I'm already bored of being so far behind in my story telling... Hikkaduwa- picture one giant resort. Giggling drunk groups of beach bimbos- none of whom are from Sri Lanka, small groups, pairs or single Bob Marley inspired SL beach boys who routinely make their rounds in search of women (like me) to prey on. I felt like I stepped into a beach frat party, and everyone was trying to get me drunk.
But that was my impression later.
First, it seemed nice.
After escaping advances from Kumare (so sweet, but my goodness, does it never end? No.) I hopped a bus to Hikkaduwa with high hopes since I had the name of a guesthouse which came highly recommended from a guy I met in India. I got to Harmony guesthouse and the room was nice, as was the bathroom (no sickly sweet smell like at Venus), and the price not too shabby either. The owner, a small, skinny Austrian woman with dark circles under her eyes told me that they only rent the rooms out for a minimum stay of 3 nights. It looked nice, so I agreed.
I stepped out onto the beachfront restaurant and had a beer and a club sandwich... it was nice, really nice, beautiful beach, beautiful water... but then the voices started drifting in and I started to realize what a party town I was in. Call me dour, but it was just not the kind of scene I was looking for.
I had a few drinks of arrak, an alcohol made from coconuts which tastes like a mixture of rum and whiskey, followed by a drunken midnight swim with an SL dude I'd met (I can't actually be alone here, it's impossible). Then I went to bed... but I couldn't sleep, the party on the beach was much too raucous. Again, I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but it went on all night. Earlier I had given one of the staff at the hotel my phone number (under some sort of pretext of some live music the next night or something of that sort) and he called me at 6:30 in the morning... looking for a booty call? I think so.
Anyway, I woke up after a terrible sleep and packed my bags. I did not want to stay in this place. I didn't think it would be a big deal, but the Austrian woman actually freaked when I told her I was leaving and she demanded I pay for all 3 nights. I thought that she was being completely unreasonable and so I told her that I would only pay for one night, I had agreed to stay for 3 nights before I realized how noisy the room would be, and before I started getting advances from her staff. It was really crazy: she was shrilly screaming at me in the middle of her restaurant. I was super calm, as I was mostly surprised by her irrational outburst over, what seemed to me, a quite trivial matter. She wouldn't even listen to me though, since every time I tried to speak she either stormed off or started shrieking again. It was almost like another Lidia in Puttaparthi, except about 10x the volume. Of course I got super stubborn about the whole thing and refused to pay for more than 1 night, I even called this lawyer friend I'd made in Colombo, Jerome, for some support.
In the end, (cracked out?!) Austrian woman had one of the staff come talk to me, and I payed for the night, had a coffee, and left. I had wanted to stay for breakfast, but the verbal abuse had left my stomach a little heavy and I was eager to move on, which I did... on to Galle.
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