Less than an hour’s drive south of Colombo city, Wadduwa makes a handy first landfall on the island or last halt before flying home. Given the proximity of the capital, its beach remains astonishingly unspoilt. The resorts and guest houses dotted along it are discretely spaced, and the sands never busy. Because they’re steeply shelving, everyone tends to swim in their hotel pools, leaving miles of golden, palm-backed beach to the fishermen, who haul giant hand nets from the sea in the early morning, and heave old outriggers into the surf at sunset time, when the warm, tropical light intensifies the colours of the palm canopy to magical effect.