Travel Day 1134 – Galle, SRI LANKA
After exploring all of the defensive fortifications and looking for Portuguese traces of Galle yesterday, today I much rather focused on the Dutch colonial houses…
Restored Dutch Colonial House with Pool in Galle, Sri Lanka
Obviously there were still a lot of colonnaded Dutch colonial houses within the UNESCO enlisted Old Town of Galle and it almost seemed that most of them had been beautifully restored. Actually after asking around, I realized that pretty much all restored colonial housed belonged to foreigners, either European or North American. While the upkeep and restorations of the houses was definitely important to maintain the character of Galle, it seemed unfortunate that with the foreign investment also an increase in all the prices had come along…
When I was passing the cute little restaurants in nicely restored houses, I found for example lunch offerings for a rice-and-curry meal for 950 rupees while a short walk away from the historic center the same kind of meal was available for as little as 80 rupees. The same had proved to be true when I was looking for a place to stay within the historic old town of Galle and the only place I did find in the end was an unrenovated, dark and somewhat damp room in an old building with a rat or mouse problem, munching away my pre-bought breakfast while I was sleeping…
Open Dutch Colonial House in Galle Fort, Sri Lanka
Anyway, what was the story behind all the nicely looking and perfectly restored buildings that were owned by Westerners and how where they actually used? To my great surprise I found most of these buildings completely empty and deserted. Well, these nicely restored colonial housed seemed to be empty of any real life and they seemed to have become a holiday resort or an expensive destination for rich tourists who appreciated the historic flair but wouldn’t want to miss the convenient amenities of a luxury hotel…
The first Dutch building I walked into seemed to be only inhabited by local care-taker ladies who kept the place clean and in shape. After a friendly hello and chit-chat they happily invited me in and showed me around. To my surprise the house was really well set up with differently designed comfortable guest rooms, airy common spaces with seating opportunities on cushioned beds and even a nicely designed pool in the central courtyard. It was definitely one of the nicest historic buildings I had ever seen, but as I learned, it was only sometimes used by guests from overseas…
Nice Living Room in Dutch Colonial House in Galle, Sri Lanka
This story proved to be true for almost every historic building I poked my head in and I really didn’t understand for which expensive and exclusive future everything was designed. For me it was already too expensive to eat within the fort and by the next time I would visit I would probably even have to stay outside the old town of Galle, especially after learning that some of the houses were actually charging as much as 300 USD for a single night. But apparently this price was including breakfast and a care-taker for personal availability…
Luckily for me, most of these care-takes were bored out of their minds and more than happy to show off their nicely restored colonial houses. This in turn gave me the great opportunity to see a lot of buildings from inside, talk to some of local people and even get some invitations to a cup of tea inside the open courtyards. Yeah, it definitely had been quite an unexpected but surprisingly interesting day inside some really beautiful houses…
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