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Published: January 5th 2010
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Happy New Year to all of you. I know we are quite late, but the last few days have been spent in paradise without much internet connections. No big regrets, as there are not much to do business wise the last week of the year. We had a wonderful Christmas at home in Bangkok with Leslie and the visit of my parents. And on the 26th of December, Mari and I went back on the planes. This time, the airport code is MAA, Chennai, the old Madras. We arrived in South India in the middle of the night...with only one hour to wait before checking for our next flight, this time to Port Blair. Quite interestingly, Port Blair is actually closer to Bangkok than Chennai...so a serious back tracking flight.
I'm sure most of you have never heard of Port Blair before. It is the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands archipelago. Where is this you are going to ask...well, in the Andaman Sea, just west of Thailand. The Nicobar Islands are still a "no go" zone for foreigners (aka- non-indians), and Andaman's archipelago have only welcome foreigners here since 1995. The most expensive part of the trip is
actually the flight to Port Blair. Kingfisher and Air India have a two hours flight for Chennai, and between them only 3 flights per day. You could also chose to fly here from Calcuta. But Port Blair is only a short stop for us, as the aim of this trip is Havelock, our little secret paradise. For the entry on Havelock, you'll have to be a little patient..first, Port Blair.
We arrived early morning with the hope of connecting on the first boat to Havelock...but this is India, nothing goes as "planned". So stuck in Port Blair for a full morning, we did the best to keep busy, and in fact, it ended up as a very interesting morning. Andaman is a "separate" place of India. So when you step out of the plane, you meet immigration. They stamp your passport, and give you a permit for maximum 30 days. There are more than 70 islands in the Andamans, but most are off-limits to foreigners...and few even to Indians. There is a great reason for this. North Sentinel Island and a big part of Andaman Island still have primitive tribes. To draw you the picture, these are some of
the last few tribes on earth. No clothes and bows, this summarizes it...and nearly no contact with the outside world. Contact with these populations would probably kill them with all our germs, as most of the native tribes have perished over the centuries all over the world. So even if they may be only a throw of arrows from us, we won't see or meet them, and this is a great way the way it is...hope it will stay this way. I'm sure these tribes have been very happy in their last own paradise...specially without any contact to the outside world.
Andamans are so remote that the British made used of the Islands prior to India Independence. We did visit a national monument on our morning here. It's the Cellular Jail. This jail was used till 1947 to "welcome" the Freedom Fighters of India. This is where the British looked, starved and put to hard labour all the Indians who were fighting for the Independence of their country. A lot of them died under very arshed conditions. It was a humble visit, into a very well presented exhibit. A great way to spend our morning, and I would advise
you to do the same if you intend to come here. The Andamans have been "hell" to many trying to free India, and it should be remembered.
After the jail, we made our way around Port Blair. Not much to write about, tourism infrastructure have not really made it much around here. Port Blair is a compulsory stop on your way back to India as the flights don't connect with the boat schedules! Great indeed!
For info, once you got to Port Blair, you've got three ways to reach Havelock. The slow boat, around 3 hours...and 250 rupees. The brand new Cat, a nice Catamaran, running twice a day, for 650 rupees on way in 90 minutes. And better, the helicopter...running 4 times a week, 8 seaters, and only 850 rupees one-way. We did try to get on it on our way back. As 850rps is less than 20usd for 20 minutes in a helicopter...a steal...but there is a catch. This seems to be a heavy governement subsidised operation...and intended to run mainly, if not on only for officials. Well, we try to get on it one the way back...but after waiting 45 minutes in front of "THE"
office...it was deamed "cancelled". I've got no more details...maybe not enough "official" to got on it that morning. So for us, it's the Cat on the way to Havelock, and the slow boat on the way back.
Havelock is our next entry...wait few days. The place is a slow motion paradise...
But till we get there, from all of us, all the wishes for 2010! Hopefully a less ectic year than 2009...but for sure a year full of surprises to come. We have our goals, our wishes...and a lot of diving and travelling planned!
Happy New Year 2010!
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nita Bajoria
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thanks
I wanted to know about the place. Your blog and specially the picture helped me a lot. I am sure i will soon make a trip to there.