Preparing our house for rental, getting ready for our trip and tying up six months worth of admin and loose ends in two weeks left us pretty much without a second to relax or think.
Friends would ask, “are you excited” and, “what are you going to do when you arrive” but – to be honest – apart from booking the cab from the airport and the first accommodation we hadn’t had time to even really consider it.
We’d decided to stay in Colombo (the capital of Sri Lanka) last, before our onward flight to Bangkok rather than trying to explore a city with jet lag x 4. I had heard that Hikkaduwa was a noisy party place and some reviews were not too favourable but we thought we’d take the hit on the two hour taxi journey straight after our flight and flake out on the beach for a few days recovery. To be honest I was expecting to be left feeling slightly too old to be there or jealous that we couldn’t join in. Either that or annoyed by the late night noise keeping my jet lagged children awake.
What we found couldn’t have been further from that and I’m only sorry we couldn’t stay longer. Our AirBnB was actually a 15 minute walk or a 2 minute tuk tuk ride from the beach so we never really saw any signs of a party. Not that a party is a bad thing and can often make a place. Although overhearing a girl one morning saying she was on her way home after not being to bed confirmed that the party scene must exist.
We were staying in a more local area and the surrounding people couldn’t have been more friendly. Our host family lived in a house at the front of the villa and came to visit us daily to see the kids. The brother, whose house it actually was, came especially with his wife and daughter just to see them. Sri Lankans love children. Everywhere we went they were a great ice breaker and everyone seemed to adore them. From tuk tuk drivers to the surfer bar men who played with them for hours and bought them sweets and bananas.
Walking down to the main street on our first night to grab some dinner, we went through a little side alley to reach the beach and emerged into paradise (or my kind of paradise at least). Sunset, yellow sand and clear waters with rustic beach bars serving out of this world curry and cheap beer. The kids went wild in the water even though we were fully un-prepared to swim and they sat soggy and playing while we ate and drank into the evening. Not a bad start.
I will admit one of my main fears about coming this far was my children having jet lag. I looked at countless blogs and tips. Then decided on what I think is the best advice – just go with the flow when you arrive. The air hostesses on the plane woke us for breakfast 4 hours before we landed. Around 8am local time but 3.30am for us. At the time I was super grumpy about it but I think it actually did us a favour. We had dinner at around the usual time and went home to bed for about 10pm. The kids didn’t fall properly to sleep until around 2am but they did at least lay pretty still and quiet. A week later, bedtime is still quite late but we are getting there and it was a million times less scary than I expected it to be.
Child & Adult-Friendly Tips
We have been here nearly a week and haven’t used our stroller once. Favouring tuk tuks and carrying our youngest. In Hikkaduwa we did see quite a few people struggling to carry buggies onto the beach but to us it didn’t seem worth it. There are no pavements anywhere we’ve been so far in Sri Lanka. The only place where it would have been OK is inside Galle Fort, where the roads were pretty flat. I feel like it would almost be dangerous to try and push one on the non-existent pavements filled with all modes of transport.
There is a medium sized supermarket on the main street of Hikkaduwa – Sandagiri Supermarket. Here you can buy basic groceries and Western branded products, which are obviously a lot more expensive than local brands. They also sell the usual toiletries, mosquito repellent and sun-cream so no need to use up your weight allowance packing them. They also sell feminine hygiene products. You may think this odd to mention but I had been told by quite a few people that they were hard to come by here. I have seen them in all of the supermarkets that we have been to so far.
Sandagiri Supermarket also have a baby section which sells nappies/diapers, wipes and most basic baby products that you may need.
Note that you can’t purchase alcohol in supermarkets. If you want to buy then ask a tuk tuk driver to take you to a ‘wine shop’ where you will find a full selection. You can also buy from a bar but this is more expensive. Cold beers are also more expensive than non-chilled.
Car Seats
We bought with us the Urban Kanga for our two year old which I love. I hate messing around with car seats (I always get the mum car seat sweat on). This is 3kg, folds in two and you can put it in in about 30 seconds. For our 4 year we bought the MiFold which is super easy to use. Although she finds the seat part quite difficult. Using car seats seems a bit strange when the rest of the time, you are throwing the kids into the back of an exposed tuk tuk, but I feel on longer journeys in a car, the safer you can be the better. Also I’m counting on needing them in other countries.
Travel Cot
This was one that pained me before we left. Nate can get out of a cot but I still wanted to bring one. In my mind it would be safer to have him in a cot in un familiar surroundings. I bought the Cuggl travel cot which is a similar design to the Baby Bjorn and about a third of the price. It’s actually a great travel cot, weighing only 6kg and it folds up pretty much into a square. I would actually really recommend as good for travelling but we tried this and he could still escape! So we figured there was no point. There were various options presented to us the Little Life Arc looked good with its built in mosquito net but at £99 this equipment business was getting very expensive. In the end we went with a good old ReadyBed (the blow up kind). It was £18.99 (on sale I believe) and it folds up really small. At that price we figured we could ditch it if it wasn’t working for us. So far we have had enough bed space for us all but have used it in our second property just so we can have our own bed space with no wrigglers.
