René Seifert - Entrepreneur & Global Citizen

I find this a lovely story that deserves to be told. And that’s the picture to the story.

Ignore the tower in the background, it’s all about the little colourful spots aligned neatly on the walls. These walls belong to the former colonial Dutch Fort of Galle on Sri Lanka’s southern coast. Hidden beneath each umbrella, there are boy and girl. As Mother Natures has designated it, young loving couples. As culturally it would be completely unthinkable for them to bring their boyfriend or girlfriend respectively to their parents’ home, this place has become their secret get-together point. Or given the notable number of couples no longer so secret. Hence the ubiquitous umbrella, to at least provide that little intimacy under which they are cuddled closely together. Everything by western standards very decent, I haven’t seen anybody kissing at all. (Here is, by the way, the full-blown picture in high resolution.)

Ranjith, the Sri Lankan guide who had lived 5 years in the 70s, jokingly explained: “This is the Reeperbahn of Galle.” Reeperbahn is the notorious red light district of Hamburg in the north of Germany, where a lot of activity happens outside on the street, too. Here in Galle, I miss the red light and I don’t believe that anybody is paying anything to anybody. Still, “Reeperbahn of Galle”, was a good laugh :-)