Aluthgama

Aluthgama is a small town on the river Bentota Ganga. I found a nice guest house on the river at the right edge of this picture. It is very peaceful and as long as the room, without air conditioning, cools down enough to sleep at night, I guess I'll just have to spend a couple of days here and maybe take a boat excursion up the river.

The river Bentota Ganga separates Aluthgama from Bentota and a short walk across a bridge dumps me just a few minutes from the beach. There are a number of tourist hotels along beautiful beaches, a broad strip of clean sand framing turquoise waves of incredibly warm water. In spite of warm weather, a nice breeze and surprisingly warm water good for a range of water sports, there are not a lot of people here.

Some of the quiet is probably that the high season is just passing and some that it is just under a year since the war ended, but I rather appreciate the relative quiet and suspect that it is a brief window that will quickly pass as the war recedes in memory.