A coliving house people keep not leaving

We sit on the beach side of the Matara Road in Pelena, just outside Weligama, with our own private stretch of sand, a lush garden and a terrace that looks out at the water. The full name on the paperwork is Mellow Bay Living Beach Coworking & Coliving — everyone just says Mellow Bay.

The workspace is the part most people come for: a separate air-conditioned room of proper desks, trading as Connect Co-Working Space, with fibre WiFi and the quiet to use it. Around it are rooms that range from a bunk in the female-only dorm to a family suite sleeping five, shared lounges, a long communal table, and yoga classes and evening entertainment through the week.

It is a hostel, so it is social by design — but with air-conditioning, private bathrooms in most rooms and cement bunks built to stay cool and quiet. Most of the people at the desks are on European contracts and European deadlines, which the four-and-a-half-hour head start on Berlin makes easier than it sounds.