Civic comes with Garmin European Map loaded with 5 years subscription. I searched a lot and could not find if official Garmin Map for Sri Lanka is available. There were few sources selling the map, but they were likely to be ones created from OSM (Open Street Map). Finally, I decided to try it myself.
Many thanks should go to Dhanajaya Tennakoon who had given clear instructions in AutoLanka Forum. Following his instructions I got it done.
I will share how to do it, but do it at your own risk.
Follow the instructions given in Honda Navigation Updates page only up to Step 2: I mean complete the Step 2, but don’t move to Step 3 yet.
Map update download was about 7GB when I did this in 2018, so better to leave it to download when you have free data. Use a USB stick at least 16GB. An 8GB worked for me, but was barely enough, if the newest update is larger, it wouldn’t fit in 8GB.
Find and download Sri Lanka map from here. Select “Generic Routable (new style)” from first section, and from the second, click on “Asia” drop-down and select “Sri Lanka”. Wait until it finds the download file (it might take a minute). Click on “Download map now!”. From the new page, download the file “osm_generic_gmapsupp.zip” and unzip it get the file “gmapsupp.img”.
Now, there is a file with the same name in “Garmin” folder in your USB stick. Get a copy of this to a safe place in your computer (for future use if need arise), and replace it with the one above (i.e. the renamed sri lankan map).
Once above is properly done, continue to step 3 in Honda Navigation Updates (see above).
Keep the USB stick safe for future use. You can replace “gmapsupp.img” file in it with newer one (download from above source) and update the navigator map by directly going into step 3.
“Do not connect it to any other car, or do not connect USB stick created from other cars in yours, as it may lock the system” – was an advice Dhananjaya had given.
You must know that the Sri Lankan map is exported from OSM project. It is a community based project, so the accuracy of some details may be an issue. But, it is generally good. But, for Colombo I prefer AndroidAuto Google Map since it comes with traffic update.
At the time of writing AndroidAuto is not available for Sri Lanka in Google Play. You can download its APK from APKMirror.
I in fact rarely use in built Garmin map to find the way (i.e. to navigate) in Colombo. But, the Garmin Map is really useful for long distance out-of-city travel. I’m glad that I could get it done.
Another advantage of having the built-in map is, it keeps a record of all your trips with date stamp in map so that you can locate the places you visited. It may of course not be so good if your spouse comes to know about this option. Well, this guide will not help in that. I remind you, do it at your own risk. =)