Galle: Exploring the Fort

What a relief; I awoke feeing OK, though my stomach is a bit crampy and I’m a bit sore.

It was a beautiful day, so trying to ignore the incredible horrors of the night before AND the still-sore lump on my foot, we walked a circuit of the old walls that go around most of the peninsula, and looked at some of the old buildings, including a Dutch Reformed Church with old gravestones set in the floor, built in 1755.

Hundreds of white-uniformed schoolchildren were out and about on the walls for some reason, and at one point, seeing a kid with a bongo, l asked him to have a go and played a short solo which was very well received by a pack of Sri Lankan schoolboys!

But tourists – they seem to be looking weirder and weirder every time I travel. Unhealthy, overweight, inappropriately and uncomfortably dressed, draped with big cameras, wandering around looking out of place. A huge proportion of Germans and Russians for some reason.

Galle Fort is quite touristy – it has a bit of the feel of Hoi An in Vietnam, coloured lights strung across the lanes at night, that kind of thing – but a lot of the shops and businesses still seem locally owned, and there were lots of locals and Sri Lankan tourists wandering about – it hasn’t become completely Disneyfied yet, thankfully.

After a long walk we had a juice and some fries, then retuned to the hotel for a rest. After a while Carol went out for a wander through the shops while I caught up in this diary.

After a shave and a shower I felt better, and after Carol returned and got ready we headed out. First we checked out the Amangalla hotel – out of our price range at over $1,000 a night (!), but the location for some of the scenes in the classic Duran Duran Sri Lankan-set videos Hungry like the Wolf, Save a Prayer, and Lonely in You Nightmare. I watched those videos on YouTube before we went out to dinner and they’re basically travel advertisements for Sri Lanka!

It felt a bit snooty there though so we walked to the Galle Fort Hotel, a heritage hotel with a classic streetfront verandah, where we had cocktails. Mine was an arrack, ginger and lime concoction, and Carol had Only Nabeel Likes This, a pina colada-like drink with treacle and masala chai.

Refreshed, we ended up at a good quality pizza place called Aqua Pizza, for a change of pace for dinner.

Finally, gelato, which was excellent. And what’s even better, my stomach survived it all!

We’re both a bit sad tonight as it’s our last night in a new Sri Lankan location (tomorrow night we’re holed up in a resort hotel before we fly out late the following day) – so we soaked up the atmosphere of the warm, humid streets of Galle Fort before retreating to our room for the night.