Tea Time with Terrorists: A Motorcycle Journey into the Heart of Sri Lanka's Civil War
How serendipitous—a word with Sri Lankan origins—that an itinerant American hitchhiker and biker would write one of the better English-language accounts (so far) of the long, unspeakably violent civil war in Sri Lanka that ended last spring. It makes little difference that his travels occurred before war’s end; the story still needs telling. Meadows stays close to the ground throughout his entire journey, mixing with civilians and military and, yes, terrorists on their own turf, all the while sharing copious notes on what his senses take in and providing historical context for the ages-old conflict between Tamil and Sinhalese. Unlike most journalists, who were barred from Sri Lanka’s far north, Meadows motorbiked from the relative safety of capital city Colombo up into the heart of that war zone. If he did not witness combat, his account of its effects on the local community is chilling. He does update readers on the war’s end, warning, as have others, of future conflict if the underlying issues between the government and the Tamils are not resolved. --Alan Moores