Tangalle 2 - PM

After a shower (I took lots of those) and a nap I walked into town in search of lunch, to look at the market, and to get cash from an ATM. The market was a modest affair, selling produce, household goods and clothes.

Bananas were plentiful, of course. The varieties here are smaller than the Cavendish I'm used to but likely fresher because not transported long distances.

Cempedak can also be seen in a corner of this shot.

Papayas are also common. The most common fruit drinks were papaya, pineapple and mango.

A selection of colourful clothing.

The main street of Tangalle, a modest affair.

None of the ATMs I tried could dispense cash. Impossible to decipher from the messages what was wrong: communications error, card not accepted, insufficient cash, or any of many explanations.

I didn't have luck finding a decent place for lunch, and eventually settled on a bar-restaurant near the guesthouse. The fish curry was watery and had few pieces. Only the papadums saved the meal from being tasteless. Maybe the cook was a stand-in in the slow season.

In the evening I decided to dine at Cactus Lounge, inspite of it being a couple of km outside town. If walking back was too strenuous, I could always hail a tuk-tuk. The "lounge" was a modest affair, just 5 tables and a rudimentary kitchen near a beach. But the grilled prawns, salad and shoestring fries were quite good, though the sauce was on the salty side. This went down well with lime juice.

I ended up walking all the way back in the dark, aided by my smartphone torch. As a reward, I found an ATM, again of Commercial Bank, that dispensed cash. I also stopped at the supermarket again and bought a soursop and a couple of small mangoes. I saw a familiar brand, Kandos chocolate, that was once sold in Malaysia. I wondered how they could run a chocolate factory in a tropical country, you need a cool climate so the chocolate can easily solidify without refrigeration. The history on their website showed that they were founded in Kandy, in hill country. That explained it. The letters dos in the name are the initials of the founders.