hello guys today I'm in Gaul Sri Lanka
it's almost at the southern tip of the
island just a couple days ago I took a
train down here it took about three
hours I've been staying nearby here for
the past couple nights actually in a
small Beach Town a little bit down the
coast that way it's called unawat tuna
and yesterday I went scuba diving got
just a few GoPro videos from that dive
and maybe some photos as well that I'll
put up on the screen right now it was
kind of low visibility and we did a
shipwreck dive so it ended up being
pretty Eerie and kind of spooky really
fun time I'm just enjoying my time down
here by the beach in this beautiful
pretty hot weather and today we're going
to explore Gall a little bit so this is
kind of the main city down here at the
southern tip of Sri Lanka and behind me
is Golf Fort this place was first
constructed by Portuguese settlers back
in the year 1588 and then it was
extensively renovated and expanded just
a little under 100 years later by the
Dutch but it still has some very
Colonial Vibes here and just walking
through the streets is really really
cool very pretty yeah it's kind of just
this fortified City obviously since then
it's expanded a lot to become what it is
today the modern city of Gaul but this
is really where it all started here from
a colonial sense so here it feels like a
true Fort you can see behind me I'm kind
of standing on this wall
let's go right to the edge
to this wall that uh goes right up to
the edge of the sea and it's basically
an enclosed City Fort and it stretches
in all directions and over here is a
lighthouse we'll go check that out in a
second and then you've got the town
right here that we'll go walk through in
a second as well so I was just up here a
couple minutes ago and apparently when
it's high tide which I think it's low
tide right now but when it's high tide
there will be some Sri Lankan guys up
there who will actually jump off this uh
little Bastion that sticks out into the
sea into pretty Shallow Water full of
rocks and they'll do it for tips from
tourists so there's a bunch of signs up
there kind of advertising that not here
right now
but pretty cool they have one of their
signs up there that says risk is part of
life
and I really like that just look how
clean the water is guys it's amazing
like everything in Sri Lanka just very
clean
look at that guys
looks like a tiny little Komodo dragon
creepy
oh look at him he's hunting
all right so anyway we're walking along
here
let's go check out this Lighthouse real
quick and then I want to take you guys
to a fish market that I passed on my way
to and from unawatuna it looked very
local I didn't see a single tourist
looks pretty cool first impressions of
this place aside from what I've already
said oh we've got a gap to jump
first impressions of the beaches of
Southern Sri Lanka Russians
there are a lot a lot of Russian people
here and I spoke to a few of the locals
and they said that's not always been the
case they've always been coming but not
to this extent really it has picked up
since the war in Ukraine a lot of people
fleeing the sanctions and whatnot but
yeah I feel like I'm seeing more
Russians here than Sri Lankans almost it
is crazy and then there's a handful of
Europeans and I have not seen a single
other North American person here check
this out though right as I say that
looks like a bunch of locals here
at the beach
what a beautiful spot and all of
Southern Sri Lanka and Eastern Sri Lanka
especially are just
dotted with beautiful insanely pristine
beaches
anyway here's the lighthouse I wonder
how old it is all right there it is the
black says goal Lighthouse constructed
by the government Factory 1939 Kenneth
decress decretzer
director of Public Works
but then the door says 1938 so maybe
they put that up and before they fully
finished it
anyway let's continue onward all right
so the lighthouse behind it might be
from the 1900s but this building here
says on it
17
82 or is that a nine
I don't know it's kind of Old English
script
built by the Dutch in 1739 it's a
gunpowder magazine
pretty much untouched and then look at
this guys this is a mosque it looks to
me almost like it was it might have been
constructed as a church originally but
you can see
the Arabic writing up there and uh it's
definitely a mosque now let's see if we
can go in and take a look
always gotta remember shoes off
very nice
I think it started as a church I think
so because it was probably built by the
either the Portuguese or the Dutch
see if I can ask these guys
how are you
nice to see you I'm from us U.S America
yes sir Captain America
I wanted to ask you uh is this mosque
was it originally a church yes it was
okay do you know what year it was built
built when it was constructed
construction the outside they put the ah
the sun huh
yeah oh one oh my gosh wow very old I
also here working in a tourism Arabic
Arabic yeah you are masha'allah
uh Saudi Arabia traveling traveling
you went to Medina
tired
is cold you are in trouble YouTuber yes
I've made mostly videos in Muslim
countries
Doug Barnard
nice to meet you have you been to Saudi
Arabia visit no uh before uh maybe I
work in 2009 in Saudi yes
working now working Arabic guide very
cool where do you get your tour your
tourists from from Emirates and Emirates
Emirates
AG from Egypt oh yeah
yeah
very good what is it a channel sure you
eating uh Monday
of course
I love how big oh my gosh good stuff
nice to meet you nice to meet you thank
you so much
well that was so nice so many nice
people here guys I'm telling you it's
amazing all right shoes back on and
we'll carry on
so yeah you can see
the year in
is that Persian numbers because the last
one it's not an Arabic number the first
three are one three two
and then I think that's the I forget
what year he said but anyway that must
be according to the Muslim calendar
because I don't think this place was
settled
until the 1500s okay guys so I checked
it out on Wikipedia sometimes good old
Wikipedia does the trick it says it was
built in 1904 by Ahmed Ismail
apparently on the site of a Portuguese
Catholic church so apparently that
building was actually constructed as a
mosque you know I think it kind of looks
like a church pretty interesting and the
year on it says 1325 according to the
hijri calendar which is the Islamic
calendar so it all makes sense now very
cool all right we're heading back into
the interior of the fort
I'm loving just walking these streets
really cool architecture a whole mix you
got the Portuguese the Dutch maybe a
little British I don't know and of
course the local architecture as well
let's go this way madrasa
School
nice
bye bye
so here's an Islamic school again
pretty cool some kids just looking out
the window
all right guys it's coffee time
apparently even the mention of Saudi
Arabia just makes me crave coffee
so let's go find something
yeah
okay well that was amazing I was gonna
get coffee but I saw something on the
menu called sweet teeth or something and
it was basically pineapple juice ice
cream and coconut milk so almost like a
pina colada a virgin pina colada
milkshake and it was so good all right
my train is in about an hour so we gotta
go check out that fish market that I
really want to see and then get over to
the train station here we go
all right guys and here's the outer wall
oh look at that student marching band
that's cool
[Music]
there they are anyway we're going under
the tunnel leaving the port area
and then we're off
okay we have made it to the fish market
there actually are a few tours here
which I'm kind of surprised about
because I didn't see any
the other two times that I passed here
but anyway that's good
it's good that tourists are returning
because this area depends on it a lot
hello sir how are you what's your name
yeah okay I'm Doug
IE nice to meet you so this is your
catch yeah from this morning yeah today
morning wow all this in one morning yeah
and so what what are these here yeah
salmon fish salmon salmon fish oh wow
they're little ones okay
calamari wow so do you just catch it out
here yeah yeah yeah yeah no sometimes
five kilometers six kilometers okay
and you go every day yeah you personally
or yeah I'm going fishing morning coming
wow amazing and will you sell all of
this today yeah really yeah I'm sure oh
my gosh do you sell to the hotels too
yeah yeah some some hotels
sometimes
yeah oh nice
okay sorry if you need to work go ahead
okay thank you
yeah
wow it looks so fresh
okay let's go deeper into the market
here
good
is that mahi mahi mahi oh my gosh what's
your favorite yeah no no you number one
fish which one number one number one red
snapper okay okay Dorado okay
tuna wow
this is a Big Tuna
oh my gosh look at that cross section
there
Marlin oh my gosh okay
wow hello it's Marlene is this Marlin
you caught it darling
nice nice to meet you darling I'm I'm
Doug yeah is this octopus oh my gosh
look at that guys
what is that is that liver and the
Butter Fish the egg oh the eggs
from which fish
bottle fish or butter fish
okay the egg sac and look at the cross
section of that is that uh
wow tuna thank you
very cool and here we've got a couple
lobsters
oh we just moved a little bit
it's cool colors on them they don't have
big claws here
these they're not like Maine Lobsters
they just have really long
antenna things
like this spiky too I think it's
actually called a spiny Lobster it maybe
got some jumbo shrimp here
some crabs a lot of fish guts wow a lot
of flies Okay I think that's enough for
the fish market a lot of nice people
here
really really nice friendly people
here are all their boats
traditional that is a lot of rope a lot
of net looks like a lot to coordinate
wow
and such a cool boat too look at this
they've got the kind of skinny boat here
and then on the other side is like this
floater thing to balance the the boat
and not allow it to to tip over
hey doggo all right
okay guys time to go
thank you sir
all right guys we've arrived at the
train station
it's right next to this little canal
comes in from the sea and I need to get
my bags which are stored here then we're
gonna find the train
and here it is
parcel's room
hello sir
hello
oh what a beautiful sound okay and I
think this one is mine gotta double
check alrighty guys I have made it on
the train and I finally gotten this
window open
which was very difficult and I've worked
up quite a sweat anyway I believe I'm on
the right track back to Colombo so
that's about it thank you so much for
watching I'll see you in the next one
bye-bye