Resorts Magazine

SRI LANKA W ith the taxi driver who’s tak ing me to Malpensa, we talk about how much public safet y in Milan has deteriorated. He tells me that the taxi has two cameras—one facing outward, one inward—and that he only needs to press a button to summon the police. At Malpensa Airpor t, I stop in horror in front of an ad for an hotel. I t reeks of vulgarit y. The message— thick with politically correc t, ser ved in woke sauce—is revoltingly demagogic. When I was young, this hotel hosted conferences, political debates, and book launches. I n some respec ts I associated it with knowledge. Today, venues that retain their identit y and still feel recognizable decades later are increasingly rare. I preferred a time when things felt less precarious. First leg: six hours by plane. I begin reading an essay by Enrica Perucchietti, Censorship in 21st- Centur y Democracies: packed with useful information, but marred by repeated passages and a raf t of t ypos—the author ’s not a stick ler for accurac y. I star t writing a piece for a conference I’ve been invited to in Palermo; I title it Liberal Democrac y : A Per fec t Chimera. I rewatch 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick ’s 1968 masterpiece: facial recognition, video calls, an anguish-laced plot, the threat of ar tificial intelligence, a tunnel of time, a vor tex of images and colors dancing on the abyss between matter and antimatter, a cascade of existential questions— through the maze of consciousness, into the unknown, toward the infinite, to the core of life. have a layover in Abu Dhabi. I find a spa and pay $37 for a shower. I don’t sleep a moment on the flight. I’m exhausted. At some point I realize I’ve lost my tablet. Convinced I lef t it on the plane, I approach the transfer desk and they star t searching. But it ’s fruitless. Disconsolate, I go through securit y again—and only then it occurs to me that I might have lef t it in the little plastic tray for the X-ray scanner on arrival in Abu Dhabi. I ask a staff member for help. Af ter a few calls and a handful of minutes, a policeman approaches, holding my computer. I n an airpor t this size… it felt like a miracle! Four more hours of flight follow. A boy seated nex t to me mentions that on long- haul eastern routes, Etihad includes a free night at an Abu Dhabi hotel to break up the journey and entice ticket buyers. On the morning of December 29 , I land in Colombo. Four and a half hours ahead of I taly. Passpor t control is fairly fast; waiting for baggage is quick . The por ter asks twent y euros in rupees. Considering average salaries hover around $250– 300 a month, I give him just five euros. Reluc tantly, he accepts. I t ’s unbearably hot and humid. The driver waiting to accompany me on my solo journey has lively eyes, is k ind, cour teous, and smiling—instantly likable. His name is long; we agree I’ll simply call him “Su.” I ask him to take me to a currenc y exchange that reviews say is the most favorable in the cit y. At the ITC Ratnadipa Hotel, the staff is incompetent—for t y-five minutes to assign me a room. Af ter a shower, we head to Gangaramaya Temple. I’m struck by a miniature “hill ” populated by countless Buddha statues. The installation seems to evoke all the humans who have walked the Ear th through the millennia—so diverse, yet fundamentally alike. Or perhaps the monument is meant to cr ystalize forever that inner assembly of personalities that of ten crowd our own selves. 106 R ESORTS M AGAZINE