Nuwara Eliya is in center of Sri Lanka. From there when we started for Galle, we had to go down to the South. While coming down from Nuwara Eliya hills to flat land the roads where very nice. Hills, tea gardens, waterfalls all made the nature so beautiful. We enjoyed the road side beauty. On the way our driven took us to another tea factory, we made a small visit there and purchased some tea as well. In this hilly region we saw lots of monkey around. They are not harmful and they don’t scare of human. You can go close to then to take picture. Our journey to Galle was long. Most of the roads were on the road. When we reached to the flat land it was around 2:00 PM. We stopped on a restaurant for our lunch. The restaurant was beside a river. Many people were doing the rafting on that river. After a short break we resume our journey again to Galle.
We reached Galle at around 7:00 PM. I booked a hotel called ‘Sayurima’ located at Ahangama. The outlook of the hotel was not outstanding. It was a averagely maintained hotel but the location of this hotel made it special. Many foreign tourist specially who come for water surfing stay here. The manager was newly joined and was trying everything to satisfy his customer. Anyway my family was not happy that night with the hotel.
Next day morning I realized why I have booked this hotel and why it is worthy. The hotel is adjacent to the ocean. The tide was breaking down on the rock on the hotel base. From my room’s wide window I can see the 360 degree of the ocean. Just in a little distance there was an island called ‘Devil Island’, that made the ocean view more beautiful. Just on the right side of the hotel there was a small sandy beach with lots of coral. As it was little remote from the main tourist spot the beach was quite untouched. It was like a private beach for the hotel. Mainly we didn’t have to go any were to enjoy the sea and beach.
Our plan to stay Galle was for 3 nights and to celebrate the 31 night on the beach. The day two at Galle was 30-December. We passed most of the time on the beach. Our driver offered us to visit some other locations but we didn’t feel like to go any were. We were fully satisfied with beauty of the site. The water was crystal clear, the water was not that much deep, we can walk far on the ocean. My son had lots of fun on the beach with sand and water. He made different sand Castel and decorate them with coral. After the beach activity we had a good lunch sitting beside the ocean.
At the late afternoon we went to visit the Galle Fort. On the way we saw some fisher man doing still fishing. I tried to take some picture of them from my car, but one of the fisherman come to me and start asking money for the picture. He was saying, this still fishing is a hard job. So we have to pay if we take picture. I didn’t pay him but deleted those pictures. Fortunately on another beach I found some other fisher man doing still fishing, there I manage to take some picture of them.
Galle is a major city of Sri Lanka. This land was ruled by Portuguese, Dutch and British. Galle reached the height of its development in the 18th century, during the Dutch colonial period. Galle is the best example of a fortified city built by the Portuguese in South and Southeast Asia, showing the interaction between Portuguese architectural styles and native traditions. The city was extensively fortified by the Dutch during the 17th century from 1649 onwards. Galle fort is a world heritage site and is the largest remaining fortress in Asia built by European occupiers.
Inside the Galle Fort I saw a mini version of Europe. The road structure shops and houses are all like European style. They have some hotel inside the fort, but they all were occupied because of New Year. The shops are very expensive they charge 3 to 4 times then the normal market. For the Christmas there was some fair running in the fort. We have been there and enjoyed our evening a lot.
Next day was the 31-December. The day time we passed on our private beach. At afternoon we went for some shopping in the Galle city. I didn’t enjoy the shopping at Galle. There were no big malls or market. The market we have visited was so small and narrow. We did minimum shopping from there. But the Galle city was too busy to welcome the New Year. I witnessed a parade on the road showing the different time period of the Sri Lanka. The rally showed the ruler starting from their first king to Ravana after that the European rulers and finally the modern independent Sri Lanka. Many people were dancing on the road, some big elephant was also added on the show.
We have visited a Japanese temple and Hanuman temple at Galle. According to the Hindu myth when Hanuman was bringing a part of Himalayas on his hand, a small part dropped on Galle. That is small hill now. On top of that a hanuman statue has been build. Just beside the hanuman temple a Japanese temple has been build. We have found a wonderful view of Galle city from this Japanese temple.
Beside the temple there is a beach call Jungle beach. We went there and passed our evening there. From the Jungle beach we saw a wonderful sun set to say good bye to year 2015.
We planned that at the night we will celebrate new year on our hotel beach. We planned avoid the heavy crowd in Galle Fort. So we brought cake and some dinner to our hotel room. At 12:00 AM we all gathered on the beach, some hotel stuff was doing some fire work. We welcomed the New Year from the south most shore of the Indian Ocean. This was a memorable New Year of my life.
A visit to Srilanka 