Tucked into a corner of the south coast is the tiny Boossa Beach. Go deeper into that beach and you'll find the cosy Bara Beach Home. They have little cabanas to sleep in, so small they look like kennels.
They also have what they call ‘Tree’ houses. Basically functional rooms built on stilts with amazing views. The kitchen does basic and decent food and the bar makes brilliant drinks.
Food
The fish steak was murky in a good way, but it did taste a tad rubbery. There was mango chutney on top and it was served with rice and chips. The fish was also rather bony and we probably didn’t get the choicest cut.
The prawns came swimming in a tasty sauce, again slightly sweet. I think it contained a bit of vinegar, pepper and sugar with a dash of lime. The sauce drowned out the fresh taste of the prawns, which was a pity.
This was the problem with the food in the end. The food was well prepared and fresh, and the sauces tasted great. But they didn’t match very well when put together. For overnight guests, they serve a basic breakfast for Rs. 500-600. I didn’t try it.
Drinks
They serve good drinks. The Mojito was a little bit strong, but it’s actually not bad when the ice starts to melt.
The Daiquiri. Wow. Amazing. Not bad for something with sugar syrup, rum and passion fruit. It was really good passion fruit. The drink was just on the side of rummy bitterness, but balanced by a touch of sweet from the sugar and a touch of sour from the fruit.
Ambience
The atmosphere invokes rastafarian-hippie vibes. There’s clutter, there’s art, clutter that looks like art, and art that looks like clutter.
There’s manicured sand on the ground. There’s a small pier that offers a great viewpoint of the shore. Bag a spot there for sunset.
At night there was old Italian/Sicilian songs on the speaker, with the sea whispering and crashing by turns in the background.
Service
Service is good, the place is run by a group of gruff Sri Lankans. This was off-season so they were friendlier than normal. One of them confided to me that they don’t usually allow locals unless they’re with white people, it’s off-season and they’re desperate, or both.
Rooms
The cabanas are cheap and do the job. The bathrooms are common and basic. There’s no soap, no towels and you have to BYOB, as in bring your own bedsheets.
We stayed in the treehouse which offered lots of cosy privacy and I wouldn’t really mind waking up to views like this everyday.
Conclusion
Bara is a good example of the cheap, locally run hostels/bnbs popping up all over the South coast, they’re usually pretty racist and getting in here to experience it can probably feel like sneaking into a foreign country; looking for an exotic paradise and utopia to find normalcy and drudgery mixed in with the good stuff, more or less just like home.
