Galle Sri Lanka Tours

............Editorial.............

Holidays are exciting ways of liberating yourself from your daily routine of work. They relieve your stress and help you forget your regular household chores and take you to a different world of wonderful experiences. You encounter different people, explore unseen territory, stop and stare at a stilt fisherman, see a rich blend of different cultures, or taste irresistible food at a way-side boutique that you have never had in your life.

 
 

Those who trot the globe do not forget to tick Sri Lanka as one of their holiday destinations. Her matchless beauty, varying climatic conditions, world-class beaches, glass-bottomed boat rides, white-water rafting, tantalizing tastes of sea food, world heritage sites, authentic Ayurvedic resorts, meditation centres, massive herds of elephants, endemic birds, jungle safaris, her youthful verdure, local spicy food or maybe because you just want to stop and stare at a colourful fruit stall on the way. It’s always better if you could have some knowledge about the places you are going to visit and be a bit prepared if you have no time to be well prepared before starting your tour. That’s where we hope to intervene.

 

In our personal encounters with many tourists, we've found that it’s a bit hard for most of them, both local and foreign, to find reliable and accurate information about the historical background of this magnificent emerald island or her destinations. Much has been written about the historical importance of the country and her beautiful places, but people have no time read them closely. It may take months and years for you to read even a portion of them taking your valuable time (unless you want to do some research work). With this in our mind, we start with Galle Fort as the centre, which is a UNESCO world cultural heritage site.

 

Many websites that we find today contain information taken from another site. When we write about a tourist attraction, we physically visit the place, take photos for you, encounter different people and then write our articles in addition to our reference work. We do not simply write what we feel by being in our room. For example, some sites say that Galle Fort was destroyed by the Tsunami in 2004 which is not true. It was the town which was destroyed, not the fort. We have no intention of accusing them, though. The best thing for you would be to come and see and reward yourself with a wonderful and memorable holiday. Criticisms do exist and we feel that we should listen to them and make our project even better.

 

Galle Fort was started by the Portuguese, developed by the Netherlands, finally occupied by the Britishers and left it here when they said their adieu. The Netherlands has done so much to preserve this monument thereafter and eventually, the site stands as the best preserved living fort in the whole of Asia. The UNESCO made it a world heritage site as it falls under their criteria.

 

 

Before we start making this website we had a rare chance of meeting the foreign delegates from the Netherlands who deal with the fort: Mr. Guus Hartendorf sr: the Chairman, SOS Velsen, Drs. Klaas van Slooten: the Secretary, SOS Velsen, and Mr. Charles van Ikelen: Service Engineer, electrical and electronics, in order to tell them our intention of starting a website and seek their assistance to make it a success. We showed them our initial work and they were pleased about it and gave us valuable guidance and advice to make the web site 'Galle Sri Lanka Tours' a reality. Mr. Klaas van Slooten, the secretary of SOS Velsen, even contributed an important article to Galle Sri Lanka Tours from the Netherlands titled "Velsen and Galle: the Twin Cities". (You can read this article in "The Netherlands" page.)

 

 

The European forts in Sri Lanka were built during the 1500s and 1700s round the coastal belts of the island. Some inland forts are also there. Astonishingly, these historical and architectural masterpieces are almost unknown to the tourists outside Sri Lanka. This website, we believe, will fill those gaps and give you a brief history of a bygone era beginning from the Age of Discovery up to the British period and stimulate the valuable travellers like you to visit these places and enjoy your privacy and freedom in a place of your choice.

 

In this process, we visit selected places from time to time and publish images of beautiful scenery. We write brief articles on our visits and update the site making it a better place for you to find what you want. Besides, we hope to develop and make this site an ideal place for the students who love travelling and who may visit Sri Lanka one day to make their holiday an enjoyable and an educational one. We will also not forget our much loved friends, song writers, singers, dancers, teachers, doctors, and our other visitors, whatever walk of life they belong to.