The Art of Doing Nothing

Sri Lanka has been a very pleasant surprise.  I was expecting a sort of India light with the noise and the garbage and the traffic and, to be honest, everyone trying to rip you off.  This country, though, is something entirely different. It is clean, relatively well managed and commercialism has not taken over.  It may be the last vacation paradise left in Asia. 

I gave a rather in depth description of the hotel in the last blog, but now that I have had the time to experience it, I would like to add just a few thoughts. The name is Aditya ((www.aditya-resort.com) if you are interested in coming here) and it is a very small, secluded place.  It feels like a cross between a private villa and a 5-star, luxury hotel - your own private island home just with an army of people to cater to your every whim.  What is really incredible is that for a place of 12 suites, they have an award-winning chef that will whip up anything you want in addition to his extensive menu that includes such showstoppers as Pumpkin-Lemongrass soup.  The best part is that they will serve it to you anywhere – you want breakfast on the beach – they will set up a formal table for you; you want lunch in the garden – out comes a table; you want dinner in the reception area – so be it.  All for no charge.  It makes for a very cool meal plan. 

Anyway, we have spent the good part of 4 days sitting around the beach and pool doing absolutely nothing.  Doing nothing takes effort and is very tiring, I have come to find out.  The more I sit around, the more naps I need to recharge my strength from doing nothing.  I am not sure if I have the endurance to do nothing for an entire week.  I am exhausted! 

Olga by the pool

Enjoying a recently cut coconut
This actually required effort as I had to sit up to drink it

Olga enjoying her coconut on the beach

Napping after a tough day of sitting at the pool

The ever-stressful watching the sunset

Another well deserved break from the grind

So to break the cycle, yesterday, we decided to do something.  We jumped in a tuk-tuk and went down the road to the local cove to do some snorkeling.  They have a beautiful coral reef just off the beach and snorkeling is something Olga and I have found we both highly enjoy.  We even have our own custom fitted, very gadgety snorkeling equipment.  So we trundled off to Hikkaduwa to see what we could see.  It was pretty amazing.  You must remember, this is a developing nation, so they have not quite yet established Nazi-like parameters around any interesting natural phenomenon that keeps everyone out.  We strapped on our gear, entered the 82-degree, crystal clear water and spent the morning poking around the reef.  It was pretty damn cool.  When we came back to the dive center, the gentleman running the place said that the real snorkeling is a reef island about ½ km off the shore.  We were game and said we would return the next day. 

To maintain the theme of doing something, we decided to spend the late afternoon visiting the old Dutch fortress city of Galle.  We again climbed into a tuk-tuk and traveled the 30-minute to see what we could see.  Galle is actually a pretty cool little town.  The Dutch built a large fortress at the entrance to the harbor and a fairly good size town sprung up within its walls around the 18^th Century.  It is actually considered to be the best example of European colonialism in Asia.  I can understand why – it has not changed since the Dutch left.  The architecture is stunning in that many of the buildings have not been touched in a significant way since the 1700s, but are decently maintained and continue to function as residences and businesses.  A few have been renovated, but done so with such attention to detail that they blend in.  The Galle Fort Hotel, which is a beautiful 5 star hotel, is done so well that we walked by it twice and never noticed it. The inside is spectacularly done as if the Dutch merchant who owned the house just moved out.  The entire town has a worn, authentic feel to it that makes it very unique.  Tourists have not yet overrun the town, so the commercialism that follows tourists is not yet there either. If you are going to visit, I would hurry as it is not going to last, it is too interesting of a town.

In case you were unsure what it was like to ride in a tuk-tuk

The Main Street of Galle
Notice the well hidden Galle Fort Hotel on the immediate right

The lighthouse
The white building is a Mosque

The old fort walls

A typical street in the fort city

Old gun emplacements

More of the town

A street in the city center

An old Dutch Church

And another

Olga recharging with some Sri Lankan Tea at the Galle Fort Hotel

The remainder of Dutch colonialism 

We walked around for a few hours, had tea at the Galle Fort Hotel and grabbed a tuk-tuk for the ride back to seclusion.  Apparently, doing something is also tiring, because we were asleep by 9:00pm.