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.