Day 21 Galle to Colombo 16 August

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 wood apples. Who knew.......

Back to the Fort area and we treated ourselves to a fairly bad and expensive coffee before going to the Maritime Archeological Museum.

The museum itself is based in a very old Dutch warehouse that dates back to early 17 century. 

It was interesting and focused predominantly on the shipwrecks around the areas, some of these dating back many hundreds of years.Ships wrecking around here is hardly surprising when you see the number of rocks strategically placed just below the surface of the water.

A sad footnote is that many of these historical artifacts were lost in the tsunami in 2004... returned to the sea.

Back to accommodation to retrieve our gear and have a bit of a chat to the chaps that have been looking after us. They presented us with a little gift.

They had noticed us admiring some jars, so they gave us our own.

Great train journey about 2 and half hours and most of the track goes beside the beach. It would be like the train running along the esplanade in surfers.

Most of the way beautiful but as you get closer to Colombo the area between the beach and the track is chock a block with shanties/ slums. These are built with anything from concrete to plastic sheeting. And seriously if you stuck you hand out the window you could touch them.

Into Colombo about 6pm, back to the same accommodation we were in previously and dumped our stuff. 

Heading down the road for a beer an$ some food. 

Bonus, found 2 for 1 beer, back in the old Dutch hospital area. They were also having a cultural night and we got see more Kandyan dancing. How lucky is that😂😂

We will get up early and pack in the morning for the long trip home.

Well that’s it, that’s a wrap. We hope you have enjoyed sharing the journey with us and perhaps had a few laughs at our expense.

We will see you all soon.