Days 12-14

Galle is very different to the rest of Sri Lanka…. it was founded by the Portuguese in the 16th century and expanded by the Dutch, hence the Dutch Reformed Church and Old Dutch Hospital (now boutique shops). The best part was the Colonial old fort, enclosed by stone sea walls that you can walk on top of.

It felt like wandering around an old European town if you ignore the tuk tuks zooming around!

Lonely Planet advised caution walking the enclaves alone, warning of ‘hustlers’ and ‘small time scammers’. Each time we passed somebody we would ponder ‘scammer? Or hustler?’ 🤔 in actual fact all we noticed were canoodling couples under umbrellas making the most of the nooks and crannies!

Although some giggling teenage schoolboys made kissing noises at Helen the one time we had separated – this was the sole instance that either of us received any unwanted attention despite Lonely Planet’s other warning of non stop harassment. Everybody we encountered, male or female, was polite and quiet

The Sea Green Guesthouse was in a great location across from the sea and yes, a green, where there was either a cricket match or local PE class going on (atleast I think that’s what it was!) :

Galle is known for it’s pasta so we splashed out on a nice dinner. Most places do not serve alcohol and this one was BYOB. We had a very confusing conversation with the waiter. ‘Where is the nearest shop where we can buy a bottle of wine?’ – ‘We don’t serve alcohol. You bring your own’ – ‘We understand. But where can we buy it?’ – ‘White or red?’ – ‘Umm, white’ – ‘OK we have’ – ‘Umm ok’. The manager then came over to confirm that if anyone asked, we didn’t get it from them 😂 It was probably the most expensive thing I’ll buy on this trip!

It’s worth a quick diversion on The Food in Sri Lanka, which I love – lunch is usually noodles or rice with leeks, spring onion, grated carrot and a chilli sauce on the side. A variation is with roti (also known as chapati) shredded almost like noodles. The Sri Lankan breakfast includes the Hopper, which is like a bowl shaped pancake. I’m not convinced we ate it properly as it looks like it should be filled with something 🤔

Dinner is usually mix of three vegetable curries, often accompanied by Dahl, spicy coconut sambal and popadoms. You can easily eat well for just a few pounds – in the nicer places that we’ve been choosing, vegetable fried rice or noodles usually costs £2 (or half a Shoe Tip) I’m impressed that food is cooked from scratch – order fried noodles and you’ll hear the carrot being grated! We also solved the mystery of the random bursts of Fur Elise that we’d been hearing – it’s the Bakery Tuk Tuk! Like the ice cream man but selling bread.

Sadly this is the end of the Sri Lanka part of my trip with Helen. All that remained was to take the train to Colombo…. surely this would be an easier journey? Less tourists, no pilgrims, Monday afternoon….

Nope, we still ended up on the wrong part of the platform and we still managed to get on last, meaning yet again we didn’t get a seat. This was only 2.5 hours though, not too long to sit on the floor of a high speed train next to an open doorway – didn’t we want this coveted position on the Ella train?

For context, here is a photo that Helen stole from instagram of the serene tourists hanging gracefully out of the doorways:

And here is the reality – photo taken by me!

I wasn’t on the floor long as a lovely lady called me over to squeeze in next to her and her daughter (they were that thin). We had a nice chat about her husband’s love of bananas and the public holiday that was coming up tomorrow. The whole family desperately wanted Helen to have a seat too and didn’t understand that she was actually quite happy by the doorway.

And that’s it…

Final backpack selfie before Helen goes home (booo) and I head to India to continue my journey. Next stop Mumbai!