Sock it to ya in Hikkadua

We in the last leg of our SL trip. Honestly, it makes me a little sad. I have really loved being here. I would come back here in a heart beat and encourage anyone with the inclination to come here.
With that said, let me tell you about the past few days. If any of you read my 'arrack attack' entry, you'll know we attended a party at the Surfcity guesthouse a few days back. It was fun, I think. But while we were there we made friends with two lovely gents, Mike and Pete. Both are surfers, and Pete had a really biting Kiwi sense of humor. Some of the funnier things I have heard in this life came out of his mouth - mostly as he made fun of Aussies.
The four of us were really lucky and scored a cooking class and amazing curry and rice supper with one of the more interesting couples I have met in this life. Dieter, and his wife Bakshi live in Unawatuna. I don't even know how to sum up Dieter, but here are a few fun facts about his life: He is German, left Germany at 16, has lived in South Africa, the Amazon (where he fathered a must sought after blue eyed child in the rainforest), he lived in vietnam during the war, treked the Himalayas for 9 years and also lived as a Buddhist monk for 18 years, learning to paint incredibly detailed and beautiful Buddhist paintings. His wife is an effortlessly beautiful and blissful Sri Lankan who kindly let us watch her prepare dinner and taught us her culinary tricks. Probably one of the highlights of my trip so far.
Now in Hikkadua we are staying at a really swanky hotel. We are the only guests and the young man who runs the place (a friend from a sweet scuba instructor from Unawatuna) is letting of stay there for reeeeally cheap. The room itself is huge. There is a hot water shower and in the courtyard, there is a pool... in the shape of Sri Lanka. It is absolutely amazing. Last night we came home from dinner and found a group of about 13 guys, making bbq and drinking, chilling, listening to reggae and of course they invited us to hang out. Its totally amazing - its sort of like having 12 brothers to hang out with.
Today we went for bike ride to visit some temples. There was a really moving one that was erected in memorium of the 2006 Tsunami. The tsunami is something that when you look around, you don't really notice, except for minor things here and there (such as the receeding look of forest from the beach coast). The development of hotels on the beach begs to differ. But everyone here has been affected. I have heard many people talk of finding their loved ones washed up in the streets - they have lost everything. Its really incredible to think what was indured here only a few years ago.
Soon we leave to Colombo and then back to India. I think we'll be experiencing culture shock all over again.