After reloading our depleted batteries at the beach in Tangalle it was time to head to our chosen location for our celebration of the Holiest of All Consumer Holidays, Galle (for which there seems to be as many ways to pronounce it’s name as there are people living on this island.) Once again the circumstances forced us to rely on the help of your friendly neighborhood spi… taxi driver. The trip was ofc a lot faster and quite a bit more comfortable than using public transport would have been, but we had spend like 15.000 LKR (50 cheap meals or 30+ beers) on the last two taxi trips alone.

Anyways, after the relative short and uneventful drive we finally arrived to our accommodation and found out that we were basically occupying the whole upper floor of the main building. Our hosts were, much to our surprise, expats from the UK and not locals – the posh accent sounded rather silly and even a bit arrogant, even though the hosts were generally really friendly and accommodating.

A lot of the beaches were filled with these sticks, some tens of meters onto the ocean, to serve as seats for the local fisher folk.

As the first thing after settling down and getting AC for our room (this will be important later) we headed out for some chow and a stroll on the walls of Galle Fort. After a quick(ish) meal at the first cafe we found inside the fort walls, we headed down the Lighthouse Street (leading from the main gate all the way through the Fort) to take a peak over the walls. The view was about as cool as it could get, light blue water, thick fortress walls made out of pieces of corals held together by mortar, and sharp rocks poking out of the water amidst white surfs. My overly active imagination could almost see the outlines of the opposing fleet outside on the safe waters. Later on we set off to find a place where to enjoy the sight of the setting sun over the Indian Ocean –  a bar located a tad bit off from the walls and towering above the rest of the city. And as one might expect, our luck worked against us once again: the view towards the setting sun in this “superb” spot turned to be completely blocked by a big tree nearby and the soothing sounds of nature were provided by a trio of squirrels aiming to kick start the next squirrel generation. So off to the walls we went again, just to be disappointed by the somewhat underwhelming sight. But hell, not even betrayed promises could prevent us feeling like proper colonial masters now as we finally had made it to this historical location, so cool it was to be in Galle and the Fort.

The night brought with it some… umh… complications. Ville, who had made the decision to sleep furthest away from the aircon was all the time feeling cold and wanted to turn of the thing altogether. Jenny, who slept in the middle bed was rather ok as long as the ac was on, and myself, closest to the AC (maybe even too close), was feeling really damn hot all time and wanted to crank it even colder (I tend to sleep without any cover worth mentioning and a window open until late fall, and even after that a light sheet is more than enough.) So a full out war would ensue over the control of the AC remote with Ville trying to turn it off, Jenny trying to keep the status quo and me whining how hot it was. First round went for Ville at some point during the early morning and the two more heat tolerant of us waking up glued to our beds, while the second night bought us several defensive victories against the assailant! (In hindsight, we should have just swapped beds with Ville and everyone would most likely have been happy…)

The second day saw our merry lil band breaking into two groups, the gals heading of to see some sights and to do some shopping along an overly pushy Tuk Tuk driver, and us stubborn idiots walking around the city hunting sights by foot. In the west we found a hundred year old Christian cathedral (along with it’s oh so “respectful” glass fiber grotto and every modern bling), side by side with a Hindu temple and a Buddhist temple (+there apparently would have been also a Islamic mosque right around the corner), all huddled up within a few hundred meters of each other. A proper place to shop for the right religious tenets for yourself, just like in a supermarket! From the west we plodded our way eastward through numerous sidesteps to random roads leading to who know what parts of the outer city. We even eventually ended up walking around the whole hill our hostel was on, in search of a place to grab a pint or two (just to find out later on that the place we were hunting was at the back yard of some hotel… Damn you Dick, and to hell with your “great selection of international beers”!)

Atop the old gate, there was a peculiar artifact from the days long past, the emblem of VOC, Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, of more commonly known as the Dutch East-India Company (you know, those people who had branded Jack Sparrow)

The evening brought with it some key mishaps (Jenny being locked out of our room while we were eating), the best meal of the trip in a Maroccan / Arab influenced kitchen and some more of the “Damn, it’s way too cool in here” walking trips. And ofc the fight for the AC remote continued. And in the morrow we had time for the last quick tour in the Fort and ofc a small thermal shock for the guts with some ice cream. And then it was suddenly already the time to storm our last location as a group, but more about that later…