Galle - a daytrip

There is a well worn path to Galle down the West Coast - a little collection of tourist attractions. First up a river safari to sow off local wildlife, local hotels and local posh houses..

 

 Monitor lizard

Into the mangrove creek.

And even here you can't get away from the weddings. An unusual venue for a photo-shoot.

 Then onto a turtle-sanctuary. Odd places. Instead of the locals leaving the turtle eggs alone (or rather digging them up and eating them) the locals dig them up and sell them to the turtle sanctuary. The sanctuary puts them into a sandy plot, and then keep them in tanks for 3 days before letting them loose. s0. one day old turtles.....

Two day olds

And the odd older specimen

On a nice beach though

Next up was a spice garden. As I was the only person on this trip, some poor chap had to show me round on his own. And of course the real aim was to seel their quack products for varicose veins, arthritis, hair removal, headaches etc. Unfortunately I suffered from no appropriate ailments, and in any event would trust more to my local pharmacist.

Then onto a Moonstone Mine. Now I have a picture in my mind of mining, a dangerous job with muscular young men hewing minerals from unyielding rock. This really didn't match it. Poor elderly men dead behind the eyes slowly pulling up little baskets of gravel and washing them in a little basket.

The real aim again was to take me round the corner to the gem shop. Needless to say my status as a single man made me a tough sale. I liked the hopefulness of the bloke persuading me to buy a necklace for a girlfriend which I don't yet have!

And finally to Galle.

The main sight here is the originally Portuguese Fort, later expanded by the Dutch and then the British as the Island changed colonial hands. You might anticipate on arrival that my driver/guide, booked through the hotel, would give me a bit of history of the place. Actually what he said was "Fort". To be fair, he did then point to the Clock Tower and announce "Clock Tower" informatively. Surprisingly few people speak good English in the tourist trade. This guy largely spoke in nouns.

He was also the opposite of a guide. To my surprise as I wandered around the fort, he just followed me about. Like a very inefficient secret policeman.

The fort offers good views of the city below, especially over the cricket ground.

The clock tower

 The Dutch Reform Church

 The Maritime Museum

 The Methodist church

 The law courts - an especially nice spot

Now this a free museum in an old colonial house. The collection of one man apparently. But this isn't a collection so much as the result of obsessive hoarding. After all, an old gramophone is one thing, but a pile of broken LPs???

 A nice courtyard in the middle though.

The lighthouse from just before the War. There isn't anything in Galle worth looking at which is post-colonial. Unfortunately, with the exception of hotels, that is pretty much the same throughout the country.

 You can just circumnavigate the walls - the seaward views are picturesque, don't you think?

And back toward the clock tower where one came in.

There are probably few more scenic spots from which to watch a game of cricket.

 But the best place to go is the New Oriental Hotel. This was the only place into which my guide didn't follow me so I had a beer on my own. This is the one place you really get a feel for the colonial life. A lovely spot.