India - "Andaman Islands" - "Don't Tell Anyone!!! Its A Secret Paradise"

---

My Final Thoughts On India...
Its a funny thing to see desparate poverty and suffering yet get more smiles and greetings and acts of kindness from beggers and the dying than you do from your niebourbers down the street back in our safe little world of simple easy life shrouded in a fake blanket of problems and dilemers (Ooooo the Tv's old, The bedroom needs a new coat of paint, the grass needs cutting "I done it last week??", we haven't had a holiday for a while!!!!)... And the formula to all this is very transparent after a while!!! You see its all in the mindset... We look at each other and constantly think "Wish i had a house like that!!!, God wish i was a beautiful as her/him, That snobby bastard look at all his money!!! Why am i never that lucky!!!!" Allways looking up the food chain of life and this causes a resentment and an inner sadness... Where as here in amounst all this desparation people still find it within themselves to look down the chain!!!! and think thank god that even though i live on the street i have no food untill i beg for it and no future At least i'm not him!! Look at him laying there with his diseased body rithing around on the ground!! Today i can smile as today i am lucky to be as fortunate as i am!!!!!!!............ Its a weired thought isn't it, and takes a little time to graspe it fully but theres no getting away from it its a fact, sad but true.. I just hope i retain part of this on my return and it never leaves...

Wow!! I guess this is pretty much me last blog!!!!!! (may do a Thailand one with me sister and maybe an at home one?? but deffinatly last just me one anyway!!!).. Ive truly loved doing them and all the messages of praise and recognition have brought many smiles of both joy and embaresment to me as you lot are too kind... Not just friends!! to have strangers emailing you thanking you for being an insparation is very touching!!!!! And hope i was of help to all those who wanted a little info or advise!!!! Ive had a whopping 7,000+ hits!!!!!!!! Stunned & Smiling......

So on that note i wanna see Comments galour on this one!!!! (The comments link is at the bottom!!! most ive seen on a blog is 20 so lets beat that record!!! teamwork makes the dreamwork!!!!!)....

Maybe the words above don't look as good set against the backdrop of tropical photographs but i have found Paradise!!!!!!!! The Andaman Island are geographically nearer to Thailand than India and are a collection of ???? Islands, Of both Andaman And Nicobar names, the nice thing is alot of these are still out of bounds to anyone except the local tribes!!! this includes Indian nationals!!!!!


Big thankyou to everyone..

---

Photos

Our Beach!!!!!!
This Is The Beach That Greeted Me Every Morning... Beach Number 5... With My Hut Just A Mere 40 Second Walk Trough The Trees....

The Blue Lagoon...
Buy Far The Best Little Beach Ive Had The Pleasure Of.... Gets Deep With The First 2 Meters And Has Snorkel Reefs Either Side Of The Main Swimming Area... Plus Never More Than 25 People At Any One Time!!!!!

Sunset City...
Never Enough Sunsets... Must Have Taken A Hundred...

Grave Yard....
Just Round From The Lagoon You Have The Remnants Of The Tsunami Of 2 Years Ago In The Picturesque Dead Trees...

View Of The Lagoon...
Beautiful... Gonna Miss It....

Sunset At 7...
Sunset On Beach 7 At Around 5:30pm... Would Normaly Try And Catch 1 or 2 A Week... As Breathtaking With The right Cloud Coverage...

Elephant Beach.....
Nice Picture...

Beach Number 7
Just Stunning!!!! Goes as far as you can see then round the corner you have the Blue Lagoon...

Pristine...
The View From The Hammock Tree "Our Hammock Tree" At Beach 5...

Nice Picture Ray...
Love This One... Just Sums The Place Up Nicely...

Beach 5 Into Beach 3...
Tended To Alterate Days Between Here The Lagoon And The Odd Boat Trip...

Beached Elephant...
Used For Both Work And The Odd Tourist Ride Elephants Often Pass You By While Either Sunbathing Or Lunching In A Street Resturant...

Snorkling Trip...
Emma Caught Unawares During Our Trip Over To Henry Island... Great Day.. Saw Dolphins For the Second Time... Looking Good Hun...

Dinner For Three... Me Emm & Monkey...
This Was Our Most Extravagant Night (Jungle Resort)With Dinner 3x The Usual Price!!! All In The Search Of Wine!!!!! Which They Never Had!!!!!!!... Me & The Lovely Loveridge.. (Usual Backup Plan Of Vodka!!!! But With The Bonus Of Redbull!)

Herman!!!!
All The Beaches Have Lots Of These Little Critters, Which Are Straight Out Of An Animated Cartoon... Great Fun To Play With!!!!!

Beach Babe....
Itn't She Loveridge, Isn't She Wonderful... Not Many Pictures Of Emm Cause she Don't Like The Camera!!! (Lots Of Monkey As You'll Notice...lol)...

Elephant Beach....
Jules & Marie... Sitting On A Tree... Taking Life Easily... Just Like Me... So I Guess All 3... Yipeee...

Sunset On The Lagoon...
They Play Such A Promenant Part Of Your Trip Where Ever You Go!!!! So I Thought I'd Included Them Against This Stunning Backdrop.... Israli's Of Course...

Elephant Beach... Dead Wood!!!
This Is The Clearest Indication Of The Damage And Force Of The Tsunami... The Iland Shoreline Was Take Back By A Full 5 Meters!!!!!!

Beach 5....
The View Of The Beach Where I Live From The Water... Very Shallow Unlike The Lagoon Which Meant Bath Temperatures During The Late Afternoon And Often At About Midnight Too!!!

Sea Food...
Great Little Places With Fresh ried Fish From 70p!!!!! And The Best Thali's Ive Had All Trip.... The views Cool Too...

Comments

[Begs]

don't come back.......
its snowing outside and the wind is feckin freezing mate straight through your clothes. Back in Blighty the Budget has been revealed: beer will rise by 1p a pint, cider by 1p a litre, wine by 5p a bottle and sparkling wine by 7p. There will be an annual inflation rise on a packet of 20 cigarettes, of 11p. So smoke and drink yourself silly and but a warm jacket

[Jehanne]

WOW!
Youre pictures are AMAZING! Im speachless!

[Barbara Bedenk]

Nostalgia!!!
My dear friend!!! Thank you reminding me of Andamans!!! It was sooo beautiful! I m in Arambol, Goa... easy... 2 more weeks to go... miss Pristine... a big hug to my cycling friend!!! :) :) :)

[Julian 2]

Awesome
Raymondo, your blog is truly incredible. Your "Final thought on India" piece, hits the nail on the head... It was a pleasure meeting you and getting to know you and i look forward to catching up with you sometime in the near future!!

[Zoe]

Woooow
Ray what a trip... Im reading Shantarama at the moment so really need to get myself out there or its over just like the Beach and poor PhiPhi. Your final thoughts were very touching, your trip sounds truly life changing. Im going to miss these blogs, they have been great to get through some of the cold London days. Enjoy the final leg of the tour. See you soon my friend. Zoe

[Marco]

:-)
the andaman islands...yes, it's a dream. i was there in '96. oh my dear. it's such a long time ago. i came from colcatty (i was working ther at jack preger) by boat in 3-4 days. it was a very special experience on a big passenger-ship with (almoust) only indian people... on the andaman islands i made the best experiences. very, very nice people. first i was in port blair than i went up to the northern islands. the trip was beautyful. up ther it had no tourists. as i remember the last tourist in the guestbook was about 1 year before me there. since than i dream to go back to the andaman again. now i have family and travelling is not easily possible anymore. but i'm happy to read, that the islands still seems the same. all the best for your trip! greetings from switzerland, marco

[SLP]

Good blog! But ....
....unfortunately your spelling is really BAD. Maybe you should try using a word processor and then running a spell check beforehand. Despite this, you've convinced me that this would be a great holiday destination. Did you do any diving?

[muthusarvanan]

nice picture
dear friends iam from indian i like to visit andaman but any how ur picture r nice thanks for puting ur picture in blog

[n.murali]

andamans
Hi, I see that you've been to the andamans. Please do contact me if you have anyone wishing to go there as we have nice accomodation and food there at reasonable rates. cheers!