The road to Galle

The reason for no blog for two days has been that we have been staying away from Colombo in Galle. Galle is a fortress town in the south of Sri Lanka. It is believed that it may be the ancient city of Tarshish ( according to the Rough Guide and historian, James Emerson) and was on a major trade route for many ancient nations. Solomon was supposed to have picked up his supply of peacocks and ivory from here. Maybe it was the ancient world's equivalent of Ikea, or perhaps Heals?
Anyway, the town was obviously a magnet to would be conquerors and was captured by first the Portugese, then the Dutch and then the British.
The town is all inside the Garrison walls and nowadays has a charming, down at heel, colonial feel. However, all this is soon to change. Galle was the town with the most fatalities in the 2004 Tsunami. It was not so badly damaged, structurally, but due to the density of the population, many people died. Since then it seems to have attracted both money and entrepreneurial spirit. The town's bus station, which was outside the walls and covered with water has been rebuilt and the country's first highway is being built from Columbo to Galle.
 It was supposed to have been finished by September but it is not ready, alas, which meant we had a three or four hour drive along the old Galle road. It was certainly an education. I had enormous respect for our driver at the end of it. How he keeps his cool on such roads I don't know. I was very glad to be sitting in the back. The tuk tuks and motor bikes come out of nowhere and cross your path but more terrifying is that because it is a single lane road everyone crosses over to the other side of the road to overtake, which they do ALL THE TIME, irrespective of what is coming in the opposite direction. The driver just beeps his horn and out he goes. Very often I looked up to see a lorry or bus coming at full pelt straight towards us. It was not for the fainthearted. One of the girl's boyfriends said that he thought Sri Lanka was bad until he went to Bangla Desh. there all cars are fitted with cow catcher bard back and front. Nobody stops if they hit you and the rickshaws which have no brakes actually stop themselves by bashing in to the back of the vehicle in front. So you are often feeling a thud, thud as the next rickshaw driver, drives into you!
The route along the Galle road was very congested nearly all the way but we had two refreshing stops. One to have a cupof tea and a hot dog ( a real hot dog, complete with slices of chilli!) and two to pick up a painting for a friend at the house of an artist in a little village off the beaten track. The house was a tiny  bungalow in which some of his paintings were hanging looking very dirty and neglected and then a hut which he used for a studio. However, the man had an amazing talent. His watercolours, particulalrly, were so beautiful. He prefers to stay and paint in his village than move to Colombo and likes to paint local people going about their daily business: fishermen, craftsmen, women, monks and people of different faiths, whom he says get along quite harmoniously, together. I was completely taken by a picture of a buddhist monk walking along looking so contemplative and peaceful. I asked him how much the picture would cost, but, alas, it was outside my league, costing the equivalent of £90. However, such a picture could fetch three times that in England. I felt very sad having to leave it behind as it mouldered away on his wall.  
He generously spent a lot of time showing us his pen and ink drawings of nature ( which were exquisite) and his sketch books. He also teaches art and lives alone with his ancient mother but has had several exhibitions in Colombo and elsewhere thanks to American sponsorship money.
We said goodbye and then sped on to Galle. Hot, dusty, and tired  I suddenly found us driving up to the Lighthouse Hotel, one of the most famous luxury hotels in Sri Lanka and what an experience that was!
More tomorrow.......