Mackerel
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Off Season

Off Season

Mirissa, Sri Lanka
9 July 2017
Poetry by Marc

The light is heedless here 

Watch it spill into every wave 

Leap the shore with outstretched hands 

The clouds race and return 

Spatter showers against slow minutes 

Palms splay surrender to the wind  

Shelter is a coterie of umbrellas

Tied together with forlorn rope

Empty rooms paint on new faces 

Each resort has one room 

Occupied, the rest huddle at night

Haunted by rumours of cyclones 

All the good restaurants have laid

Their feet up, shutters down 

Gone elsewhere against grim

Waves that pummel the shore 

And tear the sloped beach with

Broken corals and faint bass lines 

Getting to Mirissa

The cheapest and most obvious route is by public bus. About 100 rupees from Galle bus station. Buses are frequent (every fifteen minutes). The journey takes about an hour or so. 

No need to book accommodation in advance as there's plenty of room in the low season. Downside of the low season is that the seas are too rough to go out whale-watching. 

If you want cheap local food and avoid the slightly more pricy places in the beach, you'll find a great curry and kottu shop at the junction of Matara and Udupila Road. 

Technically it's the monsoon, but practically, it rains only for a while each day, usually in the late afternoon. So sunsets are non-existent, but mornings are just about perfect.