Andaman

Some memories can be cherished a lifetime ... the time we spent at Andaman is definitely one of them. I still miss the clean air , crystal clear water , boat rides , the warm sea breeze and most of all the good time we had there .... there are few things I don't miss the food , and the stomach troubles ;) .....

To relive the entire trip whenever I want to , I'm trying to note down all the happy thoughts during the trip.

Day 1 : Landed at Andaman at around 12:30 AM, flight on time and luggage intact, good beginning, tourdandaman had sent a representative to the airport. We were dropped at Megapod nest , the restaurant seemed upscale, we there was humid and hot but bearable .. we got a chance to get fresh and have lunch at restaurants banquet hall. Food was sumptuous. Lunch was follow by a boat ride to Viper Island, nothing great about this place, it used to have a prison where people were hanged :( and now the prison is undergoing reservation. We enjoyed the 2 boat journey both ways. Spent sometime clicking photos. The sun set in the east , but our health started heading south.

Day 2 : We decided to cancel the visit to corral island and stay at our resort the next day. I wanted to get checked by a doctor. The stomach infection was not completely healed so I had to take a some precautionary actions. After resting till noon we decided to explore Port Blair, we asked to be taken to the nearest beach. This was the first beach Sahana was visiting it was nice, the water was slightly murky and beach had a rocky shoreline, the shallow water allowed us to venture farther into the sea. After spending more than a hour at the beach we both were exhausted and went back to the city, had food at annapoorna restaurant (this is the best hotel in Port Blair). The next day's plan was to be picked up at 5:30 in the morning and head for Havlock Island. My condition was still the same, all night I was contemplating about the risks of the journey. Finally I decided to not think too much and just keep moving.

Day 3 : Packed and ready we were dropped at the port, waiting for us was this big ship named Ramanajum , this is a passenger ship, it could probably hold 100+ passengers. To our surprise most of the people on the ship were from karnataka. We just made ourselves comfortable and slept in each others arms :). The journey was pleasant and we were fresh by the time we landed at Havlock. The best part in was sandwiches. There was a small cafeteria on the ship which served sandwich's, this started my sandwich eating binge :). The port to resort ( sea shell ) trip was cover in 2 min, our ride here was a open jeep. The resort seemed very pleasant , in the middle of some dense vegetation ( coconut trees ), it had a green beach at other one end , our room was a wooden shack with very upscale facilities, all these things just revived our sprits. In no time we were at the beach :)... this beach was heavenly, especially after the sultry ship journey. The waster was cool n CRYSTAL clear with a slight green taint. I had seen such beaches on discovery or in movies. It was fun. I'm sure we would have spent a lot more time at the beach , but we were hungry and had to visit a radhanagar beac at 2:30. Lunch was a buffet , Sahana feasted on some tasted dishes , while I had some very bland sandwiched :). Radhanagar beach is 10Km from Sea Shell. Our ride this time was omni, the road was very winding and uneven making us jump up and down so often. I could feel my stomach rumbling. Radhanagar beach is a big beach with a tick forest covering the shoreline. The sand is silver in color its spread for a good 20mts between the sea and the forest. At places the sand is covered in tiny crab nests, there nests are formed in clusters. Being a sea lover I tried catching one of these crabs ... darn quick creature for its size ;) the sea itself is blue. We played with the waves for a while ... Sahana used to run into ever incoming wave and make sounds like Dubukkk dammar .... I guess that's the sound of wave riding. Seeing her have all this fun, I thought of giving her a taste of some real sea dipping ... I tossed her into the water, this left her in a state of shock. She was cursing me and crying for 15 min, I did not understand the problem or quite some time. Then finally the water in her ear cleared and she was talking alrite ... scary 15 min. I wanted to sun bathe , went onto the beach and lay there for a while, Sahana sat next to me and built a kappe gudu ( frog house ). She also had he energy to cover me with sand. I was resting all the while. Having spent enough time at the beach the sunlight started wading and musquitoes became a nuisance. We were back in our resort by 6:30 PM, both of us were sleeping during the return journey. We ordered food at the room, the resort had some rules against room service , we dint have much energy left so Mr Gandhi to the rescue ( one hundred rupee did the trick ).

Day 4 : This was the day for snorkeling , by 9:15 we were out of the resort after breakfast. Snorkeling was at a nearby elephant island , first leg of the journey was in a small country boat, it was nice... the 40 minute journey was initially scary ,because the boat was continuously tossed by the waves. The Cool breeze from the see and the continuous spray of sea water cooled us down. At elephant beach we were ready for snorkeling, I could not keep the snorkeling gear in my mouth , It felt like a deep throat gargle ;) sensing that its better for me to try after a while, Sahana took the charge she was out snorkeling while I practiced placing the snorkeling gear mouthpiece. Sahana was back after 10 min, I did it next , it was very . The visibility was very good .. we could see more than 15 feet into water. The corral was not very colourful but the fish and other plankton in between were very colorful. The 10 min expedition seem to complete very fast. Me and sahana had a a small squabble and result of which is we didn't take any photos during the snorkeling trip. Back at the resort , my good old stomach starting rumbling ;) after lunch and short nap we went to a local dispensary and picked up glucose. We dint do much that evening, sahana was busy washing cloths after that we just strolled around the resort and watched some movie/tv.

Day 5 : Valentines Day ! We spent the morning at Dolphin beach, this is the most beautiful beach I have seen ( in andaman too ). The picture on this blog is taken at this beach. The beach has lots of broken shell, corral ... it was fun collecting them at the beach, reminded me of the times when we were kinds and used to collect them in sand dumped near construction sites. Sahana beat me at a game of chowka bara ( I dint have a chance ). I have to blame the loss on the defective dice ;) , I dint want to loose any more so I decided to take a dip and feel better. Sahana did not want to get into water so she stayed at the shore collecting shells and taking pictures. This was our last day at havlock island , we had to check out at 12 but our boat was at 4. We checked out at 12 kept our luggage at the reception, after a quick lunch we are back at the beach front, squashed into one easy char listened to few good songs. It was quite soothing, we should have done this before too, the high tide at the beach started to recede and the a there was a slight stink so we had to get going :). This time our ride back to port blair was a faster speed boat. The journey was very memorable. Once the sun set the sky was lit up by star light, surroundings were dark and not a cloud in sight , so the entire spectrum of stars were visible we were trying to identify constellations. It was fun , Sahana seemed to recognise a lot of them, for my part I just listened to her speak and see the sky. That night venus was glowing very very brightly, I don't think it has anything to do with Valentine's day ... we can brag it did :).

Day 6 : We went around the port blair visiting Ross Island and all the museums in port Blair. The Museum trip was waste of time. 3 museums in all. We spent the afternoon at Ross Island. Nothing great about this island, just that there were couple of nice spots to take snaps. That night Sahana made some tasty sandwiches for Dinner.

Day 7 : It was a beautiful sunny day in Andaman . We were out in another island called Corral Island for a second attempt at snorkeling. This time we did it together, I mean that both of us were taken out together , the bad part was the equipment was defective the goggles kept filling with sea water. We both spent some good time at the shore basking in the sunlight watching schools of fish wading in the shallow sea and working up a tan :). Later that evening we were out to see sunset at the other end of port Blair. I don't remember the exact name of this place it was called (some) Tapu. This is one of the most beautiful sunsets that I have seen in my life . Very picturesque and calm. It was 8 PM by the time we were back at the hotel , this was our last night at Andaman. We watched a movie or should I say we watched half of the movie and slept.

Day 8 : Flight to catch at 12 PM. Back in chennai at 2PM. The landing was very bumpy a bad landing on a clear day. After a bit of circus we were in a KSTRTC bus by 3:15 and heading home. It was a mixed feeling , good to be going home but felt bad to leave the calm Andaman's.