| A memorable trip to the Andamans
The Andamans had been beckoning since quite some years and finally now came the time to make it happen. The Anadamans and Nicobar Islands are union territory administered by the Central Government of India. There are six main tribes populating the islands, but their proportion to the total population is rather insignificant now. Our visit to the Andamans was not a pleasure trip, but a mixed purpose type of trip, and we did what a normal tourist would do there. I have never written a travelogue and this my first weak attempt to do so. Thanks to T-BHP for this opportunity. Let’s see how it goes.
(Note: I am unable to manage pictures interjected between text so will post them separately; ahem.)
One flight took us from Mumbai to Chennai and then after and extended hanging out at the Chennai airport an early morning flight took us to Port Blair. This was a government LTC financed trip and we flew Air-India. The flight from Chennai to Port Blair lasted two hours. Towards the end of this flight I was penalized for my blunder! I should have kept my camera handy to click the lovely scenery below as the plane curved round the lovely islands lying below in the lap of a serene expanse of water.
The plane landed just as it would land anywhere else; nothing much to that; but then we got to walk on the tarmac from the plane to the terminal building: a fun thing that we do not get to do at the Mumbai airport. We had not pre-booked our visit to the island; but that would be no big deal, I had thought. I had argued that this is off-season so there should be no crowd of tourists; and getting a choice package should be no problem at all. Wrong, as I soon discovered. I found that the Bengalese who were supposed (by me) to enjoy Durga Pooja in Kolkatta had chosen to descend upon this island at the same time as me! What's more, the Tamilians had no reason at all to stay back in Chennai; and of all the things even the Delhi chaps chose this very time slot to travel all the way to the Andamans. Heck, this is what air travel does; all distances are reduced to the same flight schedule, so how does it matter where you come from? Anyway, I always trust in Ganesha to arrange things for me, so here was standing right before my nose one guy, asking me which hotel would I like to go to? "I'll be darned if I know," said I, "can you rattle out a few names for me?" Without wasting any more time he offered me a package tour and threw in a free 'hotel hunt' spree instead of a ‘Welcome drink’. Talking about welcome drink, the only drink I welcomed for the rest of my stay at Andamans was coconut water and coconut water that was the sweetest I have ever tasted. For just fifteen rupees you get a coconut that just does not seem to empty till you tire of sucking on the straw. Getting back to the hotel hunt bit: Ajith took us to an area called 'Gol Ghar' so called because of a rotund bungalow located there. There were three budget hotels nestled next to each other. The first had no vacant room and the second had only one room and that too for only three nights. We took this so-called standard room for a tariff of 800. The room was awful, it was just an excuse for a standard room; but we badly needed to settle down somehow. Luckily that very evening we discovered that the hotel right next-doors called "Gem Continental" had nothing but vacant rooms! Now this place was run by a bongo family and they had a room on the upper storey with a nice view and the room was quite comfortable but no room service was available. This was fine for us as we did not need room service. The room had A/C but the lady who showed us the room said that the A/C is not required at this time of the year. The tariff was budget; 800 for non-AC, and 1200 if we wished to use the AC. My wife bargained for 700 non-AC and got it!
We had the choice of dining at any of the three restaurants of the three hotels (no breakfast though). We dined at the Gem and at Lazeez. Of these two Lazeez had good vegetarian fare, which my wife preferred. We liked their 'lachha parantha' and their veggies were fine for me. As for drinking water, we found little shops near the Gol Ghar junction that supply authentic 'Bisleri' bottles of 1, 2, 5, 25 litres. Also a tapri tea stall is located there and a coconut vendor next to it; so one can choose to consume either or both the liquids.
The first day's visit to the "Science museum" and Corbyn's Cove beach failed to truly take me in. So far I am not getting terribly impressed with this place as something exotic. Bombay was also a group of islands once upon a time; and once upon a time the Arabian Sea was also a lovely blue and beckoning. The sand at Juhu beach used to be soft as talcum powder. However, the green spread out there was slowly and surely getting into me. The way land curved into the sea, and the sea curved into the land, was subtly and subconsciously making a mark on my mind, I guess.
The second day early morning we moved into next-door Gem, and then went for the standard touristy 'harbor cruise' in which they take you to three nearby islands: North Bay, Ross, and Viper. The boat we were supposed to embark had some technical hitch so we had to instead contend with a smaller boat quite like the small launches at Mumbai's Gateway. For me this was actually an advantage as I could get my camera closer to the water.
North Bay Island is meant for snorkeling to watch corals. This did not impress me much, but I did dimly see one fish that had some color on it. The water is very salty and that makes it easy to float on one's back and enjoy a little bit of back-stroke swimming. Ross Island holds some interest with some structures left back from the British settlement. There is a large number of deer here who obey the navy men, but mingle with the tourists in the hope of getting something interesting to chew on. So if you want to test your cookies, you can ask the deer for their opinion. One deer guy especially liked the home brew sweets my wife carried in her bag. She was carrying the sweets to satiate my sudden hunger pangs, but the dear deer polished off the whole stock without an apology.
I should have given the miss to the third island, the Viper Island, because all it had was a hanging house that gave me the creeps. But this is my personal phobia.
The standard tourist package takes you on a local (Port Blair) sight-seeing tour. The local sight-seeing circuit consists of the Anthropological Museum, which is quite interesting and absorbing. Unfortunately, I did not take my camera in there and only carried back memories from there. Another place of local visit is the 'Samudrika' museum managed by the Indian Navy. I have included some pictures from there. The third place of interest is the Aquarium, which was (sigh) closed due to renovation work. The science museum had put me off in general, but some interactive demo experiments there helped raise a little interest for the kid in me.
Then there was a one-day visit to Havelock Island thrown in. Our man booked tickets on the Makruz, which is a catamaran that can do up to 32 knots. It did 23 knots on our return trip. At that speed going against the wind made the ship pitch wildly. I guess the wind whooshes through the tunnel between the two hulls and lifts the boat up. This was fun for the bunch of teenagers on board, and also for me. But my wife and a few other first-time sailing passengers had to use the puking-bag. On the way out the ship had kept so steady that it did not seem we were on a boat; and that was quite boring. The Makruz takes an hour and a half to cover the distance. The better option would have been to take the regular single-hull ship that takes two and a half hours to make the distance but starts earlier and reaches earlier to Havelock. The Makruz could be taken on the return leg to start a bit later from Havelock to return to Port Blair. The Makruz costs 650 one way and I guess the normal ship costs 250 one way. During season, the ship booking has to be done in advance.
On arrival at Havelock we were whisked from the Jetty to Radhanagar beach in a matter of half an hour. Radhanagar beach was so marvelous that my spirits were lifted sky high. This was THE place to be in the Andamans. I decided not to spoil the fun by going for a dip. Rather chose to go clicking with my camera. We had taken along a simple pair of Olympus binoculars that added great value to the sight seeing. We could see every ripple on the waters, and the details of every wave in sharp focus. I was missing an SLR with 30X optical zoom. Nonetheless, I am sharing here some of the pictures from my humble PNS. Take home lesson: if visiting the Andamans then carry binoculars and camera with 30X optical zoom (need not be SLR). Many folks go to Havelock Island to stay there for a few days and visit other parts of that island; and that is perhaps a better option. We did not have time for that.
Once again, in Havelock too local coconut is recommended. I espied liquor bottles left on the beach by some revelers; oh gosh. Personally, I would not waste alcohol to get intoxicated on this lovely beach, and vice versa. The Havelock visit left us quite exhausted and we turned in early without even going for dinner. This was a good feeling in the Andamans; we never felt the need for dinner, perhaps due to the consumption of coconuts; but on second thought, there was something more to this place: something that was very healthy about the atmosphere here.
The next day our tour guide wanted us to go some places but we were not so inclined and wanted to rest. Yet he coaxed us to make a trip to Wandoor beach as he could yank out some extra bucks from us. We relented in the end, and did not exactly repent for doing so. In the morning he took us to the local Gandhi Park and then to the Airport Hill top. The Gandhi Park was fine, but the hill top was a great experience. We could see the whole runway from the top, and to add to the joy there were small planes and choppers coming in to land. Andamans being close to Myanmar, they have a strict patrolling routine by the navy and the coast guard. Again with the binoculars we could gleefully enhance the sight-seeing experience here. I even managed to click the choppers passing by overhead.
Later we were taken to visit the Chantam Saw Mills. It was a lovely experience watching logs being sliced into rough planks. We were told that the logs come in from Burma by ship and are exported out as planks. Chantam is a tiny island quite covered up by this saw mill and an adjoining power house. Chantam Island is so stuck to the main island that it does not seem like a separate island.
Our visit to the Wandoor Island and beach was for the benefit of the tour contractor as the beach was nothing to talk about; however, we benefited from a visit to a plantation where we could see latex being extracted and processed. Also there were trees of beetle-nut, black pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg-and-mace (Jaiphal and Javitri). Jaiphal and Javitri are parts of the same fruit, we learnt. Of course such plantations can be seen at so many other places, but the black pepper here was the most pungent. We were told that the islands hold huge varieties of medicinal plants. Mythology has it that these islands were part of the mountain that Hanuman had brought to Lanka for the sanjeevani plant.
Lest I forget to tell, one afternoon we had visited the cellular jail and experienced their light and sound show in the evening. The show could be easily given the slip. The visit to the cellular jail however made a deep impact on my mind. These supremely intellectual guys suffered such humiliation and hardship for a freedom that they knew they would not enjoy themselves. What the poor souls did not foresee, I guess, is that the freedom that they were trying to win for the future generations of Indians would be twisted and tortured more than their own frail bodies. Among the freedom fighters, there did not seem to be any distinction between east, west, north, or south Indian. Also, the Andamans population is equally divided between the different linguistic groups. I just wish that every Indian that visits this island takes home this profound message deeply gauged in his/her heart. I am glad that T-BHP upholds this value dearly, as I could gauge from the couple of BHP meets that I have been to. The true meaning of freedom ought to be: ‘Live and let live’ and we Indians have yet to understand the true meaning of this short slogan; Jai-Hind.
We had given the slip to Sagarika, which is the tourists’ haunt for local shopping. On the return flight there was a shop selling coral ornaments at the airport after security check; and they had lovely authentic pieces at reasonable prices. We took a morning flight to Chennai that reached us around 11am. We had spaced out our flight from Chennai to Mumbai for the night so that a half-day visit could be paid to the city of Chennai. We got to the City Central Mall and had an authentic Tamilian thaali. All complaints about the trip were drowned by this thaali. I forget the name of the restaurant, but it is on the third level in the Mall. Before this we had visited the Kapileshwara temple, which was closed till evening so we just clicked pictures from the outside and then proceeded to see the SantHome Chapel. After passing time in the Mall we proceeded to the Parthasaarathi temple. Paid homage to Balaji and Laxmiji in this temple complex and I felt very good about it. Although I am not religious, a visit to certain temples gives me an inwardly happiness as if some true holiness resides in there. This happens at only some temples. After the temple darshan I had a strong authentic filter coffee for which I am willing to go again to Chennai. We then took an auto to the Marina beach, which amazingly is so very wide that I could have shot 'Lawrence of Arabia' on this beach. Desperately wanted to have a cool drink, but did not manage to trust any of the stalls on the beach. We took the 21G from Marina beach to Airport. 21G is a modern air-conditioned bus route that charges you just 23 per head for this 18kms trip. It is so much more relaxing than taking a cab that charged us 320 from airport for this same distance. I am truly glad we chose to look-see around at least a part of Chennai. Well then, finally we boarded the plane to amchi Mumbai and back home.
Reflecting back on this trip, I would say there were some movies that I saw in my young days (Ryan's Daughter, Sand Pebbles). These were soft movies with no flash or dash, but they linger in my mind even today. This visit to the islands seems akin to those few movies, and will linger in my mind for a long time.
Addendum: Our tour was for five nights/six days. Accommodation at Port Blair cost us 3600; the tour package 5300; the harbor cruise 720; and the Havelock catamaran 2600.
Pict. 1: Introduction to the Andamans | 
5th November 2010, 09:30
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Good pics too. I hope to see some from Cellular Jail.
Preview your post before post. The pics are placed left and right. Giving space between pics would give a neat layout.
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