Sri Lankas main tourist destination Hikkaduwa
On the 27th December we checked in at Sweden Inn Guesthouse.
I had nothing to do with this booking, Erin made all the research and just found this one to have great reviews and it was close to the main beach “Long beach”.
Because new years was coming up we felt like we could pay some extra, celebration time!
For this room on the top floor with a balcony, comfortable double bed , hot water and air condition we paid 40 USD a night.
(The fan room 30USD)
The lady that runs the place is such a happy soul, you just can’t stop smiling when you see her.
She will make sure you will have a great stay!
Ask her about breakfast, and she might wake up earlier to make it for you.
She made us a Sri Lankan one with string hoppers, coconut sambal, fried eggs and a curry for us one morning, free of charge!
A very nice place and the family that owns the place are awesome.
Narigama beach is a long beautiful white sand beach, and Sweden Inn Guesthouse not even 100 meters away, you just have to cross the main road that goes through Hikkaduwa
Watch out for those buses , there’s no other country that I’ve been to where the bus drivers are such maniacs.
They are nuts!
Along the whole beach you got restaurants, bars and surf shops.
A few of them serve great food, don’t believe in the pictures.
They serve all kinds of food, international and Sri Lankan.
The food we liked down at the beach was the curries , seafood and we found one place where they had really good pizza, got surprised over the thin crust and well spiced!
It’s awesome to sit down at the beach and enjoy a great dinner and watch the beautiful sunset, Funky De Bar might be the best place to do this!
Which is just inside the “Main Reef”, the most famous surf spot on the beach!
This is the place that many people come to enjoy the sunset, but later on it’s also the main hub for partying
On Thursday they throw their main parties!
They also serve the best Sri Lankan curry on the beach! Delicious.
Another place we liked to hang out at was “Top Secret”.
Situated on the beach, but one big area was filled in colorful cushions and pillows for you to crash in, and maybe enjoy an ice cold Lion beer.
Each table had its own little chill area.
You are lucky if you find a super cold beer on this beach!
This place seemed to have good food, we just tried the Avocado salad which was great.
The prices on the beach is about the same for all restaurants, 400 for a vegetable rice/noodles, 500 for a salad, 800 for the curry, 1200 rupees for a pizza and then the seafood goes up from there, A lobster meal for around 2500 rupees (17USD)
Around 350 rupees for a large Lion.
The better food seems to be up at the main street, and it’s cheaper.
Try the smaller food shacks, there you get the best value for the money, and it feels more authentic, home cooked.
The curries you can get for around 400 rupees (2.5USD), contains 3-4 different curries and rice, sometimes they give you papadum to it.
It’s great!
When it comes to surfing there’s many different surf shops, they offer lessons and board rentals.
Some of them offer very shitty surfboards, poorly repaired and not taken care of.
Take a look at a few shops and see what they have to offer, make sure the fins on the boards are tight, if you lose one you might have to end up paying 1500 rupees.
We rented from the Why Not bars surf shop the whole time, 800 rupees a day.
These guys were really nice and they took care of their boards and customers!
You could come in and change board anytime during the day!
When we first arrived the waves were pretty big, way over head!
We started out at the “Middle Reef” which is a bit to the left of Main.
All these places are pretty shallow, so remember to protect you head.
If you do not get up fast and there’s a big wave it will swallow you, spit you out and make you eat sand.
The main reef is way more consistent, but its way shallower.
But that wave is really nice, a long one!
It breaks in the middle, it doesn’t matter of you are right or left, you still get to ride a great crumbling wave!
We really enjoyed the first days of surfing, when the swell was big!
Every morning and afternoon!
Hikkaduwa offers great surfing, for both intermediate and beginners, but the only bad thing about this surf here, is how crowded it is.
It’s people everywhere!
Early morning and late afternoon seemed to be best, but sometimes even in the middle of the day, when people don’t want to be out in the scorching sun!
I had my first real yoga experience in Hikkaduwa!
There’s this elder British man that offers old school yoga on a rooftop (with a roof) twice a day!
I thought the yoga session would be a nice relaxing, a bit of bending and get the pulse up a bit!
This dude had spent 35 years in an ashram in India, learning everything about the old school yoga, basically what yoga was before it got commercialized.
Double, triple spine twisting turbo leg above your head while lifting the other leg or something.
It was hard!
Even people that were experienced in yoga were sweating balls, and most of us were just shaking our heads to all the amazing things he managed to do with his body.
This guy was breathing yoga and the way he talked was hypnotizing, incredible.
On our second session after new years, he told us that his new years resolution was to practice yoga every day this year, last year he missed 4 days, because two of the days he was traveling by air, and the others he was to lazy, – the pillow won that fight those days, he said.
This yoga was even that hard so one of the students passed out while doing one of these super hard poses, she hit her head on the concrete floor and was unconscious for a while.
When waking up she didn’t remember what happened.
I was running around on the street trying to get in hold of a hospital to send an ambulance, but in some weird fcked up way it seemed like no one knew where to call.
After a while she seemed to clear up and seemed to be fine.
The yoga teacher made sure she was fine.
That was the second crazy thing that happened for us in the beginning of this new year 2016!
Earlier that day we went scuba diving with Poseidon Divers.
Welcomed by a bunch of super happy guys working there.
We choose our gear and got ready for the briefing.
We were going to dive The Conch, a big wreck that lays at around 20 meters.
Everything seemed pretty professional , and the equipment had great standards!
In the boat we were around 20 people, a pretty small boat.
Two long tail boats built into a wider catamaran, a construction that looks great , but how the dynamic works actually makes no sense.
This boat funnels in water and throw it out in the back!
Everyone was in the boat, still just on the shore.
Smaller waves were coming in, and you usually wait for the set of waves to be over and then you trying to go threw everything before a new set comes in.
But these guys didn’t have time to wait so they tried to pin right through all the waves which ended with a boat taking in water!
The boat just funneled in all the waters from the wave and the boat dug deeper down below the surface.
The captain didn’t stop there, he just continued and hoped for the best.
All the water that came in and swept away some of our equipment, water bottles and other stuff!
One guys camera went with the water.
4 guys in the front panicked and jumped of the boat, it looked like one of the guys went under the boat!
I was just thinking that I didn’t want to see what was about to happen here!
The propeller could have sliced him up.
Fortunately he didn’t go all the way under!
Finally we stopped and everyone got in the back of the boat, and the boats front came up above surface.
Another boat came for the other guys in the water, picked them up and gave us the equipment they could find in the water and they gave us new stuff whatever was needed.
What a gong show!
Everyone was fine, a bit shocked over the accident and no one really understood how bad it could have gone.
We continued out to the dive site and did the wreck dive, nothing special but it was nice to be down below surface again!
What a trip!
A weird way to start 2016!
New years eve was fun but mellow, we celebrated it at Funky de bar but went to bed pretty early.
The party scene and the music is not my kind of vibe.
It’s a great place to meet people and go rowdy at.
I prefer more “underground” party’s , which is a bit hidden from the normal tourist crowd and they play more progressive deep tech house with some wicked jungle rhythm unique for the place!
A place where it feels like you got to know almost everyone from the first minute you got there, like it was a “music tribe” welcoming you to the party.
I prefer the partying in Merissa!
This is more like one of those parties you get really wasted at, meet other super drunk people and have fucked up conversations with and don’t remember anything from it.
No one is interested in the music, it’s just all about bringing the bass and a hard trance melody and people go nuts to whatever comes out from the speakers!
It is for sure a great time if you are a bit younger and single.
The music is progressive so once you get drunk you get into it!
Headbang, splash your sweat and go rowdy!
Maybe if you are a European that goes to Ayia Napa or Malaga, or an American that goes to Spring break, then this party scene might be something for you.
It’s a commercial music scene.
Hikkaduwa is a great tourist place where you will find nice restaurants, many different cool bars, it’s a beautiful beach, the surf is great but can be crowded and you got some average scuba diving around!
If you want to go for excursions there are many places to go to around that is close by, just rent a motorbike for the day, 1200 rupees.
(Aloe vera field)
I really love Sri Lanka!
It’s a beautiful country with an amazing culture.
The people here are what amaze me the most, they are so friendly and helpful.
Where ever you go you will get help and you will feel very welcome!
You got the nature and hiking, wild life and safari, scuba diving, surfing, extraordinary beaches and the food here is awesome!
I spent about 1300 USD in 3 weeks here, which makes this country one of the cheapest countries I’ve been traveling in.
We will definitely be back!
