the story continued.......(Part two)

After the we had enough of turtles (that's about 2 hours of "ooooo"s and "ahhhhhh" plus about a thousand photos..)....it was time to head to Hikkaduwa and eventually to Galle...

Hikkaduwa....our next stop.... is famous for its beach, surfing, corals and of course for its night life....

Even though I have not seen people surf...the beach and the corals and the FISH...Oh my god the fish......:O
The usual routine for any domestic tourist at Hikkaduwa is pretty simple....a 20 minute ride on a renovated fishing boat which has a glass bottom....(that right...only thing separating the people and the sea is two sheets of glass....:p)....then, a few hours of jumping around in the beach and then off to wherever they are headed.

the many renovated fishing boats which zig-zag around...

a school of bright colored fish which surrounded the boat.....

the "glass" bottom

However...we decided to break free from the norm and do something new...something way off from our comfort zones.....


SCUBA DIVING......thats right...we decided to get a closer look at the corals....
And let me tell you...it was an experience...the fish..all those colorful fish...the corals...the cool water..and the atmosphere underwater. It felt like we were visitors from another planet. The masks, the fins, the tube like apparatus which suddenly gave us the ability seemly breath underwater- a total sensory overload.....

the visitor from another planet

I floated around for hours...diving, swimming around the corals, chasing colorful fish and just floating.... the marine life has become so used to human presence that the fish just run in to you. On two occasions, a rather curious blue colored fish, the size of my palm i'd say, came in to inspect my mask... :)

The best part was the "cream-cracker" frenzy....i am not really sure if we are disturbing the environment by feeding the fish crackers, but when they smell even a bit of cracker in the water...they just surround you....so if you decide to go...take a box of crackers with you....that the sweet sweet icing on the top of this experience.....


After a few hours and about two whole boxes of crackers later, we decided it was time to head off to our ultimate destination...Galle....

Mental note for me was that i had to try my hand at diving (deep sea diving  -which needs about three days of training to master) at the first chance i get....Sooo Hikka...await my return....:)