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Sorry for the length of time since my last update - I have actually tried to write twice but power cuts foiled me both times and I couldn't be bothered to retype them.
From Varkala we headed east to Chennai to catch our flight to the Andaman Islands, we had to spend a night here and, an amusing cinema trip aside, the less said the better. Basically Chennai sucks, it's got all the bad characteristics of Indian cities (crowding, air pollution, noise, rubbish, smells etc) but no redeeming factors. It's too spread out and just seemed to have a total lack of the character you find in, say, Old Delhi around the Red Fort and up Chandni Chowk. It also didn't help that the temperature was 43 with humidity too. By the afternoon we were bored and hot so we went to the cinema to watch Spiderman 3... and what an experience that was...
First off Indian cinemas are huge, and rediculously loud - just like most things in this country; there's so many people living together that there's always noise where ever you go and little concept of privacy or personal space... it makes for interesting queueing. Despite the fact that everyone has tickets and therefore there MUST be an allocated seat for each and every person, everybody was queued up in typical Indian style waiting for the doors to open: in a big scrum pressed as tight to each other as is humanly possible as if not getting in asap is a matter of life and death! Guess it all comes from the rat race of life here. Watching the film was both amusing and frustrating, the Indian crowd seems to have a mental age of about 5, they cheer for the heroes (or just good-looking people) when they appear on screen, boo the bad guys, applaud great acts/big explosions/SFX, whistle at hot girls and generally make it very amusingly panto-esque. On the more annoying side there's also a reflection of the lack of consideration sometimes evident (again due to the need to fend for ones self in such an overpopulated place) - people think nothing of taking phone calls (most Indians also shout down their phones), or joking loudly in quieter bits of the film when you actually need to listen, or just getting up to wander slowly across your line of view and out to noisily grab some snacks, or just to turn up an hour late with the whole extended family and file past you! Did I also mention they have intervals!
Anywho, the next day we flew out to Port Blair, capital of the Andamans, a collection of islands (the tips of submerged volcanoes) surrounded by coral reef and actually nearer to Thailand but still an Indian territory (they were used as a penal settlement during the Empire). Port Blair itself is nondescript, like a small Indian town. The next day we, now joined again by Ed and George, took the 2 hour ferry out to Neil Island.
Neil is quite possibly one of the most amazing places I've ever been to. It's the perfect desert island, you can cycle round it in a couple of hours tops, it's got pristine firm beaches of the finest sand scattered with drfitwood, washed up coral (lots after the Tsunami), and fallen coconuts, lapped by clear azure blue waters and backed by semi-tropical forest. We also happened to be the only 4 tourists on the whole Island - superb! We stayed in little raised bamboo huts which contained only a mattress and lightbulb (didn't work) with our food cooked fresh each night by the friendly owner. After the hectic fast-paced traveling through Kerala I was pretty gratefufor the comatose pace here. We chilled on the beach, we read or played cards, we swam, we we checked out the coral (at low tide it's hard to get to the water - the coral comes right up to the shore, you can go 500m out and still be only waist deep in warm water) and in the evenings went to the corner of the island. Here there was a large expanse of sand and all around the sea with another island on the horizon, the ultimate castaway feeling - and best enjoyed at sunset with a chilled Kingfisher! We were also amazingly lucky with the weather - we saw monsoon clouds gathering over other islands but only had about 4 hours rain in total over 4 days, the rest was glorious!
After 4 days we moved onto Havelock Island which is a bit bigger and had more going on in terms of a traveler's scene, but it just couldn't match Neil for sheer paradise lost escapism! You may see it in the cinema soon though as apparently Johnny Depp was there to film parts of Shantaram, his new film!
Well we're headed back for Port Blair now and will most certainly be sad to leave this piece of heaven behind, it's amazing, with none of the hassle of the mainland either. The only downside is the amount of sandflies on some of the beaches (see the title!), but a towel stops most.
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Katie_m80
Katie MacKinnon
why did i decide not come with you again?
sounds amazing - missing it so so so much and wish i could have been exploring it all with you guys! enjoy your last few months.....and take care! xxxx