Our visa was now nearing its end, so Amelia and I either needed to extend it or leave the country. The potential time and costs involved with extending our visas resulted in us browsing Skyscanner for a cheap flight. One place that'd never crossed our minds was the atolls of the Maldives. But to my amazement, flying to the Maldives from Sri Lanka was one of the cheapest options! And despite common belief, we found out that it is possible to stay somewhere oth...

Midigama had not been as idyllic as we had hoped, so Chris and I decided to keep moving along the coast. We hopped on the bus at the main road and travelled around 20 minutes west, to reach Unawatuna. Unawatuna is one of Sri Lanka's main beach resorts and therefore incredibly popular with holiday makers. Consequently, accommodation was mostly out of our budget. But bartering King Chris managed to sway the manager of 'Daffodil Holiday Resort' to accept...

The tuk tuk dropped Amelia and I at the start of a track leading down towards the coast. He assured us that 'Coconut Surf guesthouse' was down the track, so we paid and went in search of it. We'd been told about the guesthouse by a backpacker we'd met back in Myanmar - she'd spent almost two weeks there, so we thought it was worth checking out. It was fairly early and other guests were only just getting up and sorting their things. Still, the...

For a change Chris and I were only on the bus for short while. Five kilometres from Mirissa we jumped off the bus at another beach town called Weligama. Our search for a room didn't take too long after seeing two extremely basic and mosquito infested rooms, and one slightly more expensive, but much nicer. We decided the money would be worth it and stayed at 'Surasa Beach Resort'. It was still cheap and about the same price as we normally paid for a ro...

I think it's fair to say most public buses aren't designed to accommodate backpackers! In fact, the only space for our main backpacks on Sri Lankan buses was wedged by the driver and gearstick! So with our backpacks cleared of the driver and his vital controls, we literally jumped off the bus and landed on the main road running through Mirissa.Amelia and I had researched accommodation options before arriving, and had by now realised Sri Lanka is a place w...