I thought my last weekend in Sri Lanka would be a total washout, as it started to raining non-stop from Thursday.
We planned to go to Galle, in southwest Sri Lanka, about 71 miles from Colombo.
We left Colombo in the pouring rain early Friday morning and it rained all the way to our destination.
Then ta-da, as we arrived, it stopped raining and has been great ever since.😊.
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| Latsane, Joan, Sharlene, Damith |
My hosts Damith/Sharlene and I all stayed in nice little hotel in town called Blue Heaven. Later we had a grand time hanging out at Galle Fort with their friend Latsane.
This Fort, built by the Portuguese in 1588, is on the Indian Ocean.
In 1649 it was fortified by the Dutch and is today an important architectural heritage site controlled by UNESCO.
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| The entire town and surroundings are growing rapidly, partly due to the influx of tourists. However 21 years ago, much of the town was flattened by the tsunami which devasted much of south east Asia. |
Naturally the ruins were also damaged but you
wouldn't believe it looking at the surroundings today.
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| A replica of the original small town. |
Most of the archeological site remains in pretty good condition, despite having been badly damaged in 2004.
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| Miniature, showing the original design of the city. |
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| A huge Mosque near the ruins. As it was Friday, many Muslims were busy in the area. |
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| The very angry Indian Ocean. |
Like much of Sri Lanka, this city is home to religious adherents from all the major religions, but the dominance of Buddhism which is so obvious in other areas, was not visible.
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| A Buddhist temple on the hill quite a distance away. I could also see a huge, old Christian church in town, from the fort. |
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| The roof of the solid ammunition storage building. |
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| A Muslim on her way to the Mosque ahead. |
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| A coconut tree grows out of the large granite rock heap offshore. |
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| These ladies in beautiful saris are teachers at the International School. The saris are their uniform. |
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A small cafe has been set up in the midst of the ruins. Tourism is now Sri Lanka's second most important industry, so both local people and visitors flock this area. This is a recognized UNESCO world heritage site and every time I visit a place like this, I wonder why we are joking around with our sunken city, Port Royal? Such a damn shame.😡 |
Pic of the very angry Indian Ocean below!  |
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| This lovely house on the Ocean was badly damaged by the tsunami, but they fixed it up nicely. That's where we stayed overnight before heading back to Colombo. |
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| Young people challenging the rough surf on their boards. |
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| There is a statue of Buddha on the hill overlooking the town of Galle. |
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| Among Damith's friends that we had drinks with on Friday night was Dr Ruwan who served as coroner in Jamaica for 3 years. |
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| L-r. Charaka, his wife Tara, Dr. Damith, and Ganga. It's been an overwhelming three weeks as there is so much to see and do in that very big island. And the Sri Lankan people are so warm and generous. It's really true that time flies when you having fun. And boy, did I ever have fun😊. |
Update. The rains that started on Thursday night turned into quite a storm with high winds later in the night. It damaged the roof of
Latsans parents home in Galle.
It's the beginning of the monsoon season in Sri Lanka and the weather seems to be intensifying now.
