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January 04, 2005
Backpackers Stay in Sri Lanka
USA Today published a nice little story about some of the backpackers who stayed to help Sri Lanka recover from the tsunami. Some are helping by creating relief efforts while others are helping local economy by just being there.
"One of them was Evert Jan Van Hoek, a 35-year-old Dutchman with a stud in his tongue and a ring in his lip who, with the help of a few other European travelers, has organized a mini-relief effort. Van Hoek said he uses the Blue Fox, a hodge-podge of chairs and tables with a balcony overlooking the town's main street, as his "office," sending e-mails about the plight of Sri Lanka to his friends in his hometown of The Hague."
[...]
"Most foreign tourists fled beach resorts in Sri Lanka when tsunami devastated coastal areas a week ago, but some never left Hikkaduwa even though the waves battered many lodges, forcing them to close down. On Sunday, about two dozen foreigners sat in open-air restaurants, walked or bicycled down the smoggy main road, or lazed in the debris-strewn beach sand. A few surfed."
Posted by insideoutmag at January 4, 2005 10:41 AM