Stupas and elephants in the bus

A little "fixer-upper" in Galle, by next year this will most likely be a boutique,


Stray elephant looking for a handout in the bus


Old Dutch Building

I decided the best place to be in the midafternoon heat was in a pleasant internet cafe with a fan, even my room with its generous balcony overlooking the ancient city wall of Galle (prounounced Gaul) and the ocean beyond is too hot at this time of day. However I'm having quite a challenge putting up photos, some won't recognize the memory card, or the electricity gets cut off etc. It may be better in Colombo.

So anyway I'll describe things and hope to add photos later.
After my day seeing the old temples around Kandy several days ago, I hired a driver to take me to some wonderful caves that although they were ancient, the statues of the reclining Buddha and paintings were all 19th century so though not as old as I had thought (not like the Ajanta or Elora caves in India which were covered by forest for hundreds of years) they were still very beautiful and dramatic with the paintings and statues particularly the enormous reclining Buddha.

From there we went to an enormous geographical site, a huge rock that had ruins of a palace and some old wall paintings on the way up, it was quite a climb but I made it which surprized me as I was feeling weak still afer my cold departed. I was then dropped in one of the two ancient cities I wanted to visit, Polonorupa the smaller of the two, and rented a bike the next mornig to see ruins of an old kingdom, there were ruins of palaces stupas and huge Buddha statues. The combination of not having ridden a bike, an exceptionally hard seat and the heat was slightly distracting in terms of hoping to get into the "zone" of this ancient place. However, unlike many monuments in India where the maddingly persistent hawkers can drive you mad (or just away from the site) the distraction by hawkers or "guides" is minimal, the monuments are very well maintained and policed.

I had a pretty skanky hotel room (thanks Lonely Planet!) so headed off that afternoon after seeing the ruins on a local bus two hours away to Anuradhapuram which was a beautiful leafy city as well as having breathtakng ruins, stupas, Buddha's. You could just imagne what it looked like hundreds of years ago when 5000 monks roamed around the shady leafy paths. These ruins were much more spread out so I hired a driver to take me to the major spots for the morning and then wandered around myself in the afternoon, treating myself to lunch at one of the beautiful Raj era hotels, on a breezy verandah. It seemed that I was the only one there, indeed tourism is slow here aside from beach tourism. Locals here do not think that the war is really over but that the militants will somehow regroup.

I was up at 5 am and on an 8 hour train ride to the far south coast to Galle. Its a bit like Stonington in that its a penninsula that juts out into the ocean from the mainland but has fortified walls, some put there by the Portuguese some by the Dutchand some by the British. The whole walled city is a Unesco world heritage site while the new town outside of the walls and across from a huge cricket field, is a typical chaotic Indian town, though Sri Lanka lacks the enromours population of India and the incessant traffic, its still pretty densely crowded.

The walled town is quite large and is still a "living city" and I've enjoyed wandering the narrow streets discovering treasures of old Dutch colonial buildings, churches of various demoninations some with old graveyards, including one that has been made into a Mosque, and there are wonderful shops. There are many new hotels opening up which provide nice places to eat and enjoy a drink at night. The local people are very friendly and always say hello, particularly when walking the rampars early in the morning. The touts are another thing, but there are not too many fortunately, because I already had an arguement with one who would not seem to just let me enjoy walking around myself. You get a bit worn down by the "madame" "Hellooooo" "what do you want, where are you going, what are you looking for, just come and look in my shop......." as I just like to wander on the sreet and in my own head, but then, its a part of tourism in India and Sri Lanka (not so at all in Thailand, Cambodia or Viet Nam) so might as well accept it rather than get annoyed though it certainly tests my patience from time to time.

I'm staying at Mrs. Kahlid's beautiful guest house, where I have a generous wooden porch to myself off of my spacious 2nd floor room, my neighbors a nice Austrialian couple left this morning and if I'm lucky I'll continue to have the balcony to myself for the next 3 days while I'm here. There are endless interesting guests houses to choose from. I painted there for several hours this morning. Its an old restored house, so you can dine in the family living room, the two brothers who seem to be the main caretakers are very pleasant and are usually on the couch on the computer. I had dinner there last night, its by reservation and the other couple were travel writers from Brazil who are traveling for a year all over Asia. This morning I had breakfast and interesting conversation with the Austrialian couple who are very experienced travelers. (Its so great not to have to apologize for George Bush anymore!!) I also met a very cheery American couple at dinner in Anuradhapuram, they shared my table, and as the beer was not cold, they had a bit of a bottle of Shirmnoff left over and when we finished that, I had my newly bought bottle, mixed with fresh lime soda. So I have not been totally alone but I have to say Im usually glad that these encounters are brief because I really get into a very hermetic state when I travel (when I'm not with my buddy JC that is)

There are several nice beach towns close by and though I will probly take a bus or overpriced rickshaw to walk there when it cools off later in the day, I like my hotel and think I'll enjoy staying put for a few days and I do love the architecture. From here I go back to Colombo which we passed through on train and made me glad I have only 2 days there but to be fair you never usually see the best parts of town from the train and I just bought a novel from a Sri Lankan author about Cinnamon Gardens the neighborhood that I'll be staying at, so will read up and the explore.

Today my horiscope in the local paper said that my travels would interfere with my educational mission, how accurate since when school starts next week I'll still be in India!