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.

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.

The post South of Sri Lanka for Digital Nomads appeared first on Vera Markova.