Where to go swimming in Sri Lanka

No matter how you say it or say that the beaches are “fu”, for travelers, and true travelers are looking for reserved and authentic places, any ardent seeker will sooner or later want to arrange a day of rest, shake off the dust from his shoes and relax with a cocktail in his hand on coast to the sound of the surf.

The cultural part of the trip to Sri Lanka has almost come to its logical conclusion, and after endless ruins, temples and monuments, after visiting natural places in one way or another connected with local beliefs, we moved to the southern coast of the island, breathing in a fresh, not sea, but a real ocean air. After all, it is trips with a frequent change of scenery that are radically opposite in nature and nature that are most remembered. And to play Lara Croft and Indiana Jones in the XXI century is already too late.

It seems that soon in the world there will not be any lost monuments of antiquity at all, and even if scientists and archaeologists cannot even solve all their secrets and riddles, they will at least present it to everyone for viewing, digging out from the sands of the desert or cutting paths in impenetrable jungle. And yet, in one of these ancient temples, whose bas-reliefs carved in the rocks were attributed to the 9th-10th centuries, and discovered only about 50 years ago, we glanced along the road from Ella to the beaches of Tangalle - it’s a sin not to get out on the way, Do not stretch your legs and at the same time do not look at the symbolic price tag.

A local resident walked through the jungle for one reason he knew, but he didn’t go for mushrooms with a basket and didn’t hunt elephants with a photo-gun, dreaming of meeting a hidden and miraculously surviving dinosaur; one way or another, wading through the dense thickets, he found himself in front of a huge rock, in the body of which seven figures were cut down. The chronicles and annals of the Sinhala kingdoms hold back the origin of this place, therefore the location was unpretentious, without any votes that could cause bewilderment and discontent of the masses, Buduruvagala called. It sounds intimidating and difficult for our person, but in fact it’s translated “a mountain of Buddhist sculptures” into our foreheads.

The very shape of the rock to Sri Lankans resembles an elephant kneeling; what to do, they love elephants, as we all are fond of cats. The position of the bright and blinding sun prevented your correspondent from capturing the whole rock with all seven sculptures, so you had to twist and run back and forth in order to somehow capture both trinity on the sides of the giant Buddha standing in the center. The place is not very visited, except for us another couple wandered there, apparently also taking a minivan for transfer between points of their trip to Ceylon.

To the left of the Buddha with preserved traces of paint is the image of the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara. On the sides - like incomplete sculptures of Pandaravasini, a female image of wisdom, and the goddess-savior Tara, born, according to legend, from the tears of Avalokiteshvara. At the same time, look somewhere nearby for a depression in the rock that streams with oil - the causes of this phenomenon have not yet been clarified.

The group of three figures on the right is of no less interest to both the Buddhist researcher and the tourist enthusiast who is familiar with the pantheon of Buddhist deities and bodhisattva. Bodhisattva of power - Vajrapani, earthly Buddha of the future - Maitreya, and also the Hindu god Vishnu are carved in the rock. How much I do not peer into the carving, I cannot find out which of the three Vajrapani and where he is holding the vajra in the right hand (Tib. - dorje), is the tantric symbol of the very strength and power, with one reservation, the power of an enlightened mind. For Buddhism, the Theravada tradition, which originated in Sri Lanka, such use of the tantric symbols characteristic of Mahayana Buddhism (Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan) is an exceptional rarity.

I’ve become smart and enough, it’s time and cards to reveal what kind of place it is with the sonorous name of Tangalle, where the beaches are bathing and ocean water, if not fresh milk, but with rich rich foam, and our compatriots who are reddened from the Sri Lankan sun in the Sochi-2014 patriotic shirts all around are not lamenting that "here would be our brazier and barbecue".

I approached the question of choosing a resort for staying on the beach part of the vacation scrupulously, trying to find the best balance between the wilderness and civilization: so that no two lonely huts stood under palm trees, and at the reception macaques with branded forelocks asked for a bakshish for the safety of your backpacks, not guaranteeing it at all , but so as not to be present on the first line of luxury hotels that attract all evil, when the already hot sand on the beach is additionally heated by endlessly scurrying all day long past your stretched Areo animators and fruit sellers. And Tangalle emerged from a dozen names of settlements with a kind of cherry on the cake: there is a beach, there are palm trees, a bus runs along the coast - you can easily go further along the route. One by one, ticks appeared in the checklist.

Worthy waves are present, and surfers hang out in other places where, apparently, there is an even higher probability of catching a bream from a rolling crest and sticking your nose in your favorite board, to proudly perk up and try again to master this exciting sport, which, as I said more than once Comrade, who conquered various European and Asian, including Sri Lankan spots, you take a seat and you can’t easily jump off it. And there are no mothers with screaming children building sand castles - the waves in Tangalle are too big for these little ones.

Carefully you go into the water, fingering your fingers along the sandy bottom and bouncing from time to time so as not to be doused by a suitable wave. And then she suddenly creeps up, like a session to a negligent student, like a deadline at the end of the year - a big wave! Despite the miserable attempts to dive deep, your body picks up the spirit of the ocean and twists, twists, throws it to the bottom, scratching its sides with small pebbles. If only the swimming trunks would not have carried away.

Throws it onto the coastal strip like Robinson Crusoe. After checking the presence of swimming trunks and blowing your nose half a liter of salt water, you, swaying like bad, go back for the next dose of free ocean fun. And no water parks are needed.

And in such a wilderness, hotels on the first line, or rather, behind the path separating them from the sandy shore, cost a couple of times more than if you go away for only 5 minutes. During the day, you can often find backpackers unloading from the bus and going around the guesthouses one after another in search of a budget and free bed, hoping that not all options are presented at Booking or, on the spot, you can, with a broad smile, bargain a couple or two thousand rupees.

And what is most surprising - with a sufficient visual number of hotels and guesthouses on the beach, you will take sunbaths almost alone, and the local desperate kids seem to bathe in completely different places.

Along the coast stretched a string of tables cafes. It’s quite a meditative occupation to sip a mango smoothie and look at the waves, holding napkins and all the rest of the property that encroaches on like a persistent monkey with a strong ocean breeze.

Now, when the window is still unattainable, and the snow that has fallen is immediately abundantly sprinkled with sand and reagents, turning it into an impenetrable mess, when even if the body is used to it for so many years, it still refuses to believe that at 9 a.m. it’s still dark on the street, such sunny frames they are very, very warm and are often forced to glance at the calendar, counting down the days until the next departure to warm regions.

Praising Tangalle, I’ll be honest and for comparison I’ll say that after a couple of days in this half-wild place we moved west to Mirissa. There are more crowds on the beach, and there are more of our compatriots, and the waves in general are the same. Travel posters lure you to spend a day at sea in search of whales, of course, without guaranteeing anything. So Tangalle at Mirissa wins in a virtual round on all points.