Galle is at least a 2 hour drive south of Wadduwa. Our tour guide offered many side trips, this kept the adults interested and our youngsters got to move about. A tall and elaborately carved staircase to a Buddist Temple. Note the raised circular area at the base, also carved - elephants a plenty. Christine was asked to wrap her sarong around her waist, as neither knees or shoulders can be uncovered (just like when entering a Mosque!)
Elephant carved into the side of the staircase.
Top of the staircase looking back downward, note the carved stone entryway. Van at the bottom was out transportation.
This huge Budda actually sits atop of the temple. To gain entrance, you must walk around the sides.
Christine and Katherine walking down one of the many staircases inside the multi leveled temple. Very colorful reliefs depicting the stages of Budda's life (i.e. enlightenment) cover almost every square inch. Our guide was Buddist and he spent a lot of time explaining the religion to all of us.
This relief was painted after the 26 December 2004 Tsunami, close study shows people climbing the hill to reach safety at the temple.
Always an opportunity to make money: the industrious Sri Lankans have this placid elephant outside the temple. Tourists pay a small amount and children walk under the elephant three times, it is supposed to bring good luck. The boys are touching the skin at the urging of the keepers. Note the sarong-like wrap on the Sri Lankan on the left - this is national dress for men.
Our guide, Mr. LaLa, explains varies components of this memorial to the Tsunami victims that were trapped on the train and perished. The coastline is just beyond the palm trees.
Close up of the memorial - note the railway cars. The train was full to capacity with 15,000 people traveling to celebrate both Buddist Full Moon and Christmas. When the first wave hit, the local population (of about 2,000) climbed into the carriages and on top of the roof. People were jammed tightly inside. When the second wave of 18 feet hit, people inside could not move to swim and the possibility of survival was extremely low.
This beautiful Budda, standing in the middle of a peaceful lake, was a gift to the people of Sri Lanka from a sister city in Japan. While driving along the main road (there is ONLY one road), we saw thousands of buildings never repaired. People are still waiting for release of the money contributed from all over the world. Government moves as slowly in Sri Lanka as it does elsewhere in the world...Galle (pronunced Gaul) was occupied by the Dutch (among many others).
Christine, Katherine and Joseph outside the Dutch Reformed Church in Old Galle. There are memorial plaques (similar to the ones against the church base) all around the perimiter of this walled property.
Inside of the Dutch Reformed Church - still in use and still lovely. Beneath the entire floor are burial vaults with the information as to who occupies each vault. Besides the names and typical information, inscriptions offer occupations, time length in Galle, number of children and spouses. The vaults on the floor are all Dutch, but the ones around the sides are all English - yes, even the Dutch Reformed Church was occupied by the British!
Our group in front of the Lighthouse at the "Old Fort" - The fortress covered a vast area and encompassed the much of the town.
View off to the right from the walking path (atop the fortified granite walls of the fortress). This shows the old town of narrow streets and white-washed, red tile roofed homes. We were impressed with how clean this city was, NO litter anywhere.
Walking further down the pathway, we passed another colonial era church and approached...
a lovely granite jetty. Just the place to snap a photo of the Atsma family.
We moved to another are of the original Old Fort. As we were walking up a ramp, we passed a "snaker charmer" with his cobra in the basket and a constrictor coiled beside him on the pavement. Sri Lankans are opportunists where tourists are concerned: this gentleman played his flute and got the cobra to "dance". He also...
places the snake on obliging tourists. Both Joseph and William seemed to enjoy the experience.
We came out here at the top of the ramp - another entirely different section of the fortress, with an inner harbor just past the far side. That is a huge raindrop in center of the picture - yes, the rains had come.
Hendrik, who took the vast majority of these pictures, has spun 180 degrees and now the open seas are in the background.
Stopped at this seafood restaurant our guide recommended. We have come back up the coast 14 km to Hikkaduwa, this area was the first of the first beautiful beaches to be discovered by the tourists in the 1960's. It became a haven for "hippies" we are told. The area has expanded to a 4KM strip of hotels, shops, bars, restaurants & guesthouses all lining either side of the 2-lane road. Hikkaduwa is best known for excellent snorkeling & diving - colorful fish & corals, turtles and several documented shipwrecks to explore. We explored lunch!
Scott finally enjoying his soup. We ordered and our waiter disappeared for more than 45 minutes.
Thankfully the open beach was just over Hendrik's shoulder. A woman walked up the beach selling textiles. She came over to our table and was rewarded by sales from both of our ladies. Hey, we had to do something while we waited!
Stopped at a "gem" mine on our way back up the coast. This fellow was really working hard.
You can see another fellow down at the bottom of the mine.
Scott and one of the workers seem to be enjoying themselves.
Katherine and Joseph were checking out the raw gems.
A worker cutting and polished green quartz. He was making a lovely necklace all with these simple tools. We moved on the the sales room where Scott was soon parted from some of his money - the snake charmer was much cheaper.
Sri Lanka is famous for ceremonial masks. These were in a museum further along on the way. We also stopped at an herbal farm, but that story is so long, so complicated and so hilarious that will only tell it in person. We went home and jumped into the pool then relaxed until dinner.
Christine, Katherine and Joseph outside the Dutch Reformed Church in Old Galle. There are memorial plaques (similar to the ones against the church base) all around the perimiter of this walled property.
Inside of the Dutch Reformed Church - still in use and still lovely. Beneath the entire floor are burial vaults with the information as to who occupies each vault. Besides the names and typical information, inscriptions offer occupations, time length in Galle, number of children and spouses. The vaults on the floor are all Dutch, but the ones around the sides are all English - yes, even the Dutch Reformed Church was occupied by the British!
Our group in front of the Lighthouse at the "Old Fort" - The fortress covered a vast area and encompassed the much of the town.
View off to the right from the walking path (atop the fortified granite walls of the fortress). This shows the old town of narrow streets and white-washed, red tile roofed homes. We were impressed with how clean this city was, NO litter anywhere.Walking further down the pathway, we passed another colonial era church and approached...
a lovely granite jetty. Just the place to snap a photo of the Atsma family.
We moved to another are of the original Old Fort. As we were walking up a ramp, we passed a "snaker charmer" with his cobra in the basket and a constrictor coiled beside him on the pavement. Sri Lankans are opportunists where tourists are concerned: this gentleman played his flute and got the cobra to "dance". He also...
places the snake on obliging tourists. Both Joseph and William seemed to enjoy the experience.
We came out here at the top of the ramp - another entirely different section of the fortress, with an inner harbor just past the far side. That is a huge raindrop in center of the picture - yes, the rains had come.
Hendrik, who took the vast majority of these pictures, has spun 180 degrees and now the open seas are in the background.
Stopped at this seafood restaurant our guide recommended. We have come back up the coast 14 km to Hikkaduwa, this area was the first of the first beautiful beaches to be discovered by the tourists in the 1960's. It became a haven for "hippies" we are told. The area has expanded to a 4KM strip of hotels, shops, bars, restaurants & guesthouses all lining either side of the 2-lane road. Hikkaduwa is best known for excellent snorkeling & diving - colorful fish & corals, turtles and several documented shipwrecks to explore. We explored lunch!
Scott finally enjoying his soup. We ordered and our waiter disappeared for more than 45 minutes.
Thankfully the open beach was just over Hendrik's shoulder. A woman walked up the beach selling textiles. She came over to our table and was rewarded by sales from both of our ladies. Hey, we had to do something while we waited!
Stopped at a "gem" mine on our way back up the coast. This fellow was really working hard.
You can see another fellow down at the bottom of the mine.
Scott and one of the workers seem to be enjoying themselves.
Katherine and Joseph were checking out the raw gems.
A worker cutting and polished green quartz. He was making a lovely necklace all with these simple tools. We moved on the the sales room where Scott was soon parted from some of his money - the snake charmer was much cheaper.
Sri Lanka is famous for ceremonial masks. These were in a museum further along on the way. We also stopped at an herbal farm, but that story is so long, so complicated and so hilarious that will only tell it in person. We went home and jumped into the pool then relaxed until dinner.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Galle is at the SW tip of Sri Lanka and is the capital city of the southern province. The city has a population of 100,000 and is contected to the rest of the country by rail and by roads laid out by the British. Traveling was time consuming and the drivers were daredevils. It seemed that we were playing "chicken" an awful lot of the time.
The city was devastated by the massive 26 December (Boxing Day) 2004 tsunami. Thousands were killed in the city and surrounding areas. More than 40,000 were estimated dead in the entire country and 2.5 million people were displaced. The 6 meter waves swept 5 K inland, made more deadly because most of Sri Lanka is flat.
Galle was a prominent seaport long before Western rule. Persians, Arabs, Greek, Malays, Indians and Chinese have been doing business at Galle port for centuries. A 1411 stone tablet commerating the visit of Chinese admiral Zheng He is written in 3 languages - Chinese, Persian and Tamil (remember the Tamil Tigers from northern part of the island?)
The Portugese arrived in Sri Lanka in 1505, followed by the Dutch in 1640. The Dutch East Indian Company is responsible for construction of the fortress. British rule began in 1796 and they used the fort, largely unchanged, as an asministrative center
It is the best example of fortified city built by Europeans in SE Asia. The Galle fort is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest remaining fortress in Asia built by European occupiers. The fortified walls were constructed of solid granite and has three bastions. It was quite impressive.
Hope you've enjoyed the pictures and descriptions,
Christine and Scott
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