It was time to leave Colombo behind for our loop around the southern and eastern portions of Sri Lanka. Our next destination was Galle, pronounced either "Gall", Gall-A" or "Golly" depending on whether the speaker is English, Sihngal or Tamil. Or they are just messing with you.
The burning tropical sun belied the notion of the rainy season as we descended the Mt. Lavinia hillisde to the crumbling train station just off the beach. We purchased our two second class tickets and joined the few folks on the benches inside the station. Second class does not guarantee a seat, it only means that there may be a little more space in the coach and that you will probably get to where you are going. The train arrived, an old diesel locomotive puling the typical vintage coaches. This country would be a train-spotters paradise. True to form, there were no vacant seats, but a local man gave up his seat in exchange for trying to get us off the train at his cousin-brother-aunt's guest house. Very familiar, but harmless.
The paradise of second class. Riding in style!!
My One and I alternated sitting and standing in the breezy doorway, watching the ocean and the palm covered lowlands pass. Or we took turns sitting or standing as the train sat on a siding to make way for.... who knows. The trains here are a wonderment of travel and also of time travel, evoking nothing more than an era gone by in other parts of the world but still very much alive here. As in India, the trains are the cheapest way to travel and are still run by the state. A two and a half hour ride to Galle, for example, cost 175 rupees apiece, or about $1.50. Third class is much cheaper.
No one tells you to keep your arms and legs in. If you get your bits chopped off on a passing pole, oh well, reincarnation will take care of the rest.
Our destination, Galle, is best know for its amazing Dutch fort, its ramparts more than a kilometer across and still almost completely intact. It is a UNESCO World Heritage sight, and, as such, a bit of a tourist zoo. Galle is not quite the backpacker theme park that Cartagena and Luang Prabang can seem like, but it does have some of that vibe. There are still people living and working inside the fort, however, which makes the area a bit more real and enjoyable. The other side of the Heritage Sight coin is that the fort is a magical place of history and ocean breezes and sunrises and sunsets. The UNESCO designation protects the fort from rapant development which is occuring up and down the coast. As I type this, here is my view from our terrace.
After a transit day where the transit itself was the true joy, we strolled from the train station, past the cricket pitch, and into the fort proper. As the sun set into the sea, we set off out of the fort in search of some street food. Traveling by train is a joy in and of itself and train travel in Sri Lanka is magic. Not quite the ordeal of an Indian train journey, and much simpler, Sri Lankan trains already have a special place in my heart.
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