Blogs from Galle, Southern Province, Sri Lanka, Asia

Galle - Sri Lanka #heygo http://www.heygo.com In 1640, the Portuguese were forced to surrender to the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch built the present fort in 1663. They built a fortified solid granite wall and three bastions, known as "Sun", "Moon" and "Star". After the British took over the country from the Dutch in 1796, they preserved the fort unchanged and used it as the administrative centre of the district. Our tour started overlooking the cricket ground. The ground was built in 1876 as a race course. There was no permanent pavilion until 1892, when a ‘grand stand’ was built. Eventually the racing ceased and the ground was used for cricket matches more than races. The fort was under renovation so our guide could not walk along the full length of the walls so he ... read more

After a beautiful red sunset last night we had a 2 hour electrical storm with heavy rain overnight, the first for the tour. Fortunately our riding finished yesterday as traffic conditions are now too chaotic. Mirissa was a lovely beach break to wander around despite the overcast but humid conditions. Like all the coastal towns in the south Mirissa is now undergoing rapid tourist development but some traditional beach shacks remain . Mid afternoon we had a short drive to Galle exploring the impressive World Heritage listed Dutch colonial town ending with a group dinner & return to Mirissa. The towns Dutch fort still has extensive walls and ramparts and many old buildings that survived the 2004 tsunami. We walked around the ramparts & fort late in the afternoon to avoid the baking midday sun and ... read more

R: We headed off the next morning for our next stop - Yala National Park. The day started with a 4 hour drive through the hill country. It was still pouring down in the hill country so we had a quick drive around Nuwara Eliya, including the red brick post office, the somewhat dilapidated looking race course (built by a previous British governor of Sri Lanka), and a large old British style hotel which seemed to be hosting at the time a "largest strawberry tart" contest - the one outside reception probably measured about 6 metres in diameter. There were also ponies walking all over the street - apparently they give pony rides in good weather, but are allowed to roam the streets the rest of the time. The roads are occasionally peppered with red GR ... read more

Day 13: Saturday 16 September - Koggala - Galle – Ahungalia - Bentota This morning we drove to Galle to explore the city including the lighthouse and the Old Town. We also visit the UNESCO World Heritage listed Dutch Fort, the largest intact Dutch fort in Asia. Within the ramparts and stonewalls of Galle Fort outstanding buildings remain. From the ramparts, we could see a river inlet which was where the major tsunami destruction occurred as the area was rather low. The water flowed on the cricket ground which was next to the river. Thousands were killed in the city alone. The cricket ground is known as the Galle International Stadium, which is considered to be one of the most picturesque cricket grounds in the world. As the ground, which was severely damaged by ... read more

We learned there was a turtle refuge centre so we decided that would be the last thing to do on my amazing holiday. We walked and thanks to Daddy's GPS we got lost but in the end we found it. It was a small area not very modern and the tanks were made of concrete but at least we could see over the top because they were not in glass cubes so you could reach into the water and touch them. There was a place where the turtles' eggs were buried. There were four types of turtles. A massive one was very friendly and I liked to push it to the other sideof the "pool". When we left I thought it was a bit sad to think that this would be the last thing we would ... read more