Sri Lanka: Beach therapy and whale watching in Mirissa

The commute from Ella to Mirissa was one that I dreaded because it was a good five hours bus ride. Take bus from Ella to Matara (LKR 410 pp / ~USD 3 / ~AUD 4). Then take another bus from Matara to Ella (LKR 24 pp / ~USD 0.20 / ~AUD 0.30). I blame my inner ears as I am prone to motion sickness, both car sickness and seasickness. Thank goodness I tolerate trains and flights. In fact I could even be sitting on the opposite direction of the train direction and still be ok but not the rest. To combat car sickness, I usually close my eyes or make myself to sleep. Nevertheless, I survived the five hour bus ride and we found ourselves in a small town in the south coast of Sri Lanka - Mirissa.

S said this is her favourite spot in Sri Lanka and much to her amusement, I often tried to adjust my sitting position so my legs were not touching one another to avoid the stickiness. To be honest, I don't remember beach to be so sticky on skin. I didn't even had contact with sea water. According to S, this is the norm; however I have just returned from a beach holiday (another story later) and that wasn't the case though. Maybe higher salt content in the Indian Ocean? I don't know.

The zen frog at The Secret Root Spa

We spent 2 nights in Mirissa and the only two things we did were whale watching and a massage session at Secret Root (I know right, the name is a bit cheesy.. lol). Otherwise, the other things we did were only eating and bumming around.

Photo courtesy of Raja & the Whales. They have kick ass camera

We did our whale watching tour with Raja & the Whales and paid LKR 6,000 / ~USD 40 / ~AUD 55. S read the reviews on TripAdvisor and wanted to go with Raja. Please note that there are cheaper whale watching tours around, from memory at LKR 2,000 per person.

I did whale watching in Sydney awhile back and was initially apprehensive of going through the nausea and the terrible case of seasickness again but went for it in the end, all for blue whales.

This is when I need to introduce Avomine to you if you have seasickness and have not encounter this magic pill. I popped one just before I got on the boat and it was perfect. We were also advised to avoid milk ad it could induce nausea. There was no hint of any discomfort and I could even eat a plate of fruit platter. Yes, they actually served breakfast fruit platter on a plate per person. It took a lot of effort to balance the plate with one hand and eat. Before breakfast fruit platter, we were also served coffee/tea with biscuit. I was introduced to some yummy ginger thin biscuits. We were also served lunch of hot dogs with egg with toast and it was also served on plate. = ="

The water was very choppy on the day of our tour and of course, to move around we were told that we must keep on hand holding on to something. The staffs were very friendly and would always ask if we could see the whale and told us to move in front (especially since I am short.. lol). At one point, one of the crew hold my backpack when assisting me to move to another spot. Lol.

I took some shots with my camera but later on one of the crew offered to help me with the photos using my camera. He definitely had better view than me as he was sitting on the side of the vessel!

Side note: Why is packing so hard? :(