EXCLUSIVE We thought running a boutique hotel in an island paradise would be the ultimate adventure. We were lucky to escape with our lives By Stephen Gibbs for Daily Mail Australia Published: 16:02, 3 November 2024 | Updated: 16:03, 3 November 2024 e-mail View comments With its long, palm-fringed stretch of golden sand, clear seas, sand-side hotels and vibrant restaurants, Hikkaduwa is a picture-perfect tropical paradise. Boasting good waves for surfers, coral reefs for snorkelers, it's known as one of Sri Lanka's best beach-holiday haunts.
When Dasha Ross and her husband John Pinder visited friends there, they were enchanted. And when they were offered the chance to up sticks and run their friend's charming, if chaotic, hotel, they jumped at the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. 'Everyone dreams of going to a tropical paradise to run a boutique hotel, don't they?' says Dasha.
The timing seemed to be perfect. Then in her late 50s, she had recently been made redundant as a commissioning editor at the ABC, Australia's public broadcaster – and John, in his late 60s, formerly a major player on the entertainment scene, was feeling at a low ebb after his latest comedy festival on Sydney ’s Cockatoo Island had been cancelled. Consoling themselves that it was their time to relax and unwind – their 'days of wine and roses', as Dasha puts it – they had rented out their Bondi Beach home and bought open-ended return tickets to Spain to be near their daughter, Lola.
But Sri Lanka c.