Hikkaduva is a town on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, located in the District Galle, which is in the southern province, about 17 kilometers to the north-west of Galle and 98 kilometers south of Colombo. The name of the town "Hikkaduva", as scientists believed, it turned out from the phrase "Ship Kaduwa", where "Ship" - this is no "ship", and the abbreviated "Shilpaya" (which means "knowledge" in Sinhalean), and "Kaduwa" Means "Sword". Thus, the name of the city means "Sword of Knowledge", something like that.
Hikkaduva is located on the so-called Coastal Line (or Southern Line) - a railway line connecting Colombo with the Matar (area on the southern "spout" of the island). Also, Hikkadawa crosses the A2 highway connecting Colombo and Wellava region - this road is largely parallel to the shore, through the entire city, and on both parties there are hotels, shops, restaurants and ayurvedic salons.
Why should you choose hikkadawa to relax on Sri Lanka? At least for the sake of the beach, of course. First of all, this particular factor make hikkadawa a very popular place among the most different tourists. Hickdawa beach - This is a wide sand strip and lack of a crowd of tourists.
And the town is a famous international surfing - Site (moreover, Hikkadwa Beach is considered the second best place for surfing on the whole Sri Lanka). Also popular skating on kites and bright kayaks.
Of course, most often the waves in the hikkaduwe be hit strongly, so many are afraid to enter away from the coast, but still, it is cooler than calm waters and a small beach, for example, Unavatuna bays. However, someone's beach rest is rapid enough - so active tourists who are afraid to get up onto the board, are happy to visit Hikkaduly National Park - More precisely, it is an underwater coral garden, a visiting card of the resort and a great place for snorkeling. By the way, things with the "unfriendly fauna", such as scorpions, snakes, large wild animals, in the hikkaduwe are normal. In water, nothing is found, although in the jungle you can step on the snake.
Hickdawa Beach is charming: some make gymnastics, run, play badminton or frisbee. Someone just sits at a cocktail in the beach bars, watching the colorful locals and admiring Sunset . Sunset, however, you can not skip exactly: it is extremely good here! You can also try local massage : The main thing here is to bargain (if we are talking about beach masseuses).
At night, you will also find something to do in this city. There are several here bars , eg; Other tourists prefer to sit by the fire on the sand, listening to the songs under the guitar and the stories of other travelers.
By the way, the town was shown in one of the episodes of the famous TV shows "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations", the American tour of travel and food, which comes out on the Discovery Travel & Living Channel. For the sake of interest, you can look at the journey. True, the video is not the most fresher, it was shot in 2008 (and video in English), when the town (as well as the neighboring settlements of Telvatta, Dalduduwood, Kahava, Ratgam, etc.) just more or less recovered from terrible tsunami 2004 (today everything looks a little better than on the video - naturally, after the tsunami, the village had to be literally rebuilding again, and this process is unprecedented).
Interestingly, after a natural disaster, many families who lost literally all issued sewing machines within the framework of the operation to assist local residents. As a result, today in the city a lot of quite skillful tailors. Well, a considerable part of the local (and the population of the town is just over 100 thousand people; Hikkaduva is generally considered one of the main cities of the province) today is involved in the tourist sphere - in the town of Pile Hotels, Guest houses, apartments and villas.
With the placement of the tourist will not be completely no problem! Like food. There are B. Local cafes and "exotic", there are pancakes, cheesecakes, cutlets and borsch (for example, in Cafe "Smak" ). However, even the local cuisine in a number of cafes of the town is adapted by the pda of the gentle stomachs of European tourists. And be sure to look at Cafe "Rotti" (according to the same name of the dish), Sherrykysky will pinch, but very colorful and with delicious food. An important point: For lunch, you should look at those institutions where local people eat - definitely not mistaken.
By the way, massages and even hotels are as if the business is side, and the main in Hikkaduwe (and not only) is the sale of drugs (actually, this will be proposed to you on every corner of Tikhonechko). More about harmful. In the stalls from under the floors traded smuggling Malborough from Dutyimi for about 500 rupees. By the way, the cigarettes are local residents just adore the shoot - so if you want to stretch a pack for a couple of days, do not smoke in sight (although in other cases, cigarettes can be exchanged for a discount, for example, on the same massage).
Considerable popularity have a variety of excursions - in Reserves of Yala and Breata , in town Catarhagama (Famous pilgrimage site on Sri Lanka), ancient cities Teassamaharama, Kyrinda and Galle (True, at least Galle and an ancient city, there is little that has been preserved after the Portuguese invasion) and others.
Shopping The city is well developed. There are many souvenir shops where they are offered, for example, masks ("Mask of Health", "Fortune Mask", etc.). Much of this is an amateur or for a collector. Prices for souvenirs differ depending on the season. By the way, different beads and bracelets may well be delivered from China and India (it is difficult to figure it out, even if you ask where the seller is produced). But for completely small money to buy products from red and black (ebony) wood - it's cool!
In general, as a rule, Hikaduva first just like the tourists, but after a couple of days, Hikkaduva already seems one of the best places of our planet. In the first days you simply will not be able to take a look from the ocean and the beach - it is unreal fascinating! And plus a bunch of cheap seafood, delicious Ceylon tea, stars on the endless sky, noise of waves, gentle breeze - beauty, and only!
