"Declared a World Heritage Site in 1988, the Fort contains a tiny community of 400 houses, a church, two mosques, a Buddhist shrine and as of January two very fancy hotels, Amangalla and the Galle Fort Hotel. For years it has been a hideaway for celebrated interior designers, intellectuals and ageing playboys who have been surreptitiously snapping up the most beautiful of the merchant's villas and converting them into palatial retreats. It has all the hallmarks of becoming the new Marrakesh."
Sunday Observer "The New High Five Hot Places" 2005

"rufous gold" of the luminous sunsets and the "palm-scented ocean"
Paul Theroux