Galle

Fishing boats.

A surprisingly sturdy dock.

 Stilt fishermen.

 Hauling in the catch.

 Purple faced leaf monkey.

The old colonial town.

The ramparts.

Wednesday, February 14^th.

I was up in the middle of the night with an upset stomach and loose bowels. Seems something from the restaurant, other than the service, disagreed with me. I took an Omodium so that I could participate in the morning tour.

We left the hotel at 8:30 and drove towards the colonial city of Galle and its historic harbour. On the way we made a couple of stops. The first was at a pier where a number of local fishing boats were anchored. We saw a couple of fishermen mending the nets. The next stop was were a number of men were demonstrating the traditional method of fishing that is no longer used by the local people. They model it for tip money. The men sit on upright poles in the water and dangle a fishing line. A couple of our participants tried it for fun.

We continued on until we came across another group of fishermen hauling in net onto a beach. There were about a dozen of them and they worked in a coordinated way to pull the large net out of the water. We could see that all they had caught was a large number of very small fish that were thrashing around in the net. A few egrets and crows were trying to help themselves. Then we watched as they pulled the outrigger canoes out of the water too.

Finally, we arrived at the harbour of Galle. This was an important stop for sea traders in the early days of the silk route. They came either from Europe or returned to Europe via this harbour where they would get fresh water and food and wait for favourable winds to continue their journey. The old part of the city in the harbour still houses buildings from the eras of colonialism. The Portuguese were the first here, then the Dutch and finally the British. They all left their mark with various buildings and a large defensive fort that added to by each country. We saw the original Portuguese Protestant Church, the British lighthouse, the clocktower and the battlements. We stopped to buy coconuts off of a local vendor parked under a large tree. In the tree were a group of purple faced leaf monkeys, the third of the monkey species in Sri Lanka.

Sam gave the group an hour of free time as some people wanted to shop. I was exhausted from the illness, lack of sleep and the heat and humidity, so I just stayed by the van sitting in the shade. On the way back to our hotel I fell asleep and went straight to my room when I got back. I slept for about three hours, when everyone else was in the pool or the ocean. Oh well, you gotta do what you have to do.

We met up on the beach of our hotel for our final dinner. Technically we have another night, but Michael and Gordon are leaving during the day and we wanted to present our group tips to the leaders before people started to leave. I skipped dinner and just had an electrolyte drink and a couple of bland cookies. I sat with Sam and our driver, Ashanti and his assistant, Lasanti. I love talking to the local guides because I find them interesting, and because sometimes they get left out of our conversations. Sam made a speech thanking us for being such a caring and united group and said that he really enjoyed guiding us. John and I had talked to the group a couple of days ago about tipping and organized the collection of the money. We were somewhat dismayed by the excuses people made for not tipping the expected minimum. In fact, we probably collected about 70% of the minimum of what we should have. I had decided to write down a few things to say to thank Sam, Ashanti and Lasanti and decided to add a subtle and gentle rebuke to the group for their contributions. It gets up my nose when people are obviously happy with the services of the guides but think that they shouldn’t have to tip because they have already paid for the trip. The sad reality is that they guys are not permanent employees and only get paid by G when they are working. If there are not enough trips for all the guides, then they don’t get paid. Many tourists are happy to spend lots of money on drinks, or excursions or souvenirs, but tipping is usually the last of the money they have in their pocket.

Anyway, I spoke my piece and then showed Sam and some of the interesting videos I have taken while they all waited for their food. After dinner, I quietly excused myself and returned to the room to escape the heat and humidity and to get some rest.