Just Landed in Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

Hey — it’s Rames James

Just landed in Sri Lanka! It's been 5 days, and what an experience. I've been loving (almost) everything about it.

Here's my starter-pack pros & cons list:

Pros

• Sri Lankans are the best. They always smile at you when you cross paths, which helps a lot to engage in conversation. They seem genuinely interested in getting to know you, helping you, and sharing their culture.

• The food! You'll find rice & curries, kottus, fried rice, noodles — everything is so good. I've never felt as connected with a country's cuisine. And the prices are insanely cheap (1000 LKR or ~3€ for a typical dish).

• If you like nature, Sri Lanka has your back. It's tropical, so it's filled with beautiful trees and dense vegetation. There are also a lot of monkeys, squirrels, and birds everywhere you go.

• Surfing spots are everywhere! We had our first session in Weligama — a 15-minute tuk-tuk ride from where we live in Mirissa — which is known for its beginner-friendly waves. There are three break points: if you're a beginner, head to level 1 for smaller waves; if you're more comfortable, enjoy level 3 with bigger, more powerful waves.

Cons

• Traffic can be a bit overwhelming. You need to be careful — everyone is driving like crazy, as if they're in a high-stakes race, with little regard for conventional traffic rules.

• It's quite polluted. Mirissa's main beach is super clean, but when you go a bit further, you'll see a lot of garbage everywhere.

Overall, we’re more than happy to be here, and super excited to go explore all of it. Our house is nice and cozy, internet speed is quite decent, so working from home won’t be an issue.

We’re also quite excited about meeting new people and making friends. We need to dig a bit more into the expat/digital-nomad communities over here 🌏

Cheers!

Bits

• I made a Spotify playlist for parties. House bangers only 😎

• I’ve finished my Bernard Werber book binge. The “Ants” trilogy was truly a favorite. More generally, I was amazed by how many “predictions” he got right (AI, health, space, etc.)