For the first decade of living in Sri Lanka, Hikkaduwa was a place I drove through to get to my favourite city of Galle. It is seventeen kilometres away but then the highway came. Stopping wasn’t an option in the early days as the place was called the party town, full of drinking, dancing and young foreigners. It’s been a surfing, and nightlife town since the 1960s.

In the last decade, I’ve stayed in Hikka three times; it still doesn’t make me any sort of expert, however.
At rolling beaches on the south side of Hikka, large waves smack the beach relentlessly and are not suitable for faint-hearted swimmers. This beach and those along this surprisingly clean stretch are perfectly maintained. Something not common in Sri Lanka. I’m told the hotels and guest houses play a major part in this initiative.

We drop into Mamma's restaurant on the waterfront. No beach, but lots of glass-bottom boats that will take you to see the coral and turtles if you are lucky. The water hits the restaurant wall as kids play on the swing.

Hikka has a bit of a down-market reputation, with hotels and guest houses that cater to young and/or lower-budget travellers and surfers. It certainly hasn’t changed much. Though as I had never spent much time on the kilometres of amazing beaches, I have now and can understand the attraction.

The evening walk post the heat of the day and as the sun sets reveals this beachfront's extensive array of properties. The big ugly tall hotels interspersed with many two-storey guest houses, a few luxury-looking boutique setups, and the odd older personal dwellings.

“Back in the day,” a phrase my best buddy uses to an annoying level, property development on sea-facing land was to be no higher than the tallest coconut tree. Now there are resorts named, “Kind and Love Hotel,” “The Finz,” “Shammie Guest House.”

We take a short ride to find the Buddha statue, based on a 6th-century statue destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The tsunami Buddha statue at Peraliya stands, they say, at the same height as the tsunami's biggest wave. It is in a beautiful setting. What is so sad and disappointing is the number of shabby, dirty so-called photo museums around the area. Badly presented and some grim pictures of open mass graves.

The government should take the initiative to build a proper tsunami memorial museum. Tourists are seeing quite an appalling account of the tsunami locally. This is where the train got hit by two massive waves resulting in 1700 people being killed, or missing. The world's largest train accident.

In 1979 a wildlife sanctuary was set up in Hikka which became a nature reserve. In fact, the shoreline and reefs of Hikka are a national park. We set off for a Hikka beach walk just before the amazing sunset starts. At our end of the beach, the waves are so big but get smaller as we get closer to the older heart of Hikka Beach. The beach also gets more crowded.

The last time I was nearby was at Hikkaduwa Lake with a group of friends in a lovely villa with a pool. The boat trips at sunset are delightful.

There are spots on the beaches where swimming is safe, especially between December to April. A close friend of mine lost his brother, a strong experienced swimmer at Hikka this year. Drownings are an annual event in this area.

I think if my desire was to live or visit regularly in Hikka, it would be on the lake, beautiful, quiet, and yet close to the party town and beach when desired.