It was finally that time to make the end journey to the final destination of Galle. From Tangalle Mishee and I caught a tuk tuk along the old road, rather than the newer highway that takes have the time. The reason being highways are boring, and using the old road we could stop off at the tallest Buddha in Asia (I had no reason to doubt this, as it is pretty damn tall), hope to see some of the stilt fishermen (they sit on stilts to fish, but they were all missing in action when we passed by as it was lunch time), and also to check out the nearby beaches to Galle to see whether they were worth a visit.

Thankfully the decision to stay longer in Tangalle paid off, as the far more popular and famous beach here on the South Coast, Marissa, isn’t that great. There sure were a lot more people, but all the beach front restaurants and shops had been torn down, apparently due to some council crack down on illegal buildings (according to the tuk tuk driver anyway), and compared to Tangalle it came across as a run down tourist beach town. 

The next two beaches along, Weligama and Midigama, looked fantastic and full of surf boarding schools. If I were to pick a beach other than Tangalle to stay at, it would be one of these. But Tangalle was still the clear winner, and we did joke that perhaps we should tell everyone how terrible it was there so all the tourists stick to Marissa rather than spoiling Tangalle.

Galle fort sits on the headland and is a great colonial suburb of cobbled streets, Dutch inspired architecture, a rebuilt lighthouse, and an awful lot of souvenir shops. The thing is, despite the tacky tourist shops and staggeringly over priced food, it’s retains a charm and warmth that I had trouble leaving the fort area to venture into the city itself. And with this being the end of this trip, I was more than happy just to enjoy soaking up the forts charm and not doing much at all.

It takes all of a 20 minute stroll around the forts ramparts, it’s really a small space. Yet bafflingly there are tuk tuk’s everywhere, offering to take you around. How lazy to do you have to be?! And with the streets so narrow, there was really only room for tuk tuk’s to get through, as soon as a sedan or heaven forbid a van, tried to navigate the streets here, you really needed to move to the side and nothing else could pass. There was one morning when school was finishing up, where all the parents were in the area and there was dozens of scooters jammed packed on the streets, which almost lead to an all out fist fight outside my hotel where one parent made the mistake of daring to park outside a shop. Lots of angry words were exchanged, the bike was moved, and thankfully that was the end of it (well, until 10 minutes later they were yelling at each other again only for a quick poorly produced sequel).

Easily the two biggest presence here are the French and professional photographers. It seems to me the French are increasing becoming the dominating tourists in the last few countries I’ve been to. Not sure why, but they do seem mostly miserable and I’m eagerly looking forward to this trend ending. In Galle fort, professional photographers are everywhere, with their light metres and those umbrella things that reflecting the flash to soften it. They were all taking photo’s of Sri Lankans couples and finally out of sheer needing-to-know that Mishee asked a waiter at the grill house we’d been frequenting what the story is, and he confirmed it was for wedding photo’s. That made perfect sense, the fort is really a perfect spot for some groom and bride only photo’s.

The fort has three museums. The maritime and national museum are okay, but nothing to write home about. However the archaeological maritime museum is just brilliant. After 4 weeks of being in Sri Lanka, nowhere else had even hinting on the countries seafaring history, and it’s long and impressive trade routes, especially with China lasting over 2000 years. It seemed obvious after the fact of learning this that naturally an island nation would be proficient in sailing and trade, but it was such a surprise to be confronted with this knowledge at the end of this trip. The museum did it’s job and educated me on this important aspect of Sri Lankan history.

I was due to leave on Friday morning, taking a taxi back to a hotel near Colombo Airport for a 7am flight on Saturday. Mishee, however, was leaving on Thursday afternoon and making her way back to Munich. A grill restaurant in the old Dutch Hospital had become our go to place, which was a great spot overlooking the harbour, so a final lunch and may beers later, it was the final goodbye. 

I went back to the grill restaurant that night and it was weird sitting there by myself, when normally I have no problem with it and generally prefer it. There’s a small list of people I’ve met while travelling that I would love to see again. Mishee made that list.

A one night last stay in a really good hotel near(ish) to the airport, it was now time for aeroplanes, airports, hopefully no crying babies, and trying to find a beard trimmer in duty free (mine broke on the way over, so I’m a wilderbeast right now).

Naturally the final thought is, where to next?