When I woke up this morning in the Old New Dutch House in Middle Steet it was rain. Then it started raining heavily, and then torrentially, as it does in the tropics. Inside our room the atmosphere was a bit thick. Not only was the usual smells that accumulate over night, but also the damp from our laundry that was drying in the room. I didn’t want to pay the silly prices for hotel laundry, so we washed our smalls in shampoo in the basin, wrung them out and hung them to dry. The fan was going all night to provide an internal breeze. Our clothes were sort-of clean, and we had more money to spend on rice and curry!
The walls of Galle were built by the Dutch, and are tall, broad and very substantial. The British got them because the Netherlands were part of Napoleons territories, and the British thrashed Napoleon at Waterloo. Galle Fort is on a peninsula, and the walls go all the way round it. The Fort is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and has lots of lovely old buildings. Many are now shops, restaurants or hotels, and derelict buildings are being restored. The streets are relatively quiet, and have more tourists than local people, it reminded me of an Asian Dubrovnik.
We ate lunch at the Lucky Fort Cafe and had another enormous rice and curry meal. I ate some novel curries including beetroot, pineapple, mango, tapioca and palm heart. I shall be shitting for England at about 8.30 tomorrow morning. After lunch we walked through the gate and into Galle new town, a typical Sri Lankan town. A street hustler tried to persuade me to go to buy some spices and tea. I explained to him that because I live in West London I can probably buy spices for less than he does, and Tesco sells a huge variety of excellent tea which is approved by chimps.
Throughout Sri Lanka I have seen posters for Nippolac, which is either:
A) Japanese paint, or
B) a breast feeding aid
You decide.
As it was getting dark we fancied a drink, yer know, a proper drink. But we found ourselves near the mosque, and no booze to be found in that quarter of town. So we went into a trendy bar called the Gullible Tourits and paid too much for small drinks and bad service. What they need is a proper boozer selling London Pride, the Chinese tourists would love it!
timharnesstravels 