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| Old fort entrance/exit |
Today I was wondering what I was going to do to kill time as Galle Fort is pretty small and expensive. As I was walking around a man came up to me. He introduced himself to me as Shaffy and told me he was in the midst of renovating his house and wanted to show me. He informed that after the tsunami back in 2004 the Dutch government gave money to a few of the people in the fort so they could restore their homes and he was a recipient of one of these grants. So I went into the construction site and I could tell when it is finished it will be very grand.
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| Plaque showing they are in receipt of a grant |
He then made ginger tea for me and we had a little chat. Turns out he is a gemologist. He buys and sells them so he started to teach me about different gems and how to tell the real from from the fakes. It was quite interesting.
Actually, Galle is a big hub for gems where they are bought and sold. There are gems everywhere.
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| Lots of gems |
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| Education on gems |
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| Mr. Shaffy |
After he took me out for breakfast at a proper local place that I would never have found had I been on my own. We ate hoppers with an assortment of curries which he paid for. He took me to the local mosque which was really interesting. After we went round a few markets and then back to his home, where I met his wife, kids and grandchildren. They served me curd with treacle and fresh papaya juice. It was great!
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| Man making egg hopper |
After everything I decided to buy a gem from him. I mean that was a pretty elaborate way to get a sale. I bought a blue topaz for not too much.
Watched a great sunset and drank tins of beers with the locals on the fort ramparts.
A really great day!
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| Sunset |
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