9:35 am local time

Hi Everyone,

Randal’s new name is Diesel because that’s what he smells like most of the time these days as he eliminates the air bubbles in our fuel line. 

Galle # 2 Fort Galle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galle_fort

Yesterday Randal took a break from boat work and we spent a few hours at Fort Galle. “The natural harbour at Galle has a long pedigree. It is claimed by some to be the ancient harbour of Tarshish which traded with the Egyptians and Persians and with the Levant in Greek and Roman times. It was visited by that great traveler Ibn Battuta in 1344 and later the Portuguese, Dutch and British made it their own as evidenced by the architecture in Fort Galle.” P 130 Indian Ocean Cruising Guide. Galle’s history seems quite similar to Malaka and George Town who were first owned by the Portuguese, then Dutch and then British. But for some reason it feels more like the Philippines and Fort Galle reminded me of the Old City in Manila. No real reason, just feelings. Sri Lanka’s previous names have been Ceylon and Sirandib “the Isle of Rubies,” so maybe here is a good place to buy tea if not rubies. Like the Cameron Highlands of Penang, Malaysia, the highlands of Sri Lanka are home to tea plantations. We tuk tucked from the just outside our gate to the fort and it took about 15 minutes.

Since it was about noon and we’d had a small breakfast about 6 am, our first stop was lunch. Our tuk tuk driver stopped at a rather large restaurant, but I said we really didn’t want “tourist” or “fancy” so he took us away to a place that had good, cheap food in large portions. Unfortunately it didn’t open until 1:30pm so we went to Mama’s instead.

There were several dining areas and since we were “lunch tourists” and not hotel guests (my guess) we were taken up to the roof top area.  In the shade it was actually quite lovely.

The lighthouse view

The mosque view. We also were treated to a suzerain “singing” noon prayers.

Chicken curry for Randal and vegetable curry for me.

Randal had ordered the grilled chicken and vegetables and I had picked Mama’ special soup. But the waiter told me it would take a while to make the soup and then he said it would take a while to make the grilled chicken, but the curry was ready now. So we picked the curry and it was quite good, but pretty spicy hot! Randal’s beer was served in a chilled holder that eventually started to chill the beer. I had iced lemon with not much ice but lots of lemon. We ate all of the chicken, green beans, potatoes, but couldn’t finish the dhal, Jackfruit? the rice or the puffy things. Too much food! I think spicy fills you faster than bland. We also enjoyed chatting with the other folks who came to eat. One young woman worked for the police in Norfolk England.

The puffy things in the basket tasted like popped corn but were like a thin bread cracker. We’ve had similar flat crackers in Singapore in the Nepalese restaurant.

Wikipedia aerial view of Fort Galle area.

Look at it as a rectangle. The right corner close to you has the white light house. The water just beyond the far right corner is the harbor where DoraMac is tied. Keep going past the land on the far left side of the photo and you get to India in about four days at 6 knots.

There goes a tanker now….

The light house.

When we first arrived we anchored in the harbor not far from the light house. The light was moving around in the top though during the day you can’t see it.

From the harbour I had thought this a church, but at lunch today noticed the crescent moons on the points and then we heard the suzerain sing at noon.

Challenge #543! To get to the light house you had to walk the planks. As a kid I loved this kind of thing and then I went to Outward Bound and developed ZERO confidence in my balance as well as somewhat of a fear of heights. (I obviously stunk at the rock climbing and rappelling that we had to do. Unfortunately I stunk at sailing and knots too.) So I looked around for an alternate path. Randal came back to “encourage” me but I still didn’t want to go. Then a Sri Lankan young man and his giant western pal came along and smiled and told me I could do it and took my hand and lead me across. Just like the young men in the Philippines at Subic Bay and our crazy Cousin Izzy in the jungle of Kumai.

Alternatively, if one were a teenage boy, one could jump across. Or a teenage girl!

The Galle Fort area is a UNESCO site but people work and live within the old walls and there are lots of small hotels and restaurants. Lots of gem shops too. I walked past this woman and then back tracked to ask if I could take her photo.

Many men opt to wear a sarong rather than trousers.

School’s out for the day!

The school day goes from 7:30 am until 1:30 pm. Notice my hair growing over my ears. I just gave up on finding people to cut my hair when it became a bother in George Town and in Langkawi. So I’m just letting it grow. Our neighbor Anita Ferreira on SV Passage has lots of long thick curly hair like mine and I’m quite jealous. It is still too short to clip back; a really annoying stage.

I loved their long dark braids.

Many women wear full saris or tops with long flowing skirts. I like long flowing skirts but I’m not a sari kind of person as I learned at our sari demonstration back in Kota Kinabalu at the end of a Malaysia Rally.

Where were the other boys?

We saw hundreds of girls, but the boys must go to a separate school. The girls appeared to come from a school connected to the Methodist Church. You can see one of the original gates into the fort and you can walk the fort walls most of the way around the historic area.

Many of the buildings within the fort area looked a bit (very) seedy. But some were gentrified and the area was really very charming and the local people very friendly though English is sparse.

Anura in front of her restaurant.

We ate our first Galle meal here Full Moon Day last Wednesday. Today we stopped in for some ice cream (Randal) and coke light for me after our walk around. They don’t have a liquor license so serve beer in coffee mugs! At least on Full Moon day they did and when friends Rick and Suze ate there too. Anura is one of those lovely people you’d like to know more about.

Then we got into a tuk tuk and went off to the Post Office, bank, barber, fruit market and then back to Doramac. But that’s another email…

Ru

DoraMac