Day 1: January 19

The bus took us to the bus station in Negombo, from where we still had 3 km to walk to the hotel. We were a little tired from the unfamiliarity. It was already hot here in the morning, and the air was so humid and thick.

We were welcomed well at the hotel and asked to wait an hour while they cleaned. I noticed a sign on the wall saying that you could rent a moped here. It’s worth noting that I tried to find at least some information online about mopeds in Negombo, but there was none, and so I got the impression that renting a moped here is not very easy.

The hotel owner said he could arrange a moped for $9 a day. We said that was a bit expensive, especially since we were renting for a month and there should be a discount. He promised to look into it. By then we were already tired and wanted to sleep. But about 10 minutes later he knocked and, looking very proud of himself, said he had arranged a moped for $7 a day. Volchiy had read online about moped prices in Sri Lanka. Everyone was writing the same thing — $7–10.

So we thought about it and, for some reason, gave in to the owner’s persuasion to go and get the moped right then and there. The owner took us to the moped rental office. Already in the office, while the guy was filling out the contract, I told Volchiy, “They’re definitely somehow fooling us; it can’t be this good and easy.”

They brought the moped over. Old, but apparently everything worked. Volchiy took it for a test ride. We handed over the money and the deposit. And while they were fixing my helmet, we decided to take a walk. On that street there turned out to be a whole bunch of moped rental offices. We went into one of them and asked how much the moped was. When the guy heard we wanted to rent for a month, he said he was ready to give us a discount and let us have the moped for $6 a day. We looked at each other. Thanked him and said we’d think about it. As we were already leaving, he shouted after us, “Fine, take it for $5 a day…” So we did get fooled :) We could have just not rushed, taken a walk, and rented a moped without the hotel owner’s help. Oh well….

We came back. Slept until evening. In the evening we went to the beach.

Negombo is a fishing village. There are not very many tourists here. The beach is dirty. Strong waves and currents make swimming unpleasant. Volchiy struggled with the waves, and I went in and almost immediately came back out.

We walked a little along the beach. The sun had set behind the horizon.

We sat down on a log to put on our shoes, and a Sri Lankan man covered in trinkets immediately ran up to us. He was selling all kinds of bracelets and shell necklaces. Then he pulled what was supposedly a pearl necklace out of his bag. I was struck by those little pearls — they were all slightly different and had some defects, like deep scratches, but that somehow made them seem more “alive.” The seller promised the pearls were natural. He even burned them with a lighter, though later I read that pearls are most often faked using glass, which also won’t melt like plastic. We didn’t buy anything. But I enjoyed looking at the pearls and the shark teeth for pendants.

In the evening, Negombo’s main street was even fairly lively — tourists were sitting in the little restaurants. We were looking for a not-too-expensive place and found a very nice restaurant.

We had a serving of rice with vegetables and drank some local Lion beer to celebrate our arrival. The beer here, as throughout Asia, is pretty awful, but for some reason you really want it — maybe because of the heat, or because of the overall relaxed atmosphere.