Galle, August 2011

Galle is an amazing place with such immense history.  There's a beach, a fort, a fishing industry and loads of jewellery stores.

My sister was getting married in a resort at Thalpe nearby so my family and I met up a few days before and used Thalpe as a base to do a number of the things that the area had to offer.  First up was a day in Galle.

We started with a short three wheeler (tuk tuk) ride into Galle with the plan to spend a few hours in Galle Fort, a four hundred year old fort built by the Portugese in the 1600s.  There's a beautiful old church there and shops for tourists inside.  A great way to escape the heat is to zoom inside one of these shops when not admiring the beautiful old buildings.

The day we went was a tiny bit windy too so it was lovely walking along the walls of the fort in the coastal breeze.  It was absolutely amazing.

There were also a number of furry friends that shared the vista with us.  The stray cats inside Galle Fort seem to appreciate a cat lover when they see one but aware of the diseases that cats outside of New Zealand can carry I refused to touch them but they were so cute!!!

I did thoroughly enjoy the jewellery stores though.  Things were so pretty and my parents ended up buying me my birthday present in Galle Fort as my birthday was that week.

After Galle Fort our tuk tuk driver decided to take us to a big jewellery store on a hill.  My parents told me in no uncertain terms that under no circumstances was I to buy there.  We did not ask to be taken there and would not have chosen to go there ordinarily.  (The tuk tuk driver had been following us around the fort and had seemingly decided that it might be beneficial for him to take us to a jewellery store.  We proved him wrong.)

On the way down the hill we asked to be taken to a spice shop.  Cinnamon!  So much cinnamon.  It was awesome.  We're still using that cinnamon nearly 3 years later and my parents negotiated a really good price for it.  Galle was good like that.

At the end of the day we returned back to our hotel in Thalpe for afternoon tea, a nap and then dinner.  It was lovely and relaxing.  The next morning we were getting up for a big day of safari-ing.