Home from Home: Renting a house in Sri Lanka

 We found an airbnb rental a short Tuk Tuk ride from the beaches near Unawatuna. Two bedrooms and a large living room, kitchen diner for the same price we were paying for a double room in a hotel so it seemed to make sense. At first we felt a little away from it all after being at the beach and in hotels for so long but after the first morning of Kellogg’s Chocco's and racing round the house making as much noise as humanly possible we realised how much we’d missed a family home.
I’d even missed cooking (never thought that would happen!) Although it was slightly different cooking on a plug in dual electric hob to being used to ovens, grills, microwaves and 4 or 5 hobs at your disposal. We pulled off a variety of pasta and stir-fry delights and even enjoyed a leisurely bottle of chilled white wine with dinner one night.
The delight of having a bath for the kids to splash around and get a proper good wash was almost equal to the joy of having our own washing machine so with a number of boiling kettles poured into the top-loader we finally had some half clean clothes.
By the time the second morning came around we were flagging down our local Tune Pan driver for morning fresh baked bread and breakfast Rotis (a flatbread filled with eggs, veggies and hot spices!)
By the end of the week, the kids had learnt some basic Sinhalese and were buying the rotis for us. If only we had been a bit closer to a shop or the beach or had our own Tuk Tuk we would have stayed !longer. It has cemented in my head the idea that if we can find somewhere we !ike we’d love to settle in one place for a month. It feels like you get a c!oser to real life experience when living in your own home. Plus it’s a lot less money (breakfast loaves and rotis were 50p total)
We also got to see some other beaches whilst staying in the house. Jungle beach we visited on a Sunday – Sunday Funday in Sri Lanka when families along with groups of friends spend the day partying, down the beach. Young groups of guys drinking from early in the morning is a common site on a Sunday here but I guess that’s not so far removed from the Friday/Saturday night rituals in the UK.
In general it is always in good humour and the atmosphere at Jungle beach was lively but friendly when we were there. Jess and Otto helped bury a big Sri Lankan guy with their beach spades. And we swam in the sea in the pouring rain (me fu!ly clothed as we were the only Westerners on the beach and the Sri Lankan modesty doesn’t really sit well with swim suits or bikinis).
The heavens opened for our trek back up through the jungle back to the road. The steps had turned into a multitude of mini-waterfalls which made the carrying of two tired toddlers a bit tough but we needed the exercise. Travelling is making us lazy!