I recently visited the wonderful island of Sri Lanka, and found a country full of surprises.

Sri Lanka is situated just south of India, in the Indian Ocean. Once known as the Dominium of Ceylon and often referred to as the tea country, tea plantations abundantly thrive across the island, with spice gardens, banana and coconut palms growing randomly to create a jungle of natural resources.

People, animals and transport seem to co-exist side by side with no animosity towards each other. Dogs wonder aimlessly across or bask in the sun at the side of roads, cows and goats roam around everywhere, even on the beaches (which I found rather amusing) and people are everywhere, whether walking, cycling, using a tuc-tuc, propecia coupons motorbike with 5 astride, in a taxi, bus, car or truck, each takes up a space of the not too wide road. But co-exist they do, there is no anger at being stuck behind a truck, merely a short hooting of the horn to say I am here and would like to pass, politeness abounds and the expression and sounds are all of friendliness, within a country that sorely needs help at redeveloping itself since the Cialis Professional tsunami. People are poor and yet happiness is everywhere…. Not just for the child on the hip or the person at their side, but for expats and tourists as well.

Tourists fluctuate towards the resorts and some chance the areas slightly outside of these areas, to experience a quieter less harassed holiday. Small pockets of expats can be found, dotted all over the country. When you bump into these people and chat about life on the island, there is not much to complain about. Yes, sometimes the water gets turned off or the electricity, yes the internet is not as fast as they would like it to be. Isn’t that how most people feel in developed countries anyway: The faster it gets the faster we want it. In this little piece of paradise, expats are not too concerned that it takes a little longer to do things here, the people are prepared to wait, not too hasty to move forward too quickly. There was a lot of talk and concern about the elections and safety within the country and there are still road blockades and police / army personnel with guns wandering around keeping peace if necessary. However, with 70% of the population being Buddhists, the lifestyle is peaceful and life simplistic.

From an expat perspective, I could not fault the lifestyle. As said above, yes there are definite things missing, things are slower, it takes a good 4 – 6 hours to get from Colombo to Galle and similarly to anywhere about 200km’s apart. I cannot say that the roads are particularly in good condition, but in the 10 days that I visited, I did not see one accident. Hardships could include the lack of being able to get from one part of the island to another quickly, the lack of fast internet connection, perhaps the human waste / refuse, which allows for the influx of flies, the dirt which is left to lie around and lastly the lack of funds to rebuild the country to what it was before the Tsunami.

Having said that, I have to look at all the good things that you find there, the beauty of the natural resources, how the nationals and expats are trying to rebuild the country, the beaches, game parks and mountains. This is truly a beautiful part of the world.

Expat Cost of living summary

The currency in Sri Lanka is the Sri Lankan Rupee LKR
The Exchange rate as at 15 January 2010 was $1 = 114.217 Rupees

I am going to break the Cost of living down according to some of the Xpatualtor basket items :

Alcohol and Tobacco : Alcohol at Bar, Beer, Cigarettes, Locally Produced Spirit, Whiskey, Wine
Cigarettes (20s)- $3.14 – $9
Domestic Beer(500ml)- $2.50
Imported Beer (330ml)- $5.80
Wine at a bar- $6 a glass
Wine at a shop- $15 (750ml bottle)
Hotels tend to increase the prices of alcohol as it is the one way that they can make a profit. There are many small hotels and restaurants which create a competitive edge to where you can Kamagra Gold stay.

Clothing : Business Suits, Casual Clothing, Children’s Clothing and footwear, Coats and hats, Evening Wear, Shoe Repairs, Underwear
Casual Long Sleeved Shirt (Men)- $12
Casual Long Sleeved Trousers (Men)- $20
Shorts (Men)- $11
T-Shirt (Men)- $6
Casual Blouse (Women)- $7
Casual Skirt (Women)- $12
Children’s Jeans (Boys)- $5
Children’s Jeans (Girls)- $3.50
Children’s Shirt(Boys)- $5
Children’s Shirt(Girls)- $4
Clothes are extremely cheap, in Colombo a person can get most of the name branded clothing at fairly reasonable prices in Factory shops.

Communication : Home Telephone Rental and Call Charges, Internet Connection and service provider fees, Mobile / Cellular Phone Contract and Calls
Monthly phone rental- $4.36
Phone call rate- $0.05 for a local call
Internet line connection fee- $104 (buy all equipment with installation)
Internet service provider fee- $17 (1 geg free thereafter)
Monthly mobile contract fee- $2.18 (for the year)
Mobile / cellular call rate- 90% of phones are prepaid,
Mobile Phone 100 Minutes Call- $38
– $0.012 – $0.05 sms peak times
Due to so many of the nationals working overseas to send money home, the communication costs are extremely low and there are often special deals or no cost is involved in the actual call.

Education : Cr