Only a few short hours separate us from the painful reunion with our regular monotonous lives and bringing the end of a blissful month vacation. Sri Lankan beaches are about seven hours away now and the crisp air of Paris has been greeting us with our morning chocolat croissants.

Paris is everything grand that you've heard and nothing like the nightmares you've been told. Barely knowing a word of French, I was more than a bit nervous about our brief layover here before coming back to Milwaukee. I've heard all about snobby Parisians that turn up their noses at your pathetic French mumblings and feared that I'd starve trying to order a coffee and croissant. All my fears were unmet. Paris is delightful - more than delightful, amazing - and Parisians are quite friendly.

Our brief stop in the city of lights brought us to Pere Lachaise, Eiffel Tower, the Marais district, a lovely river tour on Bataux Parisiens, the Pantheon, the University of Paris III, and countless boutiques and boulangeries.

Many pictures are yet to come and as the weather looks pretty frightful in Milwaukee this weekend I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to post them up. Voila!

We snuck into Sri Lanka under the dark veil of morning weighing about 75 pounds lighter! Our bags apparently didn't want to leave Paris so they are still there. We have to wait until tomorrow afternoon for them to arrive.

But, on a more positive note we got in safely and are now unpacking in our beautiful hotel room. We spent about 20 hours in the air and luckily didn't experience any turbelence. Everything flew by except for the Paris - Colombo segment with seemed to be moving in reverse.

Much of our taxi ride from the airport to Colombo was in the dark with thousands of people, cars, dogs, and tuk-tuk's (a 3-wheeler) swerving, honking, and speeding down the streets.

For the most part people seem to understand us and we can mostly understand what they are tyring to convey to us as well. After about 30 minutes in the taxi we arrived at our hotel which is right on the ocean.

Here is a picture from our room overlooking the ocean and lawn. We are here at this hotel for two nights and then we head south to the beautiful beaches of Bentota.

Here is another picture overlooking the lawn and the ocean.

So far things have been working out pretty good. Today we get to buy new clothes and hopefully find some electrical adapters so I can continue to take pictures and write. We may also stop by the LGBT organization in Colombo and say hi.

I'm beyond excited for Sri Lanka at this point. I fly out of Milwaukee on Saturday morning (like less than two days away). As I tell people that I'm leaving for a month for Sri Lanka I often get...

"Oh, sweet. Sri Lanka?"

or

"Tree Bonka? Where's that? Oh, near Africa!"

or

"Why in the world are you going there?"

So, my dear friends I'll explain.

Patrick did a study abroad with his college for a semester in Sri Lanka. We were throwing ideas for our next vacation out on the table and he brought it up. I guess he thought I would say "no" but I didn't. So, now we are heading for Sri Lanka - without knowing a soul - and without booking all of our hotels.

Once we get there things will be beautiful and pretty cheap.

Did you know?

Sri Lanka is roughly the same size as Ireland. The population is about 20.2 million. Most Sri Lankans are Buddhist. Sinhala and Tamil are the official languages with about 73% speaking Sinhala and 18% Tamil. Most college educated folks and governmental folks also speak English. They spend Sri Lankan Rupees there and $1 USD is worth about 100 Rupees.

The weather should average around 75- 90 degrees F.

So, the beaches of Bentota, Hikkaduwa, Negombo, and Galle better watch out!

I'm most looking forward to the food and the relaxation. Checking out ancient Buddhist temples and caves is also going to be amazing. If I'm lucky I'll also see some leopards and ride an elephant.

Keep checking back throughout February to see pics from my trip and to track my adventure across the island.

Welcome to DyerTimes!

As some of you might know I've been working on this project for quite some time and can't believe that the day is finally here that the site is up and running. I've got so many ideas for this site and think that 2007 will be an exciting year for DyerTimes!

During February, DyerTimes will be largely acting as my travel site during my vacation to Sri Lanka. I'll be posting pictures, stories, and perhaps some video from my month long vacation on this site. I may also be adding other content during February but that is yet to be determined.

By March and April, DyerTimes will be filled with exciting info! Check back frequently and tell all your friends to stop by as well.

Enjoy!