December 2003
saved by colonialism
Brian and I had come out of the misty tea mountains of Sri Lanka and headed toward beautiful Galle, a lovely colonial city/fortress. Alas, the world of cricket had other plans for us. A huge international series was being played in Sri Lanka in Galle and every single hotel room was booked, up and down the coast to Colombo. We reached the old city and walked around its quaint old streets while our driver set out to find us a hotel. He returned to tell us there was not a room to be had unless we were willing to go all the way to Colombo or head back the way we came until we were far enough away from Galle to find a room. We beat a hasty retreat to Hambantota and found a room. That entire coast was beautiful, so it was an inconvenience, not a hardship. I wished, however, that we could have stayed in Galle where we fell in love with the old-walled city.
Galle was known as Gimhathiththa before the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century, when it was the main port on the island. Ibn Batuta, a Moroccan Berber Muslim traveller in the 14th century, referred to it as Qali. Galle reached the height of its development in the 18th century, during the Dutch colonial period. Galle is the best example of a fortified city built by the Portuguese in South and Southeast Asia, showing the interaction between Portuguese architectural styles and native traditions. The city was extensively fortified by the Dutch during the 17th century from 1649 onwards. The Galle fort is a world heritage site and is the largest remaining fortress in Asia built by European occupiers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galle
A year to the date we were on that beautiful coast of Sri Lanka came the Boxing Day Tsunami. I remember I was celebrating Christmas with my childhood bestie JLM at her friend's house and we watched the news. The first horrible images came out of Thailand and it was only later that we found the wave had equally devastated that beautiful coast of Sri Lanka. I felt a chill - it had been a year to the day. What if we had been there on the beach in Hambantota? Ironically, although the old city of Galle experienced flooding, it did not feel the brunt of the wave because of those strong old Portuguese and Dutch ramparts. The modern city did not fair as well, nor the surrounding area - 40,000 people were lost along that coast.
Thanks to the ramparts, however, the Old Town suffered only relatively minor damages from the Tsunami, especially compared to the massif extent of destruction caused by the disaster along the coast around the World Heritage property, where thousands lost their lives.
One day I wish to return to Galle and stay in the old town. Those beaches of Sri Lanka were some of the most beautiful I had ever seen and having an old, walled city set amongst them is an incredible bonus and great tsunami protection, too.