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Galle
We started our journey in Sri Lanka in the old colonial city Galle Sri Lanka
On this trip we divided our time equally between the Maldives and Sri Lanka. The former half of the trip we wrote about in
our previous blog entry. Now we are going to write about the latter half.
In the Maldives we really wanted to go on an excursion to see whale sharks and manta rays. The whale sharks are the largest fish on earth. It would have been really cool to see them. Unfortunately there was no tour on the days we were at the resort so we never got to see the largest fish on earth. All we saw were some sardines swimming in the coral reefs close to the resort.
When we came to Sri Lanka we, since we missed out on the opportunity to see the largest fish on earth, decided to ramp things up a notch or two. If we can’t see the largest fish on earth we can go and see the biggest land-living mammals on earth, elephants, and the largest animals that has ever existed, blue whales.
However, we started our journey in the old colonial city Galle. The historical centre in Galle is well preserved and is listed on
Galle
The historical centre in Galle is well preserved and is listed on the world heritage list the world heritage list. We made the fatal decision to visit Galle on Good Friday. It turns out Good Friday is a holiday in southern Sri Lanka and consequently almost everything was closed.
We walked around in the historical centre for a while looking at the various buildings. After almost two hours we felt that we had seen all there was to see. We went back to the bus station and took a bus to Mirissa, the town where the tours for watching blue whales departure.
Mirissa turned out to be a place we liked. It had a laid back feel to it that we enjoyed. We stayed in a hotel next to the beach. After we arrived we decided to go out through the back entrance of the hotel to have a swim in the ocean. We didn’t get to swim much though because the waves were too big for that. Big waves may be difficult to swim in but they are great to play in and play we did. We bodysurfed, we had the waves break over us and we dived into the waves.
The next day we went on the whale watching tour. The
Galle
We made the fatal decision to visit Galle on Good Friday. It turns out Good Friday is a holiday in southern Sri Lanka and consequently almost everything was closed. tour started early in the morning and lasted until lunchtime. We don’t know how many blue whales we saw, they all look the same to us and they were disappearing into the water and reemerging later on. But at one time we saw four blue whales simultaneously so there were at least four individuals.
Today there are only between 5,000 and 12,000 blue whales in the world. That is probably less than 1%!o(MISSING)f the total number of blue whales in the world before commercial hunting for whales began in the 19
th century.
It was a great experience going on the whale watching tour. The photos we took there don’t do the experience justice. It is very difficult to take good photos of blue whales but it is still very cool to see them.
We would have liked to stay in Mirissa for a few days longer. But if we had done that we would not have had the time to see the elephants. In the choice between seeing elephants or relaxing on the beach in Mirissa we decided on the animals with the trunk. But next time we go to Sri Lanka we will drop by
Snake charmer
A snake charmer in Galle. This is quite an awful business really. He is being very cruel to the snakes in Mirissa again and make sure we have a few days to spend there.
From Mirissa we went to a town named Kandy. Just like the town Galle, which was the first place we visited in Sri Lanka, Kandy is a world heritage site. It is an important religious centre and it is the religious sites that has earned Kandy its place in the list. But it was not the temples we were there to see. And it was not for seeing the fountain in the lake either, though it was funny to see that it looked just like
Jet d'Eau in Geneva,
a place Ake visited earlier this year. We wanted to see elephants.
An hour or so outside Mirissa there is an elephant orphanage. For many years they have taken care of elephants who have been injured or lost their parents or for some other reason are in peril. We thought it could be fun to visit this place. We admit that it was a silly thing to do but that was what we were in the mood for. Sometimes we wish to be serious, and that is when we visit temples, world heritage sites and historical places. Other days we feel like
Fisherman
Fisherman in Mirissa doing silly stuff and then an elephant orphanage is the place of choice for us. It was really fun to see the elephants. The baby elephants are just adorably cute.
We had very little time to spend in Sri Lanka on this trip. But we never planned to get more than a glimpse of what this country has to offer. We wanted to just get to know the country, not see everything. Now we know that we like Sri Lanka and we will for sure go back there some other time.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
We are enjoying following your trip!
Loved the whale photos. We've been on Orca watching trips in the NW United States , Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and Sperm Whales in NZ and we know how tough it is to get their photo. Sneaky....as big as they are they move with grace and speed.