If the list of world heritage site is Sri Lanka national history book, it will definitely start with Anuradhapura as the starting point of Sinhalese culture and end with Galle as the starting point of colonial period. Galle is a unique cultural world heritage site as it is not related to Sinhalese culture or Buddhism at all; visiting Galle is truly another chapter of Sri Lanka history.

Galle is located in the small peninsular and surrounded by the mighty fortifications system built by Portuguese and developed by Dutch. Galle was the important port of call that was a part of spice maritime route; as the result, Gall has unique atmosphere of cultural exchange of local people, Muslim, Dutch and British. At present, Galle has been regarded as one of best-preserved colonial cities in South Asia.

During my visit, there was a large construction of new road surface, so Galle I saw was a big construction site with many piles of rock and sand for concrete road; however, these were unable to destroy the charm of Galle. People are extremely friendly, and each alley has its own characteristic, really similar with mosque area of George Town, Penang. The main attraction of Galle is the fort, the grandest is the northern part with comprise of three bastions, star, sun and moon, a real engineering wonder; however, the southern part is my favorite with extremely beautiful view of amazing Indian Ocean, lighthouse and lovely mosque. The city center around Dutch church is also nice with unique Holland atmosphere.

Galle is an easy and nice place to enjoy, this is not a must place to visit in my opinion, but visiting Galle is the complete historical lesson from colonial era to contemporary tsunami tragedy of this beautiful country, Sri Lanka, so why not visit this town is maybe the hardest question to answer.