By Rahul Sharma
UNAWATUNA, Sri Lanka - Lara used to earn his living assisting a diving master and offering company to lonely woman tourists on one of Sri Lanka's popular beaches dotted with small hotels and shacks selling spicy lobsters.
But then the Dec. 26 tsunami struck, taking the boats and the tourists away and leaving the 24-year-old "beach boy" stranded in borrowed shorts and a red T-shirt that says "Wear Air".
"No European ladies now, what to do? I hope they come back," said Lara, adding that he prefers his nickname to his real name as it worked well with women.
Lara, who idolises West Indian cricket maestro Brian Lara, is one of hundreds of poor young men who peddle sex and drugs, and offer a massage or just company to foreign men and women who head to Sri Lanka's tropical beaches.
Upali Nagasinha, owner of the Sunny Beach hotel, says they are a nuisance. "They cause trouble. They trouble the tourists who want a peaceful holiday."
But Lara doesn't want to go anywhere else.
"I have had 11 European girlfriends. Not old women, young, all very pretty," he boasts, looking at the deserted beach and recalling the Christmas revelry the day before the tsunami killed his diving master and many others.
The killer waves shattered Sri Lanka's southern and eastern beaches and killed about 38,000 people in the Indian Ocean island. Most of the hotels on the coastal stretch south of the capital Colombo were virtually flattened by the crashing waves.
The Unawatuna beach, where Lara lives and works, is popular with German and Swiss tourists. But it's been more than a month since the tsunami hit, and tourists who survived have gone home. Others, who were to arrive in January, cancelled their bookings.
"We had 45 people for a Christmas lobster party here," says Nagasinha.
"They were all drunk and happy. If I had my way, I would want them back here," he says, pointing to what was his hotel's restaurant but is now a jungle of wooden poles supporting a new reinforced concrete roof.
Sri Lanka expects tourism revenues to fall short of the targeted $510 million this year by up to 15 percent.
Nagasinha is rebuilding his tsunami-ravaged hotel, one of the places where Lara found his women friends and clients for his boat trips to the colourful coral reefs just off Unawatuna.
The neighbouring Lucky Tuna hotel and Happy Banana discotheque are also being rebuilt.
"I want to open quickly, maybe next month," said Nagasinha.
PAYING FOR SINS
Lara said the water was very warm when he went out to the sea the morning the tsunami struck. He had been out drinking and dancing at a bar the previous night and, though a vegetarian himself, he had cooked a beef dinner for some friends.
"I have a feel for the water and I am not afraid of it because I spend so much time scuba diving and snorkelling. When I saw the first wave I thought God was punishing me for my sins and I sped the boat to safety and ran to the high ground. Then the big wave came," he said.
That wave battered most of the hotels, washing away tourists as they relaxed on the beach. "There were four tourists sleeping just outside my hotel. They just vanished," said Nagasinha.
And so did many beach boys.
"Beach boys have gone with the tide," said Kadirgamalingam Sassi of the Flower Garden hotel that escaped damage because it is located away from the beach.
Lara says men could earn a decent pile of cash by offering their services to tourists -- old men and young women -- who also looked after them by buying them food and other things like clothes and expensive mobile phones.
"They get lonely sometimes. The last time I was with a woman she gave me 10,000 rupees ($100)," said Lara.
"We had lots of fun together, but no contact afterwards. No phone calls, no emails, no letters. No emotions. You can't fall in love. Even they can't," he said.
Lara said business had become tough as young men from other parts of the country had started vying for the attention of holidaymakers during the peak tourist season from October to February.
"There are many now from even Kandy," he said, referring to a city in the central hill districts of Sri Lanka.
They have all gone home after the tsunami, but would return once the hotels reopen and tourists start streaming back.
"When ladies want them they will be there," said Sassi, adding that his hotel was fully booked in February.
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