Galle to Tangalle

The bus station was a busy place with people going places and merchants and hawkers doing business. I had been told that to get to Tangalle. I needed to change buses in Matara, a large regional centre.

The bus quickly filled up. I took the seat near the door because it allowed to put my backpack in front of me. No luggage storage underneath. The bus roared onto the road, overtaking even when motorcycles and tuk-tuks were coming the other way, like a homicidal maniac, tooting the horn furiously. Lesser vehicles just had to swerve out of the way. But the bus deferred to trucks. Size mattered.

But for some reason the bus slowed after leaving the outskirts of Galle. It often stopped, or rather slowed down, for passengers, who were evidently used to alighting from or boarding a moving bus.

At Matara I took a few pictures of the coast before boarding an onward bus.

Progress was painfully slow and I got a good view of rural life in Sri Lanka. I finally reached Tangalle about 3 hours later for a road distance of about 80 km. The GPS on my phone was very useful for locating the guesthouse. It was a one-storey affair, and fortunately my room was air-conditioned. Comments on the Internet said the fan only room was unbearable. I was the only guest that night. I was glad to take a shower before drinking the fresh coconut they had presented me.