Sri Lanka 2013

January 2-9 2013 Sri Lanka

Colombo was recovery time. It gave both of us time to get over jet lag again and Ray needed time to lessen the effects of his cold. The somewhat upscale Hotel Pearl Grand was a good place to just lie low. We did find a few nice restaurants for our meals and enjoyed an hour of live jazz in the lovely courtyard restaurant of Barefoot, an excellent Fair Trade Handicraft store.

We couldn’t leave Colombo without at least exploring some of the Fort area of the city, reputedly full of grand old colonial style buildings, many of which are in the midst of restoration. A tuk-tuk from our hotel let us off near the clock tower, which was originally a lighthouse when it was closer to the sea. We detoured around the heavily guarded Presidential Residence to enjoy the view from the Old Galle Buck Lighthouse, dedicated in 1951 by the first President of Sri Lanka to honour the new shipping docks built after achieving independence from Britain. Lunch was in the restored Dutch Hospital, where you now have your choice of restaurants or shops to buy good quality souvenirs to take home. Revived, we visited the National Museum, established in 1877 by the current British Governor. We wandered the many dimly lit rooms full of artifacts and displays depicting Sri Lankan life and culture from pre-historic times. We recognized many of the statues and stone work from India and SE Asian sites, especially the Buddhas and Hindu Gods. That was enough for the afternoon. We took another tuk-tuk back to the hotel.

A visit to a beach resort on the south coast, about three hours by bus or train from Colombo, promised to be the best place to further Ray’s recuperation. The town of Galle is known for its literary festival held every year in January, except it was unfortunately cancelled this year. This was prime tourist season. All the hotels I tried in the town of Galle were either too expensive or booked. I found a small hotel, Blue Sky Beach Resort, in Unawatuna Beach, a short distance from Galle. It was more expensive than our hotel in Colombo but it had good reviews from past clients. We explored several options to get there and decided to take an express bus. I am not sure it was the most comfortable choice, but we got there. We never found the promised Air Con bus. The one we took was air cooled, barely, and somewhat crowded, but we reached Galle just a little over the promised three hours. A tuk-tuk, waiting in line to take passengers, indicated he knew where our hotel was. That was an exaggeration. He turned off on a side road to the wrong part of Unawatuna Beach and had to ask directions of one of the hotel owners on this stretch. Back on the main road we found our hotel a few km farther along. Of course the tuk-tuk driver wanted more than the agreed upon price for the extra distance but he had to be content with the amount I thought appropriate.

The hotel turned out to be a good choice. The small establishment was between the beach and the main road but the eight rooms were well insulated from traffic noise, at least in our Air Conditioned room. The beach immediately in front of the hotel was covered by a rock face and buffeted by pounding surf, good for locals to fish in the surf but not for swimming. Further down the beach was a line of poles with a flimsy cross bar. One day, when we didn’t have our cameras, fishermen perched on the cross bar, fishing.

We didn’t have to look far to find the best place to swim. About 100 M down the beach from the hotel the rock shelf was farther away from the shore, forming a shallow lagoon, not too warm and definitely not cold, perfect for swimming. In fact there was quite a number of tropical fish nibbling at the corals on the perimeter of the lagoon that I followed with my mask and snorkle. All the staff at our hotel were friendly and helpful and the meals prepared by a local woman and served on a terrace overlooking the sea were excellent.

Our one excursion was by public bus, which stopped right outside the hotel, to Galle to visit Galle Fort, established by the Portuguese in 1589 as protection against the Sinhalese rulers in Kandy. The Dutch captured Galle in 1640 and destroyed nearly all traces of the Portuguese. The fort was rebuilt by the Dutch, taken by the British and expanded in 1796. A good harbour established Galle as the main port for Sri Lanka for over 200 years, until overtaken by new breakwaters and facilities in Colombo in the late 19^thC. We entered the fort through the Main Gate, which was built by the British in 1873 to handle increased traffic into the old town. We had been advised to orient ourselves by getting a view from the ramparts on top of the thick walls. It was a hot and humid time of day. I was reminded of the ditty “Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun”. That was us and it was too hot for us. We confined our walk to the short sections on the north walls facing the bus station.

We retreated to the shadier streets, passing numerous antique and souvenir shops and to find Serendipity Cafe for lunch. A British woman, Juliet Coombs, married to a Galle man, has written books on the fort and leads walking tours. I would have loved to take one of her tours but the timing was wrong. We were in no mood to wait until 5:30 PM for her next tour and were looking forward to enjoying the less humid atmosphere at our hotel. After lunch, I stopped to have a look at the Historical Museum, housed in a restored old Dutch house. Lonely Planet told me it was more the eclectic collection of a pack rat, not really a museum as there were no explanatory write-ups and some items were for sale. The china collection room interested me with many examples of Blue Willow platters and bowls that remain popular today. In the interior courtyard were several men demonstrating gem polishing and silver jewelry making. I was beckoned into the gem shop where I declined all offers to buy a souvenir piece of jewelry. Across the street was another restored Dutch house with a restaurant and an interior courtyard with a lovely moss covered fountain. We walked back to find our return bus via the Old Gate inscribed on one side with the date 1669 in Roman numerals and the insignia VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie – Dutch East India Company), flanked by two lions and topped by a cock, the symbol for Galle. The other side of the gate had the British Coat of Arms, dated 1668.

Back at the hotel, we had time for a short stroll and swim in the lagoon before dinner of chicken curry. Life is good.