Christmas and New Years Sri Lankan Style

I met Mimi and Ailish at my yoga teacher training, two free-spirited girls from Southern Ireland that say things like “good on ye” and “what’s the crack?”. I liked them the instant I met them. Before we all left the yoga teacher training at the beginning of December, Ailish and Mimi welcomed me to join them for Christmas and New Years in Sri Lanka. This was a good one to keep in my back pocket and I’m glad I did.

Mimi and Ailish :)

We got to Midigama, a little surf village in the southern province of Sri Lanka, and met up with Mimi and Ailish. My surfing skills were pretty rusty, I leaned almost 4 years ago in South Africa and have only been surfing a few times since but I was excited to get back into it. Mimi’s had been in Sri Lanka for a month at this point and formed a little squad of surfers that became our Midigama group. We arrived just in time for one of the biggest parties of the year to kick off Christmas and New Years. This was a complete 180 from my slow paced and spiritual journey in India, and I went with no sleep from the night before. Nonetheless, I had an awesome time. The venue was at a little harbor. There were DJ’s, dancing and hundreds of people from around the world hanging out together. The docked boats were accessible to us which I thought was pretty cool. The best part about this night was that one of my good friends from my hometown, Dylan, joined us. Dylan’s family is from Sri Lanka. I reached out to him, it was kind of a shot in the dark since he hasn’t been back to Sri Lanka in 10 years. I asked if he’d be there over the holidays and found out he’s staying only 30 minutes away from Midigama. He joined us for the party. It was grand, as the Irish girls would say. Worlds colliding; being with my friend from home in this backpacker life. It made me see how comfortable I’ve gotten with all this traveling and how normal it’s become for me. Dylan was a reminder of all the love I have from home and it was so nice to hang with him all night, especially with Christmas right around the corner and the natural homesickness that comes with it. 

Only photo I got of D and I

Christmas came and went smoothly. It was strange being away from my family and Minnesota was on my heart all day (I know a lot of my family and friends read these posts- I miss you guys and think about you often!). I anticipated Christmas to be difficult, whether I’m home or on the other side of the world. I started the day with a surf session just after sunrise. I didn’t actually surf much though. I paddled out as far as I could, sat on the board and reminisced on some of my favorite Christmas memories with my dad. I’m sure anyone who’s lost a loved one can agree days like Christmas can be really, really hard. It felt like a moment with him on the water, and I decided to make the best of the day because that’s what he’d want for me. The hostel we stayed at, Surfing Wombats, put on a huge Christmas lunch for us. Sri Lankan style dishes and pizza. We made it to the beach for sunset and played a made-up game of pass the coconut in the water with some really sweet local kids, along with a impromptu belly flop competition (I might never grow up). It turned out to be such a nice Christmas with this little family of travelers, each of us away from our real families.

When the bagpipes came out

The rest of my time in Midigama was spent surfing, riding motorbikes, drinking fresh coconut water, and hanging with some pretty awesome people. We frequented the same two restaurants, Hiru for a breakfast smoothie bowl every day, and Wild Beach for their seafood pasta or rice and curry. Both restaurants are family run and they treated us so well. I’ve learned that I enjoy frequenting the same places over trying a different establishment every day, especially when it comes to food. It’s a better way to build connections with locals and why fix something that’s not broken? If I love the food I’m loyal to it, that’s for sure. I’m even more loyal when a whole meal is about $3. I also went snorkeling and attempted (key word) slack lining. New Years Eve was spent visiting our Norwegian friend Peder’s DJ set and a pool party inland. No one was swimming until our group did belly flops at midnight. It was fun to treat this holiday week like a vacation within my travels. 2024 is going to be one to remember and what a great place to kick it off.

I'd like to add that during this week I got hit with a harsh reality of backpacking: bed bugs & random illnesses. The bed bugs finally caught me at one of our hostels and a few days later, unrelated, I came down with a fever/ear infection and couldn’t leave my bed. I was so fortunate to be with Mimi, Ailish and Michael. They took care of me and I got better a lot faster than I would have on my own. I thought about including a photo of my bites but I won't torture whoever reads this.

My time in Sri Lanka isn’t over quite yet. Mimi, Ailish, Michael and I have a big adventure planned. Our last day in Midigama involves a tuktuk driving lesson…. ~to be continued~ 

At the moment...

Listening to: Asc. Scorpio Oracle Sisters