A ferry from India to Sri Lanka
Updated: Oct 7
Now in its second year the ferry from Nagapattinam, India to the port of Kankesanturai, Sri Lanka, is back in service after a hiatus of 40 years. It’s run by a company called Subham. Website below.
I emailed about a specific travel day, and it took several weeks for a reply, saying my preferred day is a public holiday. We changed dates and a colleague based in India did the actual booking. But even then, there is no guarantee of travel.
Volatile sea conditions in the Bay of Bengal mean that Subham can only confirm a journey the day before. At no given specific time. Our deadline, initially at 3pm, drifted until 6pm when it was finally confirmed. It was nervy and communication was all done between the hotel staff and Subham's HQ, a tiny office with room for one desk and not near the port. If the ferry had been cancelled, we faced an 8-hour taxi, through the night, to the airport in Chennai.
I was advised to avoid several of the hotels nearest to the port and booked into one 25-minutes’ drive away, in a fascinating seaside resort called Velankanni. Which is a well worth a visit.
With a 4am check-in for a departure time of 7am, the alarm was set for 3.15.
This is an international service carrying up to 150 passengers, so for security reasons, 3 hours is deemed necessary to process customs and immigration.
I’d say you can probably arrive later, but the risk is yours as the checks are multi-layered and thorough. And, crucially, it is not easy to find.
We did a recce the day before and discovered that even the local taxi driver didn’t know where it was. He drove us around for over an hour and then sought help. And that was in daylight. (If you go to Google maps and it shows the exact location for ferry departures, it's because I just added it.)
Arriving at 4am in pitch dark, on travel day, you’ll find a large wall and an iron gate separating the port road and the departure terminal. (picture below)
A handful of soldiers with various sizes of guns will check passports to allow you through. In the yard you wait in line, wryly admiring how almost everyone has ignored the Subham website command “hand luggage only”. (see pictures)
In the line outside another man, dressed in civvies, randomly checks passports again. No specific reason, but it seemed vital.
After around 40 minutes a small door at the far end of a vast white warehouse opens and we inch our way to the yellow light.
Inside we will experience more passport checks. I wish I’d made notes on how many and why. Luggage goes through airport style scanners, and you are directed to a narrow row of seats surrounded by belt barriers.
The size of the warehouse makes you feel small. This is a blank canvas for budding interior designers. Our seats, backs to the wall, face a line of four wooden pulpits. They would soon be populated immigration officers. This is not just any passport check, this is the passport check.
Following a stern interrogation you are faced with more haphazardly placed belt barriers and a much larger seating area. But no. A man says come back. You can’t go there without getting a boarding pass. And yes, it means a passport check as well as a second luggage check. Designwise, the boarding pass stage was a sort afterthought in a narrow walkway.
Looking at the many warning messages on an array of home-made posters scattered in clusters on the walls, a display resembling an inner-city London GP medical centre, you realise that drug smuggling between the two countries must be rife.
There was a second set of posters, on a very different theme, and standard of execution. These posters celebrate the second birthday of the ferry. They were large and shiny and were clearly professionally designed, with some help from AI. The Subham ferry was centre frame, like a Marvel superhero. Some symbolic emblems of Sri Lanka and India could be found wrapped in dynamic colour slashes and slick passengers could be seen walking on water. This was the only entertainment in the building before boarding.
A few minutes before 7am we walked out into glaring sunshine and had the first glimpse at the real thing, a modern looking catamaran, wearing the Subham logo across its chest.
At boarding level is the seating for economy, and upstairs is premium. Premium has about 30 comfy seats, a bit like gaming chairs, arranged in 2 rows of 3. Premium also comes with an aeroplane-style meal. If you want coffee with it, you have to pay. For many travellers, the meal would soon make a return.
The crossing of the Palk Strait was lumpy and the catamaran ferry bounces, yores and twists its way to Sri Lanka. From about 2 hours into a 4-and-a-half-hour journey, passengers were hogging toilet doors taking turns to vomit. Loudly. Sick bags had to be requested from the coffee counter. I grabbed one just in case.
Arriving in Sri Lanka, with much relief, a bus took us from the mooring to the port authority office for processing. The bus made several trips not just for passengers but also the so-called hand luggage. We could sense the end, but customs and immigration weren’t ready. We were cheek by jowl in a small room, hemmed in by too many large bags. It felt a long time to be told nothing.
Once moving it was a swift check of the passport and a mere glance at the visa. Border now crossed and the first sight is a line of tuk-tuks to whisk you to your hotel.
In summary it is much longer than flying but if you can stomach it, I’d recommend sailing from India to Sri Lanka any day before taking a plane.
IN A NUTSHELL
4.00am arr Departures, Nagapattinam
7.00am depart India
11.40am arrive Kankasenturai port
12noon coach to immigration and customs
12.20pm passport desk opens
12.55pm enter Sri Lanka
LINK to More pictures... https://www.instagram.com/p/DeMAf9wjdjl/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&stkn=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
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