May 8

Up and around, and went for our last huge breakfast! We were served banana fruit cup, first time we did not have papaya. then the main: a big plate of seasoned noodles; serving bowl of red rice; regular bowl of pumpkin curry; regular bowl of coconut sambal; X6 toast with butter and jam; X2 coconut roti; and rolled pancake X2 with service of tea. It still blows us away how much food Jeff and I have been served. We finished, Jeff settled the bill, and we boarded the tuk-tuk the manager had called for us – after we said goodbye to all, including our view!

We arrived at the bus stop about 0905 for a 0940 bus. So we just hung out. Our bus showed up early, 0915!! The bus pulled out at 0923!? This is 17 minutes earlier than the schedule. Jeff and I took note of this for future reference! It is “tolerable” when the transport is late at least you are there, but early departure… not so good. Anyway, we are leaving Ella and going to Dikwella. It is a local, non-AC bus. The route is downhill quickly, we lost a lot of elevation… fast! Our driver was kind of scary, so I tried to just look out the window. We leave tea plantations, and the cooler temperatures, but not the greenery. Sri Lanka is very lushly forested – as it should be being practically on the equator and not much temperature variation.

As we near the end of our bus ride, we see desalination areas, and finally glimpses of the Indian Ocean. Dikwella is on the coast, and we have rented a home for a month! We arrive at the bus station (around 1300), unload and hire a tuk-tuk to get us to our place. It's only about a mile but we have our bags to schlep. We arrive, and oh boy, it is hot inside! The only AC is in one bedroom… we'll be using that room !! We unloaded our bags in there and looked around. Our host had an emergency, but is supposed to be by in a bit. 

The front room and dining area is one super big room. The living space has a long four seater sofa, two arm chairs, a lazy boy-type chair, a coffee table and and TV with stand. The dining space has a large table with six chairs. Then there is walk-through “breakfast?” room with a smaller, end table and four chairs around it. The frig is also in this room… this is because the kitchen is small and in need of being redone! It has a two place gas burner, a microwave, but there a definite need of through cleaning. We found a pot and pan we will use and pretty much leave everything else alone. There were also ants (not unusual, but probably other critters). There are two other bedrooms we won't be using. And then the bathroom. It 's a wet shower, but we do have a shower curtain. A washing machine is in here as well. We discovered we do not have hot water!. So some definite problems that we did not check out well enough. This place is a new listing for booking – at least it does not have any reviews. We decided to go to the grocery store. We need stuff – food and cleaning supplies. 

Newly acquired stuff, we went back and set to work. Jeff started laundry. I started cleaning the kitchen and dishes we might use. We tackled the frig together. As we were cleaning when the host showed up and he gave us some insect spray and showed us stuff about the water – but there is no hot water… may not be a problem as we are wanting a cool shower now, and might be the case the whole time. Anyway, the host and his friend took Jeff to get money. He wanted full payment now. We had a package delivered and it was on the table. (We will be getting my new phone here, so that's good to know that we received this one.) Jeff returned and the host left. We think this is their home… where they are going to be while we are here?? Questions???

Anyway, we decided to go for late lunch. Jeff had seen a rotisserie chicken place! So we went there – STS Food Center. We had one half of a chicken and veggie fried rice. The chicken was a little dry – we will have to try here earlier in the afternoon. It had good flavor. The rice was good as well. We had a Coke and Ginger beer soda, and split an ice cream bar. Satiated, we walked exploring. Meandered down around the beach and found a couple of restaurants to try. Now we get back to our place. We are not very far away! Nice to know. We settled in for the night!