Galle to Colombo, Ruined Tsunami buildings, and Colombo

At last I'm able to go through photos from Sri Lanka and continue the blog I could not finish in January. The first few are from the beach town of Unatunawala, and the old Dutch city of Galle, then from the window of a slow train from Galle to Colombo, sometimes riding so close to the water I felt I could touch down and put my hand in. There were miles of fragments and ruined buildings all the way.
Colombo itself is a large elegant city, I stayed in Cinnamon Gardens which had some beautiful old mansions,unfortunately many now have high walls around them and its hard to see in, much less photograph. Many have also become embassies.
Beautiful Unatunawala beach

Banyon tree Galle
Galle, Old house


While new Galle didn't have the same charm as the old city, it did have the fast internet cafes

Ruins, Galle to Colombo








Elegant Colombo

Older section of downtown Colombo with narrow streets, reminding me more of the dense layered parts of Indian cities. The modern buildings replaced older ones destroyed during fires during uprisings in the past


Cinnamon Gardens

Colombo and more

WEll, something is screwy with my memory card because I'm back in Chennai and a computer that was able to read it before is not able now. When I get home I'll post the rest of the photos, by then I'll also have some of the Taj hotel in Mumbai.

The train ride from Unatunawala to Colombo was wonderful, I took the slow train, 4 hours rather than waiting 2 hours for the fast train which was 2 hours, I got in at the same time and the fact that the train stopped all the time meant it slowed down enough for me to get some great shots out of the wide open windows, and it was nearly empty, most people probably opting for the later fast train.

Sometimes the train was so close to the water I felt like I could reach down and touch it, but mostly there was a highway and some land between. I saw an aray of lovely houses (and some not so lovely) most of the ones I was interested in, older more traditional styles, because they were old,were also well covered by shady palms nad thus hard to get a clear shot of. There was also a lot of Tsunami ruins along the way, foundations of houses with fragments of peoples spaces, tile walls, etc. There were some tracts of land that were empty aside from these foundations, as if it were haunted land, or maybe more likely, land disputes. The man who owned the guest house I stayed in in Unatunawala said that land is very valuable and that there is a strong mafia that also controls and tries to grab land, he has had trouble with some that he owns.

Colombo is a big beautiful city that has been a famous port for eons, but was not officially a city until the British were there, afer the Portuguese and Dutch. Most of it seems to date from that time and it seemed in some ways like a scaled down verson of Delhi. The Brits love their traffic circles with roads radiating out from all directions, which makes crossing the road, even in the much less densely populated country of Sri Lanka difficult and there never are right angles or roads that really head in solid directions which was a challenge for my fragile sense of direction even with a good detailed map.

There are a lot of beautiful mansions still standing, particularly in the area I was staying, Cinammon Gardens, which was the most exclusive neighborhood to live in, if you were British or a wealthy Ceylonese. Many are now the emgassies or other important edifices and most have high walls around them for security, making it hard to see much less photograph. And old photo of the area shows low walls and when I met with the head of the Fulbright program, he said you used to be able to see into everyones proud front gardens. I loved the charming smaller bungalow that was still the "Ladies Friendly Soceity" which was in my book Cinnamon Gardens, about the area in the 30's, for single ladies who came to the city to work.

The one older area wiht the narrow dense market streets had been badly bombed in the 90's so most of the buildings were awful modern things.

It was a nice few days of long walks and pleasant places to eat, a very nice and compared to India, laid back place, but I'm back here now, feeling very much at home. The show gets taken down tomorrow and Im off to Ahmedabad the following day.

SO, check back now and then adn I'll post the photos when I'm able to.

Catching up with photos from previous postings

Click on any image to make it larger!
At the end it seems to cut off older entries, but I believe you can click "older posts".

This is the sequel to the other photo I posted earlier of the Elephant and the bus. This happened to a bus I was on also, but it happened too fast, and I was a bit too shocked, to get out my camera. Luckily the woman whose window he chose gave up her roasted corn without a fight, I would not argue with an elephant!

Beautiful stupa in Anaradhapuram

Anuradhapuram, like the church steeple in other parts of the world, the Stupa is always so dramatic on the sky line in Asia

old and restored stupas togther in Anuradhapuram

Anaradhapuram, look at that scaffolding, it didnt look too secure to me, there were people all over it, looking like little bugs in the distance

Look at the men in the center of the stupa repairing it, I can't tell you how hot it was and they were completely covered with clothing and it didn't look too secure to me

Buddha Samadhi in Anuradhapuram. I love the woman sweeping the shrine early in the morning, I'd like to say, as in Angkor Wat in Cambodia, before the hordes of tourists arrived, but unfortunately that is not the case in under-touristed Sri Lanka

this was a Buddhist ceremony I was lucky enough to come across in Anuradhapuram, I don't know Buddhist rituals as well as Hindu ones, so I'm not sure what they were doing, but it was impressive and the drumming was terrific

Anuradhapuram was an elegant leafy city.

Polonowara, Buddha images in a ruined temple

Parinirvana, The death of the Buddha with his faithful servant Ananda at Polonowara. Its beautifully restored, but its a shame that there is a structure over it now.

Polonowara, standing Buddha in ruined stupa

stupa in the ancient ruined kingdom of Polonowara

view from Sigiria, you can see the huge Buddha in the background

Sigiria where I climbed to the top to see the ruins of a place, nice piece of real-estate!


street shrine for Shiva in Chennai, its these little shrines I stumble on all the time that I love the most about India, the only thing you are missing is the intoxicating smell of insence and often there is music playing, Shiva shrines are identified by the trident, shiva's main symbol

detail of shiva shrine

This is Cholomandal artist colony and residency that was started in the 60's south of Chennai on the east coast road. Its recently undergone a lot of renovation, this is a view of the grounds and the new state of the art gallery on the right, I hope to stay here someday.


Cholomandal visiting artist quarters

This is my new friend Shailesh who lives at Cholomandal and one of his very interesting paintings dealing with Yoga. Shailesh organizes that gallery exhibitions at Dakshinachitra and did a great job with our show. He has a vibrant personality and it would be great to get him to UConn someday on a Fulbright.

Georgeous Galle and Paradise Beach in Unatunawla

Unatunawala, the paradise beach town I'm headed to tomorrow, just a few minuites southeast of Galle

Galle New Town, which looks like a typical Indian city, but I did find the fastest email, I'm sitting on the 4th floor of one of the buildings you are looking at

from the balcony of my room at Mrs. Khalid's guest house, looking out at the ramparts of the town wall that largely saved historic Galle from any damage during the Tsunami though all the towns on either side were nearly destroyed.

Old Dutch Church, the graveyard at this church was fun to look at, a lot of the graves are in the church floor

Old Dutch church that is now a Mosque, there is a substantial Muslim community in Galle


streets in Galle

A beautiful street in Galle at sunrise

Finally the pleasure of fast email! This morning at dawn I took a short ride to Unatunawala, the beach town closest to Galle and wandered around the cresent shaped beach and up to a white Buddhist temple on a hill, you can just see it at the far end of the photo. I had breakfast at a beachside Italian cafe, read a few newspapers with increasing news about what seems to be the final days of the Tamil Tigers after 30 years of civil war. I then checked out a few possibilities of staying here for my last two days before going to intense huge Colombo on Monday afternoon. There are many more tourists here than in lonely Galle, but a fraction of the amount that a typical Indian beach town would have at this time of year. It can't be that this is an undiscovered paradise (there are nice beach towns east of this and all along the coast but this is reputed to be the nicest and its proximity to Galle make is even better for those who want more to than roaming around the beach) it must be people feeling that Sri Lanka is not yet safe or memories of the Tsunami. They said it was nearly wiped out, but with help from the many Europeans who come here all the time, it was rebuilt more quickly than any other part, and I must say, again, compared to the Indian beach towns that develop uncontrollably, its very tasteful with nice architecture but they certainly are not thinking of another possible Tsunami, as some places are built so close to the water I had to walk into the waves to get around them.

Owners of the hotels I visited were nearly begging to give me a room, dropping the prices as I hesitated, only because I wanted to explore more options. I opted for a beautiful old historic bungalow on a narrow lane leading off of the beach, it was cooler, shadier and cheaper even than my room in Galle. I move in tomorrow morning, Saturday. The room is huge with mosquito netting, and a generous balcony and the other rooms in the house are common for all. I met a nice man having breakfast who said he has been here for weeks and comes often, that it is a very hard place to leave, I can see why. When I get into the "beach town mood" I also get into roaming around all the little shops, some tacky, but some, like in India, with beautiful fabrics and clothing and many many choices of places to eat.

Galle is just gorgeous, I love wandering around,there are lots of interesting shops to pop in and out of and one beautiful building after another, and I like painting on my balcony, but the sidewalks roll up about 8pm and last night I had a sumptuous meal at the beautifully restored mansion, the Galle Fort Hotel, on a large verandah protected from the street by elegant louvered shutters, I sat there for two hours sipping an ice cold local beer and having the fusion Asian food the place is known for and aside from two white and gray spotted kittens who were begging for my prawns (I did share) I was the ONLY person at the place, it just feels too weird. I'm now also the only one in my guest house and the young man who runs it is starting to treat me like family, but "will you be home for lunch" is maybe a bit too much like family, one thing I like about traveling alone is a sense of personal privacy.

Galle reminds me a bit of Dutch Cochin and Portuguese Goa in India, but at the same time is very different. I do look forward to Colombo, after a few days on a beach, I'm always ready to be back in a city and there seems plenty to do there, I regret I'll only have 2 1/2 days but I must get back to India to take down the student show and then on to Ahmedabad to be a visiting artist at my friend Sharmila's university.