Weligama

A town on the south coast of Sri Lanka built around its bay and its surf, and the place Harry moves to after a fortnight inland.

Getting there

• A private car from Ella costs about 13,000 rupees — $70 — split between four.
• The road goes around the national parks rather than through, which lengthens the drive.

What it’s like

• Hot, humid and cloudless, in sharp contrast to the hill country an afternoon behind it. This is where the weather Harry had been promised finally arrives.
• It is a surf town and makes no secret of it — surf camps and board racks along the front. He calls it a tourist hotspot on sight.
• The town is five minutes’ walk from the seafront, with a market selling fruit, clothing, jewellery, sunglasses and household goods.

Where they stay

A combined hotel and hostel, where the group takes a dormitory room to themselves at $7 a night each — the cheapest accommodation of the whole Sri Lanka series, against $150 and $200 a night in the hills, with the sea in front of it.

Surfing

The town’s main reason to exist for visitors, and Harry learns here.

• It is one of the best beginner beaches in Sri Lanka, per a local instructor, for two reasons: the size of the waves, and that you do not have to go far out — which makes it safer as well as easier.
• A lesson from a properly established instructor runs 3,500 rupees, planned at 90 minutes. You can pay less by asking someone on the beach, and Harry’s view is that many of the cheaper instructors are not good.
• Get taught before you teach yourself. Most of his lesson goes on unlearning habits he picked up surfing untaught, which he says is much harder than learning properly first.
• The coaching, as given: don’t lie too far forward or the nose digs in; arch your back; paddle; pop up on a three count.

Working from here

• A co-working space sits 100–200 m from the beach, and exists because the town is full of digital nomads.
• Vegan and health food is the default — smoothie bowls, cold-pressed juice, cacao frappes. Harry’s note is that he could live on it for a while but not permanently.
• A basic private room runs about 3,000 rupees — fans rather than air conditioning, and unreliable wi-fi.

Eating and drinking on the street

• Fresh lime juice, 60 rupees — about 30 cents. Limes crushed whole in a hand press, then fresh water, two or three spoons of sugar, salt and pepper. It comes out cloudy and grey and tastes overwhelmingly of lime.
• Salt goes on fruit here, which is a national habit rather than a local one.
• A whole pineapple cut in front of you: 100 rupees. Harry calls it the best pineapple he has ever eaten and attributes it to freshness — much better than the same fruit at hotel breakfasts.

The beach itself

• The Indian Ocean is warm, which surprises him after years of cold seas.
• Body surfing, volleyball and fishing boats drawn up along the front.
• Surf etiquette applies: stay out of the surfers’ way.
• Around 30°C and humid. Overcast days still carry a strong sun — he and Mac both burn.

Religion, on the edge of town

Weligama has a substantial Muslim community and several mosques a short tuk-tuk ride from the seafront, alongside Buddhist and Christian communities. Harry’s observation, made here, is that Sri Lanka is a mixing pot of religions living peacefully alongside each other.

Prices

• Counterfeit sunglasses: asked 700 rupees, bought at 500 — about $3.
• A patterned shirt: asked 3,000, bought at 1,900 — about $9. Sellers in the tourist part of town hold their prices hard; Harry offered 800 and got almost nothing.
• A tuk-tuk from the seafront into the back streets: 400 rupees.

Harry’s tips

• The sellers here are worth the time. He rates two men in the market as the friendliest people he met anywhere in the country, on the grounds that they were not pushy at all — and pays over the agreed price because of it.
• A hostel room taken privately is the cheap version of a private room. Four people, one dorm, $7 each.

A note on safety

On one walk back from the market a man approached Harry asking for money and turned aggressive, swinging something at him; nothing landed. He had seen the same man earlier in the week arguing with a local who was trying to move him on.

Harry declines to draw a conclusion about the town from it, and this page follows him — the same afternoon produced his warmest verdict on Sri Lankan people anywhere in the series.

Nearby

Mirissa, five to ten minutes’ drive along the coast, which is where the group goes for a beach dinner and a sunset.

Source

• Avoid This Man in Sri Lanka! 🇱🇰 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQIe_cWTfrM
• Day In The Life Of A Youtuber In Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDx8Pvi3Xrc
• $0.30 Local Breakfast In Welligama 🇱🇰 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i846Jw9vCY4