Sweating in Sri Lanka - Galle, Sri Lanka
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 23 Mar 2012 02:35
| 6:01.902N 80:13.676E March 13, 2012 - March 22, 2012 Ah Sri Lanka. Wish we had been able to see more of it. Instead, we sweated on our boat in the dirty commercial harbor watching cleats pop off the dock when the swell got to be more than the flimsy thing could handle. One such incident happened yesterday. That's when we decided to leave Friday (March 23) instead of Monday (March 26). We did have a chance to do some sightseeing though - mostly half-day trips in a tuk-tuk with our trusty driver Chutta. Below are pictures. Don and Chutta in his tuk-tuk. There are no taxis here, just tuk-tuks. Lots of tuk-tuks. You have to admit they are cute. Just don't stick your arm out the side while under way because there's a good chance you'll lose it. The traffic isn't as crazy as Hanoi by any means, but tuk-tuks exist at the bottom of the Sri Lankan traffic pile - all other forms of transportation - except for bicycles, and there are plenty of those - seem to have the right-of-way (mostly because they are larger). This part of Sri Lanka was hit very hard in the 2004 tsunami. Depending on what piece of literature you read, anywhere from 40,000 to 70,000 people died here. Chutta explained that he had a house right on the beach. Luckily, the tsunami came at about nine in the morning, so he and his family were awake. They saw the water empty out of the bay in front of their home, knew something was wrong, although weren't exactly sure what, and decided to run. He with their six-month old son and his wife with their six-year old son. They ran far enough inland to escape the tsunami waves, but they lost everything. Everything. He said one of his neighbors was running with them, then decided to return to their home to rescue some jewelry. He never saw them again. A friend of his lost eighteen family members. Eighteen! At the time of the tsunami, Sri Lanka was in the midst of a nine-year civil war and most thought the tsunami would draw the people together. Didn't happen. The civil war between the minority Tamils (mostly Hindu, migrated from South India late centuries BC, some also brought in by the Brits in the 1800's to work the tea plantations), who were fighting for independence, and the majority Sinhalese (mostly Buddhist, migrated from North India 6th century BC) carried on and finally ended when the Sri Lankan army firmly trounced the Tamil rebels in 2009. The big news now is the UN resolution recently passed directing Sri Lanka to undergo a full investigation into crimes against humanity committed by both sides near the end of the war. It's clear this issue is top of mind as everyone from a customs official to a woman with no teeth selling lace dresses to tourists asked us if we had heard about it. We got the impression no one wants this to be big news. We are not sure if this is because Sri Lankans don't want to be seen as bad guys by the rest of the world, or whether they just want to move on and forget about the war. Or both? Fishing is big here. Not that we didn't already know this given the number of boats we had to steer around on our way to Galle, but seeing them all lined up on the beach and in the harbor really drove the point home. Sri Lanka, especially the southern coast where Galle is, exists at a point in the Indian Ocean where currents converge. Wherever this occurs, there is much sea life to be found. There are masses of fish here. There was never a good time to snap pictures of the locals without potentially offending someone, but here's at least one example of the colorful saris worn and umbrellas carried by the women. Umbrellas are carried to ward off the sun (completely understandable as we nearly melted here), and saris or very colorful full skirts are worn by all the women. Many of the men wear sarongs much like we saw in Bali. All in all, the splashes of color are a nice change from the head-to-toe black worn by many of the Muslim women in Malaysia. Sri Lanka, like so many of the places we visited in Southeast Asia, was first visited by the Portuguese in the 1500's, then the Dutch in the 1600's, and the British in the late 1700's. The Portuguese, Dutch and British were after those more valuable than gold spices (cloves, cinnamon), and Sri Lanka had plenty (as well as a nice collection of gem stone mines, which still exist). This is a photo of part of the remains of a fort built originally by the Portuguese, then fortified by the Dutch followed by the British. The fort's colonial buildings now house many of Galle's municipal offices, as well as a growing collection of boutique hotels and restaurants. Say what you will about the evils of colonialism (Sri Lanka became independent from the British in 1948), but the fort's walls held up to the tsunami and there was very little damage done to old Galle as a result. New Galle, which sprawls outside the fort, was nearly demolished. More Buddhas! Sri Lanka's population of 21 million is about 75% Buddhist. This temple, hollowed out of a giant rock, is probably the most unique Buddhist temple we've seen. The Buddha images are definitely a different style than those of Thailand and Laos - more stern, different pose, less gold leaf, more jaundice. Some of the giant rocks surrounding the temple. It reminded us of 'The Baths' on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. Tea. The Brits brought tea to Sri Lanka. Lots of tea. We didn't get to the tea plantations in the highlands, but we did get to this organic tea plantation just outside of Galle where we tasted 30 tea varieties, viewed the tea bushes and pickers, and toured the small factory. In this photo, the day's tea leaves are being dried with air blowing up from underneath the screen the tea is resting on. Most of the equipment in this factory is hundreds of years old, originally shipped to Sri Lanka from England and Ireland, but it all looked well maintained and seemed to be doing the job. That was just about the extent of our touring. We did stop at an organic herb and spice garden where we were subjected to oily face, head and back massages (with shirts off) by male trainees in an open pavilion on oily, uncomfortable plank benches. We were sweating before that, but after being coated with oil we were a slippery, wet mess. Once we got back to the harbor and walked by this cement powder freighter as it was being unloaded, the airborne cement powder attached itself to the oil and a thin layer of concrete started to form on our skin. It wasn't a pleasant feeling - especially when we were trying not to waste water on trivial things like showers because the harbor water is too dirty to run the water maker. We did enjoy watching the workings of a commercial port up close and personal while we sweated on our boat. We've never been moored quite so close to giant freighters and tugs and navy ships before, and found it interesting to watch ships like this one maneuver on and off the dock with the help of tugs, massive dock lines, and strategically deployed anchors. When this boat arrived, you couldn't see the bottom paint. When it left (pictured), it was riding a good four or five meters higher in the water. This is why there was so much cement powder floating around and attaching itself to our sweaty skin. More tomorrow on our final preparations for the journey to Chagos. Anne |