The New House

I woke up this morning at five-dark-thirty, surfed for two hours, then came back to our newly rented house. This morning routine seems to be rapidly becoming a permanent pattern while we are here in Arugam Bay (anyone who knows me knows how much I abhor anything in the early morning, especially a routine), but […]

Kiteboarding Kalpitiya… The good, the great, and the ugly.

I suppose it must be time to talk about kiteboarding here in Kalpitiya (and the surrounding area. This blog is supposed to be about wind as well as travel. I have been messing around with video editing a bit the last week or so, so be warned: There will be some videos in this one. […]

Sad To Go, Ready To Go.

Tam and I have been in Kudawa, near the town of Kalpitiya, in the Northwest Province of Sri Lanka for two and a half months. We came here to kiteboard and to take my IKO instructor certification course. We have done all that, and now it comes time to leave this little place and start […]

The Trouble With Tuk Tuks.

Tam and I will be taking off in two days for our tuk tuk adventure around Sri Lanka. The tuk tuk (who is officially named Enzo) had some other ideas. As with any Ferrari vehicle, they tend to be finicky and a bit sensitive at best, and our Ferrari-Imposter is no different. On our way […]

The Hard Part Is…

I am aware that there is suffering in this world. In fact, the four noble truths of the teachings of Buddha are (in my simple-minded explanation): 1.) There is suffering. It’s all suffering. The totality of life is suffering. Being born, living, wanting, craving, and dying are all suffering. 2.) The origin of suffering is […]

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 […]