Day 15. Galle, Colombo

 Quite a long day today. That's the tour company trying to pack things in to catch up for the gaps in our itinerary.

So we left Galle at 8.30 and drove around the coast, anticlockwise, towards Colombo. First stop was the Tsunami Museum. This turned out to be a cement block house aand a wooden shack containing photos and statements in poor English, and an explanation from the woman whose house it used to be, which was moving and sad in equal measure, and we tried not to stay longer than we had to (true of all our stops). Shortly after that we stopped at a combination cinnamon processing plant (they steam huge quantities of leaves for oil) and moonstone factory (a milky semi-precious stone mined from an on-site shaft). Similar to previous entries, the guide has a smooth patter that tells you this is all a sales pitch. Almost everyone except us bought something.

Cinnamon Leaves
The astop after that was a boat trip - a small, fibreglass open boat that went a short distance up the Madu River to Maduganga Lake. There were a lot of mangroves and periodic fish traps that would funnel fish into pens as the tide went out. The lake itself was large with a number of islands.

From there we drove on to Colombo, with just a short stop for lunch. Colombo seems to have dried out from the recent flooding, at least the parts we saw. the Shangri La is an enormous hotel but we barely got settled before we were off again on a tour of the city in open Land Rovers. This was much more fun than I anticipated. The traffic was chaotic and the fumes were a bit of a problem, but the dust from recent flooding didn't eventuate and the mayhem added to the overall experience.



The trip included a stop by a lake for a drink, by which time it was getting dark. Of the three cars in convoy, ours seemed to be in the middle because it had no headlights. Apparently in Colombo this is not a major issue.

Eventually we were deposited at a restaurant, the Gallery Cafe, for dinner. It was stylish with good food and eccentric art.
Location: WRHV+CQ7, One Galle Face Dr, Colombo 2, Sri Lanka

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