[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by Gooney

Thanks for the information StarVagabond. Much appreciated.
But can we camp there? I mean, we get the permit and get an entry into the island; but if we choose not to stay in any resort and camp instead. Is that allowed?
I read somewhere that you get alcohol in only one of the islands. No?

I had been to Lakshdeep about 9 years ago for my honeymoon.
my personal info might be bit outdated. At that time there was very less info available. Somehow i planned by trip with a help of a travel agent in Pune where i used to live at that time.

We traveled from Pune to Mumbai by bus, Mumbai to Ernakulam by Train, Ernakulam to Aggatti by Indian airlines flight and return journey was same way as onward.

i remember a funny incident: i had requested for an airport pick up at agatti. the flight was a 15 seater flight with only 3 couples plus one attendent and one pilot. the landing is amazing, you feel as if you are landing on sea. after landing there is a small airport building it is so small that you enter from this door and exit from the opposite.

once we exited there was a lungi clad guy waiting for us. he told us in english that he will take us to the resort. we handed over our luggage to him. He brought a hand cart and placed all our luggage onto it. and started walking, we were bit skeptical and wanted to wait for the taxi , he turned after few steps and asked us to follow him

we exited the airport fence and entered the fence of the resort.

the whole island of Agatti is some 5-6KM in lenght and some 500-700 Mtrs in width. Half of the island is occupiled by the landing strip, there is a small village at the other end of agatti. from airport to other end of the road there is a concrete road of 5 KM length and 2 mtrs wide.

there is a small tea stall, a school, one grocery stall one bank (syndicate bank) and diesel generation set for the village. Local habitation is some 300-400 people most of them are fisherman.

Agatti resort is having some basic facilities and very large heart and courtesy. I had forgotten my valet filled with some 15000 RS on the beach one evening. It was found as it was the next afternoon.

the the whole package cost me some 22000+ RS including permits, 4 nights 5 days stay in a on beach cottage, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, included plus 15000+ RS for to and fro air tickets from Ernakulam to Agatti and back for two people.

we were taken to nearby 4-5 islands only Bangaram is having some people plus one resort for foreigners. Foreigners are wisked directly from Agatti airport to Bangaram island by speed boat. Bangaram island stay was almost 3x or 4x times Agatti stay at that time.

The other 2-3 islands are not having any habitation in them there were some camping huts, the resort guys told us that if required they would drop us on these islands with food packets and retrun to pick us up the next day

There is a cruise facility also from Cochhin which takes you to different islands over 4-5-6 days, Day time you will allowed on one island and evening the boat moves ot the next island. There were (in 2001) 3 different classes of accomodationpossible. 2-3 Cabins for 2, 4-5 cabins for 4 and a big hall filled with reclinable chairs. I do not know the current state of this facility.

There is a SPORTS (govt) organization in Ernakulam which provides the permits as well as organizes the cruise.

There is no alcohol consumption allowed on these islands except Bangarm.
Food supplies are also very limited with food coming once in every week.
Most of the food served is non vegetarian sea food. if you are lucky they would serve octopus curry to you which is said to be the delicacy.

we were vegetarians, the resort guys really struggled to provide us with the variety of food. but they made special efforts to make us happy. They were very sad that the octopus caught by them when we had gone for a snorkelling dive could not be eaten by us.