Homestay Living

I'm back in Hiriketiya, it's early morning and I am awake after an interrupted nights sleep.

Being away from the beach for almost a week I forgot the symphony of sounds that come with sleeping at such close proximity to the ocean. You become privy to a whole nocturnal community that exists quite apart from the usual humdrum of beachside restaurants. Sleeping dogs wake frequently through the night, barking and howling before slumping back to sleep. The rythmic crash of waves steps from my bedroom window reminds me of the quiet power of the Indian ocean and at dawn tropical junglefowl compete with their morning birdsongs.

At around 630 a monkey rattled the clasp on my small bathroom window and promptly dropped a large coconut on the adjoining corrugated roof. I gave up on sleep and surrendered, if you can't beat them join them, so I quickly dressed in the morning light and crept outside to sit at an empty table on the front lawn.

I am staying at a Surf Homestay on the far south end of Hiriketia beach. It's a simple white structure nestled amongst leaning palm trees and the fringes of the adjoining jungle. I spotted the place when I first arrived in the little surf town a little over three weeks ago and I was instantly charmed by the property, perched unpretentiously at the end of the sands

I have always been drawn to the far end of the beach. Here, where golden sand transitions into rock pools and lush vegetation you find shadows, caves and pockets of activity. The shoreline here, ignored by commerce sits quiet and peaceful. To look closely is to observe a flourishing ecosystem that is encouraged to exist amongst the trees and rocks. Large crabs traverse the slippery boulders, monitor lizards patrol the fringes of the jungle tasting the air with their darting tongues and monkeys pick their way across rooftop branches to reach idly left open windows. 

Staying in a homestay like this is a unique experience. At dawn the families young children dressed smartly in perfectly pressed shorts clutch their school bags as they head off for morning lessons. Mother hangs washing out while her bleary eyed offspring lay out cushions or prepare brekfast...everyone helping. Accomodation is basic but clean; strong mahogany four poster beds with feather light mosquito drapes, a ceiling fan in favour of expensive air conditioning and a single iron key trusted you on arrival by grandmother. This is the sort of journeying I like. Travel and exploration that is sustainable in cost over weeks, perhaps even months rather than just days. It's a living situation that doesn't feel excessive and indulgent and what that offers something far more culturally immersive.

If you are to take weeks or months to explore and understand a place, choosing where you will stay becomes an important consideration. Unlike a traditional holiday where the limitations of time encourage you to seek out the perfectly social media curated boutique hotel, a longer term travel programme makes this unsustainable. Instead one must look to compromise and choose more cost effective alternatives. Living with a family within the context of a homestay is one such way, and while you may sacrifice elements of your pre conceived expectations of total privacy and being waited on hand and foot, what you get in return is far more appealing.

To choose a homestay is to choose and support the community that exists there, and to remain there is to join a family. The children come home from schools in the amid afternoon and skip past you smiling, perhaps remebering tha moment yesterday you fell off their skateboard rying to look cool! The older boys encourage you to join them for a surf as soon as the breakfast rush is over and you cant help but help them clear away the plates to help facillitate their transition to the waves.

As time passes you see beyhond their welcome smiles, and notice something deeper and more meaningful in their expressions, you catch moments of sadness, joy, laughter and impatience, the wonderful everyday of family life. I have been taking longer than usual to wrie this piece, and I now know why. Every morning and every evening I sit in the same spot, an accompanied by the soundtrack of tropial beach guitar and tidal waves. Sandhu is on his skateboard again and Hiruni has her head in her workbooks. The two eldest boys wave from their surfboards as they spot me looking out to sea. Homestay life is growing on me and I have already resolved to come back here next year...although maybe Ill take a month next time!