{"id":9463,"date":"2015-03-07T13:04:10","date_gmt":"2015-03-07T05:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/?p=9463"},"modified":"2015-03-20T00:39:05","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T16:39:05","slug":"hunting-for-whales-in-mirissa-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/hunting-for-whales-in-mirissa-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunting for Whales in Mirissa, Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know, something that I didn\u2019t mention about in my previous post<\/a> was the whale-hunting that we did while we were in Mirissa. It was totally unplanned but I knew I had to go for it the moment the receptionist lady at the hotel that we stayed in mentioned it to us.\u00a0I mean, sighting of whales back in Malaysia requires such a great deal of luck. In fact, I never saw a whale in my entire \u2013 at least not in their wild or natural habitat \u2013 so I was jumping in excitement when I found out that sighting of this wonderful creature is possible in Mirissa.<\/p>\n

\"DSC02620a1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We were picked up from the hotel at around 7.30pm and was at the harbor about half an hour later. There was a little bit of name-checking before we were allowed to go on board which was more like a junk than a boat or a ferry. It was good for at least 50 people at a time and it was almost to its capacity when it pulled out of the deck and off to the open sea.<\/p>\n

It was rocky right from the beginning but it became worse as it moved further out into the sea. One of the passengers had to be sent back to the land because she couldn\u2019t take it any longer. Her whining and howling every time a wave rocked the boat continued to haunt me for a very long time. Urghhhh!<\/p>\n

\"WhiningGirl\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I really thought it wouldn\u2019t take long before we reached the area where whales could possibly be sighted and everyone was holding up against the rough sea. But when one hour turned into two and later three, I was beginning to get quite worried. In fact almost everybody on board was beginning to throw up and I was holding to the last thread of my ego before I was forced to join them too.\u00a0 It was like being on a roller-coaster, only worse because there was no way of knowing when it was gonna stop. It was without doubt the worse boat-ride that I\u2019ve ever been on in my entire life.<\/p>\n

I was running out of patience and was actually on the very verge of throwing up before one of the crews yelled out and pointed out to somewhere while everyone else turned to look with long over-due eagerness and anticipation. There was a sudden surge of excitement among all the passengers. I joined some of them to run up to the open deck upstairs and wobbled my way in a zig-zag while doing it so that I could get a good view just in case a whale really was there to catch a glimpse of. But I saw none and so did the others judging from their confused and disappointed looks. Urghhhh!<\/p>\n

\"TheWhale\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just when I was about to return to the lower deck where it was less rocky, a commotion put me back to where I was earlier. And then, there it was. It started with the tail flipping elegantly up in the air \u2013 and for a moment it stayed there, frozen \u2013 before slapping back down and splashing water out of its way. Then it disappeared before flipping out again, this time higher than before. Then the head \u2013 spurting out a fountain of water from its blowhole or whatever it is called. It really was magical and everybody was cheering in excitement. Seeing the biggest animal on earth going live in action right before the eyes is certainly an experience not to be easily forgotten. We saw quite a number but they\u2019d all disappear after awhile, probably sensing the presence of something that doesn\u2019t quite belong to their group.<\/p>\n