Trincomalee: Trinco Blu

We were very well-protected during our drive from Jaffna to Trincomalee, on the east coast. Our driver had a Ganesh and a Buddha on the front dash and a cross hanging from his rearview mirror. As we left Jaffna, he had to make a quick prayer stop at a temple. He played great music the whole way, and when we got to the hotel, he seemed to have a different understanding of things than we did. Usually we think we're just hiring a driver to get us from one spot to another, but this young man (and even more, the next one who drove us to Pasikudah) lingered and I wasn't sure what his expectations were. I was sitting in the reception area getting the check-in process started while Marc was paying him, and I turned around and the driver had come in to find me, to tell me he was leaving. It was sweet and a little confusing, and I wondered if I was supposed to have invited him to sit for a while.

We had planned to stay in Trinco two nights, but changed our plans. Primarily we wanted to get to the next hotel a day earlier than we'd planned because the weather was changing (lots of rain in the forecast) and we wanted one additional nice day at the next place, which was a big splurge hotel. But also, the Trinco hotel -- while perfectly nice, really -- was not exactly our favorite kind of place. It was kind of large and corporate, and filled with big groups vacationing together, lots of families. Which was fine! Everyone was lovely and all, and in fact, when I was in the pool briefly, three young girls swam towards me and their dads were helping them ask me questions in English. I had my kindle in the pool, which they must have thought was a tablet, because they swam very close and one dad asked if I wanted him to get a picture. I would have, if I could have. They were sweet, and so were the couple of ~teenage girls who wanted to talk to us in English. No one was obtrusive, the place was just fine, but we decided to leave a day early after all. We never left the hotel, really, having checked in around 3pm and leaving the next morning right after breakfast.

On our way back to our room after breakfast, we again encountered a big-clawed crab on the stairs. We'd seen him on our way down, and by the time we got back he had made it up a few stairs higher. One claw was really big, and he was backed into a corner and as we approached, he waved that big claw at us. It was kind of funny, and also sad. Poor crab. How did he get so lost. The hotel grounds were also full of crows, which I'd come to assume must be the Sri Lankan national bird because they are EVERYWHERE. I love crows, and enjoyed seeing them everywhere. Monkeys were climbing all over the roof of the restaurant, which was also fun. 

No real memories, then, of Trinco. At the end, it really just kind of broke up the long drive from Jaffna over to the east coast and then down that coast to Pasikuda. Russia viciously attacked Ukraine and the news was so very heavy and awful, all-consuming, and such a bizarre contrast to us there, lounging around in pools and on sunny beaches, living the life. It was also the 2nd anniversary of my sister's death, so terrible war plus that sad anniversary plus perhaps the best vacation of our lives, it was hard to let it all settle into place. Most of the tourists we encountered were in fact Russians or Germans, as our cab driver had mentioned the first night we landed in Negombo, and hearing Russian people talking, while their country was attacking Ukraine, was often very hard. Me being me, I kept thinking I'd go up to them and say, innocently, "Oh, are you Ukrainian??" and when they'd say they were Russian, I'd glare or something, but of course I didn't and wouldn't actually do it.

BEST MEMORY/FOOD WE ATE: I'm combining this here because I think it's the pretty clear choice. Just outside the hotel was a lovely little restaurant Marc found for us called Rice 'N' Curry. Everything about it was fantastic. The guy who ran it (and the guy who cooked the food) were so sweet and seemed so happy that we loved their food. The restaurant was upstairs in a kind of lovely treehouse-type setting, the music was great (house music), and the food was spectacular. I smile just remembering the experience, it was all-around just so lovely. Had we stayed a second night, we would've definitely eaten there again.