Finished!

I just finished my IKO (International Kiteboarding Organization) instructor class! After two weeks, eighty hours of theory and practical, and about twenty hours of homework and study, I can teach kiteboarding. I took a course here in Sri Lanka with this fun, funny, incredibly experienced guy named Matty from England. He made the course a […]

It is a Ferrari after all!

Well, it turns out all you have to do is go to the local sticker shop, have a couple of custom stickers made (for about four US dollars), slap them on your tuk tuk, and voila! It is a Ferrari! Simple as that…

Critters, critters, and more critters (Mostly On the road).

Riding a motorbike or driving a tuk tuk is always an adventure in Sri Lanka, made significantly more white-knuckled by the presence of every type of animal you can imagine on, and around the roads. The accepted right-of-way here seems to be that the biggest thing has the right of way, in this order: buses, […]

It May Not Be A Ferrari, But…

It is red! Well, we have gone and done it. Twenty years ago, Tam and I were introduced to tuk tuks in Thailand, and fell in love with them. The tuk tuk is probably the toughest, most versatile, and highly used mode of transport in less-developed countries all over the world. They are simple, easy […]

One Year, Not A Nurse.

Tam reminded me the other day (June 12th) that it was my one year anniversary of leaving St. Charles. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this, but mostly relief. I do miss nursing work, it’s just the job I can’t stomach anymore. Metrics, unnecessary screenings, monitoring wait times, poor policy for managing dangerous […]

More Monkey Business!

I was looking back through some photos this morning, and I realized that I left out a whole side trip we made in Thailand. We made this long, long day trip to Prachuap Khiri Khan about seventy-five kilometers South of our place in Hua Hin, with one goal in mind: finding the friendly dusky langurs […]

Those Smiles, Though…

There are many reasons we decided to stay where we are, at Surfpoint Sri Lanka, in spite of the fact that it is a tiny bit more expensive than other places. It is right on the ocean (which here is one of the only places: the rest are on lagoons), close to kiting, the food […]

Its Not All Facebook And Rainbows… It’s real life.

Tam and I have had several conversations recently with other travelers. Mostly, these are Europeans, and one American: but in all cases long-term travelers spending three months to a year abroad. The one similar thing that we have all experienced are the misconceptions many of our friends and family back at home have about our […]

Sri Lanka At Last!

We have made it to Sri Lanka finally! I say finally because it feels like twenty years we have been talking about coming here (okay, it has been twenty years). I am really glad we did. We have been here five days, and I feel like I am sliding into this state of peace here […]

A Short Post.

It was brought to my attention this morning by someone (Yeah, that was you Dad) that my posts are too long… Here is a short one: Tam on an albino water buffalo at the Hua Hin zoo. No promises moving forward. They may get longer again…