M and I decided to make a quick trip before I leave for the UK. The choices were the Maldives or to one of the beaches down-south. The idea of doing the journey to the airport 3 times within one week was not too appealing to me, plus the fact that we left organising it a bit late, so we decided to try out the relatively new Amangalla resort in Galle, and set off yesterday morning.
The resort is beautiful, set within the walls of the Galle Fort and next door to the old Dutch Church, which has also been restored recently, having received funding from the Dutch government. We had a relaxing afternoon at the hotel, and enjoyed the pool, and other hydro-therapy facilities, as well as having the complimentary tea and scones on the verandah! Our room was decorated in beautiful old colonial furniture with a huge window overlooking the port. We decided to leave the exploration of the old fort and its many beautiful buildings for today.
However, this morning, we were abruptly awoken by the sounds of windows banging, and it felt like our whole room shuddered. At first I thought one of the other guests had left their window open and a thunderstorm had begun, after the 3rd bang however, M decided to go investigate. We could also hear people running in the corridor outside our room. He thought it was a large piece of furniture that had fallen, however within minutes of the 4th bang, we discovered that the bangs were in fact, the LTTE suicide bombs going off in the fishing boats in the harbour, less than a kilometer away and within view from our window. The blasts themselves were not that alarming, it was the subsequent intermittent gunfire that went on for the next 2-3 hours that was a bit surreal, and at one point the proximity of it all made us wonder whether they'd actually manage to get to our hotel as well?
The hotel staff moved us to another room, which was more towards the inner courtyard rather than facing the docs, and we spent the next few hours there waiting it out until the army finally contained the situation and a curfew of sorts was called. We decided to cut short our trip and return to Colombo as soon as M's father and driver got to Galle.
This hasn't been the first bomb to go off since I got to Sri Lanka, however, it has been the closest. The bombs themselves were not that scary, however the sounds of the gunshots will remain with me for a long time to come, it really brought home the fact that we are living in a country that is at war, and the civil liberties that we take so much for granted are always under threat.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Sunday, October 01, 2006
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