Hambantota was hit hard by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. It is in the Southern Province, Sri Lanka. A tour of the Yala National Park can include a 4-course BBQ dinner. It is the home to a herd of 300-350 elephants, plus you may see leopards, bears, deer, crocodiles, sloth bears, black-naped hares, spotted deer, sambar, hanuman langurs, toque monkeys, stripe-necked and ruddy mongooses, wild boar, and golden jackal.

You may also see the enormous land and water monitors and, of course, marsh crocodiles and other wild animals. The Uda Walawe National Park rivals the savannahs of Africa.

Phoenix Risen, Mein Schiff, Azamara Quest and Hapag Lloyd are amongst the ships that stop here.

We list these not to sell you the tours, though Get Your Guide do have many excellent private guides and tour options, but, reading through what the locals offer you at a destination, reveals what is there. Local tours (allow time to load) as shown by GET YOUR GUIDE. Always remember a ship tour offers the protection of waiting for the trip to return if it is running late.

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I dig into these memories and add research when writing the cruise novels. I am currently arriving, in my head, in Hambantota on a cruise which may be based on a similar one that you might take. There has already been an unexpected loss of life and the investigators have purpose during a mission to try and rescue money still trapped on a ship from book one in the series Cruise Ship Heist. In this novel, book seven in the series, Cruise Ship Murder Reunion, the CSCI team have already met up with a school reunion and their plans to take the money off the ship in Mumbai are already under threat. All the novels can be read as stand alone books, and some love to start a series a way through because the writing inevitable gets better. However, after six books, I revisited the novels and produced second drafts so they are all feel like they have the experience of half a dozen books, because they do. This is the planned route.

Singapore       School Reunion meets at Raffle day 1

• MIAMI             Agents morn loss in Miami         day 1
• Singapore       School Reunion meets at Raffle   day 1
• At sea              agents arrive hotel Penang        day 2
• Penang            Agents join ship Malaysia           day 3
• Phuket            Thailand              day 4
• At sea                                       day 5
• At sea                                       day 6
• Hambantota    Sri Lanka             day 7
• Columbo         Sri Lanka             day 8
• Cochin            India                   day 9
• Cochin            India                   day 10
• At sea                                      day 11
• Mumbai          India                  day 12