Hambantota

Dearest Rachel –

I’m going to save the brief bureaucratic nightmare for my recap of the day, as I think it will distract from the research I might as well do on this town (despite its size) and Columbo, given that I’ve got a sea day in which to work on this. As it happens, I couldn’t find a single shore excursion for tomorrow that appealed to me, so I may just need the filler material then, unless the place turns out to be full of surprises – and considering the population of the place, where the locals only outnumber us five to one, I really wouldn’t count on that.

For now, though, I keep forgetting the name of the town we’re stopping at (in part because I don’t have an excursion ticket reminding me), and every time I do glance at it on the itinerary, I have to stare at it for longer than I’d like to just so I can remember what it looks like when I type it out or pronounce it.

Turns out, the name should be reasonably easy to remember, as long as I can remember that ‘thota’ is an ancient word – it’s not clear to me whether it’s Malay, Tamil (unlikely, as they are restricted to the northern part of the island) or Sinhalese – for ‘port.’ Basically, the area was a base for Malay traders from at least the 1400s, where they would anchor their sampans – small boat, often loaded with merchandise for sale – thereby giving the town its name of ‘sampan port,’ or, in the local dialect, ’Ampan Thota, as the ‘s’ was dropped, and eventually the two words were mashed together, leaving the town with the name it bears now.

Despite the town’s small population, the port is one of the largest in Sri Lanka. Much of it is actually fairly new, having been built up since the new millennium. The first phase was completed in late 2010, at a cost of some $360 million, much of it Chinese money. Supposedly, once the entire project is complete, it will be able to berth 33 vessels at any given time, making it the largest port in South Asia. However, two years after the initial opening, Hampantota berthed only thirty-four ships throughout an entire year (less than one percent of the traffic that the capital of Colombo received during that same amount of time). It would seem that the Chinese aren’t getting their money’s worth out of this investment – unless their aim was more than about money, but rather having Sri Lanka in debt to them in perpetuity, in which case… mission accomplished, it would seem.

Now, the data I could find was from a dozen years ago; things may have improved since then, but they’d have to have gotten a lot better in order to get past this sort of situation. And since Sri Lanka went full organic last year by bureaucratic fiat, resulting in a catastrophic decrease in agricultural yield, I suspect life hasn’t exactly gotten better for the residents of Hampantota. Likewise, I suspect that, given the limited amount of traffic, it’s possible that our presence in town for the day is going to be a Very Big Deal, not unlike our arrival in Lombok (who, unlike Bali, which receives a cruise ship or two on a near-daily basis, considers itself fortunate to receive one a month or so). I’m not sure I’m looking forward to the possibility of running a gauntlet of touts in my efforts to get back on land for the few hours we’ll have in port.

And what do I expect to once I’m ashore here? Oddly enough, Chat GPT recommends the port as one of the places to see – as well as the airport, curiously enough. Not that it’s necessarily different from any other airport, as such, but the fact that it is one of the world’s least busy international airports. Essentially, it was part of the same infrastructure development project as the seaport. It was envisioned as a major international gateway and a key component of Sri Lanka’s efforts to boost tourism and economic development in the region; however, it hasn’t generated the sort of results the government of Sri Lanka would have hoped for – apart from that much more debt to China, I suspect. If this were in America, it wouldn’t have been built, because it wouldn’t have been profitable. I may find out for myself whether that’s a good or bad thing. If the place is all but vacant, though, there might not really be all that much to see.

On the other hand, there’s always the Hambantota Beach, with lovely ocean views; perfect for any manner of water activities (and probably a good place to bring you, come to think of it). And I’ve been recommended to visit the local markets as well; while I may not be able to bring any produce back with me to the ship, it might be a good place to look for spices or teas.

So, while I’ve no idea how far I’ll need to go to get to one place or another – maybe everything is within walking distance of the docks, maybe there’s a shuttle service bringing us onto town – I’d appreciate it if you’d keep an eye on me, honey, and wish me luck. I’m pretty sure I’m going to need it.