Trip to Andamans - I

Did someone say Nature? Oh yeah, I love it. I love Nature. Hiking, trekking, mountaineering, sleeping on the laps of nature, admiring the beauty of nature, basking in the goodness of nature, blah blah nature, I love it. Just kidding, nope, that’s not me. Nature excites me. To me, it’s just beautiful and I can’t use more adjectives. Ok let me stop this mokkai and come to the point. My first attempt at travelogue and I am nervous.

William’s native is Andaman Islands and we decided to spend at least 15 days there, since this was the first trip together after one year of marriage. We also planned for trips across Andaman covering Mayabandhar, Havelock Islands, Diglipur, Northbay, Ross Island, Baratang. I was excited; more excited when I came to know that we would get a chance to see Jarawas, native Andaman tribes on the way to Baratang.

So after first few days of meeting and greeting relatives, we set out for the planned trips. First stop was Havelock Islands

The cruise trip starts from Port Blair at 6.45 AM. After some sleeping, watching people dancing in the ship for DJ music, we reached Havelock at 9.15 AM. Accommodation was arranged nearby in a PWD guest house. We finished our breakfast in a hotel nearby and we set out to Elephanta beach. The motor boat ride was for 25 minutes and the sea is bordered by thick mangroves. The mangroves are so thick and beautiful, plush green and serves a delight to bird watchers. These mangroves are to watch out for, as crocodiles visit them once in a while. 

We reached Elephanta around 11AM and we had 3 full hours to have fun there. The paid activities included snorkeling, sea walking, motor biking in the water, etc. And each costs 1000/- per head.

The water bed was so beautiful with layers of green water and white sand. As much as I wanted to plunge into the sea for snorkeling, and boy, was I so scared of water. The 2 guys who took us to the sea gave us a basic training of how to stay on top of the water with the help of those plastic rings. And all four of us set out to snorkel. Hardly 3 meters from the shore gave us a beautiful view of corals. The sea bed was filled with vast beautiful corals and colorful fishes came out of those corals to see their announced visitors. Suddenly I was not scared of water anymore! We went farther and yes, that opened to a deep blue sea with vast corals. All those exotic fishes we find in NGC were swimming along, next to us. It was silent, calm, and much different from the roaring beach waves. We spent 40 minutes snorkeling and swam back to the beach. And those 40 minutes gone like poof. As much as I was scared of the water, I enjoyed so much snorkeling! An amazing experience that was!

~ scenes at snorkeling ~

I don’t think that sea walking would amuse me as much as snorkeling, so I didn’t attempt it. We had some fun in the beach including motor biking and it was 2 PM. We left for Havelock beach to have lunch there and catch some rest. We hired a bike in the evening and rode to Radhanagar beach to witness the sunset. It is that sunset you would see in the wall posters, even more beautiful than that.  By the time we came back from Radhanagar beach, it was 8PM and we set out for pub crawling. On the way we did some shopping buying souvenirs. We visited some pubs, motels and landed at this place called Fat Martin.  Amazing food, but sadly we had to wait till 10PM for live music to start.

~At Fat Martin~

Day 2: Kalapathar beach

Ok let me tell about the reason for the name : Kalapathar - Black Stone. During low tides, when the waves pull inside the sea, the black stones from the sea are seen and this is a common sight during low tide.

Since we visited Radhanagar beach in the late hours, we couldn’t enjoy the complete sunset view. But Kalapathar visit was in the wee hours next day and we had so much fun. The ride to the beach was so good, deep in the forest sidelined by the green sea waters, marble white sand. I have never seen a more beautiful place than this. We stopped in between to go into the woods towards the beach. The beach was deserted, so calm, undisturbed with a lonely boat. The smell of the sea combined with the scent of the woods would make anyone surrender to the nature. A lovely place!

Naure's way of smiling at you even when when you harm it

After beach, we stopped for a relaxing Ayurved massage, had a quick lunch and then headed to guest house.  At 3.30 PM we started our return journey carrying beautiful memories waving good bye to those green waves.

Suggestion

Havelock faces lot of power cuts.  There are hardly any cell phone signals and no internet.  Some restaurants welcome people with free Wi-Fi but don’t fall for it as the signal is ultra poor. When you get back from the beach, you feel like being in the Stone Age. I had to wait for 20 days to come back to mainland and upload the pictures :P

The Island is very small and maintenance of the island should not be as difficult as that of mainland. Roads are bad. When India has such an amazing place, more beautiful than Thailand and Mauritius, why not improve the condition of the beaches, lay proper roads, make it a face of India, increase beach fun activities and attract tourists from all over the world? And for anyone who argues against commercialization of the island, I might be wrong. Your views are welcome.

However it’s an amazing place for people who don’t bother about internet, they could rest in the shacks, have beer, enjoy amazing food and admire the exotic beach.

This comes to the end of my Havelock experience. See you soon in the next post for my Baratang experience. And I guess my prologue will have a justification there.

Till then,

Much love.




Photos: OnePlus 3