Golly, We're in Galle

Isuru has had a few schedule changes over the last few weeks since he was recently hired at SriLankan Airlines. Since he had to work today, his brother was nice enough to drive us south to Galle, which is more of a beach and resort area. There is a new highway going between Colombo and Galle which has shaved the time it takes to get to the south, but it still seemed far. We were able to check in to our hotel and changed into our beach gear to sit by the water for a bit. After that we had a late lunch of rice and curry and then hired a tuk tuk driver to take us to Galle fort.

The fort has basically been around since the 1600s and was primarily occupied by the Dutch. Now the area consists of quaint looking shops and restaurants, all enclosed by the old walls of the fort which overlooks the Indian Ocean. We were there around sunset, but there was so much haze on the horizon, our pictures didn't really turn out as we'd hoped. We walked around the perimeter for a bit where we saw a lighthouse and some other unique looking buildings that look like they had been around for a long time.

While everyone had their cameras pointed toward the sunset, I found the lush greenery in the other direction more interesting. There were quite a few people walking around the fort -- the most tourists we had seen since the Taj Mahal. After walking around most of the fort, we zig-zagged through the narrow streets amongst the restaurants and shops. Nobody was really sitting down to eat, so we figured it was a better bet to just head back to our hotel.

Something wasn't relayed quite accurately, and I noticed that the tuktuk had overshot the hotel. Fortunately I recognized this fairly quick and he made a u-turn. At least so far, it seems Sri Lankans are much more inclined to be friendly to us and not just follow and stare. Nicole, in particular, appreciates this. Our only trouble seems to be some language issues. Nicole specified in five different ways, that she didn't want any cheese on her pasta for lunch. This was somehow interpreted as extra cheese, but what can you do.
We were feeling a bit lazy, so we figured we would just order some food up to our room to eat on the balcony. After that, we walked back down to the beach to take some pictures. They had the water somewhat lit with lights up above, which made it look very turquoise. We dipped our feet into the Indian Ocean to say we had now set foot in all of the world's oceans with the exception of the Southern Ocean, but that would require going to Antarctica, and we kind of like this whole summer in December thing we have going on.