With the sunset the night before I could feel that I was on the back nine of my vacation. As I packed my luggage and left the Red Lobster in Hikkaduwa, Dubai was waiting off stage. There were seven hours remaining, more than enough time to drive the 82 miles to the Bandaranaike International Airport where I started my journey six days earlier. I told Manog that I needed to be at the airport at 5:00 P.M for my 6:20 flight. I should have told him earlier becaus...

In Hikkaduwa, we stayed at the Red Lobster. The logo out front was the same as the Red Lobster restaurant in the States. In Sri Lanka, restaurants were called hotels, hotels look like restaurants. It was a topsy-turvy world. Since it was Poya, the night of the full moon, it was against the law to serve alcohol so when I ordered a beer at lunch it was presented to me discreetly in a teapot. I felt like a lush but it was hot, I was near the ocean and I was thi...

There were only about two dozen people staying at the Lagoon Paradise Beach Resort. From the sound of it, mostly Russian tourists with a couple of always present Australians for good mix. Not since leaving Beijing have I heard an American accent other than my own. As I ate my breakfast of eggs and fresh fruit I thought of ways to get more Americans to vacation here, maybe I could convince my brother Scott to honeymoon at the Lagoon Paradise? Driving from Tang...

It was 3 PM when pulled into the café and when we arrived it was empty. In Sri Lanka, many of the restaurants were called hotels; the café we were in was called the Rest Hotel, though there was not a bed in sight. Lunch was held in stasis, buffet style, in a row of unheated chafing dishes. Hoping the Ayurvedic therapy detox prepared me for anything, I scooped up as much food as my plate could carry, rice, potato curry, vegetables, dahl and dried fish. If I ...

In the morning, before breakfast, I headed out to explore a bit of the plantation surrounding the bungalow. It was a couple hours past sunrise, but as I headed down the hill, through the fields of tea, the sun just cracked the skyline opposite the ravine, casting all the green tea leaves gold. There I stood the lone white guy, in the middle of Sri Lanka, in the middle of a field surrounded by the glow of the morning. I drew deep breaths of tea and damp earth wh...