Monday, March 30, 2009

Whale Watching off Mirissa + Lunch!

Giragalla, Mirissa
About a 150 km from Colombo, Mirissa is a very small town, on the southern coast. But from its habour, one can for a goodly fee (Rs. 6000/=) sign up for a boat ride of several hours, to the deep waters some 15 miles out and with luck, see both the blue whale, the largest animal on earth, and the dolphin, bottle nosed and other variates, who are of course, cuter than cute.
And so we went, stayed at the Giragalla Inn, which overlooks the lovely Giragalla (Parrot Rock), and woke up early, took the boat at 7, were very lucky with our sightings!

Breaking out
(Dolphin breaks the water -- above -- Whale dives, below)
Me Tail!

Then, hungry after the long ride, which took 5 hours, and having postponed breakfast fearing seasickness (we had all dosed up on avomine), we fell upon a simple, classic 'rice curry' lunch at the old and famous Weligama Bay Rest house.

Lunch Arives, Weligama Bay

the most interesting dish, a karavila curry, which I'd never had before, wasn't the most popular, since true to its name (bitter gourd), it remained bitter :). Still since I've been fixing Karavila salads, I tried quite a bit of it. It wasn't very good; perhaps more lime would have helped, with more initial de-bitterizing!?

Karavila Curry, Weligama Bay

3 comments:

Veena said...

you are very lucky to get to see the whales and dolphins for real. when some of my friends went, they got to see where the mammels were "used to be" :-D

I think the food receipies are wonderful. Must give it a go!

Pradeep Jeganathan said...

yes, we were lucky! Another person had also been disappointed, but one boat operator (not our one), to their credit, had given out a free ride for another time.

i think its like a game run in Yala etc.; some times, you don't see any of the big fellows, (Leopard, elephant, bear) but you always see the landscape/seascape, and some of the smaller critters. Here too you see birds and smaller fish.

thank you for liking the recipes...!

Anonymous said...

That's incredible that you got to see the blue whale and dolphins. I didn't know that you could in SL. Must try next time I'm there.

I just discovered your blog and the pictures and recipes are amazing. I've been looking for a Sri Lankan food blog for a while. The only curry I can cook is chicken, so I am in awe of anyone who can do more!

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