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| Swimming with the fish in lovely waters of Andaman Sea |
Look at the world map and you may find Andaman & Nicobar islands as a few dots in Bay of Bengal. They appear to be closer to Thailand rather than India. The island of Phuket in Thailand is just 600 km from Port Blair - the Capital of A&N. For those in North India, reaching Thailand was simpler than reaching Port Blair as there was no direct flight and one had to go via Kolkata or Chennai.
I suddenly discovered that there was now a direct Air India flight at 5.30 AM to Port Blair. It was time to take advantage of Diwali break and discover that part of India which is barely visible on map.
Getting up at 3 AM is always a challenge and more so just 2 days before Diwali when we got home at midnight after a pre Diwali dinner. But it was worth taking a direct flight otherwise we would have had to leave an evening earlier for either Chennai or Kolkata, spend a night there and then leave for Andamans the next morning. This is because the flights from and to Port Blair only upto a certain time and only during daylight. This perhaps is the schedule during Covid restrictions.
The other challenge was to spend the time between 9 AM to 2 PM. This is the period between the flight landing and Ferry taking off to the island of Havelock. Port Blair has limited tourism potential so Havelock and Neil islands are preferred by tourists. Once again the ferries are limited nowadays due to Covid restrictions so one has to book well in advance.
The Cellular Jail (Kaala Pani)
We did well to spend much of this time at the infamous Cellular prison which had been constructed by British to break the bodies and spirit of Indian freedom fighters. An hour or so at the prison gives you the feel of how tough the life was for the inmates here and how badly they were treated. Port Blair was then known as Kala Paani and horror stories about the treatment of prisoners by the warden David Barry have been documented by many historians.
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| The cells of cellular jail |
Cellular Jail also has an open air 'light & sound' show in the evenings which we were fortunate to see a few days later when we returned from Havelock. It really is worth going for this show as the history comes alive the way it is presented. They have a similar show at Ross island which is a ferry ride away.
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| Sound & Light show at the cellular jail |
We also spent some time at Anthropologie museum which showcased the lives of several tribes of the islands including the Jarawas. The other tribes of prominence are the Onge, Shompen, the Great Andamanese, the Sentinelese and the Nicobarese. These tribes still exist.
I had booked Makruzz ferry which runs Catamarans between port Blair, Havelock and Neil islands. Port Blair did have a proper ferry terminal and one has to reach an hour early for check in's and for documentation. Havelock had no Ferry terminal so one has to wait in sun or rain or whatever the weather has in store for you. There are other companies also which run ferries but at this time the services were limited. The government run ferries are of high capacity but very slow. All the ferries were full so please do book the transportation well in advance if you do plan to visit the islands. There are many stories of people missing their flights as transport from an island to Port Blair was not available. It took us around 2 hours to reach Havelock and finally to our hotel at around 5 PM.
The Taj Exotica - Radhanagar Beach
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| The view from our room at the Taj. Each chalet was 1600 sq ft |
Being so much in the East but following Indian standard time (IST), it becomes dark at Havelock at 5 PM. Once it becomes dark - the beach becomes out of bounds. Taj Exotica turned out to be a superb property. Spread over 46 acres , each chalet was huge, luxurious and surrounded by lush green gardens. The resort had a nice gym and an Olympic sized swimming pool. Our chalet was considerably a distance away from the reception and activity area so we had to call the golf cart each time we had to venture out otherwise it was a nice 15-20 minute walk in the evenings and mornings.
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| Welcome drink at the Taj |
One got a very nice feel of being amidst the nature while staying at Taj. The trees were beautiful and the birds were extra chirpy. I spent an hour in the pool doing the laps on the first evening itself before we went for Devicka's birthday dinner at the restaurant. Our friends Sukrit and Arati along with their son Aditya came over for dinner and it became a mini party. They were staying at Sea Shells which was on the other side of island on another beach. Place they were staying at was in close proximity to all the scuba diving centres and as they had come mainly for scuba diving, it made sense to stay that side.
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| Devicka's birthday |
Next morning after breakfast it was time to hit the beach. The beach itself was as pristine as it could be. The sea water had different shades of turquoise and the sand was white and soft. What makes the beach very special is the forest cover and the huge trees through which you have to walk to get to the beach. Radhanagar beach has been voted as one of the finest beaches of Asia and though it was not a very long beach, it is very scenic and hordes of people come to watch sunset here. On the first day we went to the beach, the sun was very strong and the reflection from the white sand made the day even brighter. It was good to cool off in the sea water.
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| Soft sand and quietness at Radhanagar beach outside the Taj Exotica |
We went out for lunch with Sukrit and Arati as they were leaving back for Gurgaon via Port Blair but in the evening we were back on the beach. Taj served us snacks and tea while we watched the sun go down. During the morning hours the beach had been empty but for some hotel guests, but now in the evening, many people from other parts of the island had come to visit the famed beach and watch the sunset. There were no shacks or restaurants so it was just beach ,water and sunset.
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| Sunset at Radhanagar beach. Really beautiful and serene. |
The Barefoot Resort - Radhanagar
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| Our Cottage at Barefoot resort. They had stilted villas also. |
After 2 days of luxury living we moved to another very popular resort on the same beach called the Barefoot resort. It was very different from Taj and had a totally rustic feel. I had meant to book the villa on stilts but had got booking for a cottage as villas had been sold out. These cottages were a 10 minute walk from main area and it was unnerving in the dark as there were no street lights and one had to take a torch. It wasn't easy as due to some rains the path was slushy and slippery. One evening Devicka took a wrong turn and got lost and was very scared as there was just forest all around and extremely dark. The hotel also didn't have much to do in evenings after dark as it had no gym or swimming pool. So one evening I went for a massage which I thought was over priced.
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| Path going to the beach from hotel. Imagine how it must be at night. |
Once you got used to such things, it was a nice place and you even had to take off your footwear to go to reception, bar, restaurant and activity area. Once again beach was right next door through the forest. It's a kind of place which grows on you and after a day I was very comfortable.
Diwali evening was a bit of a dampener as the resort had nothing planned and being a dry day they were not even serving liquor in the bar or restaurant so one had to stick to the room and enjoy one's own tipple.
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| Diwali Lights |
Barefoot had another resort which was scuba diving centre at beach number 3 which was around 15 minutes drive from where we were. That is the main scuba diving belt. As there was not enough time to do a full PADI diving course (which takes 4-5 days) I decided to do a 'Discover Scuba diving programme.' I have done snorkeling a few times but never done deep sea diving. It was time for a new adventure.
The Scuba Diving
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| The reverse dive with full equipment |
The day started early as I was transported to beach number 3 to Barefoot Scuba resort. There was a lot of paperwork and disclaimers to be signed before training for the dive started. They had a good team who patiently over the next hour or so trained us in shallow beach water. Breathing was the main issue and there were other things like extracting water out of mask and replacing your breathing nozzle if it were to drop while in a dive. Then it was time for the real thing as you get into full gear, get onto the boat and move towards a reef with marine life. We have seen it all in movies so now it was time to do a backdive into the water with full equipment and then with the help of the trainer get deeper and deeper into the water.
Equalising the pressure is done at each meter of submergence as that is the most critical process to adapt to increasing water pressure. Soon one becomes comfortable, breathing from mouth through nozzle is not an issue and equalising the pressure is routine. Then you enjoy those colourful fish which dance around you. The Scholl of fish envelope you but ignore you as they move towards their destination. The octopus was the highlight - so large and so flexible. It merged itself to the reef and became as if it were part of the rocks. The large fish and the small were all around and they were so pretty in this blue sea. A 10 meter dive for 50 minutes was a kind of dose I needed to ensure that I do several more dives in near future. I am already waiting for Thailand and Phuket to open to pursue several more dives in that region.
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| Underwater meditation |
Life on Havelock Island
We didn't spend enough time in Port Blair for me to comment on it. Havelock was a couple of hours away by Catamaran and looked lush green as you approached the island with dense forests everywhere. As you drove towards the hotel you could see dense and green forests all around with very little signs of big hotels or tourism on the way. It appears that just 15-20% of island is open to tourism and rest of the place appears untouched. Vijaynagar beach or beach number 5 has quite a few hotels but as you drove towards Radhanagar, the habitat became less and less.
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| This is kind of greenery you see from the car as you drive around the island |
Not far for Radhanagar beach was the trekking path leading the the famous 'Elephant beach' known for water sports. Many go for this interesting hike. As far as public beach is concerned, the 'Kala Pathar' beach is very popular and as it is a shaded beach with lot of trees - it is quite comfortable to sit and enjoy the sun and sea. We didn't see any upmarket shopping or restaurants as we drove around the island. Most of small shops like vegetables, fruits ,chemist, grocery etc are in vicinity of the ferry area.
So basically there is not much to do on the island. I believe they don't even have a liquor shop. Once it becomes dark the people stay in their hotels and enjoy the facilities. During the day they go to some restaurants and beaches.
Talking about restaurants........here is what we experienced.
Restaurants at Havelock
Taj had its own multi cuisine restaurant near the sea. It was decent for breakfast but didn't have too much to offer for other meals. So after our morning time at beach we went to a famous sea food place called Anju Coco. Unfortunately they didn't serve any beer so we moved on to another known place near the sea called 'Something different.' The place was huge and had a library as well. You could see the sea as you dined and the sea breeze cooled you.
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The restaurant had nice books to read and good food.
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The owner was friendly and would take photograph of guests and then print them out and gave to them before leaving. More important - they served good prawns and served chilled Beer ! We ended up going to this place a couple of times.
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A lane takes you to the restaurant from here. They provide free pick ups and drops
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Our restaurant at Barefoot resorts served decent food but when I asked the manager if they served good prawns - he produced wonderful Tandoori Jumbo prawns which were huge and wonderfully marinated and cooked. That was our last night at the resort so we couldn't repeat any such order.
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| The tandoori jumbo Prawns at Barefoot |
Someone recommended Jalakara - a boutique hotel nestled in the hills amongst the beautiful trees and greenery. They had a smallish restaurant and that's why the manager hesitated to book a table for us but he relented. The food variety was limited but it was a nice place to sit and have lunch.
We saw several hotels and restaurants near the popular beach number 5 (Vijaynagar beach) but didn't have time to go there.
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| The Charming Jalakara hotel on top of a hill. |
We did visit the popular 'Amaya' at the Sea Shells at Port Blair on the way back on the last night of the trip as it was next to our ITC Welcome hotel. The place was jam packed and quite happening with loud music and lot of holiday atmosphere. We didn't find booking there so were happy to be back to the quietness of our sea facing restaurant at ITC. It had been a great trip and next morning it was time to fly back to the Delhi pollution which had increased manifold due to Diwali crackers.
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| Breakfast view from Port Blair ITC Welcome Hotel. |
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