My family and I recently took a trip to Sri Lanka, and I'm often asked, “Why?” While I can easily reply, “Why not?” I would not be doing the country a service. Sri Lanka is one of the most beautiful places I have visited with green lush jungle, tea plantations, the repetition across the landscape of temple, paddy, tank (watering hole or lake). The food is simple and sublime. The birding and search for leopards excites young and old, and of course the elephants. The elephants are a part of the culture, often a nuisance to farmers or worse…deadly. It is amazing to witness people living side by side with these incredible mammals. Sri Lanka has endured 150 years of colonization by the Portuguese, then 150 years by the Dutch and finally 150 years by the English. Not long after freedom, there was a long and horrendous civil war, followed by the tsumami and then Covid. Sri Lanka needs us and wants us to visit. If you have the means, go and explore, eat and drink in the beauty, the culture, the kind and gentle people.