Over the past year or so, I have been receiving a steady stream of inquiries and messages to my Adventures in a Tuk-Tuk Blog email address. Mostly, readers, travelers, acquaintances and interested parties have questions about moving, living, working, retiring and traveling to Sri Lanka. Sometimes I've received emails from different people in different parts of the world who ask me very similar
It's been a busy year thus far and I've found less time to blog than last year, but my mailbox via email, blog comments and facebook continues to receive a steady influx of correspondence. If you're wondering, I do appreciate the contact, questions, comments and feedback. And, I try my best to get back as quickly as possible with some helpful advice. Of course, I'm not the fount of knowledge on
On a wet and gloomy day in Kandy, I did one of the Three-Temples Loop as an outing with friends. These temples are some of the legacies of the Kandyan kingdom. There are actually at least two Three-Ttemples Loops around Kandy, including Embekke Devale-Lankathilake-Gadaladeniya and Gangarama Viharaya-Degaldoruwa-Galmaduwa Gedige. We visited the former trio of temples, which are situated about
My friend, Hiruni dropped in last week to catch me up on her recent travels to India and make use of my wifi. While we were catching up, she dropped something into our conversation that I thought was quite interesting. Basically, it was to do with the use of debit and credit cards in Sri Lanka. She blurted out that ...
Did you hear about a group of four foreign travelers who recently posed naked for photos on the top of Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia and who were subsequently arrested, jailed and fined for committing an obscene act? If you haven't, then check out this article or google it. Such incidents with travelers visiting sacred sites or foreign places seem to ...
I woke up this morning tired and feeling the effects of the night before. Last night was not a night for sleeping peacefully. Gale force winds, heavy torrential rain, water leaks coming from the roof, sounds of things flying off rooftops, lightning, anxiety about trees coming down, power cuts and things of that nature provided the ingredients for an unsettled ...
Last week, I was fortunate to have been invited to a small dinner gathering at the home of friends. I've known this Sri Lankan lady, who I call Aunty M, for most of the time I've lived on the teardrop island. And over the years, I've also grown closer to her extended family who live in and around Colombo. It ...
I have a secret to share with you... my secret is that I have itchy feet! Admittedly, it's more figurative than literal You see, I love my freedom and if I had my way I'd be constantly on the adventure trail. Realistically though, that isn't possible 100% of the time, so I make do with a travel to-do list, which ...
Hurrooo! I'm back after a little hiatus - busy with work and travel so I've been a little absent from blogging. Hope life is tripping along nicely wherever you are! I thought I'd kick off with another installment of "An expat in Sri Lanka" as life is never dull on this teardrop isle and there are always stories to share ...
A recent email from a fellow expat residing in India highlighted that I haven't written a blog post about Sri Lanka's gorgeous beaches. Shock horror... but it's true . How could this be? I guess it just fell between the cracks, which is a little strange seeing as I'm a true beach lover! Well, I've decided to rectify this oversight immediately as I've indeed visited and stayed at quite a few
Kataragama is located in the south-east of the island about 230km from Colombo. It is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Sri Lanka and holds significance for Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. The town itself is relatively small in size but receives visitors and pilgrims throughout the year. Hindus make offerings and request blessings at the Maha Devale (or temple) which is dedicated to
For many people climbing a mountain is all about getting to the top and back down again as swiftly and efficiently as possible (and taking a few snaps along the way and posting them to social media). Travelers, the world over, love to conquer mountains and it's an understandable thing. You want to challenge yourself physically and emotionally. But there are only a few sacred mountains around
Welcome back to Part 2 of my blog post on "Sri Lanka as a Viable Retirement Haven". In Part 1 we took a glimpse at the idea of retirement, early retirement and sea-change; retirement considerations; retirement abroad; and an idea of taking a test drive of Sri Lanka as an option. In this installment I'll delve into more detail on ...
When you embrace a new culture and country you have a choice whether to live on the outskirts, with a toe or two dipped in, or go all in. The alternative is to live in an expat bubble! I think for most of us expats we'd like to think we go all in from the outset, but in reality it's ...
Only a few months ago I was making plans to throw a Decade in Sri Lanka party as a celebration of making it to the milestone of ten years on the island. A few friends were throwing out a few ideas about party themes as well as food and drink ideas. But then, a week ago, I was suddenly plagued ...
Sri Lanka has been voted #1 on Lonely Planet's Top Destinations to Visit in 2019. Fortunately or unfortunately, this has garnered a whole army of Instagram and Facebook travel bloggers promoting identical "instagrammable" places around Sri Lanka. I don't really have an issue with this per se, it's mostly free advertising for the island, although I admit to becoming ...
The most popular question I receive by email from foreign expats is about moving to Sri Lanka to live permanently or medium to longer term. I can still recall the myriad of emotions with my own impending move to Sri Lanka almost six years ago. It ranged from feelings of anticipation, excitement, fear, anxiety, expectation and more. One could liken some of it to going on holidays to some exotic
We travel for many different reasons. Sometimes it's to unwind and relax. Other times, it's to seek out something new and different. And, there are times we are interested in something specific - maybe spiritual, adventurous, ancient, historical, or even just natural beauty.My visit to Somawathi was a combination of ancient, adventurous and spiritual. It is commonly known that Sri ...
Sri Lanka's Budget 2017 was presented in Parliament yesterday with the key theme of accelerating growth and social inclusion. The Finance Minister, Ravi Karunanayake made a comment in his Budget speech that, “No Finance Minister wants to impose taxes and burden the people. Every Finance Minister wants to give concessions to the people improving their lives.” Unfortunately, tax hikes have ...
I was reading an article a few days ago titled, "SL fruits could fetch better prices in int’l markets" that reinforced my concerns about food safety in Sri Lanka. In this article, an Agriculture Economist at the Ministry of Agriculture was quoted as saying "Sri Lanka has a better chance to gain good market prices for fruit exports in the ...
