After visiting the Dutch Church I decided I was overheated and went to the New Oriental Hotel for drink and sat on the veranda. The hotel was built in 1684 and was the Dutch Main Headquarters. In English times it served as quarters for British officers. It was only in 1865 that it became a hotel. Just about all the furniture is antique (Dutch), some of which I sat in while enjoying a drink on the veranda.
On the walls of the hotel there is a very comprehensive history of the European occupation Galle. It is typical to colonial history found anywhere else in the world. When the Portuguese arrived they found mosques, which meant the Arabs had already been there.
The hotel reportedly has a ghost: in room 25 which, at one time, was part of the owner’s suite. The ghost is rumoured to be Albert Ephraums, the man who took over the management of the hotel in the 1800s and saved it from demise. Many have seen this ghost including Albert’s granddaughter.
N.B. – For more information go to Joe’s site where there is a well written detailed history of the comings and goings at the New Oriental Hotel.