More than an hour later and we were no closer to the gleaming white stupa we saw at the far end of the beach. The heat was intoxicating as we trudged across the sizzling golden sand of Arugam bay. Above, a rare sun ring glowed, on our left, bushes and trees, and on our right, the might of the Bay of Bengal, its waves several feet high, booming as it meets the carved sandy shoreline of the beach. Our feet were starting to get confused, do we go ahead or turn back.
For days, we stayed in Arugam Bay, a coastal town east of Sri Lanka. We wanted to sea the ocean. And indeed, we saw it. In its full might.
The waves tore the beach to pieces; pushing it, sculpting it to a near-forty five-degree slope. We stood at the edge of the mini-precipice, gawking and wondering if its possible to actually swim here. Instead, we sat down, the sea lapping our feet every time another batch of waves comes in, snatching our bottles of Lion Beer overhead whenever a particularly huge one slams into the shore, and simply enjoyed the setting sun without ever dipping down the raging sea.
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| GREEN TRISHAWS AT THE MAIN ROAD OF ARUGAM BAY |
It was the surfing season for Arugam Bay, a stretch of sea east of Sri Lanka. We found our way to this surfer haven after almost half a day of changing local transports southbound from Kalkudah to its main town by trishaw (LKR250.00), then a bus to Batticaloa (LKR44.00), and another bus ride to Kalmunai (LKR59.00), a bus to Pottuvil, where Arugam Bay is located (LKR93.00), and finally a trishaw (LKR200.00) to our lodging, Seahorse Inn. Surprisingly, even with Sri Lanka’s outdated transports, everything is well organized and getting from one place to another was a breeze. We were, nonetheless, totally bushed as we arrived at Arugam Bay.
