5th to 9th August - Arugam Bay
With a bus booked from West coast to East we arrived at the station for 6:30PM and jumped on our 10hr, none air conditioned, horribly uncomfortable bus to Aragum Bay. I tried to sleep through most of the journey as our driver rocketed around mountainous corners in the middle of Sri Lanka, people fell off chairs it was that hectic. Dan and Ben happily sat in the row in front drinking and generally getting merry, i was in no fit state for that, my stomach was still killing and all i wanted to do was rest! We've had Lukeyta join us for our stay at the bay, we met her at the previous hostel and she was up for an adventure so why not. She seems fairly cool and knows her stuff about travelling so it's always nice to have a second opinion on things. After the hours flew by we were awoken by someone shouting Aragam Bay and we grabbed our things and stumbled off this bus, its was 3:30AM in the pitch black and no room booked, things were about to get interesting. We headed down the strip looking for some sort of 'open all hours' bar where we could secretly sleep but with no prevail. 10 minutes walking though and we heard some faint music above us at a place called YMCA, we decided to check it out and whilst walking in we bumped into this guy, long hair and very hippyish. He instantly goes "oh shit, if you're looking for the YMCA, you're looking for me" and then cracks this big smile, we explain our situation and he invites us in to meet a group of others staying at this hostel. Instantly we felt welcomed and we sat around with this drunk group for an hour until we were allowed to just put our heads down on some cushions and sleep until morning.
As we left to our one night hostel back at the other side of the strip we all agreed that the YMCA was a damn good place and thats where we were going to spend the duration of our time here. Our new place was seriously not great, ants all over the walls and our room was literally just a bed and a shared toilet outside. The best thing that came out of this place was we met Kale, a 20 year old Australian guy who tagged along with us after we invited him for food somewhere, the great thing about moving around so much is dragging people with you, we keep saying we're travelling as three but in reality its rare its just us guys. After checking into the YMCA we realised its just so damn cheap and its got air conditioning, two things i've desperately been wanting! New people have arrived here and everyone is great, mostly Europeans and Canadians. So far we've mainly been relaxing and swimming in the sea, this place is an absolute paradise, palm trees and colourful blue water. One day we've hired mopeds and travelled over 120km across the coast finding little secluded beach spots and stopping in little villages, the locals everywhere are so friendly and just run over to say hello and can't help enough. On my way back with the moped after Dan's got a puncture so i had to leave him behind i stumbled across a large herd of wild elephants, possible 10 to 12 of these majestic animals walking nearby the town i'm staying in. I felt so privilege to see them in their natural environment but also it was such a shame it was so dark and that the others didn't get to see it!
Over the last few days we've also got chatting a lot to Lenard, a damn cool German guy, we started with a huge chat about Sebastian Salgado who's one of my favourite photographers and then we decided on a great deal, he teaches us guys how to surf and i'll teach him some photography. Can't wait to conquer one of my fears of open water and get out there surfing, hopefully it'll go as smoothly as i'm imagining. With my stomach finally feeling up to it we starting bringing the draft beers in and headed to a beach party five minutes away from us, a full night on progressive house music and dancing in the sand, i don't think i've ever done anything quite like it, especially bare foot. Felt odd, but none the less great. The party was a good vibe with loads of people there and we finished with a tight rope that was hidden around the back, loads of people trying the balancing act with no prevail, i tried several times and it went the same way, straight back down to the sand. A final note - The stars here are beautiful, with there being very little light pollution the milky way is visible most nights whilst just looking out into the sea.
With a bus booked from West coast to East we arrived at the station for 6:30PM and jumped on our 10hr, none air conditioned, horribly uncomfortable bus to Aragum Bay. I tried to sleep through most of the journey as our driver rocketed around mountainous corners in the middle of Sri Lanka, people fell off chairs it was that hectic. Dan and Ben happily sat in the row in front drinking and generally getting merry, i was in no fit state for that, my stomach was still killing and all i wanted to do was rest! We've had Lukeyta join us for our stay at the bay, we met her at the previous hostel and she was up for an adventure so why not. She seems fairly cool and knows her stuff about travelling so it's always nice to have a second opinion on things. After the hours flew by we were awoken by someone shouting Aragam Bay and we grabbed our things and stumbled off this bus, its was 3:30AM in the pitch black and no room booked, things were about to get interesting. We headed down the strip looking for some sort of 'open all hours' bar where we could secretly sleep but with no prevail. 10 minutes walking though and we heard some faint music above us at a place called YMCA, we decided to check it out and whilst walking in we bumped into this guy, long hair and very hippyish. He instantly goes "oh shit, if you're looking for the YMCA, you're looking for me" and then cracks this big smile, we explain our situation and he invites us in to meet a group of others staying at this hostel. Instantly we felt welcomed and we sat around with this drunk group for an hour until we were allowed to just put our heads down on some cushions and sleep until morning.
As we left to our one night hostel back at the other side of the strip we all agreed that the YMCA was a damn good place and thats where we were going to spend the duration of our time here. Our new place was seriously not great, ants all over the walls and our room was literally just a bed and a shared toilet outside. The best thing that came out of this place was we met Kale, a 20 year old Australian guy who tagged along with us after we invited him for food somewhere, the great thing about moving around so much is dragging people with you, we keep saying we're travelling as three but in reality its rare its just us guys. After checking into the YMCA we realised its just so damn cheap and its got air conditioning, two things i've desperately been wanting! New people have arrived here and everyone is great, mostly Europeans and Canadians. So far we've mainly been relaxing and swimming in the sea, this place is an absolute paradise, palm trees and colourful blue water. One day we've hired mopeds and travelled over 120km across the coast finding little secluded beach spots and stopping in little villages, the locals everywhere are so friendly and just run over to say hello and can't help enough. On my way back with the moped after Dan's got a puncture so i had to leave him behind i stumbled across a large herd of wild elephants, possible 10 to 12 of these majestic animals walking nearby the town i'm staying in. I felt so privilege to see them in their natural environment but also it was such a shame it was so dark and that the others didn't get to see it!
Over the last few days we've also got chatting a lot to Lenard, a damn cool German guy, we started with a huge chat about Sebastian Salgado who's one of my favourite photographers and then we decided on a great deal, he teaches us guys how to surf and i'll teach him some photography. Can't wait to conquer one of my fears of open water and get out there surfing, hopefully it'll go as smoothly as i'm imagining. With my stomach finally feeling up to it we starting bringing the draft beers in and headed to a beach party five minutes away from us, a full night on progressive house music and dancing in the sand, i don't think i've ever done anything quite like it, especially bare foot. Felt odd, but none the less great. The party was a good vibe with loads of people there and we finished with a tight rope that was hidden around the back, loads of people trying the balancing act with no prevail, i tried several times and it went the same way, straight back down to the sand. A final note - The stars here are beautiful, with there being very little light pollution the milky way is visible most nights whilst just looking out into the sea.
Aragum Bay main strip
Water buffalo we saw whilst out on the mopeds
Ben taking moody photographs of me...
Fisherman nearing sunset
Dan & Lukeyta at Whisky Point, a good surfing area
One of many unspoilt beaches
Recovering after the beach party
Aragum Bay at night
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