 9500 rupees = € 60) with a nice driver who gave us some complimentary Sri Lankan snacks. Hot and spicy!

When we came to the gravel road where there was a sign showing the direction to our hotel he did not dare to drive any further. The road sloped up strongly and there was not much left of it due to rain. We decided not to risk his car and began to walk the 150 meters up to the hotel. (Optimistic150 meters…)  It turned out that we were the only guests in the hotel because it is low season in October in Sri Lanka. The hotel is called “Talalla Panorama View” and what a view it has!. It is located at the top of a cliff, with views in two directions over the beaches, cliffs and sea.

When you live at the top of a cliff and have a great view you also have the beach quite far away. But as we like to exercise we saw the three kilometers back and forth to the best part of the beach as pure bonus.

 

We had some nice days at the beach with crazy waves and currents are so strong that there are warning signs all over the place. The waves slowly eat the beach up and the restaurant we had our lunch in came closer and closer to the water. The last day we could only just pass the stairs up to the restaurant.

Now we are ready for some activities again – the mountains and tea plantations in Nuwara Eliya. Today we will go there by taxi as the bus takes 7 hours and we only will stay there for 1,5 days. In both Sri Lanka and India it is very common to hire a taxi also for a bit longer rides. It is cheap and often much quicker than taking a bus or a train.