Local Knowledge

Taxis

In the absence of metered taxis, tuk tuks offer the most practical means of getting around, but are best for short trips only. For longer journeys, smart Smiths take a chauffeured car (arrange one through your hotel).

Tipping culture

Most restaurants automatically add a 10 per cent service charge on top of the bill. If they don’t, add it yourself if you’ve been pleased with your treatment. Although not always expected, tipping bell boys, guides and drivers is appreciated.

Siesta and fiesta

With fishing and farming predominating in these parts, Tangalle’s residents are break-of-day risers and soon-after-sunset snoozers, so if you’re heading out by tuk tuk for dinner, arrange for it to come back or wait for you. Don’t get any ideas about after-dark action here as early nights are the mainstay. Banks shut by 3pm Monday–Friday, but there’s a smattering of ATMs in town.

Packing tips

Body boards for beach bums, binoculars for wildlife-watchers and a bounty of books for passing the time.

Recommended reads

The Village in the Jungle by Virginia Woolf’s hubby Leonard is an insightful, if at times gloomy, tale of love, murder and poverty in the rural south. It’s loosely based on his observations while working as a colonial administrator in the district of Hambantota, near Tangalle. Pick up a copy of handy guide Sri Lankan Wildlife by renowned local enthusiast Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne to accompany wetland wanderings and national park larks.

Regional specialities

Down south curries can be hot, hot, hot! Soothe singed mouths with cooling spoonfuls of curd. Buffalo-milk curd is one of the island’s most delightful delicacies, found packed within clay pots along roadsides east of Tangalle. Curd made from buffalo milk is thicker, creamier and more nutritious than that of a cow and is delicious with sticky dollops of kitul – a rich local treacle made from the sap of a flowering palm. Snack on it for breakfast or dessert, or slurp it as a lassi.

Currency

Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR).

Time zone

GMT +5.5.

Dialling codes

Country code for Sri Lanka: 94; local code for Tangalle: (0)47.

Do go/don't go

November–April is best for Smiths who like their climate sunny but not sweltering, and the sea is also at its most serene. By May, humidity soars, storms intensify and the rain falls in short, sharp bursts until June and again from October–November. The northern ‘inter-monsoonal’ summer months falling in-between see infrequent showers mixing it with sunshine.