Posts filed under 'Tim's Travels'
These family run cabanas have recently been refurbished. They are sporting new tiled bathrooms, ceilings, mosquito nets and verandas. The garden now has grass and feels so good underfoot.
Come and enjoy a touch of family life in Arugam Bay. Beautiful home cooked traditional Sri Lankan food as well as western dishes for those desiring a touch of home. Sunday Roast on request. Party BBQ’s and Buffet Dinners for those wishing to celebrate a special occasion. Birthday Cakes made to order.
The family also provide Tuk Tuk Hire, Taxi Bookings, Wildlife Safari’s, Boat Trips, Surf Lessons and Surfboard Hire. This is truely a family run business by one of the original families from Arugam Bay. So remember Freedom Beach Cabanas, Samanthi’s Restaurant and Thaththa’s Tea Shop for all your holiday needs in Arugam Bay.
Email - FreedomBeachCabanas@hotmail.co.uk or FreedomBeachCabanas@gmail.com
May 18th, 2011
Samanthi . . . . Sri Lanka's most beautiful Chef
After all these years of travelling to Sri Lanka, and living for months in Arugam Bay, i have failed to hail the unsung hero’s and heroin’s of this tropical isle. So, i’m going to start with the one person that provides me with all the fuel i need to surf! Samanthi is affectionately known as ‘Number 1 sister’. I have known Samanthi and her family for the past 6 years. She and her sister, Erandathi, were the teachers at the Pre-School, near the Buddhist Temple, at the south end of the village. Samanthi and her family have fed and watered me over this time. They have even tolerated me living in their cabanas and at times the castle. I have to surf and go fishing to prevent the weight piling on! The problem is the food! Samanthi’s cooking is the best. It is not only the Rice n Curries that she serves up, but the cakes, pizzas, desserts and short eats. I never come home to Devon lighter than when i went out. Samanthi heads a team of sisters in the kitchen. She is up and starting the kitchen duties at six every morning, and regularly works through until midnight during the tourist season. Way back, when i first arrived, it was Amma doing the cooking, and forever supplying me and the brothers with Tea. Now it is Samanthi, with the assistance of younger sisters Gayani and Ruwanthi, and cousins Geeva and Sudu. There is a constant call for me to come and eat from the kitchen, and if i miss a meal, it is always waiting there for my return. Not only is Samanthi an awesome cook, but she is also beautiful. Be warned though! She has four protective brothers, a father, and a brother in law!
November 24th, 2010
Another month, another year, and yet another injury! I guess i need to start listening to my body and look seriously at injury prevention! I have lost count of the amount of months i have spent side lined out of the water in the past four years. It seems that i am regularly sporting crutches rather than a surfboard. Perhaps i can use crutches better than a surfboard, and somehow its a sign! This time it was the day the UK Pro Surf Tour left. Much the same as last year. They leave, i surf in an uncrowded line-up, a tad gung-ho, and ouch!
My 9′ 1″ Southpoint Bonga Perkins did the damage. Slammed onto the rail, my lower leg went numb, no movement, extreme pain and the thought of it being broken.
Plastered - Crutches on a Tropical Island
Fortunately not broken, but swollen to twice the size it should be and more. It was described as looking like a big tuna, and the plan was to BBQ it! The muscle damaged, as too were the ligaments. The pain more than i had ever experienced. The swelling that refused to go down, the skin so tight it felt like it would explode.
A collision of treatments commenced! A conflict of ideas! Natural medicine versus Western medicine. I lost the battle, gave into the pressures of those around me, and went down the natural route.
Who’s to know if it was the right decision. The four weeks without sleep, the days of constant pain, the two weeks of swelling, the feeling of imprisonment within a cabana, missing the sun and the surf.
Now, i can walk. I dont have the strength in the leg but slowly it is healing. no more crutches, and no more plaster casts, and no more trips to the hospital.
Sri Lanka, not the lazy, sun and surf filled holiday that so many think it is!
August 15th, 2010
Three became two on a recent trip to the hospital. Not once but twice. Sunday mornings had followed the same routine for a few weeks - treatment for another leg injury!
A tuk tuk, a vehicle with three wheels, had been our mode of transport during this time.
Photo - Flash. A Tuk Tuk that didn’t fare so well!
Three of us had been experiencing the weekly trips - all of us sustaining leg injuries. Two through surfing and one through cricket, but all surfers. The three included Sri Lanka’s top two surfers, Asanka and Milan, along with the elderly statesman, me!
It was Poyet, a Buddhist holiday. A day when no animals, fish or living creature is killed intentionally. A day when one normally only eats vegetables - not even an egg is boiled! So, maybe the two meter long snake was aware of this, and felt more than confident that it was safe to cross the road!
The driver of the tuk tuk braked violently to avoid hitting the reptile. Unfortunately he swerved at the same time, which saw the tuk tuk first bank to the right on two wheels, and then to the left! So the three wheeler became a two wheeler! It was happening so fast, but also appeared to be in slow motion. I was sure we were going over, and that the incident would see us all in hospital with further injuries, or worse! I could see that one of us was going to be thrown from the three wheeler and seriously injured. I was in the middle so was sure i would come off with the least injuries. First i thought it would be Asanka thrown out, and then when the weight was thrown the other way, it would be Milan. I had visions of Milan being crushed under the tuk tuk, of thoughts of the headlines in the newspaper, of Sri Lanka losing one of it’s finest young surfing talents. It appeared that each time we banked over we were at 45 degrees. All of us holding on, and instinctively distributing our body weight. The saving grace appeared to be Milan, who stuck his left leg out and using his bare foot, somehow had the instinct to force his foot onto the carpet road and provide us with the leverage we needed to right the tuk tuk.
The snake appeared to be oblivious to our experience, and the excitement it had caused, and just slithered off into the jungle. It’s identitiy unknown, probably a python.
We, on the other hand, were all high on adrenaline, fired up and chat, chat, chat! It appeared that the driver was more concerned in not hitting the snake because of it being Poyet, than thinking of his passengers, that he could have inadvertently killed through his actions!! Pissu! Lol!
August 15th, 2010
Rain, Rain, Rain! - Well, well, well! Water was what we asked for, and water we finally got! Monsoon rains arrived in a vengeance! Day and night it emptied from the heavens above. There has been a constant battle to prevent water from flooding property. Lagoons were full and breaking through to the ocean, causing a brown stain to spread across the once untainted crystal blue sea. A month where laundry failed to dry, had been re-washed and re-washed to rid it of that damp and musty smell that materializes when it fails to dry. New doors and windows were swollen from the moisture and refused to slot back into their previously once perfect apertures. There is a coolness in the air, still warmer than our summer, but a coolness that requires a t-shirt at four in the morning. An abundance of green has arisen from the once hard and dusty ground. Farmers are hurriedly catching up with their tasks of ploughing and sewing seed. Mosquitoes have woken to torment those that have the sweet blood they love to feast on. I feel fortunate that my once desired blood has become sour and less attractive to them. Them that sing in ones ear so torturing a once peaceful sleep. Perhaps the arrival of a British visitor was the cause of all that rain. As now, having left these shores, the rain has abated and the sun once again taken its rightful place within the expanse of a rich blue sky!
December 5th, 2009
is one minute up, and the next down! What to do! Ten more days and it’ll be all over until the next time! If there is one!
December 3rd, 2009
got beaten up on main point yesterday! Off season soo much more powerful, with the break more sectiony and the reef more shallow!
December 3rd, 2009
has been handing out wax to the grommets around the coast of Sri Lanka. Looks like a surfboard etc plea is due on my return to the UK!
December 1st, 2009
must remember his shoulder is totally shot & shouldn’t keep pushing the fishing boats up over the sand. 4 mths now & getting worse! Aaargh!
November 19th, 2009
took books etc to a Pre School in Pottuvil today - the kids were great and the teachers very enthusiastic. Well worth all the graft!
November 19th, 2009
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