Tour of Sri Lanka 2025 | Day 4 | Mirissa | 45 kms

I get up sometime past midnight due to stomach upset. I sleep peacefully after that. I need to leave the room by 6:15 am for whale watching tour but instead wake up around 6 am. I get ready quickly as the Tuk-Tuk is waiting for me outside the gate. I leave around 6:25am and straight towards the dock where I see loads of boats filled with tourists waiting to set sail. Some of them are already seated while some, like me have just arrived. The boats gets full in some time and we are first to sail. Initially, all is fine as I take the back seat of the top deck but as the time progresses and we have covered significant distance, I get sea sick and start to vomit. Thanks to the plastic bag given to us by the boat crew. After the first round, I think that I have recovered, but it soon resurfaces between my bouts of photoshoot, that’s when I think that I am in a serious trouble.

The crew offer me a tablet but it is of no use. I can’t concentrate for the fear of vomiting without my bag in my hand. The crew tells us that the Dolphins have been sighted and motions us to their location. It’s a big clan as they follow in the direction of boat, bobbing up and down, one of them even flying out of the water. I manage to click some actions through my DSLR. After that we are searching hard for the whale and here I am unable to take it further. I lose all my energy and can’t concentrate properly. The only way to distract myself is to keep my eyes closed.

I go down to the base and sit on the floor and just doze off to sleep. By the time I wake up, we were almost docking. My situation was bad. I just wanted to head to the room. The time was around 10:45 am. I also wanted to eat something. I quickly hailed a tuk-tuk and returned to base.

The land lady served me a good breakfast along with coffee. I thought that would give me much required strength to recover fast. I had booked another slot of scuba diving for afternoon. After the breakfast, I got ready and tuk-tuk came to pick me up. We went to the Mirissa Dive Centre. I got checked in. We decided on the payment and the deal was done. I was joined by another Indian couple. They told that a 4th person was joining and kept us waiting but he finally didn’t show up. The instructor began our offline class giving all the details about diving and the gear. The class lasted for a good 30 min. We changed to scuba gear after that and moved towards our boat. We ate some light crackers given by the organizers as no one had lunch. We climbed on the boat and head towards the diving spot. We wore our BCD jackets which were 25 kg + and sat on the edge of the boat with our backs facing the sea. I am always nervous while entering the ocean.

I jumped first, felt like I I was drowning but the BCD jacket and my guide helped me. Somehow, I was calm and focused on my breathing through the mouth. My diver instructed me to follow some actions and we practiced near the shore, before we went further inside. We practiced how to cleanup the foggy glasses, how to use BCD to float or sink. Once we were confident enough, we went for a deeper dive of around 8 mtrs. My diver was helping me regulate my buoyancy as he showed me around different fishes and corals.

I missed a chance of seeing a turtle which zoomed past right behind. Again, I started to feel giddy in my stomach. Already it had taken a beating this morning and the tight suit added to the misery. We were enjoying the dive but then at some point, I just couldn’t hold up. The I surfaced, I vomited again a mess and embarrassing myself. I was in no mood to continue as my body had completely given up.

Plus, my GoPro after the practice dive also stopped working. I badly wanted to get to the shore and remove all the tight gear. I just wanted to let my stomach loose. Soon, the other couple also re-surfaced and we began our return journey to the shore. I quickly changed into my dry clothes, tried to restart the GoPro, but it just wouldn’t start. I totally gave up. Bid thanks to the couple and boarded the tuk-tuk which was waiting for me. On the way, we stopped at a pharmacy to buy some medicines for my body. When I came out, I couldn’t find the tuk-tuk, so made my way to the hostel.

At the hostel, I had a fresh milk tea which calmed me a bit. I had the whole evening to me so after the tea went to the coconut hill to spend some relaxing time before heading back to guest house for some cooked meal. home Continued with diary writing after that and slept early to give due rest to my body.