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 while moving my hands across the thick carpet of tea bushes. This Zen moment was interrupted by a half dozen school children exiting a nearby clearing curiously chattering about the white beardless messiah floating amongst their tea grove. Maybe the moment was not as serine as that. My legs were quite sore from the hike down Adam's Peak the day before. I doubt I was gliding or floating. It was more like clobbering or lurching through the tea fields toward the school children and the school behind them.

The plantation school children were just as curious to see me as I was to see them. They were in the middle of nowhere. As I approached the yellow stucco school house about a dozen school children pour out of their class room to witness my arrival. I took a picture of one group of children and soon everyone wanted their picture taken. They all wanted to see their faces displayed on the tiny LCD on the rear of my camera. The boys were bold and crowded close. The girls lined up along the school wall as if I were a professional photographer hired to capture their moment. I did capture it all but soon I felt like I was stealing their day's education. Their teacher poked her head out of the doorway but retreated as soon as she saw the camera. I took my retreat as well, pocketing my camera, my memories of this place and turned back toward the plantation super attendant's bungalow.

By the time I returned breakfast was ready in the dining room. Our man servant brought in tea, dahl, palsambul, coconut rotti (nann) and egg crepes. Soon after, with our pleasant goodbyes we headed back on the road toward Ella. Adam's Peak left our legs an inch shorter and at Manog's suggestion we took an herbal massage to try and stretch our calves back into working order.

The Ashs Suwamedura (25, Grand View, Sapumalthenna, Passara Road. Ella, Sri Lanka) specialized in Ayurvedic therapy massage. Ayurveda was a traditional medicine popular in the Indian subcontinent, similar I suppose to Chinese medicine. The Ayurvedic oils and herbs used in my ninety minute massage and facial (3000 Rupees/ $24.00) were meant to refresh the mind and detoxify the body. If my masseuse did not answer his cell phone every fifteen minutes my massage would have restored the natural balance of the energies within, but instead I hoppled out of the Ayurvedic therapy center about the same way I came in. However, as we headed south toward Tangalle, I felt an alarming sense of peace bubbling up from inner my core. Maybe the rejuvenating therapy worked, my heavy head bobbed to sleep in the warmth of the Sri Lankan sun. Moments later Manog's head began to bob, so maybe it was probably not the Ayurvedic therapy but the drive along the only straight road in Sri Lanka. We all had to stop at a road side café for a bit of lunch and to shake the cobwebs from our eyes.