6:35 pm local time

  Randal and I returned to Fort Galle today because we had enjoyed our first visit.  Sunday is kind of a slow day there but we had a nice lunch and walk.  And we used up some of our Sri Lankan money that is only useful in Sri Lanka.  Tomorrow we are off to Cochin, India.  Everything that needs to be fixed is.  Everything that must wait until Cochin will wait.  The weather is as good as it will ever be, a bit windy with swells.  That’s better for sail boats than for trawlers.  Our friends on Voyager just made the trip this past week.   Tomorrow morning I’m going to the nearby grocery store and load up on ice cream!  The heck with fruit and veggies!  Actually we’ve hardly made a dent in the supplies we stocked up on in Langkawi so we’ll be fine.  The fresh veggie selection here isn’t so great, anyway.  We’re opting not to do inland travel here because we just don’t feel comfortable leaving a heavy boat like DoraMac tied to this plastic pier.  And we’re anxious to get to India.  We’ll leave tomorrow late afternoon to time our arrival in Cochin during the daylight hours.  It should hopefully be a 3 night passage if we average six knots to cover the 350ish miles.  So my next email to you all will be from Cochin, India.

Ru

DoraMac

Fort Galle Second Visit

Our first stop was lunch.

I had basil chicken and Randal had curry chicken. Both were quite good and but more food than I needed even without eating my rice. They didn’t serve beer even in coffee mugs so we both drank iced lime juice. The bill came to 2140 Rupees, $19.50 which included a 10% service charge. We have certainly eaten more cheaply other places, but the Fort area is really where tourists eat and the prices reflect that.

We walked around the fort walls to walk off the meal.

Biodegradable drink container…a coconut.

Ramparts Hotel serves lunch but we opted for Mama’s the other day.

Many of the strolling women had their heads covered.

This interesting lock appeared on many of the doors.

Of course I had to go into the art shop.

The lovely clerk.

I bought a postcard or the “Galle Fort Map” by Catherine Hewapathirana which you see on the wall. It actually is a good representation of the fort area. She is standing in front of the light house but you can see the mosque to her right.

We left the fort area but you can see the walls are still mostly intact.

We didn’t take a tuk tuk because I wanted to walk back to the city center to buy veggies at a stand I’d noticed on our way earlier.

The fishing harbour

I’ve taken to spelling harbour the British way. These are some of the boats we had to avoid coming into Galle in the very early morning darkness. They do have lights, thankfully but still, Randal had to drive most of the time until it really was daylight and I thought I could see the boats more easily.

You know this fish is fresh!

Just outside the harbour gate is this compound where we went to speak with our “agent.” I think this might be the family home.

The shutters are to keep out rain and maybe some sun, but don’t have to be efficient to keep in heat.

The lovely front porch that can serve as a sitting room.

Many of the homes in the Fort area looked like this; low and open with large windows front and back for ventilation.

6:30 pm local time

You walk out the main gate stopping each time at the guard station to show them a shore pass (no photos allowed of the guard station) and down the short side road and then get to the main coast road. Just past the guard station gate I saw a monkey climb up to the electric wires crossing the road. It was the first monkey I’ve seen here and it seemed to be alone chattering nervously to itself. I did take a quick photo before Randal yelled to me that the gate guards weren’t happy with my camera.

When I got to the corner and the main road Randal was yelling to me, this time to get out my camera.

Bicycle racers!

Support vehicles.

The racers flew by followed by the support motorbikes and then lots of support cars. The support cars seemed as if they were zooming past us yet they couldn’t go faster than the motorbikes which couldn’t go faster than the bike racers who Randal says were probably going 25 mph. But it all seemed very fast to me. And loud.

Next we saw this family with their goats!

On our way back we saw this bovine pulling a wagon.

We saw lots of chickens, goats, dogs, and one large monitor lizard run through a grassy field. I found a small stall selling a limited selection of vegetables and bought some green beans and tomatoes. We had gone looking for a lunch restaurant but didn’t see one that looked particularly inviting. We stopped into the small grocery store and chatted with a cruiser there who told us to try the Closenburg Hotel.

The view from the Closenburg Hotel on the hill overlooking the harbour.

We walked up the hill to the old colonial Closenburg Hotel but decided against staying for lunch because they were having some kind of affair and there was just a huge buffet that we didn’t want to eat just then. Also, it looked like a storm might be coming and I didn’t want to negotiate the plastic pier in a storm. And our laundry was still on the line….It never did storm but I’m not sorry we skipped a huge lunch.

Back on the boat I made lunch and Randal worked on boat work and we spent a quiet afternoon. I am reading Empires of the Monsoon: a history of the Indian Ocean and its invaders by Richard Hall. Our friends on Labarque had given it to us knowing we’d be heading here. It’s actually quite good. I’ve just gotten to Marco Polo. I’m sure I won’t remember that much of the 500+ pages but the introductory maps are good so I will know where we’ve been and where we are going. I must honestly say that this is probably the only time or place I’d ever read this book but it is quite enjoyable.

Later today we’ll probably head back to Fort Galle for lunch and to use up some of our Sri Lankan money. We’ll also stop at the small grocery store and load up on the all important ice cream for the next leg of our passage. We’re thinking that we’ll head on out tomorrow, Monday or at least by Tuesday. Some of that will be determined by when the officials get around to responding to our request to leave and to doing our paper work. We are told that you have to ask at least a day in advance. Today is Sunday so we’re not sure how much can be done though this is officially a Buddhist country.

6:30 pm local time

Hi All,

  This is the story of the shave and haircut I promised.

Ru

Doramac

Shave and a Haircut

After our tour first at Fort Galle, we asked a tuk tuk driver to take us to the Post Office, an ATM, a haircut, and some fruit and vegetables. Our tuk tuk had cost us 200 rupee to go from our harbor gate to Fort Galle so we guessed it would be about 800 maybe making stops on the way back.

First we went to the Post Office and our tuk tuk man came in with me. I was mailing 3 post cards and a card with an envelope. The tuk tuk driver decided that he needed to handle the transaction for me. It cost 520 and I think the tuk tuk driver got a cut but I’m not sure and didn’t want to look like I was checking to see since it was such a small amount. Then we went off to an ATM but it limited the amount of rupees you could get so we went back to the Galle Fort bank..?… and used that ATM. Next we went to the barber.

Lots of traffic but not many cars, just tuk tuks or buses or minivans or motorbikes.

Tuk Tuk parked outside the barber shop.

Our driver thought that both Randal and I needed haircuts but I quickly corrected that to just Randal though I’m the one who really looks in need of a barber.

The “saloon” was in the center city outside of Fort Galle. It is less charming.

While Randal was being barbered I sat and chatted with our tuk tuk driver and the other barber. The other barber said Americans were “gentlemen.”

1. Getting started

2. How’s that so far?

3. Randal is smiling here because he hasn’t yet gotten the bill.

4. Now the shave

The man on the left is the other barber. The arm belongs to the tuk tuk driver who had to go watch Randal being shaved.

5. How much was that?

1500 rupee, about $14 and 3 times more than Randal paid in Singapore! I think our tuk tuk driver negotiated that fee too. Randal hadn’t asked the charge first because he was assuming Sri Lankan prices would be similar to Malaysian prices. That’s our tuk tuk driver in the light colored shirt to Randal’s left. Most cruisers say they are treated fairly by tuk tuk drivers and we have no complaints about any of the others.

After the barber we went to a book store but didn’t stay long and I only bought 2 pens. Then we stopped at the fruits stalls in the city and our tuk tuk driver helped me buy 4 mangoes and 2 oranges for 520 rupee. I have no idea if that is expensive or not. Nita on Passage said it sounded right. I’m starting to have no clue but if anything costs more that $2 I think it is expensive. I guess that comes from living in China where there was tons of fresh fruit and veggies and it the Philippines where there were less but it was still cheap.

The tuk tuk driver’s final bill. 1800 rupee. Fair? It seemed high but he did spend almost 2 hours with us. We should have taken a tuk tuk from place to place because we really didn’t need the driver to help with any of our tasks. Next time we’ll know better. And Randal tends to tip so if he had charged less he still would have done ok and we would have felt better about it. Meters would be a good thing rather than having always to negotiate.

The blouse ladies.

Subic Bay had the bracelet ladies and this small harbour has the blouse ladies who also sell expensive tea for 850 rupee. I picked 2 blouses but they were too big. So they measured me and made small blouses…that were too small. I went back for the third try and they made me try the too big and too small ones again and then decided to just take in the big ones. I agreed to that…they were just 350 rupee each; very light white cotton material and good for hot weather. And I’m a sucker for nice ladies selling things. I took them back to the boat and tried them on without a blouse underneath and they are still too big. I’d had to try them on over my own blouse because there was no place to do anything else. Tomorrow I’ll go back and ask what they can do. But they were nice ladies.