Andaman& Nicobar Islands, for a perennial beach lover like me, was like
stepping into a dream – one made of white sandy beaches with the sea so clear
and blue, it put the skies to shame.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a group of around 600 islands
(out of which only 38 are inhabited by humans) in the Bay of Bengal, which even
though is a part of India, is closer to Thailand and Indonesia. Port Blair is
the only Island connected via air and it is reachable via flights from Chennai
and Kolkata.
Taking off from Chennai, we flew over many tiny islands as we
neared Port Blair and watched from above the blue waters and the green slices
of land embedded within. After this tiny peep into what we were in for the next
ten days, I was buzzing with excitement.
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| First sight of the Islands |
After months of planning and pouring over travel blogs and
sites, we had chosen a hotel which is at a walking distance from the airport.
The entire experience at that hotel was pretty much what we saw throughout the
Islands – everyone we met were extremely helpful (Bengalis and Malayalis form a
majority of the Islanders and being a Malayali myself did help) and more
importantly, genuine. We met a few locals along the journey and when they asked
us if we liked the Islands, it seemed like it was important to them that we
liked their place and had a good time. The kind of trust and friendliness shown
by the people there is unnerving for us mainlanders (Ripos Das, a travel agent
we reached out to book tickets on the seaplane, went ahead and booked it for us
before we even made the payment!). I guess this attitude comes from being part
of an Island community where you have to rely on each other to get through
daily life and this sense of community has sort of become a way of life for the
natives, a friend who hails from there once told me.
Port Blair
Port Blair was the base for our visits to other places in the
Islands, as it was the only place with connectivity to the Indian mainland in
the island archipelago.
We enquired at the hotel lobby about places to visit and were
given the directions to Cellular Jail and a few museums nearby.
We proceeded to the Aqua museum and ooh aah-ed at the marine
life captured there and made mental notes so that we could identify them when
we went Scuba Diving. There also might have been an unhealthy obsession with a
fish which seemed to be fascinated by what the bubble maker in the tank did to
its posterior area.
The museums there were a good way to get to know the Island
in depth. Legend says that the name Andaman is derived from the hindu monkey
deity ‘Hanuman’ who is believed to have used these islands as stepping stones
on his journey across the sea to Sri Lanka to deliver Rama’s message to Sita.
It has such an interesting history with the various
indigenous tribes some going as back as the hunter gatherer times and the
Sentinelese, the last tribe in the world to be living in complete isolation.
Most of the other tribes have more or less become assimilated with the rest of
the population even though tourist visits to most of the Nicobar Islands are
still not allowed. In the 1900s, it became important in Indian history due to
the part it played in the Indian freedom struggle, when it became the location
of a jail where the freedom fighters were exiled, and later during WW II, it
became a Japanese colony.
On the first day, by around 5 pm it was pitch dark, and we
were scratching our heads wondering “Where did the sun go?!?”. Then we found
out that the sun rises at 4-4:30 am and sets by 4:30 – 5 pm in the Islands.
Needless to say our bodies remained confused about the whole deal and by the
time we got used to sleeping at 9 pm (there is not much to do post sunset since
nightlife is almost nil around there), it was time for us to get back to the
mainland. For weeks post getting back, 9 pm sleepy time was followed, much to
the amusement of many.
We then proceeded to the Light & Sound show at the
Cellular Jail. Seated in the midst of the common area, the show spoke about how
the Cellular Jail was constructed in the most deviously creative manner. It has
7 wings arranged like the spokes of a cycle wheel, each of which had tiny
cells, each containing one prisoner. Extreme lengths were taken to ensure that
the prisoners could not mingle with or speak to each other such as the front of
each wing faced the back of another. It is one thing to study and read about
the freedom struggle and the atrocities forced on the freedom fighters but
seeing the cell of Veer Savarkar where he spent 10 years, 10 of the most
important years of one’s life, from 26 till 36, or seeing the museum with the
endless photographs of people who passed away during their struggle here and
seeing the small room in which they used to hang prisoners, is a whole
different experience which hits you hard.
It made me think of how much these people sacrificed for the
country, what vision they must have had for the nation and how they let down
they would be if they saw the current
state of the country which is divided by religion and driven by corruption?
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| Entrance to the Cellular Jail |
Neil Island
The first island hop from Port Blair was to Neil Island. We
were glad to have booked the ferry tickets early on, since the ferry was pretty
much packed. It was very easy to identify the tourists, who were busy running
around the ship, most of them trying to get the best possible shots of the sea
and the Lighthouse, and the bored Islanders, yawning and sleeping off in the seats.
There was also one old man selling I:heart:Andaman T shirts to the happy-to-buy
tourists.
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| Riding the waves |
Neil Island is a small Island, only 14 km across, and is yet
to reach the level of tourist madness seen at Havelock, the most popular island
in the Andamans. We checked into our place in Hotel Tango, one of 2 or 3 places
to stay at Neil Island, a bamboo hut right infront of the Laxmanpur Beach.
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| Beautiful sea near the Natural Bridge, Neil Island |
There are only a handful of roads throughout the Island and
we quickly arranged for a scooty to help us hop from one beach to another. The
folks at the resort were very helpful in planning an itinerary and our first
stop was the Natural Bridge at one end of the island. It was a pretty cool
natural structure which is reachable only during low tide.
Post lunch and siesta, by 4 it was almost sunset and we
proceeded to Laxmanpur Beach. After an adventurous two wheeler ride through the
wilderness with hardly any roads, we finally got there. The white sand was so
soft, it would put Persian rugs to shame, thick mangrove forests lined the
shore till the eyes could see and the orange rays of the setting sun glazed
across the blue waters. There were a handful of others scattered across the
beach, but everyone seemed to be lost in their own world, possibly enchanted by
the beach as much as I was.
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| Blue, White & Green and a sunet I will never forget at Laxmanpur Beach |
..to be continued
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