When Elenka and I arrived at our hostel in Kandy, we were immediately invited to join a table of travellers on the roof-top patio - two from Copenhagen, one from Malmo and the fourth from Jarvis and Isabella, a half-hour walk from home. We shared wondrous tales of travel, along with rum and gin, until the wee hours - almost 10:00 p.m. You just can't find this type of people at guest houses or the horribly expensive one and two star hotels of the world. ...

 Ella is a small hilltop village filled with touristas who look very much like we do. We had gotten off a bus in the centre of town and walked about 100 metres down the road when a tuk-tuk driver walked up to me and said, "Are you Elenka?" "Yes," I said, not bothering to explain. About an hour before we left Gem River for the two-and-a-half hour bus trip to Ella, Elenka wrote to a guest house asking if they had any rooms available. She got no response. When we...

 In all of multi-cultural Toronto is there a Sri Lankan restaurant? Elenka doesn't know and neither do I. If there aren't any back home there should be. Each and every - very spicy - curry has been tops, only to be beaten by the next one, in the next town we visit.    The beaches along the south coast have a distinct, Varadero or Punta Cana, all-inclusive feel to them. You're sitting at a table on the beach chowing down on your be-all, end-all m...

It's been more than three months since Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to visit Sri Lanka for a Commonwealth Summit meeting, citing among other things, human rights abuse. Not knowing what to expect, with the arse falling off of our nation's once friendliness towards all countries on the planet, Elenka and I severed the Canadian flags from our backpacks before coming to Sri Lanka.  We flew here with Emirates Air, via Dubai, on the big two...