Galle is a coastal town in south western part of Srilanka. This town was colonised by the Portugese, Dutch and finally the British.
The Galle fort is a very well known historical structure in whole of Srilanka. It was initially built by the Portuguese in 16th Century and was later modified by the Dutch. Today the Galle Fort is also declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site and is a stunning blend of architecture, archaeology and history amidst a beautiful tropical setting.
I loved walking on these streets. The colorful buildings with a long history makes it a very interesting place to take a stroll. Maritime museum had lot of information about the marine life and traditional fishermen of this area, the national museum about the colonial history of this place.
Visit to the fort is one thing that shouldn’t be missed while in Galle. It’s mostly ruins but with a lot of history involved. Galle cricket stadium is also an iconic place to be visited here. You can get a clear view of the stadium from the fort.
Evenings become lively in the fort area with lot of restaurants having seating area on the streets, some with live music….. definitely worth visiting here.
Seafood is definitely worth trying here. Raw Oyster had it for the first time, it was good 😊
Unawatuna Beach, located just a short drive from Galle, is a popular destination for its crescent-shaped bay and beautiful reefs. The clear waters offer opportunity to scuba dive, allowing you to discover the underwater wonders of the Indian Ocean.
The Unawatuna’s diving is well known for it’s wrecks. Rangoon wreck being my favourite. I was diving with the Pearl divers for couple of days and they have a beautiful dive shop located just on the beach.
I was getting ready for my first dive, the instructor who just came back from dive site number 12 (alu gathu) saw a whale shark. We were off to the same location now in all hopes of a whale shark sighting. But unfortunately couldn’t see it, still it was beautiful dive. Saw school of Sardellen fish, a huge nepolean warsse, small school of barracuda, nudi branches, lion fish, trigger fish, box fish and many more. We also saw quite a few jelly fishes.
I also did couple of night dive there. It was a very interesting dive where we saw lot of lobsters, shrimps, crabs, moray eels and lot of planktons too. It was such a beautiful thing to be in middle of the ocean after sunset, exploring the underwater world…. Wow! It must be in your to do list at least once.
For me the best part of diving in Unawatuna was the Rangoon wreck and the No name wreck. Both beautiful wrecks with so many colorful fishes, which seemed like an aquarium. Until you reach the wreck visibility wasn’t great, at the wreck visibility turned good. Loved exploring the marine life in wrecks…. Schools of fishes welcomed us, it was crazy to see so many fishes at one place
Interesting thing here is they have to virtually locate the dive site each time. When asked the dive instructor do you use any GPS, they say GPS is in their mind. Once they were struggling to locate the exact dive site location because a big commercial boat blocked their view of mountain which was a guide mark. Finally after half an hour another dive boat which passed by helped us to locate the exact dive site location. During my last night I started experiencing severe eye pain during safety stop.It was strange as I didn’t have any issue in deep dive and in the shallow dive i faced it. Thought not to dive for the next few days.
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