Galle

28th December 2022 to 1 January 2023

28 December 2023

Galle was the first stop on our tour of Sri Lanka after our long stay in Colombo.  Galle is UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is most famous for its Dutch Fort which has been well preserved. 

We also have a family connection to Galle! Our Great-grandmother Doreen grew up there.

Galle has been a centre of trade and cultural exchange for centuries.  Sinbad the sailor is said to have paddled into the waters on his sixth voyage and found a river of gems. Whether this is true or not is conjecture but Arab traders made their way to Ceylon and Galle over the centuries prior to European influence. To this day the majority of the population of Galle is Muslim,

In 1292, Marco Polo the famous Venetian trader, visited Galle. By this time Ceylon was already  famed for its gems and spices which were traded as part of the Monsoon trade between South East Asia and the East African Coast.

In 1411 the legendary Chinese explorer Admiral Cheng Ho  (he may have circumnavigated the globe before Ferdinand Magellan) arrived. He was said to have left a stone tablet which was carved with Tamil, Chinese and Persian text on it which shows how the well connected the world was at that time.

In 1505 the Portuguese captain, Lorenzo de Almeida, arrived by chance following a storm. This commenced the period of European influence and control of Ceylon.  They wanted to control the cinnamon trade - at that time cinnamon was worth more in Europe than gold by weight. The Portuguese needed to protect themselves from the local population who detested the Portuguese's brutal ways and built the original fort in 1524 from earth and wood. In the 1580's the fort was rebuilt in stone installing canons and underground passageways. The Portuguese have left an indelible influence on Sri Lanka - words like almera (wardrobe), sapatu (shoe) are still in use. A sizable part of the population is Catholic who were converted (often by force of bribery by the Portuguese). Many Portuguese derived names still survive including our family names of Peries and Fernando. 

The Dutch captured Galle from the Portuguese in 1640 and then wrested control of Ceylon from it within a few years. The Kingdom of Kandy remained independent and continuously fought the Dutch but did not have the sea power to ultimately defeat them. The Dutch massively reinforced the Galle Fort transforming it into the  imposing structure that we see today. Galle was the second most important headquarters of the Dutch East India company the world's most successful commercial company at that time. Spices were hugely valuable in Europe and the Dutch East India company controlled much of the trade and the riches that this brought. Along with Europeans labour  the Dutch brought slaves from Africa to Galle.  The Dutch were brutal in their subjugation of the local population. 

The Dutch set up infrastructure to support the sophisticated trading operations including courts, hospitals, churches, warehouses, a lighthouse and canals. Many of these have been preserved. 

The British took control of Sri Lanka and Galle in 1796 after Holland  was captured by France during the Napoleonic Wars. Britain and Holland formed an alliance and Ceylon was handed over to Britain as part of this. The British finally subjugated the Kingdom of Kandy. Galle became an important staging point for the long journeys from Britain to Australia. The New Oriental Hotel was opened in 1863 to serve the needs of steamboat passengers travelling the British Empire.

The Galle Fort survived the Boxing Day Tsunami  in 2004 largely intact but the strength of the Fort may have contributed to the utter destruction of Galle town outside. The structure of the fort split the Tsunami wave which increased its power by the time it hit the town. Four thousand five hundred people were killed and the town was decimated.

Goodson the Uber driver whose family lived in the UK drove us to Galle. When we arrived at the Galle Fort Hotel we got free drinks and you could have as many as you want!

Then, we went for a walk to a place where you can see the water. And we saw an Ice cream tuk tuk

For dinner we went to Aqua, a pizza restaurant. The pizzas were really good.

Then we went back to the hotel. It  started raining heavily after we arrived.

We reached out into the courtyard and  got quite wet because we let water drip in the sleeves on our T-shirts.

Then when we got into the hotel room, the cleaners had laid out our teddies!     

29th of December 2022

 We had pre ordered a Sri Lankan breakfast. It was the nicest breakfast on the whole trip!

Rumasalla

Rumasalla is a peninsula near to Galle. We visited on our way  from Galle to Mirissa with Ajeet on 1 Jan. The Hindu epic the Ramayana tells us that Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, needed to heal his wife Lakshmi. He was carrying pieces of the Himalayan mountains on which grew special medicinal herbs that would heal Lakshmi. Whilst flying over  he dropped a piece of mountain which created the peninsular at Rumassala.   It is said that rare herbs are only found here and the Himalayas.  The peninsular is also said to have an unusually strong magnetic field and attracted the interest of Arthur C Clarke the author of 2001 A Space Oddessy.

Rumasalla is also a site of a Japanese Buddhist pagoda. It was large and white and we had great views of the Galle Fort across the other side of the peninsular.

Click here to explore the next part of the story!