Is it safe in Sri Lanka for a traveler in May 2019?

Season in Sri Lanka and Bali

Dry season in Bali starts in March-April. However, it is warm all the year round, so if you are not afraid of short rain showers during the day, Bali is a great choice. I left Bali at the end of July, right before the high season started, and I would definitely not recommend going there in July and August – the number of tourists merely goes off the scale.

The weather in Sri Lanka is dictated by two monsoon seasons. The dry season in the south-western part runs from December to March and, once it starts raining more frequently in the South, you can simply move to the east, where the monsoon brings the dry season between May and September.

Cost of living

Both islands are relatively cheap. The average price for one spacious room in a nice villa (and probably with breakfast included) would vary between $300 and $400, depending on your demands it is possible to find cheaper or more expensive options. If you are planning to stay for a longer period, you can always negotiate the price.

Renting a scooter in both places would cost around 50-60$ per month, which is also fairly cheap.

Food

Both Bali and Sri Lanka have very diverse and cheap local cuisine. Besides, the choice of tropical fruits is awesome! Buying a coconut for 20 cents and pineapple for 50 has been a part of my daily routine. Sri Lanka doesn’t have a dragon fruit though, but I guess I can live with that.

Nature

Beaches, Palms, waterfalls – nature is extremely beautiful in both islands. In my opinion, surfing for beginners would be slightly better in Sri Lanka, as you can expect long sandy beaches with long soft waves almost throughout the whole southern coast.

Unfortunately, in the past years, especially in the rainy season, Bali has faced a huge problem – trash. Waves wash ashore plastic bottles and other results of human (tourists’) activity. Sadly, tourists brought not only money but also plastic to Bali, and locals, who always had only organic trash, started burning plastic along with organics, as they are uneducated about the causes of burning plastic trash. In Sri Lanka I haven’t noticed any trash issues, it probably has to do with the fact that Sri Lanka is less discovered/promoted tourist-wise than Bali, hopefully, with the increase of tourists in the next years the situation will not change to the worst.

Infrastructure

As I mentioned before, Sri Lanka is less touristy than Bali, which is both a huge advantage and disadvantage. The biggest problem I faced in Sri Lanka so far is the Internet: you can easily buy a sim card, which will provide you with great mobile internet, however, when it comes to Wi-Fi, honestly, the internet sucks. The Wi-Fi is there, but it rarely works properly. Whereas in Bali there are many coworking spaces with wonderful and established communities and digital nomad cultures, Sri Lanka is simply far behind that. I guess in 5 years the digital nomad community alongside coworking spaces will be established, at least it has great potential for that, but for now, the only chance left is to go to one cafe or another in search for good Internet.

Cafes & Music

Following the recent healthy food trends, there are so many raw-vegan-organic cafes with avocado tosts and smoothie bowls in Bali. It is not easy to find similar cafes in Sri Lanka though, which I believe will change in the next couple of years though.

As a music lover, I was really surprised that locals from Sri Lanka mostly listen to house and techno music, whereas locals in Bali seem to try to catch up with popular pop charts  in Europe. I guess the supply is where the demand is.

Weekend trips to nearby destinations

You are going to Sri Lanka or Bali to absorb the local culture and dive into the local experience. But let’s be honest, short weekend trips to other islands would be such a gem. If you are in Bali, you can easily take a boat to other incredibly beautiful and more deserted islands like Nusa Penida (40 min), Lombok, Gili’s. When in Sri Lanka, you don’t have such a great choice, you can take a 1-hour plane to Maldives or 3-h plane to the southern part of India.  In my personal biased opinion, Gili islands are nature-wise very similar to the Maldives but are several times cheaper.

You can check out my review on the Maldives here: http://markovavera.com/blog/the-maldives-on-a-budget-survival-guide/

I fell in love with both islands, and it would be really hard to make a choice between Bali or Sri Lanka. I hope though that based on the criteria listed above it will be slightly easier for you to decide on your next travel destination. Remember, your choice will be right in any way!

P.S. check out Creativa.com.au  to get the best animations. 

The post Sri Lanka or Bali? appeared first on Vera Markova.

How to get to the Maldives

I was very naive to think that the paradise would start once we land in Male – the doors of the airport would open and we would find ourselves near the bounty beach. First, the airport is very small and old, at least it looks like it. Got acquainted with the main engineer of the new airport, it is going to open in 2022, that’s when he told us to come back and see how the island airport should look like. Judging by the sketches that he showed, it is going to be really epic, but I doubt I will ever see it in real life. We arrived at night and could not go to one of the countless islands straight away, so we had to stay overnight on the airport island, which is connected to Male, the capital of Maldives, either by boat or by the Chinese bridge (that’s exactly the name of the bridge as the Chinese invest a lot in the Maldives and even build several neighbourhoods there). We slept on the airport island and in the morning, before taking a boat to another island, went to the beach, which turned out to be extremely dirty. By the way, in Male, there are no beaches at all, but it is not a big problem as no-one stays in Male, the Maldives paradise as we all know it starts when you reach one of more than 1000 islands.

Accessibility and boats

As I mentioned before, Maldives has more than 1000 islands. There are three ways to reach the islands: first, if you book a stay in an expensive resort, you don’t need to worry about anything as you will get your transfer straight from the airport. Second, if you are traveling on a budget, you can take a public ferry to an island of your choice. Be aware though that there are only 2 public boats per day, they are extremely cheap but it will take ages to reach your island. Let’s say, you want to go to Maafushi, the island that we chose. It will take you 40 minutes to get there by speedboat, alternatively, 3-4 hours if you go by public boat. The third and the most optimal option is the speedboat. Take into consideration that one ticket to an island located 40min from the capital will roughly cost you 25$ one way, the further away from the island, the more expensive the boat.

If you arrive in the Maldives and want to reach one of the islands on your own, make sure you check the timetable in advance, as you have to, first, get to the ferry station on the airport island, second, take a 20min ferry to Male, third, take a taxi in Male to the ferry station where you will finally take your speedboat. Public ferries don’t work on Fridays as the Maldives is a Muslim country.

Religion

The majority of the Maldivian population (90%) is Muslim, which is relevant for travelers for 2 reasons. The first reason is extremely important for budget travelers: women are not allowed to wear a bikini unless it is a bikini beach or a private beach. As the islands are generally small, there is usually no more than one bikini beach, which automatically becomes the local center for all people from the island. Did you imagine yourself in the role of Robinson Cruzo on a deserted island, lying under a palm, drinking a coconut, swimming alone in the clear water and being forgotten by the whole world? Don’t worry, it will not happen in the Maldives as you will be surrounded by the same dreamers on a public beach. The population density there will surely be higher than on the whole island.

Secondly, the public ferries don’t work on Fridays because Friday is the most important day for Muslims to attend mosques. So make sure you plan your trip in advance, “go with the flow“ attitude will not help you.

Prices

The cheap flight tickets gave us hope that the Maldives is open for budget travelers. However, we blindly lied to ourselves as even the speedboat per 1 person would already cost you 50$. Those bungalows that we all image once we think about the Maldives would cost you 300$ per night, the more or less decent options start from 50$ per night. Don’t forget to add 22% of tax, which is not included in the original price. High prices are partially explained by the fact that the Maldives imports everything except for fish. So, for the price of a standard room in the Maldives, we could get a luxurious villa in India or Sri Lanka.

The island that looked close to what we expected to experience in the Maldives was located more than 6hours by ferry, so we had to reconsider our choice and go to Maafushi. Even though Maafushi is considered to be a lively, more party-like island, whereas I really wanted my peace to recover from vipassana course in Sri Lanka that I just finished, there was a small local island 10 minutes by boat, where we went the next day. A lot of travelers choose Maafushi for more or less reasonable prices and good choice of restaurants and cafes. However, one fun fact about this island might turn you away: who would think that there is a prison located on this island? As the island is not very big, the prison takes quite a lot of its territory, and some hotels are its immediate neighbors. People pay ridiculous amounts of money to come to the Maldives, whereas some political prisoners get it for free when they are sent to this prison.

By the way, if you are not traveling in a couple, you will highly likely feel uncomfortable as almost all tourists who come here are couples: Instagram couples, Chinese couples (as I mentioned before, China has close relations to the Maldives) or old couples.

The Maldives has white sand, blue water, coconuts, and palms, that’s fairly true. But the Maldives is not the only place you can find it. Great image of Maldives that marketers smartly created makes people want to come to this paradise, couples celebrate their honeymoons. It is truly a wonderful place if the resort holiday is what you are looking for. But the Maldives on a budget? Honestly, I doubt.

The post The Maldives Travel Survival Guide appeared first on Vera Markova.

The past month I have been living in Sri Lanka and the question about this island being nomadic-friendly has been bothering me a lot. Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, has got several cafes where you could potentially work, but who wants to live in Colombo with traffic jams, noise, and lack of good beaches if only 3 hours down South the island reveals its real tropical beauty? Mirissa, Unawatuna, Weligama – you can find everything here, but the Internet. Walking from one cafe to another in the search for the good Internet has not been successful. Generally speaking, Sri Lanka is not as developed tourist-wise as other tropical Asian countries, which will definitely change in the next few years. Digital nomad community is not established here either, there are no co-working or co-living spaces like you can find in Bali, for example. However, I managed to find the most nomadic-friendly area in the South of Sri Lanka, where you would find almost everything that each remote worker would appreciate. The area is called Dikwella, it is located 40 min to the east from popular touristic places, which not only makes it cheaper accommodation wise but also offers less crowded long bounty beaches. Below I list the places that will make Dikwella the Sri Lankan paradise for digital nomads:

1. VERSE COLLECTIVE

Verse defines itself as a hotel and a co-work space, which opened in December, 2017, basically, several months ago. Its location (1 min to the deserted bounty beach), facilities (the fastest Internet I have had in Sri Lanka, yoga classes, coworking area) and the overall relaxing atmosphere with great design solutions make this place my absolute top on the list. For skater lovers, there is even a small skate ramp on the verse territory. Food is slightly overpriced but less than 5 minutes on foot you can find many great local places that offer the buffet menu for 1 Euro.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/versecollective/

2. SALT

Within 5 minutes walk form Verse the direction Hiriketiya bay you can find a great space/cafe/hotel with daily yoga classes – SALT. Great place to chill, eat healthy vegan/vegetarian food, or drink a smoothie after the evening yoga session.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/srilankan.beachhouses

3. HIRIKETIYA BAY

If you pass SALT, within another 1-minute walk you will find an extremely beautiful bay, my favorite in the South of Sri Lanka. Hiriketiya beach is one of those rare locations that are not spoiled by tourists yet. It has everything you always wanted to experience – soft sand, palms, waves that slowly break once they enter the small bay. This is also a great place for surfers, who are already confident enough to go to the big water alone but are not experienced enough to catch aggressive waves.

Why not enjoy the early sun rays while surfing in the morning in Hiriketiya bay, grab lunch in one of the local places nearby, have a productive work session in Verse, recharge your energy during a yoga session in Salt and meet the sunset in the Dikwella beach, which is a beach that starts right next to Verse and stretches for at least 1 km. Other digital nomad destinations definitely have more variety, but it always takes time to find the perfect combination of everything. After living one month in Sri Lanka and having struggles with lack of proper working facility, I never thought  I would accidentally find everything  I was looking for here, in Dikwella Sri Lanka.

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For centuries Pilgrims has come to the holy banks of the Ganga river to wash away their sins or cremate people they love. It is believed that expiring in Varanasi offers Moksha – liberation from the cycle of rebirth, in other words, nirvana. There are several moksha guesthouses located close to the burning ghats – Hindus all over the world come here to spend the last weeks of their life and get an instant release later.                                                                          

Each city/state in India is so different. It seemed that once you come to Varanasi, you return several centuries back in time, not surprisingly though, as it is one of the oldest cities in the world. Ganga, which is so transparent and clean on the foothills of Himalayas, changes its light blue color into the brown one – after a body is burned in one of two burning ghats, the ashes are scattered here.

We were sitting in a cafe, enjoying our coconut  Lassi, when I noticed that the air has become more dense. There were groups of people passing by, singing and carrying dead bodies, but I never thought that the cremation ceremony would be so close to the city, actually in the heart of it. No appetite anymore, we decided to follow them and see where the road would take us. 5 Minutes away from the lassi cafe, that originally was supposed to become one of my favorite food places in Varanasi, we found ourselves in Manikarnika ghat – the most auspicious place for a Hindu to be cremated.

Three levels of burying fire define the status of dead people: the poorest are burnt close to the Ganga river, businessmen and middle-class take the second level, whereas the richest are at the top. The fire is burning as long as the bodies are brought to the ghat, on average 300 bodies a day, 24 hours a day all year round. It usually takes around 3 hours to burn the whole body. Cows are walking naturally around the fires, some people are swimming in the Ganga river nearby, dogs are barking, but no one is crying. I haven’t seen a single woman there – crying is not recommendable so that the peace of the soul would not be disturbed. I close my nose and sit calmly on the steps while some tourists are taking pictures. My camera is in the bag – it is a matter of respect to the religion. You will not see a single picture from Manikarnika ghat, but I want you to see the peaceful waters of Ganga at the sunrise – regardless, the city of Light has its power, do you feel why?

The post The light city – Varanasi appeared first on Vera Markova.

Hi guys!

Learn more about me here travelwitheuphoria.wordpress.com and get inspired from my travels!

Xoxo,

Vera

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