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.
While in line at immigration, the power went off. All processing came to a halt. Although I had about 4 hours margin before the train to Galle, this wasn't promising. After an eternity, the power came back on again and I got through. Next hurdle was the baggage carousel. There the power went off again for a while. No sign of my backpack. When it was evident that no more would be arriving, an official came around to help. He asked if I had checked elsewhere around the carousel. It turned out to be in a pile that I had assumed somebody was collecting for a group, but probably had been taken off the belt by workers. Phew! Never make unnecessary assumptions.
I found the ATM in the arrivals hall. The Commercial Bank ATM seemed to be the only one accepting foreign cards. There was an ATM charge of 300 LKR (under 3 AUD, 1 AUD = ~110 LKR). Sri Lanka is the first country where I have been charged this.
Next I bought a local SIM to have Internet on my mobile phone. I accepted the 1300 LKR tourist bundle by Mobitel. There was a cheaper bundle at 500 LKR but they didn't advertise that at the counter. Never mind, it was cheap and gave me heaps of data and call allowance.
I had hoped to have lunch at the airport but the food court, such as it was, was closed for renovations. Poor first impressions of Sri Lanka.
I had decided to take a taxi to Colombo instead of using the slow bus. Uber didn't have any cabs so I went to the taxi counter where they issued me a voucher for a taxi at a standard price of 2500 LKR. However it turned out that the 300 LKR toll charge for the highway is paid by the passenger. You think they would bundle that.
A tip on a travel forum suggested catching the Galle train from its origin station Maradana instead of Fort to get a seat more easily. I asked to be dropped off there. I bought a ticket to Galle which was a bargain at 140 LKR, but would take hours. Bus tickets were also dirt cheap. Sri Lankans don't have much spending power, and services are slow.
I looked around the neighbourhood for a restaurant. In Sri Lanka, these are confusingly also called hotels. I picked one, because its menu looked OK and it was air-conditioned. Colombo weather is like being in a sauna.
The roast chicken buryani (names are spelt all sorts of ways in Sri Lanka) was tasty and acceptable. I didn't want to think about the state of the kitchen.
I had some time to kill before the train so waited on the platform which gradually filled up. Many other tourists were among the crowd.
