Day 9 Saturday

Today we journeyed on to Galle. Still on the south coast but a big town with afortdating from the Dutch colonial times. Need I say it was mad hot again today?this area was badly affected by the tsunami of 2004. At our last stop in Yala, our hotel had been flooded only even though it was on the edge of the beach. That’s because they kept the dunes in tact. In other hotels that had bulldozed the dunes to give the guests a better sea view. They were badly damaged and lives were lost.
The drive into Galle was very interesting. Fishing of corse is very important to the economy and fish is a staple food. The fish are still caught by traditional means with nets or lines and we did see the iconic stilt fishermansadly as it was weekend no one was was really fishing but a few old men with dentistry problems were happy to get on to the stilts and pose - for a fee of course.

Smile please. No on second thoughts don’t. 

The philosophy behind this type of fishing is that as they fish with a line just in the ocean so by drilling a hole in the coral and putting in a pole with a crossbar and perching, tbey avoid getting their legs lashed by the waves. 

On to the Fort which was built in 1640 by the Portuguese but ceded to the Dutch 40 yers later. They enlarged it and styled it like an existing military centre in Holland. I stopped listening after that. It had an old gate

which reminded me of those in the walls of the old city in Jerusalem and  ramparts encircling it and overlooking the ocean. At the far end was a very nice lighthouse

but that was about the extent of it being a fort. A large white colonial style building which had once been a hospital in Dutch times was now a parade of restaurants and bars (and yes we did have a Lion beer as it was absolutely frying hot). However, non of the restaurant or bars had a toilet.  You had to go to the municipal toilets at the end of the block and pay 30 rupees, about 18p but if you had bought a drink or food you could ask the bar owner for a token to get in free. So I did. I duly presented my token, completed my business and on

the way out was told now I must take the token back to the bar. Like I said, it was frying! 

So I gave my token to some bemused French girls. The rest of the town consisted of 

cobbled streets with touristy shops

apart from a museum which  had a couple of recreated rooms and a well dated 1763

 We didn’t see anything of Galle itself  except en passant  but it looked a big bustling town. What I did notice was a complete absence of McDonalds in any town, though Costa is everywhere.