There’s not much to do around the Marino Beach except soak up the rays and the hotel curries (and a fine fish curry, plus dhal, chutneys, coconut sambol, pappadums, and a frosted glass of cold Lion lager, served on the ocean-side terrace, costs £6). But I do strongly recommend one nearby stop: The Gallery Café. Housed in the low-slung ex-home of a famous Sri Lankan architect, resembling a Pompeian villa decorated in stripey liquorice colours, this soothing, semi-al-fresco bar/art gallery/restaurant serves some of the best food in the capital, fusing Asian and western flavours. Try the ultra-luxe prawn and lobster linguine, sublimely lifted with a subtle whack of chili. With Caprese salad starters and some chilled white wine, that’s a cracking lunch for two, and costs about £25, max.

Now it’s time to wander south, 100 miles along the coast to historic Galle. I could get a one way Uber down the expressway for just £23, but I opt for the more romantic method. The train, which trundles down the seashore, meaning you can spend two hours watching loin-clothed fishermen hauling in silvery handallos (think yummy local whitebait) from the comfort of your berth. Fresh-cut-pineapple vendors and eager samosa hucksters ply the platforms and carriages, so you won’t go hungry either. 

And the price? A first-class ticket, it turns out, sets me back 600 Sri Lankan rupees. That’s £2.50. It’s around this time I start to wonder if there is a word for “negative sticker-shock”: the strange sensation that I am being consistently undercharged.
My next hotel is not cheap in absolute terms. I’m paying £130 a night for a “deluxe seaview room” in Le Grande Galle. But then, this is a world-class hotel which, in normal times, can charge £500. This is because it has an unequalled location – next to the famous sea-ward battlements of Unesco-listed Galle, and also because it offers tip-top hospitality, from the hi-tech Japanese loos (which open automatically as you approach, like a kind of hungry porcelain crocodile) to a sybaritic pool overlooking the crumpling surf, to lashings of Sri Lankan art, Sri Lankan hardwood, and great Sri Lankan service (and, by the by, an epic Sti Lankan mud crab curry feast, for about £8).