Mirissa is a small bay, only 40mins east along the coast from Unawatuna. It is famed for its whale watching trips and chilled out, quiet atmosphere.

When we arrived, we struggled to find cheap accommodation and ended up paying more than we wanted to for a fairly decent room in a very ugly hotel. We quickly began to dislike Mirissa - it was over-priced, the Sri Lankan locals were rude, lazy and unwelcoming, and the food was appalling. There was also a rediculously large amount of russian tourists which made the placed far from chilled out or quiet. Due to the cost of everything, we could not afford one of the whale watching outings, so decided to move on ASAP to tangalle.

We caught the local bus again from the nearest town Martara to Tangalla bus station. A tuk tuk drove us down the long stretch of beach to the East of tangalla that had several cheap guesthouses dotted along the seafront road. We found a lovely guesthouse with just four rooms, incredibly friendly staff, and a collection of four puppies living on the beach in front of us. We loved it! The room was cheap and the food was incredible. Boiled eggs, toast, fruits and coffee was served for us in the morning and we enjoyed incredible sri lankan curries in the evening.

Whilst in Tangalle, we were able to visit two nearby temples - one of which was a collection of four gold, reclining buddhas, set in four temples built into a rock face. Each rock temple was decorated in intricate murals. It was 500 steps to reach the top - very sweaty work which took us to the top the rock, offering us incredible views and it was just us and the monkeys in the trees! The beach at Tangalla was also incredible - it stretched on for miles and there were so few people around, you frequently felt like you had the place to yourself! The tide w as sometimes treacherous and the waves were massive so we struggled to go for a swim!

We also rented pushbikes for a day and cycled around the nearby villages, rice fields and lakes covered in lily pads - it was great! We really enjoyed our time in Tangalla but with the worst ceiling fan in existence, we were really ready to head into the hill country and escape the heat!!!!