Ceylon 2018

Dinner last night was in the tiniest restaurant and very close by as promised. The name was Spoons and it was a funny little place with only 4 tables and half of them on the road outside. We also did a bit of souvenir shopping, managing to be inside as another downpour of heavy rain hit. Anyhoo, onto our last proper day of travelling. We are booked onto the 3.30pm train from Galle to Colombo Fort. Our challenge today is to keep busy and entertained until then. We start wandering in a new direction and end up at the fish market which is directly on the beach near the fort. Considering the setup of the stalls, it smelt remarkably fresh. We continued to look for the general markets but I don’t think we really found them. We did, however chat to a few stall holders that were able to explain a few of those little mysteries in regards to food we kept seeing on menus etc but had no idea. Wood apples for one, we kept seeing trees with golf balls hanging off them and as it turns out they are wo...

Planned lazy day, as we near the end, we are tired. The day breaks with less heat and rain showers all day. It seems mostly the rain hits when we are completely away from any cover! Can’t get any wetter than wet!  Sri Lankan breaky of poppers, dahl, coconut samba and fresh fruit salad washed down with fresh ambarella juice. Quick walk to bus depot, interrupted by frequent “no thanks” to the ever eager tuk tuk drivers. We manage to catch a bus in the right direction! Of course when we stop it is sunshine only briefly before it pours. We hide under a tree, eventually realising that there is no choice but get wet.  The tuk tuk drivers can’t figure us out.  We check out the beach: nice but can’t see the flags so miss out on swim.  See the stilts sans fisherman, though they see us and quickly dress up and rush out of their tent. It is raining pretty heavily, so they are not going out to the stilts unless there is money to be made. Sad that..... The stilt fisherman are jus...

As we approach the end of our holiday, we tire and sleep in today. Have breaky, then off to the train station. The cacophony of sounds, crowds and general chaos that surrounds a major road, a busy bus station and a railway station is extraordinary. Jump on train to hikkaduwa on route to the small town of Tellawatta.  Here we are looking for the Tsunami education centre and photo museums. The photo museum is in what was once the host’s house; quite sobering. Further south is a small memorial where the lady said was dedicated to the 1200 who lost their lives on the train when caught in the second wave. People sought protection in the train after the first smaller wave, I guess figuring that the threat was over. Along a little further is Tsunami Honganji Vihara, a standing budda facing the waves with hands in the “ abhaya mudra” pose, this is Buddha’s pose conveying fearlessness and protection. Stuart in particular feels for them having been very involved in the tsunami relief in Band...

Time to return to civilisation. Our host summons us a tuk tuk, “friend, give local price” , who takes us to tissa ( short for tissamaharama). About 20 minutes and lkr800, he does offer to take us all the way to galle for lkr6000. We decline and opt for local bus, although we are unsure how the system works : where we catch the bus( on street, not in depot), how to buy ticket...eventually the locals help.  A bus does appear and the conductor agrees it is to Galle. Packs in boot of bus, bums on seats and off we go, low flying across the country side. It seems momentum and size are very important. ( and how loud your horn is ) The countryside passes, We arrive in galle some 4 hours later, not a particularly uncomfortable trip however we are pleased to be on our feet again. We have stopped literally outside the fort’s main entrance and our accommodation is just inside. It is very warm and extremely humid so we are very happy to seek the comfort of air conditioning in our room while we ...