Cooking Course in Unawatuna

From people's accounts, we had a hard time deciding on one of the 2 more developed beach towns. So we visited them both. They are only about 1 hour apart. We changed from one super local bus to the other in the town of Galle. First bus cost 25 rs per ticket. The last bus cost 15 rs per ticket. Unawatuna was supposed to have a much better beach than Hikkaduwa - but we were disappointed. There is no beach here at all. It is almost completely gone. Only in some very simple places is there a 1-2 meter wide beach. However, there is much, much less traffic in this town, which of course is also smaller, but has almost the same good selection of shops and restaurants as Hikkaduwa. There are smaller bars where you can easily find a party. Unawatuna was hit hard by the tsunami. The entire town was almost destroyed. Since then, however, the settlement down towards the beach has not diminished. Quite the opposite. Unfortunately, people got greedy and built houses right down to the water's edge. Where there are no houses, a high wall has been built a high wall has been built to shield against future tsunamis, but you can't see the beach at all. Whether people have built closer to the beach than before, the fact is that the water rose 3 months ago. So the beach you can see on the many postcards doesn't exist right now. Are people as good at utilizing the space down to the beach as nature is at changing? One of this city's big attractions is cooking classes. Sonja's Healthy Food is known for organizing great courses, so we should definitely give it a try. For Rs 3000 per person, we also expected to become good cooks afterwards :o) We were 8 in the group. At 11am we took a tuk tuk down to the market in Galle. We visited the vegetable market, spice and fish shops. Then we headed back again where we had to learn how to cook 7 different local dishes. Dish 1: Rotti with chili sauce Dish #2: Devil potatoes Dish 3: Pumpkin Curry Dish #4: Pineapple Curry Dish no. 5: Beetroot Curry Dish 6: Ladies Finger Curry Dish #7: Lentils Uhm, the food tasted amazing. Our chef was super, super nice and laughed a lot. If we had to put a finger on the course, we could have been a bit more involved in the cooking process. We all helped make the rotti, but then we were relegated to note taking. We offered to help several times, but she preferred to do it herself. We wrote and wrote. She probably should have handed out recipes instead, so we could have delved more into the cooking. You leave the course very full :o) A few months ago you could sit on the beach and enjoy dinner, for example. Unfortunately, that option is gone. Instead, you can enjoy the lovely warm evening and the water from a terrace while enjoying octopus, crab, lobster etc. Prices vary greatly, so it pays to browse around.