The next day we move down the beach a few miles to Trincomalee and stay at a guest house run by Italians where the food is mind blowing. After we check in we go to the city of Trincomalee to see the market and get lunch. We pull up by tuk tuk to the bus station and go to a popular looking place right across the street. It was great. Huge plate of rice and four different kinds of veg curry, drinks and all cost us three dollars. Full and satisfied we take a walk around the city. The day before the Dutch guy we snorkeled with told us that there were deer walking around the city. A few days before when we drove through the city we passed by what I thought was a very real looking deer statue. Turns out it was not a statue and there are actually wild deer just walking around the city. This was a real shock. Full size with antlers and everything were all over the place.
We catch a piece of the sea off in the distance so we start walking towards it. We pass by lots of fisherman’s shacks and eventually find another beach on the next bay which was even better and did not have any people on it. We decide the next day we will come back with snorkel gear and have a look around. Up the hill to the left is an army base that is sat upon an old dutch fort. We had heard that you could go up and look around the fort and the Hindu temple at the top. The guards wave us through and we go through the gates. There are soldiers and deer everywhere as we start walking up hill towards the temple at the top of the old fort. The view from the top is far and we can see the next few bays in each direction. The temple is Hindu and is brightly decorated with cows and pudgy Indian looking men with bulging eyes.
After a stroll round the fort we take a tuk tuk back to our place and take naps. Mid-day naps have become a very regular thing these days. When we wake we go for dinner at the Italian restaurant at our guest house and I have fried calamari and my SO has their home made ravioli. It was awesome. There is a beach bar a few hundred meters down the beach and we go there for some beers and sit beside the fire they have made on the beach. There are some others sitting around the fire so we chat all night and enjoy the ambiance.
Next day we go back down towards the fort but get in the water at the beach beside the fort. We brought out snorkels and hop in to have a look around. There are some plastic bits in the water which is a shame but there are also some really nice colored fish so we keep paddling around until the guards at the base whistle at us and tell us to turn around. Not wanted to piss off soldiers with rifles in their hands we turn around. Figuring the best stuff to see would be past the guard’s limits we go back onto the beach and dry off. The beach that our guest house is on is on the other side of the fort so we head over there are meander up the beach past fisherman’s shacks and colorful boats. You can really see the destruction from the Boxing Day tsunami here still. There are quite a few half and hollowed out buildings that look semi lived in. We talk to a few fisherman on our way up and as we reach the end of town and get to a cemetery on the beach we cut in and go to a super market for bottles of water and snacks then head back to our place for an afternoon nap.
Night time is a repeat of the night before with dinner, pasta dishes, and beers by the fire at the beach bar just down the beach. Another great day in paradise. The third day in Trincomalee we spend the day relaxing on the beach. There are open beach huts right on the beach so we grab one and order breakfast right to the hut. Most of the day we just take dips in the water and read and talk. I go around and get some photos and read some more. The photo of the SO in the beach hut is from this day.
Later in the afternoon we go into town to the train station and nearly have an accident when our tuk tuk drive has to avoid another tuk tuk. Our driver had just picked up his little boy from school too so the little boy, my wife and I are on the back when he nearly flips us. He was so shaken up he kept apologizing and complaining about the other driver. We make it to the station and get tickets for the early train out the next day. Dinner at the Italian place is great as always but we skip the beach bar because of the early train the next day.
