5 O'clock Friday morning... Alarm clock is ringing, and I know this particular day will be full of new adventures. 6 O'clock, I had arrange for my new favorite tuc tuc guy to come pick me up - heading for the train station. The streets of Colombo are very peaceful at that time in the morning, still we managed to get stopped twice at check-points, though! Getting a train ticket really shouldn't cause a lot of trouble, you would think. In theory it didn't, but there was a very looong queue to buy one. Thought it was better to be on the safe side, since time was a bit short, so I asked the man in front of me, if this was the line for Galle, he said it was, so I kept my place and waited 3o minutes to buy the ticket. When my turn finally came the clerk ended up telling me, I was in the wrong line after all!!!! Well thank you Mr.! Anyways, in the end I got the ticket as well as the last seat on the train. Thank god for that, it would have been a long train ride otherwise. Top speed must have been approx 50 Km/h, so even though 120 km isn't very far, it still took almost 4 hours to get to Galle. The journey was nice though, very beautiful and so green it almost hurt my eyes :) Took so many pictures, but my camera karma here is not very good, I've discovered! I took around 70 pictures on the train and in Galle, wanting to sort them out a bit at night, I accidentally hit the "erase ALL" button instead of "erase ONE" -NICE GOING, STUPID! So, no more train shots and no more Galle shots. Gives me a reason to go again though - gotta look at it on the bright side, no?
So, getting into Galle, I went to see some of the cricket match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Cricet is THE sport in Sri Lanka, so I figured, I have to get acquaited with it - not so easy though. Not on my own anyways. Next time there's a match in Colombo, I will need to bring some kind of "Cricket interpreter".
In Galle, they have a big Fort, which was built first by the Portuguese and then modified by the Dutch during the 17th century. It is is on the UNESCO list of World Monuments - http://www.fortgalle.com/, if anyone should be curious :)
Very nice sight, and one I would have loved to share, buuuuuut - these are part of "the no longer existing" photos!
From there only a short tuc tuc ride to Unawatuna, and that's were I went and stayed until Sunday. Such a lovely beach - picturesque,laid-back and a place I have a feeling, I'll definitely be going back to!
If anyone ever find themselves in Sri Lanka, I can highly recommend the place. In particular, you should drop by PEACELAND just below the temple sight. This place is run by Kheerti, who is a hospitable, extremely accomodating and easy going Sri Lankan, who can tell you everything about the area, about Buddhism, about living in Sri Lanka or what ever you feel like chatting about, really. There are of course many nice spots to hang out in Unawatuna, but this place is quite unique -located in the nook of the lagoon, by the mouth of a small river and just below the temple -and it is NICE. To make it even better, PEACELAND has specialized in all sorts of delicious, tropical ice cream desserts - YUM :)
I met up with some of the girls from the Australian High Commision and Andrea, who is working for US Aid, on Saturday, chillin at the beach, having sun set drinks at another nice spot on the beach and just relaxed really. Sunday at noon, we drove back to Colombo - fully recharged.
Really felt like a vacation, eventhough it was only for 2 nights :)
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