Galle Fort City

 

Feb.27

            Today we needed to travel to Galle.  We had planned to take the local bus until Meg heard that it as over 4 hours without a bathroom break.  We could step off the bus, but who knows how long it would take for the next one to show up?  So we used the Pick Me app again and got a direct lift that saved us two hours.  The reason for the savings was that there was an actual highway in this part of the country that lets you go 90 km/h.  A rarity.

            We said goodbye to everyone at our friendly hotel and set out.  There were few cars on the highway, probably because it was tolled and didn’t allow tuktuks.  We had a nice driver and got to our place with no problems. 

            Our host showed us our room and then offered us a better one, as I had forgotten to make sure we had AC.  We did a dance where we cancelled our reservation on Booking and she responded with not giving us a penalty.  She said that Booking took a large percentage of the room charge and that we both would do better with this arrangement.  She was friendly but a little on the pushy side and we didn’t take her up on her repeated offers of a local lake tour.

            Her place did have an excellent location.  Her front yard looked out on the water over a rocky beach.  We were a ten minute walk from the train station and less than 20 minutes away from the old city, which is the major attraction in Galle.

            We walked over to the old city along a busy street which became crowded with buses and vendors as we neared the main gate.  The gate is the entry point to the old reinforced fort city built by the Dutch.  The walls are in great shape and border water on three sides.  The buildings inside are mainly tourist-oriented businesses with a few offices, schools and residences.

            We took about an hour walking the walls.  There were a few historical statues, plaques and models but many of the plaques were so weather-damaged as to be illegible.  Many people were making the same walk which was fairly flat and straightforward, only requiring a few bypasses or short hops over gaps if you wanted to walk next to the outer walls (where the best views were).  It was nice to be close to the water on the hot day and we took the obligatory pictures by the iconic lighthouse. 

            We settled down at a café that was supposed to host tours and the owner, who hosted the tours, spoke to us for awhile.  We poked around in shops and picked up a few items at the supermarket before deciding on a place for dinner.  One of the places recommended on Tripadvisor was a hotel restaurant.  It had a nice courtyard but the power had  gone out when we arrived so we went inside to avoid the noise the hotel generator was making.  Once the electricity came back on, we went to the courtyard but had to try a few tables to find one that wasn’t stalked by a cloud of mosquitos.  The wait staff were snooty and the food just okay but the bartender was friendly and the cocktails were good.  We waited a long time for Meg’s fruit salad as the bartender was tasked with slicing the fruit and could only do so when drinks weren’t being ordered.

            The fort was well-lit at night and we had a nice walk back to our room.