{"id":16115,"date":"2017-02-22T15:32:02","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T15:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geoffjones.com\/?p=16115"},"modified":"2017-02-22T15:32:02","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T15:32:02","slug":"biking-marissa-to-galle-on-lifeday-25411","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/?p=16115","title":{"rendered":"Biking Marissa to Galle on LifeDay 25411"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday 21 February 2017<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16119\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16119\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/3-2017-02-022.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16119\" src=\"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/3-2017-02-022-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/3-2017-02-022-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/3-2017-02-022-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/3-2017-02-022.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16119\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The weather returned to the normal blue skies and heat so a good day for Sri Lanka to show of its crystal clear sea and stunning huge beaches.<\/p>\n<p>I made a very leisurely start, after 10am, catching up on blog posts whilst the masses slept. The route followed the coast line and was pretty flat apart from my detour around Rumassala and its incredibly steep hills \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n<p>On the way I called in at the Martin Wickramsinghe Folk Museum in Koggala. He was a very famous author and the museum is in his old house. Unfortunately 12 bus loads of school kids had arrived a few minutes before me \ud83d\ude41 so everywhere was packed and of cause I couldn&#8217;t hang around&#8230;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16118\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16118\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/2-2017-02-022.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16118\" src=\"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/2-2017-02-022-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/2-2017-02-022-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/2-2017-02-022-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/2-2017-02-022.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16118\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camera shy fishermen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Near here are all the &#8216;fishermen&#8217; perched on their sticks in the sea, unfortunately they are museum pieces too and get angry, really really angry, if you try and take their pics. In fact one chased me down the road brandishing his fishing rod in a threatening manner!<\/p>\n<p>The beaches are really fantastic, if you are into fine sand, miles long and just about deserted they look really inviting. However, after my experience in Cuba of swimming in warm water (it just isn&#8217;t refreshing) I gave it a miss.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16117\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16117\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/1-IMG_0628-2-001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16117\" src=\"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/1-IMG_0628-2-001-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/1-IMG_0628-2-001-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/1-IMG_0628-2-001-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/1-IMG_0628-2-001.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16117\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Main street Galle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Galle was only 25 miles away so I arrived at 2pm. Goodness me what a change. The moment you go through the fort walls a air of tranquility and peace descends. The mad noise of buses, trucks honking away\u00a0evaporate.<\/p>\n<p>I tried to check in at the first hotel but alas was full (or so he said!) However, the kind lady next door at The Old Dutch House came up with a great deal so I decided to stay for two nights.<\/p>\n<p>After a shower, it was unbelievably sticky today, I went for a wander around the walls etc It really is very pleasant with a host of tourist shops mainly selling quality jewellery, tea and lots of splendid looking restaurants.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16123\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16123\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/4-IMG_0080-7.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16123\" src=\"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/4-IMG_0080-7-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/4-IMG_0080-7-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/4-IMG_0080-7.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16123\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rubbish head massage chair<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I saw The Tropical Spa and decided to have an Indian Head Massage, oh dear she needed to take lessons from <a href=\"http:\/\/sallykelly.com\">Sally!<\/a> It was probably the worst head massage \u00a0ever! I was made to\u00a0sit in an executive high backed chair \ud83d\ude41 and to make it worse to wear a robe!! total disaster. No wonder they wanted to take your money up front!<\/p>\n<p>I recovered enough to have a fantastic, if expensive, meal at the Fort Printers Hotel<\/p>\n<p>An excellent day the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.strava.com\/activities\/874266482\">Strava is here <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/sc\/zy2to7gpxcbwtg2\/AACgYC0-6oWQJkXMBnx_50f0a\">Pics here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday 21 February 2017 The weather returned to the normal blue skies and heat so a good day for Sri Lanka to show of its crystal clear sea and stunning huge beaches. I made a very leisurely start, after 10am, catching up on blog posts whilst the masses slept. The route followed the coast line [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,20,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking","category-personal","category-sri-lanka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}