Day 14 To the historic port of Galle and then on to Columbo for our final night in Sri Lanka

This morning we were up early as usual and wandered along the beach taking photos of the surfers, not on my phone though!

There are  couple of interesting trees in the grounds of the hotel. A fish poison tree, the flower is used by fishermen to tranquilise the fish and make them easier to catch.

and a screw pine tree

After breakfast we said our goodbyes and were waved off by the two leaving us to go on their next adventure

We stopped a mile or so along the road to see the stilt fishermen, it was really just for the tourists and a good money spinner for the fishermen who didn't take kindly to those, not in our group, trying to take a photo without paying!

We then drove a short while to visit a small folk musem inspired by a local writer. The museum is a typical house from the Koggala region and is set amongst beautiful gardens

Including this very interestingly named tree!

A cashew nut growing on the cashew tree

The museum reminded me of St Fagan's folk museum near Cardiff. Lots of rooms with different artifacts

We then drove to Galle, along the coast road. Galle was originally built by the Portuguese, taken over by the Dutch and then the British. The walled fortress survived the 2004 tsunami which killed 30,000 people outside the area as well as 2000 in a train disaster just to the north.

The humidity was still in the 90's today so we didn't walk around the complete circuit of the wall, just looked at a few highlights, did some shopping 

had a browse around the market

and lunch with a few of our group, whilst being papped as the owner had just opened his cafe!

Boarded the bus then we drove along the coast road for around 2.5 hours to Columbo. Roadworks don't cause anywhere near as much disruption here!

Back into city life!

 

Once in Columbo we had a short drive around the city. Then drove to our hotel where we had a swim followed by dinner at the Galle Face Hotel with a few from our group. The Galle Face Hotel is the old colonial hotel in Sri Lanka

Watched the sunset

and the flag lowering ceremony which happens every evening at 6 p.m accompanied by the bagpipes

There was a wedding reception too and from our table on the veranda we were serenaded beautifully by a violinist

 pre dinner drinks

followed by dinner and a walk along the front in the tropical warmth. 

The Galle Face Hotel from inside  

and out

The walk along the front with views back into the city

The Tulip Tower with a revolving restaurant

There were a large number of locals along the front enjoying the weekend.