Daily Life in Sri Lanka: The Practical Things Nobody Tells You

The practical day-to-day of living in Sri Lanka is something that no blog post fully prepares you for, which means you discover it through experience, through mistakes, and through conversations with people who arrived before you and already made those mistakes. Here is a compressed version of what those conversations usually cover.

Shopping for groceries: Keells and Cargills Food City are the main supermarket chains and they stock a reasonable range of local and imported products. The local markets are where you should be buying your fruit, vegetables, fish, and meat because the freshness is incomparably better and the price is a fraction of the supermarket. Find your nearest local market and establish a relationship with two or three vendors. They will look after you.

Deliveries: PickMe Food and Uber Eats both operate in Colombo and the main towns with a solid range of restaurants. For everything else, delivery apps like Daraz cover electronics, household goods, and clothing. The delivery infrastructure in Colombo is good. Outside Colombo it becomes patchy. Plan accordingly.

Schools: the international school sector in Colombo is well-developed. The Overseas School of Colombo, Lyceum International School, and the British School of Colombo all have strong reputations and waiting lists that require early action. If you are moving with children, begin the school enquiry process before you arrive rather than after. The best places fill quickly and the academic year timing matters.