Category Asia

The late afternoon light was turning golden when I arrived at the Elephant Transit Home just outside Udawalawe National Park. I had been in the country long enough to have developed a healthy skepticism toward places that market themselves as…

The morning was slow, deliberately so. Breakfast, the news, no particular hurry. Then I packed my bag and went looking for a tuktuk tour to cover the sights I had not yet reached. First stop was the ATM on the…

Walking through a tea plantation above Ella on a clear morning, with the rows running up the hillside in every direction and a handful of Tamil pickers working a section below me, it occurred to me that I knew almost…

The fever had broken by morning. Not dramatically, just quietly gone, the way these things go when the body has decided it has made its point. I took my temperature before getting up: 36.9. I had breakfast on the balcony…

The plan for the morning was straightforward: hike to Little Adam’s Peak, take some photographs, be back before the midday heat. I had coffee and toast at the hotel, spent an hour at the computer, and left at 11 AM,…

The owner of White Lodge cooked breakfast just for me at 6.15 in the morning. Coffee, toast, sausage and mango, while the rest of Kandy was still asleep. It was a kind gesture, and I appreciated it more than I…

I got up early and took a tuktuk to the bus station. It is ridiculously easy to find a tuktuk in Colombo, just step out the door and raise your arm and one instantly picks you up. The bus from…

The flight from Mumbai to Colombo is two and a half hours. Not long enough to sleep properly, too short to watch a film. I had a window seat, a coffee, and a gap in my knowledge that had been…

Colombo in the morning is a different city from the one you arrive in at 2 AM. The Pettah market area near the bus station is dense and purposeful at this hour, vendors setting up, deliveries being made, no particular…