Puttalam – Roadside Hotel - 105 km
The road was dotted with numerous colourful fruit stalls, convenient
for a refreshing drink and seeking relief from the sweltering heat.
Preparing these drinks was fascinating to watch. First, the orange or
lime was cut in half, and the juice was squeezed into a glass. Then, a
pinch of salt, water and crushed ice was added. Next, like world-class
cocktail waiters, the vendor mixed the ingredients in a plastic jug,
switching the drink from the glass to the plastic jar. Finally, they
threw the juice from glass to pitcher quickly and precisely, catching it
neatly a good metre away.
Again, I stopped at a few temples, all extremely colourful. The
peafowl is native to South Asia. In Sri Lanka, virtually all temples
were decorated with these brightly coloured birds, giving the temples
quite a festive feel.
The day’s distance was slightly further than foreseen, not that it
made any difference, as I had no intention of going all the way to
Colombo. A hundred kilometres down the drag, the rain came pouring
down and I cycled to the nearest hotel.