April 29 - Hambantota, Sri Lanka

What a day!

We arrived at the Port of Hambantota, Sri Lanka. It was your standard shipping port with cranes, containers and cars ready for shipment or sale. It obviously wasn't a cruise port.

My friend, Sue and I didn't have an excursion, so we agreed to meet and to head into town to get our nails done. We got off the ship and right there was a "mobile" money exchange truck. We got a decent exchange rate and then boarded the shuttle bus that literally took us to the edge of the port. And the only thing there was a guard shack. We got off the bus and headed out of the port to find a taxi. Well as soon as we stepped outside the port we were barraged by the locals offering us everything from a tuk-tuk to a minivan to take us into town. We had done some research and had found a nail shop 2k from the port. But, noooo, they wanted to take us to Hambantota, about 7k away. And for only $30US. Haha.

Long story short, we went back into the port, hopped back onto the shuttle bus and headed back to the ship.

Here are the only pictures I took. Heading to the Port Gate

The Sri Lankan Navy

The Port and small channel we came through


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