The three of us decided that six days of sunbathing and tanning just wasn’t enough, so, with Darragh in tow, we headed back south down to the surfy town of Arugam Bay. This time we spent a total of three weeks in the town, one with Pip and two on our own. Like last time, we were surrounded by bronzed backpackers and surf bums, and spent most days on the beach, and most evenings with a Lion beer in our hand.
The start of our A Bay sequel also saw the start of the football World Cup…every night, beach bars put up large projector screens and promoted their world cup happy hour deals! While it wasn’t the most cultural experience, I did thoroughly enjoy watching the football on the beach…if I got bored of the screen I could just stare at the moonlit waves (good looking surfers). It will be a memorable world cup, and I will never forget the three of us supporting the three lions with three lions…
After a hilarious week of beaching, sunbathing and football celebrations, it was time to say a really sad goodbye to Pip. I have never experienced a month go by so quickly, and our emotional goodbye felt all too soon.
Once the tears had dried, James and I moved into our first accommodation on our own…Beach Hut No.4. Our simple little hut was made of four wooden walls and a corrugated iron roof, but we instantly fell in love with it and its beachside location. We made three pets while living there: a rat who liked to eat soap, a bat who tried to reside in our mosquito net, and a cat who was rearing its kittens in our roof.
We decided that it was about time we did some exercise after spending nearly two weeks lying on the beach. Without any girlfriends around I managed to drag James along to a rooftop yoga session at Bay Vista, a really cool health bar central to the Arugam Bay street. During our two weeks we also rented some surfboards and attempted the monster waves at ‘Baby Point.’ Safe to say I have lost any surfing ability I ever possessed from my first gap year!
After three memorable weeks in Arugam Bay we were ready to move on in search of less touristy destinations.