The heart of galle

Galle is a town with two faces. One face is the old, crumbling apart sometimes, Dutch fort area filled with poshy restaurants, giant trees, old colonial houses, boutiques, lots of crows waiting for a leftover meals all surrounded by an ancient wall of defense. Once the Portuguese ruled the place, then the dutch and the British until mid 20th century. A strange though very welcoming change of tourist boom place is restaurant hula hula serving great traditional snacks and meals for a small price. The other face is galle town, bustling with tuktuks, busses polluting the skies, cars, tourist chasing guys begging you to come to their souvenir shop selling overpriced necklaces, but also steetvendors selling fruit for a small price, wonderful snacks surrounded by birds and diets meaning they are doing good business. It’s all surrounded by the ocean, offering great views. A bike ride out of town, in fact one endless road filled shops, first took us to a beach where we witnessed locals catching the fish to sell on the market, in their colourful strangely built but still effective boats. The day ended abrupt cause of endless rain resulting in street flooding. We waited it our once seeking shelter in a drinking den, guys sipping liquor at 11 a.m., an old guy, presumebly British by origin, wanting to chat desperately offering us the fish of the day lightly cooked with herbs including heads and everything. Next shelter was a young girls beauty parlour specializing in brides packages. Though it didn’t look like a sophicasted beauty place, the girl and her niece were extremely friendly.Once back in fort area, again walking around the tourist area we decided once more to go for some snacks in the town area, in my opinion the true heart of galle.

4/3/2013