THE UNESCO TOWN OF GALLE

WEATHER: Hot Hot Hot 31C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Not leaving till 11.30am

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of a single thing….

WORD OF THE DAY:  Sunset

DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 45km

BUDDHA QUOTE FOR THE DAY:

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. 

We didn’t have far to travel today to the city of Galle, so Indika let us have some extra time in Mirissa/Paradise this morning and we didn’t have to leave the resort till 11.30am. So we were able to have a lazy breakfast and we were joined by a small guest that the girls had seen yesterday morning, in the form of a cute and cheeky little squirrel.  He had no shame what so ever and he would come right up on the table and he would sniff everything on our finished plates lying around down Lenore’s end of the table.  He took some bread, he nibbled on a rambutan nut, some mango and then he wanted the good stuff of some sweet rolls that Lenore was saving for later.  He literally would go right up to the plate and try his luck, so we had to wrap it in a serviette and when she put it into her bag squirrel headed straight for the bag hanging off the chair.  He was a cheeky thing, but pretty cute and we knew we shouldn’t have been entertaining him the way we did, but he was just so cute!!  I tasted dragon fruit and a rambutan for the first time, at Christine’s suggestion, and they were both quite delicious.  The best thing about the breakfasts here is the cold passionfruit juice they have had each morning!  I LOVE passionfruit juice……  After breakfast I finished loading the last of my photos so at least they were up to date and my blog is still only a week behind which I am ok with at this stage.  

We had 2 minivans again for the drive today and as luck would have it being the shortest drive we had the best vehicles by far today.  That would be right.  In saying that the seats we comfy and it was air-conditioned but I do prefer open windows and having the wind ruffle my hair when we have travel days.  We followed the coastal road which was very scenic seeing the local boats on the beach, hundreds of fish drying on banana leaf tables, fisherman sitting on sticks ‘chairs’ just out from the breaking waves getting their catch for the day and the fresh fish getting bought up to the road side to sell for the day.  We stopped at one of the road side ‘fish markets’ to have a look at the produce.  There were prawn, eels, parrot fish and a whole bunch of other smelly stuff that certainly all looked fresh.  I don’t know why they ask tourists if we want to buy something when they can clearly see we are in vans on a tour.  The girls past some guys selling fresh seafood on the beach the other night and you can bring it back to the hotel and then they will cook it up for you which is pretty cool.  Needless to say no-one bought anything and then we were back in the vans for the last 20 minutes in Galle.   

  

Galle (pronounced gawl in English) is a living time capsule. It has a vibrant commercial district that’s also shambolic and often charmless, but pass through one of the Fort gates and you are transported back to the Dutch colonial era.  Galle provides an outstanding example of an urban ensemble which illustrates the interaction of European architecture and South Asian traditions from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The most salient feature is the use of European models adapted by local manpower to the geological, climatic, historical, and cultural conditions of Sri Lanka. In the structure of the ramparts, coral is frequently used along with granite. In the ground layout all the measures of length, width and height conform with the regional metrology. The wide streets, planted with grass and shaded by suriyas, are lined with houses, each with its own garden and an open veranda supported by columns, another sign of the acculturation of an architecture which is European only in its basic design.  The bay of Galle lies off the south-west coast of Sri Lanka, sheltered by a rocky peninsula. Mentioned as early as 545 in the cosmography of Cosmas Indicopleustes, it is one of the most ancient 'ports of call of the Levant'. When Ibn Batuta landed there in 1344, it was the principal port of Ceylon. Portuguese navigators settled there in 1505, two years before settling in Colombo. It seems that they preferred Colombo at first. In 1588, they decided to withdraw to Galle and they hastily constructed a rampart and three bastions to defend the peninsula on the northern landside. The seaward side was considered invulnerable and was not fortified.

When the fortified town fell into the hands of the Dutch in 1640, they decided to replace the precarious Portuguese defenses constituted partially of palisades and earth banks. They encircled the whole of the peninsula with a bastioned stone wall so as to render it impregnable against the English, French, Danish, Spanish and Portuguese fleets vying with Holland for the supremacy of the sea.  This fortified city, built by the Dutch, exists still, but with few changes. It has an area of 52 ha inside the walls defended by 14 bastions. The majority of the curtain walls were built in 1663. The northern fortified gate, protected by a drawbridge and a ditch, bears the date 1669. Much of the city, laid out on a regular grid pattern adapted to the configuration of the terrain (north-south peripheral streets are parallel to the ramparts and not to the central traffic axes), dates from this period.  During the 18th century, protected by a sea wall finished in 1729, the city reached full development. It housed 500 families, and a large number of public administrations, trade establishments and warehouses were located there. A Protestant, Baroque-style church, the oldest in Sri Lanka, was constructed in 1775 for the European colonists and a few Christian converts from plans drawn up by Abraham Anthonisz. However, Galle remained essentially a stronghold. In the layout of the city the Commandant's residence, the arsenal and the powder house were prominent features. The forge, carpentry and rope-making workshops, the naval guardhouse, and barracks rounded out a system that closely linked prosperous trade to military security.

We arrived to our guest house at 12.30pm.  After checking we had free time till 4pm when we were to meet as a group again for a walk around the city with Indika with the final stop to watch the sunset from the fort.  So the ‘trio’ plus me met at 1pm with no main plan, we were just going to wander around, have lunch somewhere and just see where the afternoon took us.  The first thing I noticed walking around the cute single lane roads was the shops.  There were lots of gem shops, antique shops and local art shops.  It had a great vibe to the place and we started by enter one of the many churches that have been left on the city.  It was so hot walking around, if you don’t like the heat, then I think you would really struggle in Sri Lanka.  We stopped in a souvenir shop, a couple of local art shops and then we did enter one jewelry shop that sold what looked like the old fashioned stuff, it wasn’t a conventional jewelry shop.  Well I found this beautiful silver (I hope) bangle and it looks ancient.  I tried it on and it fit perfectly so I didn’t need to think twice and I bought it.  They even took 40AUD off the price, so I probably could have bargained a little more, but I like it, I like the price and I am now wearing it.  It really is beautiful and a lovely reminder now of my trip to this beautiful country. 

We lunched at one of the top hotels of the city.  The Galle Fort Hotel and it reminded me of the colonial times with large wooden louvered doors, large overhead fans, dark wood walls and the staff in safari looking outfits.  It was a beautiful lunch and a nice way to get out of the sun for an hour or so. 

We started our walk at 4pm with Indika.  He left it as late as he could due to the heat of the day and even at 4pm it was still sticky.  Some of the sights we had a look at included the oldest lighthouse in Sri Lanka built in 1938, Galle Harbour where there were local families swimming, Court Square where all the Lawyer offices and the courts of the city are located, the Dutch Warehouse which is the oldest building in Galle, an old Dutch reformed church and then the walk to Moon Fort.  Built by the Dutch beginning in 1663, the 36-hectare Fort occupies most of the promontory that forms the older part of Galle the Fort is an amazing collection of structures and culture dating back through the centuries.   A key part of the Fort’s allure, however, is that it isn’t just a pretty place. Rather, it remains a working community: there are administrative offices, courts, export companies and lots of regular folks populating the streets.  The fort of Galle was handed over to the English only on 23 February 1796, one week after the surrender of Colombo. As a British protectorate, Galle remained the administrative center of the south of Ceylon.  The Galle fort is a world heritage site and the largest remaining fortress in Asia built by European occupiers.  On 26 December 2004 the city was devastated by the massive Boxing Day Tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake that occurred a thousand miles away, off the coast of Indonesia. Thousands were killed in the city alone. From the Fort we had an amazing view of the cricket ground, the Galle International Stadium, rebuilt after the tsunami. Test matches resumed there on December 18, 2007 fringed on two sides by the Indian Ocean, it is considered to be one of the most picturesque cricket grounds in the world.  It is After the reopening of the stadium, the first Test match was held between Sri Lanka and England on the same day, which resulted in a draw. The Galle stadium is also noted for the fact that in 2010 it was the stadium that hosted the last match of arguably one of the best cricketer produced by Sri Lanka, Muttiah Muralitharan. Murali needed 8 wickets to reach the 800 mark and took his first casualty of the match and 793rd casualty overall was Sachin Tendulkar. He then took 5 wickets in the first innings of that Test match. Then in the second innings, he got 2 wickets quite easily, but then had to bowl a long spell to get his 800th wicket that was of Pragyan Ojha which was caught by Mahela Jayawardene in the first slip.

We walked a section of the Fort walls and then found a position to sit and then watch the beautiful sunset of Galle.  I have seen a lot of sunsets in my time, and there are not many places where you can see the sun set over an ocean, but here was one of them and it was just beautiful.  Right at the very end as the sun hit the water it colours gave off what looked like rays through the clouds and I have never see that before.  It was gorgeous.  It is hard to believe that this was the second last day of tour.  Where has these 2 weeks gone?  It is the sign of a good tour if the time just gets away from you and it will be sad to say farewell to people tomorrow.  It is also hard to comprehend that I have been away from home again for 2 months, 8 weeks, 56 days.  That too also feels like it has gone so quickly and hard to believe I will be home again in 5 weeks. 

It was time to head back to the hotel and the included dinner tonight.  No surprise it was rice and curry..or curry and rice.. either way I think it will be a little while before I have that for dinner again.  In saying that I will have to get used to eating the same thing each day.  In Ethiopia they have a staple food that is served with every meal called injera, which I will also learn how to make, as only woman make it (I wonder if you can buy it from somewhere) and it is like a fluffy pancake that is used to pick up their food and eat.  This meal wasn’t spicy, so 3 people were happy with that and 9 people a little disappointed but we have certainly had more spicy meals than non-spicy so it was our turn again to be able to enjoy a meal without burning the insides of our mouths and setting our tongues on fire.  We went for a walk around the streets after dinner in search of somewhere to have a drink but everyone pretty much packs it in for the night here, at least in this part of the city.  Everything was closed nothing was opened but it was nice to take in the tranquility of it at night without the touts and other tourists.  It was STILL quite hot and sticky at 9pm at night and I hadn’t seen any mozzies which was nice and I was back to the comfort of our hotel room just after 9.30pm.  There’s a definite energy in the air but I think as tourism increases to this country it may not be the case for long. Some excellent boutique hotels have opened and locals are busily selling their often amazing unrestored vintage buildings to foreigners and speculators. The Fort is definitely one of those places that in a few years will have people saying: ‘Oh you should have seen it before.  I truly believe that and I am glad I came before people realize what a gem of a place this country in. 

So tomorrow is our last day.  We catch the train to Colombo in the morning; sightsee around there early afternoon, dinner and then my transfer to the airport the following morning is at 4am.  It is going to be a few busy days ahead, huh what am I saying it has been a busy last few days, I’m going to need a holiday from my holiday, but I have enjoyed every last minute.  Indika has also arranged my bag that I left in Negombo to be delivered tomorrow (cost me 30AUD) but totally worth it to not have carried that around for the last 2 weeks and then I will need to repack it all in for airline travel once again.