We started our morning with breakfast at the hotel. I was still feeling queasy after they day before on our trip to Galle. So I took it easy on the fruit salad they brought me. However, because of this we decided it didn’t make the most sense to do surf lessons.

(Gorgeous breakfast view)

After breakfast we decided to do a walking tour that our guide book had recommended. We were able to see different parts of the fort – that ranged back a few hundred years.

We lounged around a little bit and then we got a tuk tuk ride over to Unawatuna Beach (about 15 minutes away). This was a really nice swimming beach – the water was perfect and it wasn’t too crowded. The ocean threw a nice wave at me the moment I had my back turned to it – I took a tumble and ended up sand everywhere. I think it took two shampoos before it was finally out of my hair!

We cleaned up – and had lunch. Our hotel arranged for a driver to take us up to Hikkaduwa. This is where we were going to meet Sabrina and her friend Annie. The ride was relatively quick – and we pulled up into our hotel…. Only to find out that they had overbooked us. They were sending us down the road to his brother’s hotel.

Our driver had shared with Andy that they see this a lot – when people book months in advance on Hotels.com, Priceline, Expedia, etc. they secure a lower rate. But if someone just wanders in that day – they can get more money from them. Which means – people like us are left scrambling.

We ended up at Ocean View Cottages – which was pretty comparable. It was a little confusing – but we got settled in to our rooms. Sabrina had hit traffic – but made it in time for us to watch the final sunset of 2019. Sri Lanka gave us a very golden sunset to end the decade.

Annie arrived and we all got ready to head to dinner. Dinner was back in Unawatuna. It started to rain again – not as bad as Christmas Eve. Thankfully there were beach umbrellas that we could take shelter under. Sabrina, myself and Andy agreed that we wanted to leave no later than 10:50 PM so we wouldn’t spend New Year’s Eve in the car. Annie ended up staying behind, but we all headed back to the hotel.

One big beach party – look at all of those lights!

It was such a good night. We changed in to pajamas – took off our make up. (Not Andy – he has a fresh face without it anyway!) Scooped a few chairs and brought a bottle out to the beach.

We rang in New Year’s between two competing clubs that were shooting off fireworks. Sri Lanka doesn’t have restrictions on fireworks – so it sounded like a war zone. It was the best time.

They had even sent lanterns floating off in to the night’s sky.

We went to bed shortly after midnight – it had been a great evening!