Hello from the Andamans!

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Hello guys!
How u all doing? Not long since the last entry I know. Didn't I do well! I'm going to make a concerted effort to do this more regularly so I don't have to write a book each time!

My last week in Hampi flew by. I'd seen most of the sights already, so I was really just chilling out. I hired a bike to go to the lake for a swim, which I think I mentioned before, but that was fab. Really necessary too, as it was getting so hot, and the lake was a fab way to cool down. Shame about the locals though. Some day's you went down there and it was really quiet....you could just sunbathe and read your book in peace. Most days though, you were invaded by locals. Some were ok, but some were a right pain in the arse, gawking at u and generally making you feel uncomfortable. Even the little kids! - you wouldn't believe it. One day, when I went with Sophie, there were these two cute little boys there. Only about 7 or 8 yrs old I'd guess. But they seemed really sweet and were jumping off the big rock into the water with us. Anyhow about an hour or so they'd been talking and playing about in the water with us and one of them grabbed my crutch under water! I was so shocked! They start young over here......no hope really! No wonder they turn out how they do!

The rest of the time I was just enjoying the place. The scenery and the nature was fantastic....something you didn't tire of easily. One day in the restaurant at Manju's, 2 praying mantis' appeared on the table. The male on top the female! They were amazing. Kept us entertained for a good few hours. The female does all the work though.....apparently when it's all over, she eat's the male. Weird eh? Mind you I'm not suprised really. All he did was hang on. I'd be fed up by the end if it was me too! Not too sure if I'd go as far as eating him though! :O) A day or so later, we saw the female up on inside of the roof.... Looking much fatter and alone! kinda sad really!

On my last day in Hampi, I thought I'd go for one last swim but it turned out to be really dissappointing. First of all there were a couple of fat middle aged indian men taking photos of me on there mobile. When I shouted at him, he pulled the 'no english' bit. filthy bastard! Then, when I went out to cycle back home, some bugger had nicked the valve off my back tyre so it was completely flat :O( I tried to ride a bit of the way but it sounded really bad every time the wheel went round, so in the end I gave up and started to walk. I'd got most of the way and 2 guys on a motorbike stopped. I was like 'its ok, not far to go now' but they kept insisting they help me. So in the end I joined the 3 up club.....or 3 up and a pushbike club!! Me and the other guy on the back holding on to the bike alongside! It was pretty funny. Ok when we were going slow but every time they sped up the pushbike got completely out of control! Luckily we literally had half a k to go and we got there in one peice :O) I stopped at Shanti for a well deserved chicken n cheese burger (mmmm...shanti did fab food!) before going back to face the bike man. He was ok about it. I was kindof hoping it was just a flat that I'd got and it wasn't someone mucking about with the bike.....nicer to think of it that way, but when the guy looked, he pointed out someone had broken the valve off it. He didn't charge me to repair it though, so that was good. I think he felt sorry for me having to walk back with it!

By the time I left, most of the original crowd, or infact most of all the people had gone. It was really getting too hot by that point. Hence, even though I would happily have stayed, I was pretty ready to go.

I'm in the Andaman Islands now. It's beautiful......really beautiful. I arrived here yesterday, after a pretty long journey from Hampi. I left Manju's place about 4pm on Tuesday afternoon. I managed to get a new book in Hampi on the way. No last plate of Gobi Manchurian from the street stall though - they weren't doing it that day! Boo hiss :O( It was so good! They normally set up the stall about 5.30 so if you were over that side, you could grab a quick plate of that before catching the last boat across the river at 6.

I caught the bus into Hospet and thought I'd top up my phone before catching the train. Found a shop with the Airtel sign so I went in. I was going to get one top up, but the guy misunderstood and said 2 lots? When he said that it made me think that would be good as I could maybe make some calls on the train if I didn't sleep or something. What a mistake!! When you top up here, the agent has to ring airtel and give your phone details and the amount and then you get a text confirming the top up. One text came through, the second top up didn't. The guy kept saying 5 minutes, but in the end I had no more 5 minutes left so I said I'd pay him for one lot but I had to go catch my train. There were lots of people in the shop by this time, including one guy that spoke english (the guy in the shop didnt speak much). Apparently he'd done the top up but was saying it was taking a long time to come through. I'd done it before when it took 10 minutes or so, but never more than half hour so I was really dubious, but he kept saying he'd done the top up and would have to pay for it so I'd have to pay him. Really didn't want to, but felt a bit bullied by all the people in there so ended up paying him for it and left with the feeling I'd been ripped off. Next morning still no credit. He'd given me a card, so I called him in the morning, wondering what response I'd get being as I was now miles away! Luckily when I called he said '5 minutes'......was getting the impression this was one of the few phrases he knew!! Luckily though, within 5 minutes this time I'd got the text! Yeay!! I'd already managed to throw all my money over the floor of the rickshaw the night before. LLuckily didn't lose any there either tho, so all's good!

Anyhow, from Hospet I caught an overnight train to Bangalore and arrived there at 6.30 Wednesday morning. Managed to get some breakfast in a dhaba outside the station and then caught the 8.30 am train to Chennai. I got there about 4pm and my flight wasn't til 4.30am the next morning. I really didn't want to stay in Chennai. Besides hating cities, its 16 km to the airport and I didn't want to get up any earlier than I had to! Hence I went down to the airport. Local train for 7 ruppees! Bargain!. I kind of thought there would be hotels right outside the airport, but I couldn't see any. I'd kind of resigned myself to a night on an airport chair, but it turned out there were retiring rooms at the airport. They weren't bad actually. Only a dorm room with 4 beds, but it was empty when I got there. Another girl turned up around 11ish which was a bit of a bugger, but I managed to get about 6 hours sleep before the alarm! The flight was fine. Flying into Port Blair we saw one of the islands from the air. Wow. Amazing water and you could see the reef surrounding it. . Completely covered in forest and didn't look inhabitted at all. I think it was one of the nicobar islands or maybe one of the protected islands that you can't land on.

When we got to the airport I met a girl from America at immigration, Sue. It turned out she was the girl in the dorm with me the night before. Turned out we were both heading to Havelock Island and both wanted to do some diving there so we hooked up and went down to the port together to get the tickets for the boat. Wow what chaos. You've never seen anything like it! Unless you've seen indian men in groups, you wouldn't believe what they're like. They have seperate queues for ladies, and thank god! The men are like a load of kids, pushing and shoving. They had policemen trying to keep them in order outside, but when they were let into the building when the ticket counter opened it was crazy. They were like a load of wild boar. There were two young french girls at the 'mens' counter because they didn't see the ladies counter sign and they literally got crushed. They could hardly get out the queue. It was pretty crazy! Anyhow, we got our tickets eventually and then went to the ATM (no ATMs on Havelock, it's pretty basic here!) and went into town. Got a juice and an icecream for brekky and then found a bar overlooking the water! Having killed the hours til the boat we headed back to the jetty. Got there and bumped into Mark the stone carver I'd met in Verkala, and Sharon, his girlfriend. Small world!

The boat journey was good. A couple of hours or there abouts. We spent it on deck. Arrived in Port Blair about 4.30 ish and saw a couple I'd met in Agonda, who also know Mark, waiting on the jetty to meet Mark and Sharon. Wierd eh. Nice though, I'll have to catch up with them while I'm here.

Spent a good couple of hours looking for a place to stay along the beach and eventually found a nice hut ....with a spot for my hammock in the porch .....at Pelican resort on beach no 3, near the 2 dive schools on the island. The food in Pelican is ridiculously expensive (double the norm) but after a little walk this morning I've found some nice local, reasonably priced places nearby to eat.

This mornign I was up early (we'd gone to bed really early last night feeling completely done in from all the travelling!) and went for a walk along the beach. The water's crystal clear and the beach is pure white sand. perfect! Then I went for a walk into the main bazzar....very small, but you can find most of the essentials. Found a roadside dhaba doing parathas and chana masala for 17 ruppees. Much more like it!

That's about it for now. All in all though, I think it's gonna be good! :O)

Loadsa love to you all. Will keep in touch with any updates on my andaman adventures.

Take it easy xxxx

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