Ringing in the New Year

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Arrived on New Year's Eve in the Andaman capital of Port Blair, which is more an administrative hub than a relaxing beach town. It has a site that you could call a "beach", and would maybe pass as a nice one in fact if you were, say, in NY. But in the context of the Andamans, it was a runt. We couldn't make it to the LP Traveler's destination-island, Havelock, as the last ferry out had already departed before our boat arrived. So we didn't expect a great New Year's bash but we were still looking to get into something celebratory.

Over the course of the evening we asked around about parties or festivals and got an insider's tip of a happening down on Corbyn's Cove, the beach about 20 mins from city center. When we arrived, we turned to to pay the overpriced 100 Rs fare into the moving hands of the taxi driver who was already speeding away. There wudn't jack-SHIT there. Our "insider," as you now may have guessed, was the taxi driver who had just hoodwinked us a hundred. Focking LAME. We're not fresh babes-in-arms as far as traveling goes-- I mean we've eked by the past 4 months without a de-pantsing, but in this case simply dropped our guard in anticipation of a decent New Year's kick-off. There were people on the beach-- families out picnicking on the sand, a few groups of young males passing a bottle of Bagpiper around. And the Resort there did have a little canopied dance-floor on the lawn-- but our inquiries about the "tribal dancing" and "fire show" that the cabbie promised us induced some mild chuckling. We could've still made it a night even with the minimal regale around but soon became preoccupied with another issue- there was no way back into town. We were so far out, there was no chance of finding a taxi here unless another cabbie was able to smooth-talk a different set of bumpkin travelers about how this was THE place-to-be.

So rather than warm up for the midnight countdown, we scrambled around for 45 mins looking for transportation. Stumbled upon 3 guys hanging out by a rickshaw but off-duty as they were just about to start their own celebration. But after assessing the rare opportunity in front of them to relieve the funds from this sad, desperate couple, they cooly suggested another 100 Rs fare for the journey back into town. What the hell could we say-- "No, we'll just wait for the next one"? We unenthusiastically bent over to take it again. But it turned out to be ok. On the drive home we started chatting up and by the end of the ride, we were invited to join them for a drink. Stepped into a dark, dismal looking bar full of haggard-looking Indians with poor pencil-thin mustaches but it was in its own insane way, kinda cool. We were in the Andamans, why not spend New Year's Eve the way the Andamanese (well, at least the lonely alcoholic ones) spend it? It definitely was not the champagne and confetti gala that we had hoped for but spending a quiet and simple evening with our new Andaman friends (who ended up footing the bill which was well beyond the 100 Rs we paid for the ride) turned out to be actually a good time.

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Photos

Where's the Party?
There was no kissing at midnight.

Comments

[David Deibert]

Your New Years!!
Jay-- Your blogs kill me!! I'm glad to see you two made it through NYE without incident. Hope to see you when you get back.