Galle Crazy Jumpers !! at Fort, Galle
Galle, a town on the southern coast of Sri Lanka.
The town is famous for its fort, which was once Portuguese territory, and has since been immigrated to by Muslim merchants.
I love the atmosphere and beaches of this city.
I visited the area for the first time in March 2017 and met some crazy people.
We toured the light house at the end of the headland at Fort, a regular tourist attraction, and then walked along the coastal bank, which also has a cliff area jutting out onto the beach.
When you go up to the top of it, there are lots of tourists looking down at the sea level below from these jutting heights. I'm a bit afraid of heights, so I'm a bit limping...
I looked over and saw some local guys sitting by the side of the Cliff tops, and they approached me. One of them is Asanka, one of the jumpers in with this poster.
When I spoke to him in surprise (and somewhat parenthetically concerned), he told me that a Japanese TV crew had come to interview him some time ago, and that it had been aired on a Japanese programme. He was a bit of a celebrity at the time and tourists from Japan often came to see him.
From his appearance, I had the rather negative impression (assuming that jumping from here was extremely dangerous) that young people were making pocket money by jumping in for fun, without regard for the danger to their lives, and for some reason, like a mother, I said, "Don't take your life in vain!" I admonished him...
I later found out that since he was a little boy, he had been jumping in little by little from the rocks at the bottom of the cliff, gradually climbing higher and higher until finally he was able to jump in from the top of this cliff. He has been doing this for 20 years and knows the sea water here very well.
So it wasn't dangerous. It was an extension of his childhood play, and now it's a job that entertains tourists.
But even so, he said that sometimes they can be seriously injured, and he showed photos of a serious leg injury.
Why would they go that far and jump in...?
I wondered for a while, but, well, that's their way of life, isn't it? Anyway, they seem to like this place.
And after I did some chat with him, the employment rate of young people in Sri Lanka is not good. They say that they can't even get a good job with their educational background. I guess there are pretty good jobs, or rather normal jobs that don't require a particularly good education, but I am sure that he is looking for an 'original way of life' there.
(↓Click on the image for the jumping movie)
Gradually, my impression has shifted from that they are doing something unusual to that they are the people who are always here and jumping = that's their life !
There are things that we don't understand if we take it in the same way as foreigner's sense, as my country's young people's life plan.
However, I always think that in this country where the economy is not well-off, the passion of "If I don't have a job, I made one myself!" is strong and wonderful.
Yes, this is their job, they get a fee from the tourists who come here to see the sights, and then they jump for them.
Only those who have paid are told that they have permission to take a movie or picture.
(↓Click on the image for the jumping movie)
Whether they jump from here because they are already authorised to do so, or because they can't run and jump when the wall is built, only part of the head that juts out into the sea was left uncovered by this wall.
What a great consideration.
I didn't realise that rather than being prohibited by the police, they are being careful not to interfere with the work of their source of income.
In January 2020, a notice was also put up to warn of such dangers.
Is he (they) reasonably well recognised here in Galle and Sri Lanka?
Actually, one of the members, Asanka, was featured in a commercial for the Sri Lankan denim brand #TAG (hashtag). It looks picturesque like in the movie below.
Sometimes we go out and he is always here, which is a relief.
When we finally came to the Fort in July 2020 for the first time in more than six months, we saw very few tourists, and moreover, at that time, this cliff was off-limits because it was undergoing repair work. Everywhere in the Fort was deserted and lonely.
If this anomaly ever ends, will this sight return?
Of course, everyone is working hard and reliable in their own way, finding other jobs.
The only thing that was really lonely was the sparsely populated landscape on the beach.
Asanka Mara (Facebook):.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004658476138
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