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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“Full Moon blues” |
I arrive at Fort Station at 4pm,. collected the bag I'd left in storage there and made my way to the Galle Face Hotel,a great old (1864) hotel with excellent style. My Deluxe Room turned out to be a large suite with sitting room, huge bedroom, walk-in dressing room and large toilet and bath. The reason it was cheaper than next price level up was that I was on the corner next to road and had only a partial sea view, but good value for £37.50 a night (with huge breakfast buffet). Showered and ready to kill a few beers when I learned that this was a Poya (Full Moon) day and no alcohol was being served (not even in your room). This put me in a bad mood but a 2 hour walk soon exhausted me enough to get over it. Galle Road is a real non-even I am beginning to think that Colombo is really not much of a city and the big attraction would be staying in this hotel. Sunday
The National Museum. I was not expecting much but this is really a great collection and in particular the labels and description are top class. I found many explanations for things I had seen either here in Sri Lanka or in other Asian countries. (1) early Buddhists did not worship Buddha images .. their Dagobas (temples) had either Buddha footprints, an empty throne or a Bodhi Tree .. images came later with influences from India. (This may account for the fact that in general, Buddhist temples here do not have the clutter that is so common to temples in Thailand and Laos.
(2) Irrigation .. the early kings were keen on control and management of water resources, but it is Parakramabaha The Great (1153 – 1186) who is credited with this comment
'Let not a drop of water enter the sea without being used by man.' Monday 26 November
Galle Face Hotel
Breakfast buffet here is really good and the sea view simply adds that something special. I walked to Barefoot .. a shop with native fabrics and goodies that would have sent me on a buying spree in the old days. I didn't find anything I could live without and decided books were too heavy to lug .. so spent no money there. Around noon I reached my goal : The Gallery .. Geoffrey Bawa's former office (his architectural practice). Surprisingly modest with clay tile roofs in a long narrow site. But as you proceed it becomes more interesting ; skillful use of ponds and plants increase the sense of space. The cafe was simply far too piss elegant for my taste, so I gave it a miss. Luckily, the Cricket Club Cafe is just across the street and this was much more relaxed. Cricket memorabilia and a TV (luckily no sound) .. seems to be quite a complex and nice outdoor space would have suited me but there was a baby! Anyway, indoors was nice and lunch was a beer and excellent Thai chicken salad. Back to the Galle Face Hotel for another a nap. Left the hotel at 11pm for my trip to airport ; the city was all closed up.
Afterthoughts:
Seems my timing was very good .. the major “incident” while I was there was the Government killing (by bombing) the Number 2 in the Tamil Tigers. Just after I left, the Tamil Tigers responded with a suicide bomber in central Colombo (1 killed) and a bomb at a suburban shopping centre in which 19 were killed and 40 injured (as of 28 November).
Hired cars. It is not just the cost of the car and driver that gets to me. I realised that when you are alone, the driver feels the need to talk. Chris, the German agreed with me on this point ; he had a driver for his whole fortnight in the country. If there were more than one passenger it might be easier. But the big thing is that you are separated from the locals. A big part of the pleasure in the train journey was observing fellow passengers (even the wretched children).
previous travel blog entry
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