When you live outside your country of origin, you soon notice that a whole new batch of destinations are within a “reasonable” plane trip.

Which begins to explain why we are now in the little town of Koggala, Sri Lanka.

Well, and for some other good reasons.

–Sri Lanka has been visited by several people in the newsroom of The National, and nearly all of them come back with very favorable impressions. “Nice people, good climate, great beaches,” was the consensus.

–It is one of the more economical vacations available, from the perspective of the UAE. Surprisingly low air fares, from Abu Dhabi, and stunningly inexpensive beach hotels.

So, here we are in Sri Lanka, the pearl-shaped island off the south coast of India, home to 20.2 million people (and at least two American tourists) in an area about the size of West Virginia.

SriLankan Airlines has a direct flight from Abu Dhabi, leaving at 11 p.m. and arriving at 5 a.m. in Colombo, the biggest city in Sri Lanka.

(And an aside for Abu Dhabi residents: Were you even aware of the 1A terminal? Having never flown to the subcontinent, I was not, but Terminal 1A is where many/most of the flights to Delhi, Calicut, Colombo … seem to originate. Lots of “bachelors” on those planes, many of them carrying large consumer goods — TVs, etc. — back home.)

SriLankan is not a luxury airline. No entertainment system. At all. Not even audio, and certainly no movies, at least on the plane we were on. We did have a late dinner. There’s that.

The flight was quite crowded and a bit stuffy … and was not improved by the ever-alarming PA announcement requesting that any doctor or nurse on the plane identify themselves. (Some medial quasi-emergency somewhere in the back. After the announcement, which went unanswered, no further mention of problems in the back was made.)

If you are not staying in Colombo, and we are not, apparently it is routine to encounter issues getting to your final destination. Sri Lanka does not appear to have much of a road grid, or a transport system, not even from the capital area. And if the A2 highway is any indication, roads are jammed much of the day. Which is why we needed more than four hours in our specially ordered van to travel the 130 kilometers (about 85 miles) down the west coast to Koggala, which is near the southern tip of the island. That was a bit of a slog, especially coming right off the 4.5 hours in the plane.

Actually, it was more of a slog than the plane ride because the road is winding and jammed and overtaking the commercial vehicles which seem to comprise at least two-thirds of the traffic is a white-knuckle jump into the one lane of oncoming traffic and banking on anything smaller than a truck coming at you to edge over to the shoulder so you can pass. Over the course of 130 kilometers, and an almost endless line of trucks and buses spewing clouds of smoke, aggressive driving probably pays off, as long as it doesn’t kill you, and as long as you are not trying to sleep in the back seat after being up all night — because any one of the 100 emergency-style stops will toss you forward.

Oh, and they drive on the left here, English-style.

So, we were glad to arrive at the South Beach Resort, a hotel with about 10 rooms, and to be greeted by the whole staff of eight, who led us up to our second-floor room. The space was decorated with orchids, which I had never noticed to be so fragrant.

One end of the room is nearly all glass, affording a view out to the Indian Ocean, which in my mind’s eye had always been a placid, if enormous, body of water … but comes crashing in to the western shore of Sri Lanka, and at Koggala, the little town we are in.

Among the issues raised by previous visitors at this hotel was … “surf too loud; kept us awake” … which I had not been sure was possible. The steady roar of the water is something I find to be perfect for sleeping. But take that into account.

On our drive down, especially over the final hour, we noted what appeared to be evidence of flooding, along with some abandoned concrete buildings and some markers and even some fresh graves, which could be evidence of the December 2004 tsunami. We haven’t yet asked the staff about it. Figured it wasn’t polite to broach on Day 1. (But a town north of here, Galle, incurred major damage and 5,000 dead.)

After trying to catch up on the night of sleep we had missed, we toured the grounds, and found the “infinity” pool, and took a brief walk along the beach, which has the sort of fine, powdery sand Californians grow up thinking is found all over the world, but which travel teaches is, in fact, rare.

Just before dinner, storm clouds came up from the east (counter-intuitive, considering most storms in the northern hemisphere come from the west), and it rained buckets for an hour. Several inches, I’d guess.

It was still raining when we went downstairs for dinner here at the hotel, and had curry with chicken and vegetables, and sauteed shrimp. It was fine, and may have been prepared by one of the two young guys who waited on us.

So, this is our address for the near term. Our next goal is to explore the immediate neighborhood, which lines both sides of the A2, and to see how long (quite long, we fear) it would take to get into the interior or even over to the east coast.

Our main goal, however, is sitting and doing nothing more ambitious than a crossword puzzle. Off to a fine start, with that.