Sri Lanka - Day 10 - Whale Watching & Galle

So whale watching… Woke up at 5 and were picked up at 6:15. Got on the boat at 6:30. The crew were kind enough to give us sea sickness pills. Took it happily. We went on the top deck and sat down. The ship set sail and I was enjoying the cool ocean breeze and the views of the island and the odd shipping boat. Then the waves kicked in. I started feeling seasick. I tried to swallow it down, tried to ignore the tightening of my stomach. Nope, this was too rough for me. Hussein signaled to one of the crew to come help me get unto the lower deck, where it would be less rough. I barely made it down and sat in the first seat in front of me. My descent caused a wave. One by one people started coming down from the top deck and sitting down. The crew distributed plastic bags. I closed my eyes and looked away as one kid vomited. This was not fun for me.

Two hour later, Hussein had come down and was sitting close to me. I was so sick I couldn’t speak to him. The seas were really rough and I got soaked by one particular big wave before I changed to the other side of the boat. The movement made me really nauseated and I threw up in the plastic bag I had. The crew took it away and gave me a fresh one.

There would be no whales today, the crew said. The seas were too rough. They couldn’t find them. We turned around and we’re heading back. The trip back took around 3 hours. I could barely open my eyes for most of it for fear of being sick again. Hussein, poor thing, was bored. We got to shore, half our money back, and wasted half our day. What bad luck. It seems like wildlife didn’t really like us on this trip.

We went back to the guesthouse where the host was kind enough to give us breakfast (even though it was already past breakfast time and we had already checked out). He let us use the shower and change too. We got our gear and headed off to Galle. We had just about half a day to walk around and do some serious souvenir shopping. We were only there for one night.

From the bus stop we walked to our hotel, where we were told they didn’t have a room for us. Apparently there was some mix up with the booking website and they didn’t receive a booking and didn’t have a room available. Considering we had already paid for this room, this was slightly problematic. We called the booking website. They promised to sort it out. 3 hours and many phone calls later we checked into one of the best places in Galle. We did our happy dance, showered and went for a walk and dinner.