Days 53-58: Pottuvil Point, Sri Lanka - Pini Villa Honorable Mention

The Skinny - if you're just here for the highlights: We took a complete gamble on a brand-new villa with zero reviews, ended up basically getting adopted by the owner, went on homemade safaris in search of wild elephants, ate some amazing seafood accompanied by the freshest ingredients imaginable, learned loads about tropical fruit, spices, and cinnamon trees, and got our surfing arms ready for the rest of the trip. Sri Lanka’s richness of natural beauty was a pleasant surprise we will not soon forget. Scroll down for pictures.

Choosing Sri Lanka

While the first half of our trip was pretty meticulously planned, we didn’t book anything after the retreat. We figured it’s uncommon to be able to travel and make it up as you go, so we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. While we originally did plan to spend the whole second leg on the beach, traveling through Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, the more we thought about it we agreed that we didn’t just want beaches, we wanted to surf as much as possible. As Thailand and Malaysia don’t have surf breaks, we cut them (with the exception of Bangkok) and opted for Sri Lanka as the first beach stop. 

We didn’t know much at all about Sri Lanka. Quite honestly all we did know was that the surfing on the west coast was exceptionally crowded (it was the wrong time of year for the less busy south coast surfing), and that they had wild elephants. But I felt some kind of pull to Sri Lanka (it probably had to do with the elephants).

Betting on Pini Villa

The main surf town and break are both called Arugam Bay. The place is absolutely infested with expats, many of whom are brand new to surfing. The town had numerous shops, restaurants and cafes offering every kind of food option, and far more accommodations that even appeared online. But we didn’t spend too much time here. Instead we took a risk on a new property, Pini Villas, 20 minutes north next to two surf breaks called Whisky Point and Pottuvil Point. I found it on google maps with limited pictures, no reviews, and a broken website, but Prabath the owner didn’t make us pay anything until we got there and again, we had a good feeling about it. 

While it was a very quick 2 hour flight to Colombo, it was a long 6 hour drive across the country to the west coast. We didn’t arrive till midnight, yet the entire staff was there to greet us with a homemade lime drink and a hot turkey club sandwich– which was beyond thrilling after over a month of non-stop Nepalese and Indian food. They also picked up surfboards for us earlier that day so that we would be able to wake up and surf. 

Surfing

Whiskey and Pottuvil were not surfable, which we were told beforehand. Arugam Bay was dangerously crowded, and apparently the two other breaks we thought we had up our sleeve– Elephant Rock and Peanut Farms– were not much better. But Prabath knew a spot. Another 20 minutes north was Lighthouse Point, a really cool surf hotel and chill right hand point break that we had not seen anywhere online. This wave was certainly busy and featured the worst surf etiquette (or complete lack thereof) either of us had ever seen, but it was a major upgrade from the other options and a great place to warm up our surfing muscles and dust off our paddle strength. We both caught plenty of fun waves, but what we really loved about Sri Lanka was everything else. On our first morning on the way back from surfing (and touching the Indian Ocean for the first time) we asked Prabath what kind of farm we were passing– it was a peanut farm. He pulled over and asked the people picking to give him some peanuts for us to try. After three trips of massive handfuls, we had enough fresh peanuts to last us the whole week. A great post-surfing snack. 

Sri Lanka's Natural Beauty

On the drive we also saw tons of wild peacocks, water buffalo keeping cool in the rivers, and loads of mango trees. Back at the villa, we realized we were the only guests on property. We later found out that we were only the seventh guests ever, and we had the most hospitable experience imaginable. It felt like we were Prabath’s relatives, and he showered us with quintessential Sri Lankan Hospitality, driving us everywhere, making us a bonfire on the beach, and even taking us on his own little safari, twice, so we didn’t have to book one. 

I am of the opinion that Sri Lanka must have been the landing point of Noah’s arc, as well as the Garden of Eden itself. I never thought such a rich diversity of animals and agriculture existed in so small a place. Sightings on Prabath’s safaris:

Peacocks flying in and out of trees, doing mating dances, and fighting each other in an attempt to rip out and damage on another’s tailfeathers, diminishing his chances at winning the hen. 

Several species of monkeys endemic to Sri Lanka.

Crocodiles that are locally understood to be so friendly, we actually saw a group of people go for a swim 20 feet upstream from where about seven were laying along the river bank. One croc was positioned with its mouth menacingly wide open, all of its teeth on display, but supposedly that's how they warm their cold-blooded bodies up. Prabath said they will lay like this for hours. 

Kingfisher birds of the most vibrant turquoise showed us they are worthy of their name diving for small fish in the streams.

And of course, Elephants!! The first time, we saw two of them from the road, wayyyy across the other side of the rice field. The next night, we returned to the same spot but this time parked the car and took a beautiful walk through the rice field, spotting a small eagle along the way, to get a closer view. Then we drove to a beautiful lookout for sunset, and on the way back we saw two more elephants right by the road, so close and with the fading colors still painting the sky behind them. Finally, on our drive back across the country to the airport, this time in the light of day, we started to understand why our driver on our inbound journey took a longer way because ‘the elephants can be a problem at night’... we must’ve seen about 8 different elephants on or near the road. They were soooo cute I could not believe how close they were. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Local agriculture that we got to experience and taste included: 

Avocado– every morning with our eggs we had a fresh avocado mash with onions and peppers; sugar cane; rice; corn; guava, starfruit, passionfruit more kinds of mango than I knew existed, and they have different seasons too so some kind of mango is always in season; 22 varieties of bananas; papaya, several kinds of coconut, we tried three including the super sweet King Coconut; watermelon, several varieties of pineapple which were so tender you could eat the core– Prabath also showed us how Sri Lankans sometimes like to put salt and fresh black pepper on their pineapple. I had heard of salt from my Giddo but never pepper– we loved it! 

Spices and chilis– it's common to harvest and dry your own spices and chilis. Prabath even had a cinnamon tree on property and showed us how you can taste the cinnamon in the leaves and harvest it by simply shaving some bark off the tree trunk and letting it dry in the sun. Chai is made simply by brewing a cup of black tea, adding a little milk and sugar, and then tossing in a fresh knob of ginger and local cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. It was incredible. 

Seafood– we had been having plenty of fresh giant prawns, the most tender calamari I have ever had, and nameless but delicious whole fish, but we really wanted crab and with Prabath, ask and you shall receive. We had insane seafood platters as well as a divine coconut mango crab curry.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Life in Sri Lanka

The chef was phenomenal and always had the biggest smile on his face. It was certainly neat, especially considering it was not planned, to visit a country that is predominantly Buddhist right after completing a Buddhist retreat. Generally we felt like most all of the Sri Lankans we met were super happy, kind, loving and welcoming people. 

Not surprisingly considering Arugam Bay sounded like Uluwatu Bali, according to Prabath the expats are super into drugs, which leaks into the local culture as well. He doesn't even drink, so he holds a high standard for his workers that they can not do drugs while working at Pini, and mentioned that this has made hiring a major challenge for him. He told about one guy in particular who really liked putting a ‘little stamp under his tongue,’ which made him ‘go mad’-- acid. 

No stamps for us though. Fresh off the retreat, this was a pretty mellow week. We surfed every morning, ate some amazing food, went for a few beach walks, and read a lot. One day we tried to venture out to the other surf breaks, just for a change of pace. After seeing the craziness at Arugam bay we immediately turned back and headed for Elephant Rock. It was such a cool spot, and we even had to do some rock climbing– surfboards in hand– to access the beach, but the swell was so small it was basically un-surfable. We very briefly went into town to restock on some toiletries and check out the shops, but it was not our scene. 

Our room was super comfortable and had a stunning view of the sunrise, but pretty small, so we spent a lot of time in the outdoor dining area and deck. This did not come without consequences, in the form of some mosquito bites and pesky flies. Our shower, however, was complete with a full on tropical garden, which was great because now I know someday when I have my own house and my dad can’t tell me no, I want a garden in my shower. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Overall Thoughts

Sri Lanka was certainly the dark horse of the trip. With such minimal expectations, its richness of natural beauty and kind hearted people really blew us away, even in a relatively touristy location with sub-par surfing. What's more is that aside from the retreat, this was actually the cheapest week of the trip– that is partially due to Sri Lanka being very very affordable, and partially due to Prabath’s absolute insistence on discounting our stay and not charging for loads of things. At the beginning of the week we were holding our breath hoping there wouldn't be a shoe to drop, and by the end we just felt incredibly lucky, full of gratitude, and only slightly encouraged by our risk-taking that we had stumbled upon such a unique experience at Pini Villas. 

Sometimes travel rewards meticulous planning. Sometimes it rewards blind optimism and a lucky Google Maps search.