The Galle to Colombo line

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Last full day and another opportunity to take an amazing train. The famous line from Galle to Colombo takes you along the coast - pretty much on the beach along some of it. This train was a lot more crowded than the one up in the hills so I planted myself by an open door on the coast side. One of the happiest travel moments of my life! Again I was too nervous to do the hanging out of the door thing, but I got a great view of this stunning coast line and chatted to the locals.

This area was devastated by the 2004 tsunami. I heard one story that on the morning it happened the tide was unusually low. This led lots of people - families, children, everybody to go out on the beach to make the most of it completely unaware of what was coming. 30,000 people lost their lives here and as you ride this train, you can see that a lot of the buildings are makeshift - the people either financially unable to build anything more permanent, or maybe just unwilling.

Didn't do much in Colombo. It's a place that needed some proper research and a couple of days to make the most of it. I spent my last few hours raiding the local bakeries and finding presents to take home. This is an amazing country - years of civil war followed by a natural disaster have made this a place that is desperate to please. I can see it will grow significantly in the next few years - there is so much to do and see here and the people are so friendly. I hope it doesn't get over-developed though. Much of its charm comes from the feeling of not trying too hard.

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