Part 01: Alan Fraser Fry letters, 8th August 1914- 28 January 1917 - Page 67
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[Page 67]
biggest thieves & rogues you could possibly imagine. They wanted 2/- a head for rowing us ashore, & we being new to the town they thought they would get it. Tommy however gave them 1/- for both of us, which was more than their legal fare, & we both turned a deaf ear to their row on finding we were not such mugs as we looked.
We had a whole day before us, and after doing a little business that had to be done in connection with the ship, we started to see the city. I sent Hazel or Dene, I forget which, a pc. from the Post Office there. After walking about for about an hour, I whistled a "rickshaw" boy & hopped in, Tommy doing the same. Everything was new to us, so we told the boy to do the whole town. We went out to the Cinnamon Gardens, about 3 miles out from the town. It was a lovely drive, through the native quarter of Colombo. The streets here are very narrow & dirty, and just a mass of small shops. There do not appear to be any private native houses