NOVEMBER 20 RESTFUL DAY IN COLOMBO

The traffic in Colombo on Fridays is fierce.  Gabriel asked if we could have a short tour today and another tour tomorrow.  We decided that wasn't a bad plan.  1st because fighting traffic is painful, even for the passengers.  It would mean that we couldn't park near any of the sights we wanted to visit or get good photos.  2nd After almost a month of traveling we are really tiring out.  Hanging around today was really appreciated.

We had breakfast and Gabriel picked us up around 9:15.  We passed by an interesting, lotus shaped building as a convention center.  We then stopped in front of the Independence  Memorial Hall.  A copy in granite of the wooden one in Kandy, it is quite lovely.

Lions are all over the memorial.  I particularly like the teeth on this guy.

The lotus shaped building from a distance.  There really wasn't a place to park any nearer.

Charlie and Gabriel in the memorial

One other shot.

One old colonial building had a race course in the center of town.  The Sri Lankan government got rid of the race track and turned the area into a rugby stadium and kept the stands.  The rest of the building is a shopping mall.

The inside of St. Mary's Church.

The pews

We then drove to St Mary's.  An old Catholic church in Colombo.  A place to park, and some relatively peaceful.

After our visit to the church we went to a Buddhist temple in the area called asokaramaya.  It is about 80 years old.  Ornately decorated it was quite pretty.

Buddha in the main entrance

Buddha in repose.  Note long right foot implies he's reached nirvana

Decorations above the Buddha statue

Bo tree in temple courtyard.

We stopped at a large department store called Odel.  It has a subsidiary called Embark.  We had seen Embark while we were wandering around the fort in Galle.  It turns out the owner of Odel found a street puppy and called him Nicco.  At the time she was selling clothing from the back of a car.  She expanded her empire to the huge department store (and obvious subsidiaries) and decided Nicco brought her good luck.  She works with stray dogs now as a charity and takes Nicco everywhere with her.

A mosque across the street from Odel

Roof line of the Victoria monument in Colombo.

When we got back to the hotel, we wandered out again to the government shop for a last minute few gift items.  We stopped on the way back at Mews Parkway for a sandwich lunch.  When we got back to the hotel we did a lot of nothing.

Today is our last full day.  My next blog will be from home with the final half day.  We fly from Colombo to Mumbai.  Then from Mumbai to Frankfurt.  Then Frankfurt to LA.  3 hours, nine hours, then 13. The downside to visiting the opposite side of the earth.  With all the nonsense in Paris and Mali I suspect we'll really be checked carefully.

NOVEMBER 19 GALLE TO COLOMBO

We had breakfast at the rest house in Galle.  Across the street from the place were two brides and grooms getting their photos taken.  It was a popular spot to get decked out in wedding duds and get photos taken.

The front of the rest house in Galle.

The crew saying good bye to us in the doorway of the rest house.  A newly married couple walking past after getting their photos taken.

We got on the road about 9:20 and drove straight to Colombo.  While we drove in Gabriel, who's a native Colombo man, showed off his city that he is extremely proud of.  All the administrative places,  embassies, and large businesses.  The road we had taken from Galle was the same one built by the Chinese.  They also had opened a huge convention center like place in Colombo.  Apparently all their largess was to establish a Chinese base on Sri Lanka.  The last administration was willing to give them whatever they wanted in exchange for building a new airport in the southern part of the country.  It was near the home of the last administrator.  No one used it, apparently, except for a few random wild elephants who seemed to enjoy strolling on the tarmac.  They also wanted to build high rises along the sea coast in Colombo itself.  The new administration told them they couldn't do any of these things.

A view of the Indian Ocean in Galle on our way out

The Chinese convention center in Colombo

Once established at our hotel (another Ulagala place), we wandered a few blocks to a Sri Lankan government store and bought a few more gifts.  After an afternoon rest, we walked to a local lake and took a stroll.  It really looked like it was going to pour rain, but it held off.

Some photos the city on our stroll.  There are 19 sectors of Colombo, we are in Colombo 2.  Colombo 7 is where the main embassies and government buildings are located.

We started to walk to another restaurant for dinner, but the rain storm came, and we had a great dinner at the hotel.

Only one more full day.  Weird.

NOVEMBER 18 A DAY INSIDE THE FORT IN GALLE

For the first time in several days, we woke up to blue skies.  We had a nice breakfast outside, and then decided we'd wander around the area inside the old Portuguese fort.  Blue skies mean that there is nothing to cut back the sun, so it was very hot, and worse, very humid.

We began our first walk at about 9:30.  Our first goal was immediately outside the fort where the fishing vessels are moored and where they sell fish.  That was fascinating.

Marlin, sharks, tuna, red snapper - lots of fish I recognized.

Little tuna fish, groupers, red snappers

Fish drying on the boats

Some of the boats.  The fishermen go out at night.

The city of Galle in the distance.  There is a rather large harbor area here.

We were armed with sun glasses and sun hats. If our general outward demeanor wasn't tourist, our getups certainly were.  Of course, once we were done looking at boats and fish, our wandering around the tourists shops gave us away immediately. The average Sri Lankan wasn't stupid enough to go strolling around in the heat.  We walked around the fort area, did a little poking around the shops, and by 11:15 were literally dripping wet.  I looked like someone threw a bucket of water at my middle.  We staggered back to the hotel and hid in our room for a bit until our clothes more or less dried out.  We decided, hey, if one idiotic trip out in the heat wasn't enough, how about another? We began our second foray about 1:30 or so.  We staggered back around 3:00 in the same condition as we were in the earlier stroll.  This time, we both immediately took showers, and decided our strolls were over.  Fortunately, our room is large and comfortable and air conditioned, and a bit of a rest many days into our trip, really was a good idea.

The central court house in Galle.  There were loads of people lined up inside the building.  

In this photo you can see the crowd lined up in the court house.  The man on the bicycle is carrying a large load of coconuts.  I didn't know until I came on this trip that there are many different varieties of coconuts.

Across the square from the court house is the police station.

Charlie in front of the lighthouse.  He got much sweatier on our walk than the photo shows.

The mosque in the city was rather old.  The Arab traders established the mosque long ago.

Lots of shops for lots of tourists.

I had seen the collapsed roof of the post office yesterday, about is the warning sign

I hadn't noticed the hanging wires yesterday.

The old Dutch church

The school children got out of school at 1:30.  

Most of the little girls wear they hair parted in the middle with two braids.

Mosque and lighthouse.

At 4 we went down to the veranda for tea.  There was a huge crowd (more than 45 people) all chatting loudly in Spanish.  We found a spot a distance away from the noise.  When they left, we asked the waiters where the crowd was from.  They were a bit put off.  Apparently, a small group from the large crowd showed up for beers on the veranda.  Then the whole group swept in.  The hotel doesn't deal with huge groups like that, and the waiters were thrown for a loop.  They were too polite to chase the crowd off with brooms, but I did get the impression they would have liked to do just that.

Dinner later.  Tomorrow we drive to Colombo.  

NOVEMBER 17 FROM HATTON TO GALLE

We had a 4 1/2 hour drive today, so we got up early, had our breakfast, and were on the road by 8:15.  Gabriel had driven over to pick us up, and he's always early.

Early morning view of the tea factory across the lake.  The smoke stack was powered up to fire the tea leaves.

The drive down the mountains was beautiful.  All the things we should have seen on the train, but did not, we saw today.  Incredibly steep hillsides, beautiful vegetation, and lots of tea plantations. We had seen lots of leeches on our stroll yesterday.  When we got down the mountain a little ways, Gabriel said that the area was really infested with leeches.  Oh really?  What can this mean?  Like putting your sugar covered foot in an ant hive?

The main street of the city of Hatton.  We had been in a bungalow owned by the tea plantation, not in town

All the tea plantations have signs like the one above explaining which plantation the fields belong to.  It was very much like the wineries.  For tea tasting, the tea is slurped up, swirled around your mouth, and spit out.  The only thing you don't get are the crackers between tastings

The movie Bridge on the River Kwai was filmed in a village, Kitulgala, on the way down the mountain.  All the movie personnel stayed in guest houses around the town.  William Holden got to sleep in a manor owned by a wealthy local.  The manor is in the photo.  Piece of movie trivia, a bridge was built across the Kelani River (Black).  An overly enthusiastic movie man blew up the bridge by mistake, and it had to be rebuilt.

At the bottom of the mountain, we went onto a two lane (one lane each way) road that went to Colombo.  The traffic got worse and worse.  Finally, we turned onto a 4 lane lovely motorway.  Gabriel explained it was built by the Chinese.  The only problem was that the material used for the black top isn't up to world standards, so it won't be so nice in a few years.  It's only 2 years old now, and looks pretty good.  The highway also cuts the travel time from  4 hours to 1.

I wasn't sure what to expect in Galle (pronounced Gaul).  I had heard it was a seaside resort with loads of tourists.  I pictured a Sri Lankan Honolulu.  It turns out the tourist part of the town is a fort built by the Portuguese in the 1650s.  There are loads of old buildings, and only a few tiny streets.  We are staying in one of the English rest houses called Amangalla.  It's very colonial and very comfy.  

Gabriel stayed for a bit and showed us the marine museum and the basic layout of the town.  We wandered a bit.  Had a tea at the hotel (free for guests of the hotel).  Then we wandered onto the ramparts of the wall to watch the sunset.

The old post office is in need of some repair

Nathan, this light hou' is for you!

View of the Indian Ocean from the wall

When the Indonesian created tsunami hit Galle, the wave went up to the 9 on the clock tower.  3000 people were drowned.

Views of the city of Galle from the ramparts.

More views.  A cricket stadium is in the close distance

The 3rd world ubiquitous yellow dog.  If you were to take all breeds of dogs that can take high humidity and heat.  You let them run about on their own and choose the mate of their choice.  Mating for love?  Eventually you end up with yellow dogs about the size of large spaniels.

A lovely home inside the walls of Galle

Groups of people waiting for the sunset

What drew them to the sea

We went back to the hotel and had sea bass for dinner.  There are loads of fishing boats around, and this fish must have been in the ocean a few hours before.