KOGGALA REVISITED

We have had over thirty nights' stay at this seafront southern town or stretch of Koggala, both before and after the 2004 tsunami.

- BY PAUL TOPPING

It is thirty minutes from the south of Galle, in the heart of tourist routes further down the coast. Perhaps the highways have caused much of the traffic and business to bypass the area. With one of the longest beaches in Sri Lanka, it has always, ironically, been so quiet. There are fewer rooms on the beach strip now than before the tsunami, if you exclude the Fortress Hotel at the end of the beach. Many dilapidated, low-level damaged hotels face the sea. They can never reopen, having been hit with thirty-foot tsunami waves. Erosion is another big issue. There are many new tourist properties and villas around the lake and a few on the seafront.