Holland America’s 230-metre passenger liner Rotterdam with 1,164 passengers and 598 crew on board docked at the Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port (MMRP), Hambantota last Sunday. The Rotterdam which arrived from the port of Kochhin in India, the largest passenger liner to dock at Hambantota, set sail for the Port of Thilawa in Myanmar the same night. Day tours to various places in and around Hambantota including the Yala national park, the Bundala bird sanctuary, Kirinda, Tissamaharama and Kataragama had been arranged for disembarking passengers. Passenger liners calling at Hambantota are a boon to the tourist industry. Here an elderly passenger being helped to go sight-seeing in Hambantota.
Pic: Priyan de Silva, Matara Cor.