(Disclaimer: Use these products at your own risk.)
Vaping or the use of electronic-cigarettes, has recently become vastly popular in many countries. Vaping is an alternative to smoking real cigarettes and many people (including yours truly) have quit smoking by switching to these devices. I will refrain from explaining what these are and getting into the debate whether these products are good or bad for you. If you want to be informed, this article would be a good place to start.
Update 11th Jan 2016: List of Scientific Articles related to vaping.
If you are interested in getting into vaping, for those of us living in Sri Lanka the number of available resources tolearn about vaping is practically none existent and getting our hands on decent vape products is tough.
Currently available resources
A quick Google search turns up several results. But only a single result with even a little amount of credibility.
eCigarettes In Sri LankaEditor’s Note: eCigarettes are not for children and the nicotine kind are not any less addictive than their leaf…www.yamu.lk
Considering the vast amount of vape products currently available, this is practically scraping the bottom of the barrel. I strongly advise against anyone interested in vaping trying out the products described in the above article.
What to do about it?
Now that we’ve established that there are no good ways to go about starting to vape in Sri Lanka, we move to more reasonable options. Which obviously is ordering online.
Hardware
There are several trustworthy sources to get vape products for cheap. Hardware is most easily sourced from China. Fasttech is where you order your vape hardware from. Finding good hardware on Fasttech could be an entire article on its own. The short version would be to look at the reviews and discussions of a product before ordering. The fast and cheap shipping option to Sri Lanka would be Singapore Post, so make sure to select that option in the shipping stage. This may cost you a dollar or two extra, but you’ll be getting your products in weeks instead of months. In my considerable experience, you can get your products in roughly two to three weeks through Fasttech. They also undervalue the items in the customs declaration, so the chances of your parcel being stopped at customs is low.
eBay is another viable option. There are sellers that ship internationally, but this could be a hit or miss. The key to getting reliable products through eBay is as always, look at the seller’s reputation and feedback.
Now that you know where to buy these things, exactly what to buy is the question. This question could be an entirely different series of articles, so I will give one sane recommendation as a starter option and one intermediate option (Changed in the update below). I will add some more resources at the bottom of this post.
Update 4th September 2015: Removing old Starter and Intermediate kit suggestions and adding a single new suggestion.
Starter Kit
Kanger SUBOX Mini — Black Edition.
Note: Battery safety is very important, so I’ve provided reliable batteries and a charger below. Don’t buy these products from Fasttech.
- Samsung 25R 18650 Batteries
- Nitecore Intellicharger i2 (Optional)
e-Liquid
Finding a good source of e-liquid, which is what you use in your e-cigarette or vaporizer is much harder. Fasttech is NOT where you buy these. eBay is also not an option because their Terms of Service prohibits the sale of nicotine products.
The best e-liquid sellers are mostly located in the United States. This is somewhat inconvenient, but there are good sellers that do ship internationally. Shipping is a bit expensive (~$10 per order) but there is no good alternative solution. I will list down a few of these here for reference. I’ve personally ordered from these sellers and can confirm that I’ve received the deliveries without any issue. I’d discourage ordering large quantities of e-liquid (more than 300ml) in a single order because they may get held by customs. I haven’t had that problem yet, but you can never be too careful.
http://mtbakervapor.com — My primary source. Has a good selection and priced reasonably. Very cheap if you order in larger quantities. Shipping usually takes around 10–14 days to get to Sri Lanka. I highly recommend theirHawk Sauce and Thug Juice.
http://opensourcevapor.com — Specialized vendor in doing completely PG free e-liquid. They have flat rate international shipping so the shipping cost doesn’t change regardless of the order quantity. Shipping takes roughly 10–14 days. Toka Cola is my favorite from their line.
http://vapewild.com — Huge collection of very, very cheap e-liquid. The downside is, their cheaper shipping option is extremely unreliable. I’ve had orders take up to 3 months to get to Sri Lanka. I suggest you pay for faster shipping if you use this vendor, but keep in mind this could get very expensive. I like their Goblin Energy, Double Rainbow and Strawberries and Cream.
Final Words
If you haven’t been discouraged by all this nonsense and haven’t decided to give up, then congratulations. Welcome to the world of vaping. I wish you best of luck, and hope you will join the few of us living in Sri Lanka.
This article is not supposed to be an all encompassing guide to vaping. Instead my intention was to provide a starting point to acquire vape products. If you’re interested in learning more, head over to reddit’s e-cigarette subreddit. It’s a big community and reading the guides there and asking questions will point you in the right direction.
Resources
This article was originally published on https://medium.com/@chathuraw/vaping-in-sri-lanka-3199cd0db85#.8ztszrpgt
Author : Chathura W
https://twitter.com/chathuraw
Featured image model : Janelle Allysa Wong
Website : JanelleJaw.com
A photo posted by Janelle Allysa Wong (@janellejaw) on Jan 19, 2016 at 8:19pm PST
posted on 24 July at 08:54
The Wismec DNA 200 is the UK's best box mod by far. Get it here - https://www.e-cigshop.co.uk/wismec/reuleaux-dna200-box-mod/