[SwatiS]

There are some places which are so beautiful that we will have probably seen wallpapers of them on the internet and said "WOW"; some places whose pictures we have been seeing on calendars which hung in houses during the pre-internet days; some places which we thought do not exist on earth, or maybe sometimes we think that they exist but there is no way I would ever be visiting them; the place where the sand is brighter than anything, where the water is so crystal clear that you can see the bottom of the sea; the place where there is serenity and peace and from where you never wish to return back; an exotic location which many people assume cannot be in India as we are so used to the idea of westernization; this is a tale of a trip to such a place.

I have never really been too keen on visiting beaches as I have seen too many beaches as a kid. Being a south Indian and coming from a place which is 3 hours away from Goa, I have never really been fascinated by the beach. The mountains always hold my complete attention. So, whenever my friends or colleagues say that lets plan a trip to Goa, I am least interested in it. Add to it the fact that Goa has become so dirty does not help either. But this was one place with beach and ocean which I wanted to visit so badly since a year.

The idea of visiting this place was implanted in my brain (and heart) a year back when one of my friends in office asked me "Scuba karne chalegi?" (Will you come to do a scuba dive?). I have a huge bucketlist of things to do and places to visit, but a scuba dive was not one among them. I wanted to do it but it was not something that I have to do or die. I said fine and we started planning for it. We short-listed a few places. I knew that there was scuba diving in Murdeshwar but my friend suggested that we do the dive in Lakshadweep. At that point all I knew about Lakshadweep was that they were some islands somewhere to the south of India. I knew of many people visiting Andaman and Nicobar islands and knew that those islands have a good diving scene. And then ofcourse was the fact that the Andamans were more famous and popular. Some amount of googling told us that some ship voyages left from Kochi. We were trying to find a ship package which was of a single island and which left on a friday and returned on sunday. The reason was simple - 4 of us were from the same project, we could not all get leave at once. Getting such dates that too within 2 weeks was highly impossible.

Made many calls, tried various ways but unfortunately it did not work out. After a lot of discussion and debate we finally decided on Murudeshwar (Pondichery, Tarkali and Goa were ruled out). This happened in Feb/March of 2014.

I decided to pursue this destination of Lakshadweep again in May. Found some likely dates where there was a voyage of 4 days for 2 islands. This fit in my budget. Two of my friends (none from the earlier group) were ready to come for the trip. But, again we didn't get the booking. The booking for 5 days voyage of 3 islands was available. The 5 days voyage costs around 25k and the 4 days voyage costs 18k. I thought 25k was too much for Lakshadweep. By adding some more amount I can make the trip to Andamans or maybe even Thailand. I had even started checking the flight and hotel options. But somehow that went out of my mind. Started checking for Lakshadweep again after the rainy season ended. Found just one package for 4 days and booked it for September. This time it was just me and another friend of mine. But we thought its fine, lets just go. But 4 days before we were set to sail, we got a mail saying that the voyage is cancelled due to a mechanical issue. I cannot express in words how disappointed I was. I called them and asked them to make alternate arrangements but they said it was not possible and that they would just refund the entire amount. The only other way to go there was through flight which was too damn expensive. There are no private players for transport to Lakshadweep. I checked with someone I knew who had been to Lakshadweep before. He said that he had been through the same ship voyage but there was one more method of doing it - someone from the island should invite you as guest to their home. How was I to arrange for that???? I do not know if this is true though.
Anyways it did not work out this time too, but it was probably a blessing in disguise as it rained cats and dogs that weekend when I was supposed to be in Lakshadweep.
Again, I put the idea out of my head - already been thrice unlucky. And the last time even after making the booking and when we were about to sail. Lakshadweep was turning out to be elusive and I started thinking that I am simply not destined to visit the place.

But when I pursue something, I pursue it with all my might and decided to book it again this May. There were no 4 day packages and finally decided to go for a 5 day package. This time my group was bigger and we were 4 girls who were ready to make this trip. Got some awesome dates which coincided with a long weekend so that effectively only 2 days leave was required. Our ship left Kochi on 30th April and returned to Kochi on 4th May. Plan was to leave Bangalore on 29th night by bus to Kochi, reach there 30th early morning and board the ship by 11 AM. Return bus would be on 4th May from Kochi to Bangalore. Of the four(Me, P, N and D) of us, P and I decided to leave for Bangalore on 4th while N and D decided to stay an additional day in Kochi and leave on 5th. All bookings were done. We were set.

I wondered if it will atleast work out this time around!

[SwatiS]

A couple of days prior to the day we were to set sail, there was news of the nationwide transport strike. And Kerala being a communist would definitely shut down. We called up the ship guys on 28th, they said everything is as per plan, no changes. Around this time, there was also the outbreak of the sad disaster that had stuck Nepal - the earthquake. Many people told me not to go. We called again on 29th morning, they still said that its still as per schedule. After sometime, they called and said that they are postponing the voyage by a day as people would not be able to reach the ship location in Kochi due to the strike. Then again they said it will sail on 30th itself.
Then N called up with a strange news that the strike has been called off
No one else had heard of this. I called up the ship guys and told them this and confused them also. Finally, they decided to postpone the voyage to 1st May and the return would be on 5th May.

I had a discussion with my friends if we should leave for Kochi on 29th or 30th. If we reached there on 30th and if we have no means of transport, what were we gonna do whole day? N said that we could probably hire bikes. It looked very doubtful to me. But by this time, we were not able to cancel our bus tickets for that night and the tickets for next day were costing 2k. So I decided that rather than spending 2k on bus, we can use that money in Kochi and as to what to do about transportation within Kochi, we will figure it out later. Then the bus guy called to say that due to the strike, we are starting the bus an hour early. As I was about to leave home to catch the bus, he said that we are actually gonna leave 2 hours early
We ran to catch the bus and finally made it.

Next day reached Kochi and after getting down, we were not able to get a single auto or taxi to reach our guest house!

After a lot of struggle, finally managed to get a taxi who agreed to take us to our guesthouse the Kimansion Inn in Fort Kochi. The fact that he charged us 4 times the amount is a different matter altogether. In our group, N and D are architects so they were keen on staying at the Kimansion Inn. It is a beautiful guesthouse and the guy who runs it, Rosario is super-cool. I would definitely recommend it.

We had breakfast-part 1 of toast, hired a couple of activa like vehicles(for our reference lets just call them activa) and set off to explore Fort Kochi. First stop was to a cafe that we had highly heard of but which was closed. Opposite to it was a place for pancakes and dosas (I think its name is Pancakes and Dosas). There was just 1 customer inside. He said we had to thank him for getting this place open. We had dosa there which was okay but the pancake was ummmmmm..... super-delicious. This place was also a cultural hub. The guy who had opened the place asked us if we want to see Kalaripayattu. The artists would come to perform just for us and it would cost us 400 each. I was not that keen on the idea but N and D wanted to see it. I thought when else will I get to see it and P and I said okay too. The performance would be at around 4PM and so we decided to go see the Jew street and the Synagogue. By the time we reached there it was after 1. Its timing was 11 to 1 and 3 to something. Since it was closed, we hung around and did some shopping(Don't forget to bargain). I got a monocular and a hat because I felt it made me feel like Jack Sparrow . It was after 3 now and we went back to the Synagogue only to learn that it will not be opened that day due to the strike

We went to see the Kalaripayattu performance. Honestly speaking, it was quite boring and I actually drifted off to sleep. I never thought I will sleep off in a martial arts performance. After this there was supposed to be a Kathakali performance for which the artists were getting ready. If we chose to watch this performance, we would not be the sole spectators. N and D were really interested in seeing this but I was more interested in seeing the sunset near the Chinese fishing nets. So it was decided that P and I will go to see the sunset while N and D stay back to see the performance. Then N and D changed their mind and decided to come see the sunset too.

The fishing nets are beautiful. The fishermen ask you to come, see and click photos. All they expect in return is that you pay 100 rupees each...sigh! What has world come to! Anyways, after the sunset we went to have some lovely cake at a bakery and then went for a ride on the activas. The roads of Kochi are so beautiful, not a single pothole, no speed-breakers!!! After dinner we went off to sleep with plan set to take a cab to Wellington island the next day.

[SwatiS]

The Synagogue



The oldest church in India



Kimansion Inn


Inside the art center


Jewish street


Sunset at Chinese fishing nets




View at night

[SwatiS]

Here is a video I made of this trip:

https://youtu.be/y06dwrcZts0

The pictures with people in them have been blurred out purposely in this video as I made the video public. The quality of the photos is also automatically reduced during the conversion to video.


Complete travelogue:

Date - 1st May, finally the day had arrived for us to board the ship.
Woke up, had breakfast, returned the activas, bid adieu to Rosario and boarded the taxi to go to Wellington island. Found the place and checked in. Each of us got a yellow T-shirt, a white cap and a brochure.

We boarded the ship and then waited and waited and waited! We were on the top most deck. I think our cabin numbers were 525 and 527. The cabins are really neat and clean. They are small but its fine. The whole ship/package/voyage is maintained by the government. Contrary to what we believe/see of the government run things, things were really good in the ship. Our side of the deck had a swimming pool, but that was always empty. The top deck and the 2 decks below it all numbered in 300, 400 and 500 series were for the first class passengers. Below that were the cabin class which was occupied by the locals. The cabin class was non-air conditioned and their cabins were much smaller. I think some of them did not even have windows but I am not sure.
We boarded the ship at around 11. They served us lunch at 1 (Lunch was pathetic. That is the only complaint I have). And we started sailing only at 3.
As we started sailing, one of the cabin crews started interacting with us. He was the on-board doctor. He said that sometimes dolphins are visible in the waters that we were currently in and to look out for them. Unfortunately, we didn't see any that time.

We had our briefing in the recreation room at around 5. People were called in batches as the room is pretty small. The manager there gave us detailed information of what to expect etc. We would be visiting the first island - Minicoy the next day, Kalpeni on the day after and Kavaratti on the day after that. MV Kavaratti was also the name of the ship that we were in . Lakshadweep is a group of islands of which only 6 are open to tourists and only 4 are open to foreigners. The population is 100% Muslim, so alcohol is prohibited on these islands (Except for Bangaram since its not inhabited). We later learnt from another local who was also the scuba instructor on one of the islands that the population was converted to Muslim faith prior to which they were all Buddhists and they have many similarities with Srilankan culture. On all the islands, the resorts were on the beach except for Kavaratti where it was a little distance away. So, the manager told people to dress sensibly on that island as it would hurt the local sentiments. All the crew and support staff on the ship and the islands are locals of Lakshadweep and they are wonderful people. Not once did we feel unsafe or insecure . Hats off to them.

After the briefing, we went to see the sunset which was not visible completely and then went to see the bridge of the ship which is the ship steering room. One of my questions to the would-be captain was what if the software crashes? (One of the software was running on a windows machine). He showed us the other traditional chart too with the stars but he said that those are not used much now-a-days. After a thorough examination of this room, we went back and hung out on the deck after dinner. It was wonderful there. I was seriously considering sleeping off on the deck. The only disappointment I had was that it was cloudy most of the time and we were sailing during the full moon so stars were not visible. I was hoping to see a star laden sky.

[SwatiS]

I do not have many good photos of this trip as I was concentrating more on enjoying myself and capturing memories than capturing photographs.
I am uploading a few pics that will show what can be expected but these in no way do justice to the place.

[SwatiS]

The day we reached Lakshadweep - Minicoy

I had kept an alarm for early morning as I wanted to see the sunrise. But alas, the clouds had some other plans and we could not see it. After breakfast was over, we could see the first view of Minicoy - an island which was visible in the distance. The ship was anchored a little distance away and we were to sail in small speed boats to the islands. The locals who wanted to go to the island first started moving at around 6.30 AM. Those locals who were to go to the other islands would wait on the ship and lunch would be served for them on it. We tourists would start debarking next after breakfast. Each of the cabins had a couple of life jackets each for its occupants. All of us had to wear the jackets before we debarked. We took a change of clothes, slathered on sunscreen and started de-boarding.

Lakshadweep is famous for its lagoons and we were going over one. The lagoons are so damn beautiful!!! The water is crystal clear, you can see the ocean bed as you go over in the boat. The water colour changed in some parts due to the depth and the presence of rocks and corals at the bottom. The colour of water ranges from turquoise to blue to aqua to teal. The changing colours of the water along with its clarity reminded me of the ever so beautiful Pangong lake which is a beauty in itself. As we approached the islands we saw that the sand is white in colour. This island is from the Maldives set and we were just 100 km or so from Maldives now. We were closer to Maldives than to mainland India. This island is heavily influenced by the Maldives culture. Ships used to stop here and pick up crew and go. The locals speak the Mahl language here but they also know Malayalam as they keep travelling to Kochi. Many of the islanders have settled in Kochi now. Anyways, after reaching the island, we were taken in open roof vans to the lighthouse. This lighthouse is the 3rd highest lighthouse in Asia. Ofcourse, we had to climb it. But we had to wait till the first group of people who had gone up to come down before we could start. To say that the view from up there is breath-taking is an understatement.

I will let the pictures speak here. As I mentioned before, I have very few pictures. And many times I clicked pics with my Oneplus One mobile because it was rather convenient and it has a superb camera. Some of the pics were clicked by my friends - N, P and D.

The lighthouse:




View from up there:












I wish I stayed in this lighthouse and this was the view from my window!!!


The path to the lighthouse

[SwatiS]

After we got down from the lighthouse, we were taken to the resort. Me, N and D registered for scuba diving here while P decided to do snorkeling. Scuba diving is available in all islands of Lakshadweep that we were to visit. The cost is also less compared to the charges in Murudeshwar/Pondicherry etc. Scuba cost 2k along with a video of you and snorkeling costs 300 rupees. Snorkeling was free in Kalpeni island as part of our package. We had been told that scuba is best in Kavaratti, but we decided to do it both in Minicoy and Kavaratti. Those of us who were to do scuba were taken to a platform fixed by these guys a little distance away. Since I had previously done scuba before in Murudeshwar, I did not require training. Last year, after being underwater for 15 minutes, I had started bleeding through my nose. I did not realise that was happening but my instructor did and he had pulled me out. So I told my instructor this time to look out for signs of that happening again. But this time no such mishap happened. I just wish I had a GoPro with me so that I could have shot what I was seeing.

The underwater world is beautiful. I saw a lot of corals. But the number of fish that I saw was less compared to what I had seen in Murudeshwar. I did see the Nemo fish though (Clown fish) in its anemone. My instructor let me touch the anemone while the other instructors did not. Am I glad I did!. After a while, my instructor showed a thumbs up indicating lets go up. I did a thumbs down saying I want to stay down. He then indicated his watch meaning that the time of my dive was up, LOL.

After the dive we came back to the island and did some kayaking which was quite boring. Had lunch, freshened up and we were taken through the island to the place where we were to take the boats to the ship. There was supposed to be a folk dance but that did not happen. The dance was shown the next day though. We went back to the ship, saw the partial sun set due to the clouds.

First view of Minicoy:




























Goodbye Minicoy

[SwatiS]

Next island - Kalpeni

By now it had become a routine to sleep in the ship, have food in the dining room and just hang out on the deck most of the time. With the full moon, we would see the moonlight reflected in the waters. I could feel the curvature of the earth when I would stare out in the ocean. By now we had become popular as the "Four girls" in the ship. So we named ourselves the "Fantastic four".

Again woke up early the next morning to see the sunrise and we were disappointed again. We were already anchored away from the island when we woke up. The distance between Minicoy and Kalpeni is obviously lesser than that between Kochi and Minicoy. Today after reaching the island, we went to another smaller island further away by small boats. This was the snorkeling point. We each took a gear and along with an instructor went snorkeling. I was not that comfortable with it as water kept entering my mask. I had no issues whatsoever while doing scuba however. One difference here was that we were supposed to wear footwear while doing snorkeling as we would be above the corals and they can poke you any time. The seabed was filled with sea cucumbers and I was more interested in seeing the fishes today. I was underwater for quite a while and like all other locals of Lakshadweep, this instructor was very good too.

After the snorkel, we came back to the beach and relaxed. After lunch, we had a folk dance presented by the locals. The highlight of this was an old man dancing. Loved the spark in his eyes. After this we went to a trip of the island. I thought it would be like the previous day and was contemplating staying back. I am glad I didn't. Because I saw my favourite spot of the trip during this short excursion. We first went to a factory where we saw how coconut oil is made. N brought some laddoos here. I hung most of the time. Opposite to this spot we could see waves crashing. Ever since we had come to the islands, we had been seeing lagoons and no waves. It felt strange as sea/ocean and waves go hand in hand for me. In our ship were 3 foreigners. Of them, one person who was a surfer had got down at Minicoy and he was going to do surfing there. We kept wondering where he will do surfing as we could not see any waves anywhere. We learnt from Siddique (one of the crew who became our friend) that the waves in Minicoy are actually very high and we tourists are not taken there. We are only taken to see the lagoons. He told about a documentary that was made on Minicoy islands by a director from Hollywood. That time the islanders were not aware of surfing and were wondering what are these foreigners upto. But the hollywood guys left some of their surf boards behind. Siddique and other guys kept trying and they learnt surfing on their own. It was amazing to hear his stories. He also told us about the religion they practiced and that there is a Jama Masjid there. We did not see it but one of those foreigners was an architect who went to see it. He also told that previously the houses were built with corals. It is not permitted now as efforts are being made to preserve corals. The corals produce food for the small fish. The big fish (mainly tuna) come to eat the small fish near the corals. So if the corals are destroyed, they will not have food. Also, the white sand is made by the zebra fish (I think) which emits the white sand from the side of its mouth as it grinds the corals. I so wish I had brought a few corals back home but I could not do it as carrying the corals away from the island is illegal. I am glad that this rule is in place. I also asked him about Kadmat island as everyone says that it has the most beautiful corals. To this he told that that is because Kadmat became famous first so its popular, but the other islands are more beautiful.

After this, we visited another spot. This was the most beautiful spot of the islands. I had not liked Kalpeni as much as Minicoy. But this spot was awesomeness redefined. It was just toooooo beautiful. I wish I was not leaving that spot in some time. I wished I had a tent and I was camping there on that spot that night and for a few more days. I had not taken into consideration crabs crawling in from the sand. The place was just that beautiful. After spending some time here, we went back to the spot to board the boats and back to the ship. Again saw a broken sunset, had dinner and hung out on the deck.

[SwatiS]

Kavaratti

The day to visit the last island of this voyage had arrived, the island where the corals were supposed to be really excellent that we decided that we needed to make beeline for registering for scuba as everyone would want to dive today. But by the time we got out, went in the speed boat and found the dive registration place we saw that our numbers for the dive were above 40 :(. A glass bottom boat ride was included in today's activities. Then, as luck would have it they asked the people who had done scuba before to go ahead for the dive while the rest of them would get trained first. So the fantastic four were in the first batch who dove today. I went first and the underwater world was amazing yet again. I especially loved the play of light and shadows on the colourful corals. It was breathtaking. It was really amazing to see it like that. In Minicoy, we had dived at almost noon so the look was quite different. But I would say that the dive at Minicoy was better than this. In order that your photo is clicked with the fish, they put bread crumbs around you and in your hand. This is done only in Kavaratti. I would like to give just 2 tips to all those who attempt to do this - keep yourself hydrated and keep equalizing as you go deep.

After we all completed our dive, we came back and heard that the snorkeling here was nice. So we decided to go for snorkeling again. This was one place where the snorkeling was much better than the scuba. I saw so much of underwater life in 3 days that I am now confused as to what I saw where. We saw sooooo many fishes and corals. After I finished, I was floating on my back wearing my life jacket when someone else completed the snorkel and came telling that she saw a star fish. So I went again. And this star fish was amazing, unlike any I had seen before. It looked to be studded in red ruby like jewels. I held it in my hand, it felt like a stone. We were underwater for more than 2 hours that day and then we finally returned back to the beach. After lunch, we went for a ride in the glass bottom boat. This was very boring as we had already done scuba and snorkeling which gave better views. But we saw a very nice turtle. After the boat ride, we went to see the aquarium. This was again boring except for one lion fish.

That evening we went to see the engine room which is very big and extremely noisy. The engineer who ran it explained to us about the various components. One wonderful thing was that I saw a female engineer in the engine room. She was the only female crew member in the entire ship :_) . I asked the engineer how much diesel it takes to run the ship and he told me 19000 tonnes per day!!! We hung out on the deck till late that night knowing very well that we would be returning to routine soon. If you remember, in the beginning of the travelogue I had mentioned that I felt the amount for the voyage was too much. I don't feel that anymore. It is worth every penny, this was 25k well spent.

Next day morning was as usual. As we waited on the deck, we again saw the line where the two different coloured waters mixed. As we neared Kochi, we did see a dolphin near the Chinese fishing nets. Once we docked, we said goodbye to the doctor; Siddique; the manager, Jaffer and the catering officer along with some other people with whom we had got acquainted on the ship. After getting down, we went to catch a ferry to Ernakulam. As we got the tickets, we met one of the passengers from our ship - the Italian architect who is now settled in Mumbai. The funny thing was that after the ferry came, we four were waiting in line to board it while he went off pushing the crowd to get a seat... He has learnt our ways .
Getting tired of eating the bland food everyday, we ate some super spicy dosas after which we went shopping for spices and sarees. In the evening, we started our journey back to Bangalore.

And there ends my story of Lakshadweep trip.

Do I regret anything of this journey? Yes, I do! I regret not spending more time in Lakshadweep. I regret going with the crowd. I regret not knowing swimming. I do not know if I will but I definitely wish to visit Lakshadweep islands again. And this time I want to stay there for a few days, want to just relax and take my own time. I want to learn swimming and go there to do a PADI course, I want to go deeper in the ocean to see more aquatic life, I want to go to turtle's next to see the turtles roaming around. Scuba diving does not give you an adrenaline rush, but it has its own charm. No matter how much sun screen you apply, you will get tanned. All I have to say is that it is totally worth it!!




















































That's all folks!!!

[ampere]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

Very nice ! There are very few cruise related logs on the forum. And more importantly cruises in our backyard! Great going.

[satan's_valet]

Awesome travelogue Swati. The Minicoy island reminded me so much of Neil Island in the Andamans. Calm and serene beaches with white sands and hardly any people around.

Do I regret anything of this journey? Yes, I do! I regret not spending more time in Lakshadweep. I regret going with the crowd.

Any idea how much it would cost if we intend to take this trip without the cruise package?

[Thilak29]

Do they have to get their vehicles to mainland to get them serviced?!

[noo.b]

Amazing travelogue there Swati and beautiful pictures too, it reminded me of my trip to the Andamans. I considered myself to be a "mountain" guy till I took that trip and now I know I clearly know I am a beach person.

I am looking at going to Lakshadweep this year, any pointers on where to spend the most time? Looking to spend a week or so there.

[V.Narayan]

Swati, I am not one for reading travelogues but this was so good with useful detail and eye watering photos that I read it end to end in one sitting. Congratulations on an excellent write up and the effort you have made to prepare it. Clearly a destination I am now motivated to visit. When are you planning your next vacation! Serious question - how good was the service on board the ship. Best regards, Narayan

[sandy0904]

One of the finest travel reports Swati.

Would it be possible for you to upload a pic of travel details and the site from you have booked the package?