Wintering in Sri Lanka: where to live, what to eat, and how to organize your working day

Hello! My name is Dmytro Tymoshenko and I am a ex-CBDO at Osmi Pro company. This past winter, I spent time in Sri Lanka. This is my first wintering, so I spent a lot of time searching for information, reading blogs, forums, and meeting experienced winterers. In this article, I'll talk about my experience of wintering and share everything you need to know to plan your trip.

I will tell you:

1. Who Sri Lanka is suitable for and what criteria I followed.
2. How to prepare for wintering — what to take with you and how to get to the island.
3. How to live with maximum comfort and how much it costs.
4. How to organize your work process to work remotely without problems.

Who is Sri Lanka for?

When I was choosing a country for wintering, I was guided by several criteria:

• Warm climate, daytime temperature not less than 26 degrees
• The presence of the sea or ocean
• Time zone: no more than + 4 hours from Kiev
• Good knowledge of English by the locals
• Low crime rate
• Ability to organize a comfortable life and remote work
• Possibility of entry without quarantine
• Ability to organize your leisure time well

When I started my search, I was considering several places: Tenerife, Bali, Goa, Thailand, Sri Lanka. Tenerife, Bali, and Tai were rejected almost immediately — the time difference with Kiev is too big and it is inconvenient to build a working day. Only Goa and Sri Lanka remained. As a result, I chose the second option as a more civilized place.

Sri Lanka fit my criteria perfectly. The island is washed by the Indian Ocean, and the temperature during the day ranges from 28 to 32 degrees.

The time zone is Kiev time + 3.5 hours. This is a former Dutch, and then a British colony — so the locals know English well and are quite civilized. There are almost no robberies or other serious crimes on the island, and safety is important to me. Moreover, in 2021, a good, unlimited fiber-optic internet connection began to appear en masse. It was a match.

Preparation and flight to the island

In this section, I will tell you how to prepare for the move: what to take with you and what you can buy on the spot, how to get a visa, and how to get to the island.

What to take with you

Clothes. Take only the essentials. Warm clothing will not be practical. If you are going to the mountains, then take a jacket and pants. Take 7-8 t-shirts: you will change them every day. Flip-flops, light sneakers, shorts — you don't need them anymore; you can buy light clothes here for pennies.

For example, I got this shirt for 1,000 rupees (± $4)

Medicines and cosmetics. Assemble a first aid kit with the most necessary medicines. But you don't need to take too much with you — there are a lot of cheap Indian generics. Here is a link to my list of medicines. I decided to play it safe and took medicines for everything possible. But in fact, I only needed a Band-Aid. I advise you to take a mosquito repellent and sunscreen (for the first time). If you run out of them on a long trip, you can buy more on the spot. It is better to take your cosmetics, especially if you use special professional care; otherwise, you will have to be content with local ones.

Food, coffee, chocolate, and alcohol. I do not advise you to bring a lot of food with you. I often see people carrying kilograms of buckwheat, when, if desired, it can be ordered in restaurants with Russian cuisine or bought from tourists. Do not overload your luggage.

An example of a restaurant with cuisine familiar to residents of the CIS

You don’t need to bring chocolate either. Here, you can buy Toblerone, Milka, Snickers, Mars, and other chocolate bars. If you really want to, you can take jamon in sealed packages — you won't find it here.

But if you can't live without good coffee, bring your own. They don't have it here. The one they have, they can't make. I brought 2 kilograms of coffee and a geyser coffee maker (Moka).

A coffee lover's must-have set in Sri Lanka

If you want to please the locals, you can bring 1-2 small jars of apricot jam — they love it.

I advise you to bring alcohol. Even if you don't drink, take a few bottles of 0.25L vodka (for locals). And for yourself, grab whatever you like, except rum. High-quality red rum is made on the island.

Money. Take as many dollars in cash with you as possible. There is a huge difference between the official and real exchange rate — it will be unprofitable to exchange on the spot.

Visa. To get to the island — you need to apply for a visa. You can do this online on the official website. The website is pretty outdated, but in 30-40 minutes, you can figure it out. The visa costs $36.50.

Some agencies handle visa processing, but you will pay them 2-3 times more just for using a nice website.

It's simple: choose a tourist visa, click “Apply for an Individual”, and fill out a simple form. After filling out the form, you will receive confirmation of the application review by email, and then a confirmation of the ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization). Print the received document to speed up the check-in process at the airport. I showed it on my phone, and it was fine, but it's better to have a printed file, for peace of mind.

The visa is issued for 30 days, then it needs to be extended. The first extension costs $60 and is issued for 2 months. Then, you can extend it for another 3 months, for $150.

Insurance. Starting January 1, 2022, the purchase of basic insurance from COVID is mandatory. You can buy it here. It is issued for 30 days and costs $12. You can extend it here.

I arrived back in 2021, so I didn’t buy COVID insurance. Instead, I bought extended travel insurance from AlfaStrakhovanie, for cases of extreme sports. I advise you to do the same, as in Sri Lanka, you may encounter such problems:

• Injuries during surfing. Sri Lanka is ideal for such leisure, but injuries on a surfboard are common. For example, my girlfriend fell and hit her ear and we had to go to the clinic. Fortunately, the injury was not serious, and insurance intervention was not necessary.

• Falling off a bike. Unusual left-hand traffic and the specific driving style of the locals lead to the fact that tourists are often injured.

• Dengue fever. Almost half a million cases of infection occur on the island, every year. Fever is transmitted through mosquito bites. According to the symptoms at an early stage, it can be confused with a common cold, but it has much more severe consequences. Treatment at a private clinic for this disease is not cheap.

Therefore, it is better to buy insurance right away; it will be safer.

Completed Health Declaration Form. You can fill it out here. Thereafter, you will get a QR code. They will still make you fill out a paper version on the plane, but there are booths at the airport to go through with a paper or electronic version.

PCR test. A mandatory PCR test, taken 48 hours before the flight, translated into English, and wet-stamped, is required upon entry.

Flight

I flew from Kyiv via Dubai; the flight took about 15 hours.

My tickets from Kyiv to Colombo

Tickets with luggage, hand luggage, seats at the emergency exits (more legroom), and lunches for two cost about $1800. I expected to wait for our departure in the comfortable third terminal of Dubai airport, but we ended up in the second terminal. The conditions there are, to put it mildly, so-so: dirty toilets; crowds of people; and a lack of normal cafés, duty-free, and waiting areas. Therefore, when buying a ticket, look at the terminals carefully.

If you fly through Qatar, it will be a little cheaper (about $300) and about 5 hours longer.

Where to live

It is worth living in the south of the island, in the villages of Weligama, Unawatuna, Mirissa, Ahangama, or Hikkaduwa. These are cool places where remote workers come to live and work. It makes no sense to live in cities like Colombo or Galle: the ocean there is dirty, and there are no interesting sights in the area.

I chose Unawatuna. Therefore, I will continue to talk about the experience of living there.

Locally, there are 3 types of housing that you can choose:

• a villa
• a hotel room or a guest house room
• apartments

You can also sub-rent a room in a villa; that is, share a house with other tourists. But for a long-term stay, a personal villa seems to be the most comfortable option.

Rental features

There are several features and risks to consider before renting.

• Often, housing is rented out by resellers. In the best case, you will overpay out of the blue or get into a situation where you don’t get what you paid for, and there will be no one to ask. And at worst, you'll just get conned. Therefore, you need to ask for proof of ownership of the real estate.

• Lease agreement. Request it, read it carefully, and ask for a signed scan to be sent to you. The contract, of course, is not a panacea, but it significantly reduces the risk that you will be ripped off.

• Photos and videos of the place of residence. Sri Lanka was under lockdown for 2 years. Therefore, the condition of many houses has deteriorated greatly, and the photos on the sites have remained from pre-Covid times. That's why I advise you to request a video. Ask to film corners, especially in bathrooms and toilets – there may be mold.

• Internet quality. If online meetings or sending large files is important to you, only an unlimited fiber connection will do, and it's not everywhere. The only provider that provides it is SLT. So ask what provider is available in your area. If it is Dialog, you'll have a modem with a SIM card, and you won't get good speed. If it is SLT, you need to ask about the fiber connection. It is also useful to ask the host to do a network speed test and send a screenshot, to be sure of the speed and quality of the connection.

• The proximity of Buddhist temples to the place of residence. There are loudspeakers in the temples, and you will hear prayers regularly. You have to be prepared for that.

• Availability of CCTV cameras. If someone breaks into your villa, and you don't have a picture, even the tourist police will refuse to help you.

• Availability of a safe. Usually, in villas, thieves steal anything that is not nailed down. Therefore, even the simplest safe greatly increases security.

• Services at the place of residence. Talk to the landlord about all the services you expect during your stay: cleaning, pool cleaning, changing towels, cooking, etc.. It is good when they clean at least once a day, better when they clean twice a day. It is also worth being prepared that you will have to train the staff yourself and very persistently explain what you want, because our ideas of cleanliness and beauty often differ from the local ones.

• Reviews. Check them out on different platforms, not only on Airbnb but also on Booking and Google Maps.

• Bedding. When you check in, be sure to remove the pillowcases and check the pillows for the absence of mold. In a humid climate, pillows mold in a couple of months. So if you find mold, ask for a replacement.

And most importantly, do not hesitate to tell the hosts about your wishes. Very often, they implement them. For example, we asked for a Smart TV, and the next day, we got a new TV. And our coffee pot did not fit on the gas stove that the host had. A week later, they found a stand that solved the problem. If possible, they will try to satisfy your requests here.

Where to look for housing

There are several resources for finding accommodation in Sri Lanka. Next, I will tell you more about each of them.

Realtor chats

There are 2 types of people in realtor chats: Russian-speaking realtors and tourists trying to rent part of their homes. Here, you may encounter several risks: you may wait for an answer for ages, people may be rude, or they may inflate the price or even charge an advance fee without providing the service — simply put, to cheat.

But with some luck and critical thinking, you can:

• Rent a place cheaper than on Booking and Airbnb
• Cooperate with other people who are looking for accommodation and rent a villa together
• Get a property check; a realtor can go and check the villa

I share a list of the biggest realtor chats I know about:

• https://t.me/lankaruarenda
• https://t.me/srilankarent
• https://t.me/srilanka_rent
• https://t.me/Shri_Lanka_rent
• https://t.me/scrnt

How to reduce risks:

• Request additional information about the villa. Ask a realtor to go to the villa and film it.
• Don't send money without a contract.
• Look for the housing in parallel; don't count on one realtor.
• Try to find the right accommodation on your own; for example, on Airbnb.

Aggregator websites

Here, I can recommend Booking and Airbnb. It's more expensive, but also more reliable. The service acts as a guarantee that everything will be okay, but takes a commission for it.

What problems there can be here:

• Owners do not visit the website and do not see your messages and bookings
• Outdated photos
• Random prices; for example, I saw the same villa differed in price on Booking and Airbnb. On one, it was twice the price.

What can be done:

• Talk to the owners and check the villa against the list above.
• Check the price on different platforms.
• Bargain.

Local rental websites

This is an analog of the Ukrainian OLX and Russian Avito, with all the consequences that follow from this. On the one hand, there are lower prices; on the other hand, there is the presence of scammers and the need to get into the specifics of communication with the locals.

Here are 2 main boards:

• lankapropertyweb.com
• ikman.lk

My experience

I was looking for a villa according to the following criteria:

• New, stylish, well-designed
• At least 2 bedrooms and a living room. Since my girlfriend and I work remotely and online meetings often take place at the same time, it is important to be able to work in different rooms.
• The pool and the territory at the house will be ours only. I was looking for such accommodation that there weren’t multiple villas by the same pool.
• Fast, unlimited fiber optic internet
• Air conditioners, cameras, and safe
• Good service
• In a quiet place, away from the main road
• No more than 10 minutes to the beach; the proximity to supermarkets and restaurants

Eventually, I found such a villa, but I made 3 mistakes:

• I started searching too late. I started looking for accommodation 3 weeks before arrival and rented literally in the last days.
• I arrived just before the New Year, when housing prices rose sharply due to increased demand.
• I completely relied on local realtors. I was looking for a villa using South Ceylon Rent; the experience was rather positive, but the guys were never able to help me.

I ended up having to overpay and got nervous in the last days before departure; but it all worked out. You can do it.

I found my villa on Booking; it cost $5800 a month. I really liked the villa, but I was not ready to pay so much and decided to contact the owner on my own. Through a Google photo search, I found it on Airbnb for $4800 + service fee. That price didn't suit me either. I contacted the owner and asked for a discount, but he refused. He also did not give his contact info, referring to the rules of the service. I offered to reduce the cost to $4,000, on the condition that I stay for 2.5 months and pay for 1.5 right away. He agreed. To minimize the commission of the service, I rented a villa for 2 days, got the owner's contact info, and agreed on everything with him directly.

This is what my villa looks like: a large area, a hammock, a pool

Another tip that helped me save money on housing

I brought dollars to the island, exchanged them at the rate of 240:1, and settled with the owner at the rate of 220:1. As a result, the math was as follows: I exchanged $6,000 (1.5 months payment) for 240:1 and received 1,440,000 rupees. I paid the owner at the rate of 220:1, for a total of 1,320,000 rupees. Saved 120,000 rupees, or $500. Not a bad benefit, but all you had to know was the specifics of the local exchange.

As a result, from the initial level of $5800, I managed to bring the price down to $3670.

A month later, when the New Year's tourists went home and prices fell, I decided to negotiate a discount again. We brought the price down to $3,000, and I saved another $250, thanks to the exchange rate. That is, for the last month, I paid $2750.

The rent included breakfasts. They were prepared from products that we bought ourselves. But sometimes, our hosts would surprise us with a local breakfast of their own products — rice or noodles with fish or shrimp curry and local sweets.

These are the fruits we were served every morning.

We were given cute gifts for the holidays. They also helped with minor household chores, like going to the laundromat or finding a good restaurant.

Transport

The main kinds of transport in Sri Lanka:

• Bikes
• Tuk-tuks
• Buses

Usually, it is recommended to rent a bike. Renting a bike is around $5–6 per day. It is worth doing this in advance, as renting a bike during the high season is a real problem. For this money, you can rent a 125-150 cc scooter. It is advised to take the TVS Ntorq, Suzuki Burgman, Vespa, or Honda Dio models with mileage of up to 15,000 km.

However, I didn't do it, for the following reasons:

• I don't have a license. And if you get caught, you have to pay a bribe. And besides, I don't know the traffic rules.
• Left-side traffic
• Specifics of local driving. Whoever has a bigger car is right. That's why they call the buses here crazy buses. It is absolutely normal for a bus to drive at full speed into oncoming traffic to get around a traffic jam faster, or to simply reduce travel time.

The second most popular transport is the tuk-tuk. There are many of them. You can stop one with a wave of your hand near the road. Usually, they advised to calculate 50 rupees for the pick up and 50 for each kilometer. But in Unawatuna, this formula does not work — even after the most fierce bargaining, they refuse to take less than 50 for pick up and 100 for each kilometer. As the guide explained to me, “they do not take white people cheaper, as a matter of principle.”

There is an app called PickMe — an attempt to create their own Uber. There are more interesting prices on the app, but in Una, no one arrives if you use it.

You can also arrange with one of the tuk-tuk drivers — they will gladly give you their card, and you can call the driver at the right time.

Food

Be prepared that your eating habits will change a lot. In Kyiv, I ate a lot of red meat (burgers, steaks, etc.), sweets, and drank milk. This is not the case here; most of the local products are seafood and chicken. Red meat is rare, expensive, and tasteless. You will hardly find a good steak or burger here. Milk doesn't taste good. A good substitute for sweets is fruit. There are many of them and they are cheap. That's why I lost a lot of weight, even though I didn't deny myself any food at all.

Fruit

In Unawatuna, fruit is sold on every corner. There are many of them and they are cheap. For example, a kilo of ripe and tasty mangoes is 500-800 rupees ($2-3), a kilo of pineapple is 150-250 rupees (up to $1), and papaya costs 280 rupees per kilo (a little over $1), and a large drinkable coconut can be bought for 50–100 rupees (20–40 cents). Fruit juice is 200-400 rupees. Bliss!

Fruit is cheaper in the supermarkets, but it's not tasty. Therefore, it is better to buy them from local shops.

Supermarkets

There are 2 big chains here: Arpico and Food City. The first is larger and resembles a hypermarket, where you can even find furniture and appliances. The second one looks more like a supermarket you would find near your house.

Restaurants

There are many of them — for every taste and budget.

For example, you can eat at a local restaurant for 1,400 rupees (about $6) for two — this price includes the main dishes and beer. But you need to be prepared for the specific taste of local food and the fact that it will be dirty.

In tourist spots, the average check for two will cost $10-20, depending on what you eat. There is relatively familiar food or Europeanized local cuisine.

You should also be prepared that restaurants include 10% for service in the bill.

Let me give you some examples:

A serving of two of these giant prawns (Jumbo Shrimp) with salad and fries at a restaurant on the beach — 3,000 rupees ($12.5)

A kilogram of crab, potatoes, and salad — 3,500 rupees (about $15)

A serving of crispy tortillas, rice, mango jam, and shrimp curry — 700 rupees (about $3)

A large box of French fries and garlic sauce — 400 rupees ($1.6)

1 large scoop of Italian ice cream in a freshly baked cone is 500 rupees ($2), 2 scoops are 700 rupees (just under $3), 3 scoops are 1,000 rupees (just over $4) served in a coconut half.

Here is the receipt: shrimp curry, pasta, 2 battered shrimp, 2 coconuts, 2 alcoholic cocktails, and a service fee of 5,060 rupees ($21)

In general, the food here is tasty and cheap, but not super diverse — you will not find many dishes familiar to our taste here. Nevertheless, treat it positively — so you diversify your eating habits and discover many new things.

A selection of good places

These places are relevant for the beginning of 2022. I have been to each of them, personally, and I liked them.

In Unawatuna:

• SkinnyTom's Deli — super delicious breakfasts, normal coffee, éclairs. There is a mini-coworking.

Here is an example of breakfast: a bowl with granola, coconut milk, ice cream, chia, and raspberry cream

• Lemongrass Café & restaurant — a local restaurant; this is where the crab photo is from. The rest of the food there is also delicious.
• Koha Surf Lounge is a pleasant Europeanized place near the beach. Lots of vegan cuisines.
• La Boheme — a pizzeria with European cuisine and a wood-burning oven, and there are also delicious ravioli.
• The Hideout Unawatuna — Mexican restaurant with local accents.
• Nature Trails Fish Market Restaurant — a good local restaurant.
• CocoBay Unawatuna is a local and European restaurant overlooking the beach, with stunning sunsets.

In Galle:

• AQUA Forte is an haute cuisine-inspired restaurant and the same high bill. The chef is Italian. The food is unusual and delicious, the service is excellent, and the prices are high.
• Church Street Social — European cuisine restaurant, excellent Caesar salad and cheesecake, good cocktails, and decent coffee.

This is the kind of pleasant and familiar interior at Church Street Social

• The Tuna & The Crab is the only sushi studio in the region. Sushi is more like the maki we're used to, but it’s delicious.
• Elita is a simple café that serves everything that was caught that day.

How to spend your leisure time

In Lanka, it is difficult to find entertainment familiar to us: cinema, theaters, shopping malls, concerts, galleries, etc.. On the island, you will entertain yourself with what mother nature has given you: beaches, surfing, and excursions.

Beaches

Sri Lanka has many beautiful and clean beaches. There are beaches with turtles, for surfing and for sunbathing.

I'll tell you about the main beaches of Unawatuna:

• Unawatuna Beach — the main beach: pleasant, large, without waves, and with several cafés.

Basic beach — Unawatuna Beach

• Dewata beach — surfing beach, good waves for beginners. I learned to surf there.
• SunSet beach — a tiny beach near the CocoBay restaurant, with amazing sunsets.

This is what a sunset looks like at Sunset Beach

Dalawella/Mihiripenna Beach — beautiful beaches with a small reef where turtles sometimes swim. Some people swim behind the reef and surf, but it's easy to get hurt there.

Wild and very colorful Dalawella Beach

Thalpe Beach is a beach popular with the locals, and it has mini swimming pools. Very cool beach. But you need to come on weekdays, in the morning. Otherwise, there will be many locals, as in the photo.

These are the pools where you can swim with fish and enjoy the rolling waves.

Surfing

If you have never surfed before, on the island, you will have a great opportunity to stand on a surfboard. There are many schools; locals mostly teach there. If you wish, you can find a Russian-speaking instructor, but I wouldn’t recommend it. You will pay 2-3 times more. The locals normally speak English and can explain in gestures or bad Russian what to do. In Unawatuna, the main surfing is at Dewata Beach. The cost of an hour and a half lesson is $13–15. Usually, lessons are held in mini-groups of 2-3 people.

It's really possible to get on the surfboard in 10-15 lessons. Start surfing on a soft board — a slower, softer, and safer surfboard. When you learn, get on a hardboard.

The following injuries can occur while surfing:

• Hitting the bottom with your hand/foot while falling off the surfboard
• A blow to the head with a surfboard
• Damage to an eardrum when you fall into the water and smack your ear on the surface of the water
• A cut with a fin of a hardboard

Injuries are not a super frequent story, but if you surf, it is better to take them into account when buying insurance.

Excursions

There is a lot to see in Sri Lanka: I will now list the beautiful places to visit.

Sigiriya is a huge, almost vertical rock on which the king of Sri Lanka built himself a palace, and once every six months, he climbed there to work remotely. Incredible views, as well as vulgar frescoes that have survived to this day, which are forbidden to photograph.

There's a palace on that rock

Nuwara Eliya is a beautiful town in the mountains. It is sometimes called Sri Lankan England, but in my opinion, undeservedly so, as there are not many buildings in the English style. There is a beautiful old post office. But still, the main attraction of this place is the mountains.

This is what the approximate scenery around the mountain towns looks like.

The nine-arch bridge is the bridge over which a train travels. There is a beautiful legend: when the English ran out of iron and did not know how to build a bridge, a wise Lankan came to their rescue and helped them finish the construction without a gram of iron.

That's the bridge. Cute but nothing special

A train ride through the mountains is a great leisure activity for tourists. It's common to go from Ella to Nuwara Eliya. The trip lasts several hours, during which time you can admire the wonderful landscapes. I advise you to get second- or first-class tickets and take a train at 7 am. Otherwise, there will be a crowd of locals, and it will be quite uncomfortable to drive.

This is how you can lean out of the train and take a cool photo.

Little Adam's Peak is a beautiful mountain to climb. That's it. There is also a trolley that you can ride down the middle of the mountain.

Buddha statue on top of Little Adam's Peak

One of the elephant sanctuaries, Pinnawala or Millennium, is where you can watch the elephants, ride them, or even wash them.

I'm sitting proudly on an elephant

Ravana Falls is a wonderful waterfall that you can climb. You can swim in the small lake below. There is another smaller waterfall at the top, and you can also swim in it.

Ravana Falls

The waterfall at the top of the Ravana Falls. And there's another waterfall on top.

Money and payments

There is a crisis on the island now, so the official currency, the Sri Lankan rupee, is depreciating very quickly. In just a month, the exchange rate rose from 230 to 244 rupees per dollar.

There is a well-developed black currency market on the island. In any jewelry store, you can exchange money at a favorable rate, unlike in banks, where the rate is at the level of 200-202 rupees per dollar.

So, when you go to Sri Lanka, take as many dollars with you as possible. The new hundred-dollar bills are especially valuable — they are worth more than the old ones.

Payment by card in Sri Lanka is not particularly common and not profitable. Paying by card, in addition to the commission, you will lose on the exchange rate difference. And if you don't have any dollars with you, you will lose an additional 20-25% of your expenses.

There's a good tip that allows you to save money. If you need to pay for something in dollars, you exchange dollars for rupees at a favorable rate and pay at a lower rate. For example, you need to pay $1000 for a villa: you change them at the rate of 240:1 and get 240,000 rupees. You pay the owner of the villa at the rate of 220:1, that is, 220,000 rupees. There is a saving of 20,000 rupees or approximately $80. If you agree on an even more profitable course for yourself, you will save even more.

Specifics of communication with locals

The locals are good-natured, naive, and lazy. By their behavior, they resemble children: they rejoice violently, if they are satisfied; they are loudly indignant, if something is wrong;, they do not know how to deceive; and they easily make contact. They like to touch other people, like high-fiving or patting them on the shoulder.

There are few serious crimes on the island. Mostly theft. Attempts to con tourists are very primitive — to state that the price is 3 times more than it should be and look with sad, kind eyes, repeating, “It's a local price, my friend.”‎ As our guide said, “I see white skin, I raise the price three times.”‎ But when you explain to them that you know the prices, the price drops to an adequate amount.

You need to bargain here everywhere, as for tourists; they call prices much higher than the market. But try to do it good-naturedly, taking it as a game. No need to get mad at the locals — they are much more willing to discount prices if you can calmly argue why you should get a discount.

Service Features

The locals have a rather peculiar attitude towards service, quality, and cleanliness. Therefore, they need to put clear terms of reference for any service, even the most obvious and simple. For example, the order in which food is served. Imagine that you ordered a main course, a glass of wine, coffee, and dessert. They can serve you dessert first, wait until you eat it, serve you the wine, wait until you finish drinking it, serve you the coffee, and only then, the main course. That is, they need to be told that first, the dish and wine; then, the coffee and dessert.

Same with all other services. If you have a cleaning or cooking breakfast service in your villa, don't be shy: say you don't like something. It's important to understand that they don't screw up out of spite or laziness, but simply because their standards of comfort are much lower than yours. Therefore, they are very calm about the fact that you ask them to redo something. For example, I had to teach our breakfast chef how to make an omelet and that there shouldn't be more onions and chili peppers than eggs. After two days of agony, I got great omelets.

Mentality and 7 most important words for a tourist

Talking to the locals, it is important to understand that they are very naive and simple, one might even say careless. For example, when the island was closed for 2 years for quarantine, many people from the tourism industry did not even try to find a new job. They simply wasted their savings, sold their property, stayed at home, and made children. They have a very simple attitude to life: ”Relax and take your time”. This should be considered when negotiating with them.

Another interesting observation: if one of the locals like you, they will dance a little and shake their heads left and right while talking with you.

And 7 words or phrases you'll need to learn:

1. Subha udǣsanak — Good morning.
2. Oyāṭa bohōma stūtiyi — Thank you very much.
3. Mila kīyada? — What is the price?
4. Hon̆dayi — Good.
5. Rasavat — Delicious.
6. Āyubōvan — Bye.
7. Tambili — Coconut.

How to organize remote work

Time in Sri Lanka is + 3.5 Kyiv time. This is convenient, if you work remotely. You have time in the morning to go to the beach, have breakfast, relax, and start work cheerful and happy. Most Skyeng employees work remotely; many of them work in parallel with their travels, choosing unusual locations for their remote office.

For you to work comfortably, 3 factors must coincide:

1. Electricity. It is turned off from time to time. To avoid getting into trouble, you can check the scheduled outages on the official website (you will need to ask your landlord for login information) and find another place to work. But remember that there are unscheduled ones.
2. Internet. It has to be good. Take a villa with an unlimited fiber internet connection only. Ask the owner to install an uninterruptible power supply — it allows the router to live an additional 1-2 hours without electricity. Also, buy a local SIM, so you can share the internet (as a last resort).
3. Coolness. It is very hard to work in the heat, so look for an air-conditioned villa.

It is also important to remember about high humidity — equipment in such a climate can fail. To avoid this, take silica gel (cat litter filler) with you, and buy a container on the spot — put laptops there overnight. The filler will absorb moisture.

I worked on a schedule from 11:00 to 20:00 (7:30 - 16:30 Kyiv time). When I was hosting webinars; I finished close to midnight.

My efficiency has greatly increased during my stay on the island. I began to have more time. I see 4 reasons:

1. Before you start work, you have time to go to the beach, have breakfast, drink coffee, and recover. And you start your working day super-cheerful and resourceful.
2. It is very convenient to start the day earlier than your colleagues: you have about an hour to think, to do important and non-urgent things, and to plan the day.
3. Lots of sun, fruit, a healthy diet, and swimming are good for your body.
4. On the island, you outsource all household functions. Breakfast is cooked in the villa, you have lunch and dinner in restaurants, and the owner of the villa takes dirty clothes to the laundry and brings them back. This greatly saves valuable hours that can be spent on work or leisure. And, most importantly, you do not need to think about it and struggle with it.

In conclusions

The island of Sri Lanka is great for remote work. There is internet, normal housing, well-developed (although specific) services, and no problems with logistics. If you are thinking about a country for wintering, I happily recommend Sri Lanka (just be sure to plan your trip).

And if you have any questions, you can write to me:

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