Another short bus trip further east along the Sri Lanka’s South coast brought us to Tangalla. With no accommodations booked our first attempt at finding a room failed but with a new recommendation we were checked into Panaroma hotel not long after. Bags thrown to the ground and it was time to hit the beach.

Tangalla beach is the place you dream about while enduring the brutal Canadian winters. An endless stretch of sand with not a single person to be seen and surf pounding the beach sending the visitor into a trance like state of tranquility is what you can expect in Tangalla. No traffic, no noise, no pollution and no one around to spoil your deserted island fantasy is what makes it so special.

Even though the peaceful surroundings seem perfect, the surf is quite powerful and anyone who is not 100% confident in their swimming ability should not thing of venturing into the water. Even still, currents and rip tides could easily exhaust strong swimmers and its a good idea not to venture too far and ask advice on where is best to swim.

We switched to Ganesh Gardens (our first hotel choice) the following day for choice of a better atmosphere and ran into friends from Mirissa who were staying nearby. A few games of volleyball ensued and we finished the evening off with dinner, drinks and great conversation at their place, Lagoon Hotel.

Our days in Tangalla were pretty simple consisting of many hours in the sun or diving into a good book while swinging in a hammock. The highlight to each day was the spectacular sunsets which illuminated the silhouettes of palm trees until the sun vanished into the horizon.

We could probably spend endless days on Tangalla but Sri Lanka has so much more to offer than just beaches and tomorrow we will head into the hill country where pine forests replace palm trees and sunny days are replaced with misty mountains.