Galle, Sri Lanka

Our hotel in Colombo (Taru Villas - Lake Lodge) looked very cool - made mostly from brushed concrete and cool art on display. Functional too, except that there weren't any extra outlets in the room to recharge our devices.

Breakfast was good, served by a very proper waiter, who flicked our napkins into our laps, and then handed us the menus, opening to the breakfast page in a single motion, just like in the movies.

We were taking the train to Galle, and even though there's 10 trains a day, there were none between 10am to 2pm. So we had some time to kill until 2pm.

Took a bajaj (tuktuk) to the train station a couple hours early cause we figured it would be more interesting people watching there than sitting in the hotel.

Bought our tickets at counter #4 - it was only $1.60 each for the two-hour train ride in 2nd class. Presented our tickets to enter the station, and walked up and down the stairs to platform 5. It was one of the few times this trip that we've actually unzipped the backpack straps of our packs; mostly we've been using them in suitcase mode.

After Bhutan, the 30C+ and high humidity felt very hot to us. Grabbed some seats, and then I walked around the station taking pictures. There weren't any food options inside, so I wandered outside the station and bought some rice and lentils take-out (served in a plastic bag) from a busy restaurant. It was slightly spicy and hit the spot.

We tried to figure out the difference between 2nd and 3rd class (so we knew which car to get on). But we couldn't tell. We should have just bought the 3rd class tickets for 20 cents :) There was no 1st class otherwise we would have booked that :)

Our train arrived in Colombo on time, and then we pushed our way onto the train, everyone for themselves. There was no hope of getting seats - all were already taken - we just wanted to get a suitable standing area.

Got lucky that we ended up under a working ceiling fan. The ride started off squished, but got better as people emptied out the further we got from Colombo. We actually got seats about half way through the ride! It was a cool way to see life in Sri Lanka, both on and off the train.

Our stop, Galle, was fairly obvious as most of the remaining tourists disembarked. We got a bajaj to our hotel (Fortaleza) in Old Galle, where they were expecting us and greeted us by our first names as we walked in. (It's a small boutique hotel with only 4 rooms, but still!). Because I'd booked back in June, I was able to reserve the Library room, supposedly the best of the rooms. It was great, with a big circular window letting in lots of light. The hotel was a spice warehouse in the 1600's and had lots of character.

Our hotel was also listed as one of the places to eat in Galle, so we cleaned up and went downstairs for dinner. Had a Lion Lager (625ml, 4.8%, but in a coolie so it stayed cold), Heather had a white wine. For dinner I had a seared tuna main, Heather tried the pan fried mahi mahi. Both were excellent. While we're on the coast we're taking advantage of all the fresh seafood. Sri Lanka looks to be more of a foodie trip than the other two legs, if our first dinner is any indication! Their chocolate brownie dessert was awesome.

After dinner we took a short walk down the street, as we'd been in Sri Lanka for a day and not done anything outside of transport and hotels, and I was getting antsy. Wandered into a hip clothing store / art gallery / bar, a place way too cool to be allowing the likes of us to enter. It was very surreal, with huge art on the walls, which seemed to have no end. The music was great too. We had had a few drinks at our hotel with dinner, and didn't have much rupees on us, so just went back to the hotel before they called bouncers to oust us (just kidding, the staff were very nice to us, Lenny Kravitz-lookalikes them all).

...

Woke up ready to tourist after a few days on the road getting from Paro to Galle. The old town of Galle is pretty small - there's just a handful of streets, surrounded by a wall and then the ocean, so you can't get lost even if you tried.

We first walked around the perimeter, and then wandered around, stopping in at the small boutique stores. The old town is a UNESCO something, very pretty.

Picked a place for lunch based on their interesting fish options. It was tasty, but not too much food.

We were still adjusting to heat, so went back to our hotel room for a couple hours to cool down, before heading back out to walk the ramparts at sunset (it's the thing to do here). It was nice, but not as photogenic as I had hoped. Lots of wires and garbage and construction and other non-picturesque stuff seemed to always be in the frame.

Had dinner at the hotel again, the decision driven by a combination of the great meal from last night, an approaching storm, and laziness. It was good, but not quite as great as the previous night. Tried the local dessert of curds with treacle, very sweet and yummy.