Back to Port Blair...

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1st October,

Havelock

This day dawned quite early, as it was our last chance to see the sun rise through the water. But the gods conspire against us - the entire horizon is cloudy, and so as they say 'no cigar'. But it was lovely to sit on the beach as it slowly became light, to talk and sing, to just keep looking, while the sun climbed up from behind and slowly creeped out of the clouds . 7 o'clock and we have a long day in front as we plan to get back, especially if we plan to get back to PB today. I also wanted to run across and call home, but no power and hence no STD booth...don't ask me..it sucks..

After breakfast we left for the jetty, where the ferry ticket counter was. A word about the ferry business here. The locals seem to have a whole system and much lower fees, but the tickets for the tourists seem to be quite non-transparent. On our way to Havelock, I am pretty sure we were made to buy the most expensive tickets, which we did not need and want. We enquired whether our tickets could be done by the hotel, and yes they could get them done, but at Rs 300 a head. So we had decided to see the thing through by ourselves. But after having to deal with long queues non functional till 9.45 in the morning (when they said that the booth would open at 9 am - I am spoilt by Indian Railways), slow, agonisingly slow ticketting, and the general heat and bustle, and then being only able to buy RS 260 tickets, again...it seemed hardly worth the trouble. If there is a next time, I would definitely ask the Hotel guys to get the tikctes done, and they are welcome to the little profit. The experience was not enlivened by the long faced backpackers on the line who were intent on giving a really different spin to the whole sunny side up thing. One thing I hate more than having a slightly bugging time dealing with stuff is having to accept that people, by their very attitudes make that situation worse for them. On the entire line, the Indians were chirpy, sarcastic, fun, and generally using a strong sense of patience and humour to deal with the long and quite erratic wait, while the foreigners were frustrated, angry, upset and all of that all over again. God, teach these people some Zenic Deep Breathing exercises. As luck would have it, when our tickets went in, the computer in our line lost connection, and so there we were standing there again for quite some time till they managed to get teh tickets done from the other line. What a wonderful way to spend out last morning in Paradise!

We hurried back , as we had just a few hours now to do whatever we wanted to do for the last time. After a little tussle over the common mimimum programme we decided to go out for the last time to check out a few more roads that we had missed in our last two days, and then rush to Radhanagar Beach for a last dash at the waves. My foot was still quite nervy and I was not ready for the tussle with the waves, but I wanted to come back to our quiet beach and then just swim. It was low tide and for ever and ever, the waters never became deeper than your knees or hips, but all you had to do was just get down and swim. With the goggles on, a whole new world opened out, the grass and the weeds, and then uff..the corals...big huge bunches of them, and they were all there just lurking 2 feet below the surface. We had had to skip the whole underwater diving bit here - Ingo was not really a great enthusiast and we did not have that much time too. So i was really glad for this sneak peek view of the underwater world.

And now it was time to say goodbye to this out of the world world. A world which was difficult to believe that it existed, it was difficult to let go. Promises to come back...sometime? Never?...a quick lunch and then a drop to the ferry. We got a side area on the deck sheltered from the sun where we could sit and look out to the sea. Again such a stupid waste of having had to buy the most expensive tickets on the ferry. But the experience is well worth the Rs 260 and a bit more.

While we sat and talked, the sun grew red and heavy on the sky, dipping closer and closer to the tree line. And as if by conspiracy, suddenly a gap emerged between one island and the next one, just on time for the sun to drop into the waters. The colours were indescribable - quite common on the Pantone shade card though. May be I should have learnt those numbers. Everyone stood on the deck to take snaps, not a single person looking away from the spectacular light show. We resisted for a while - yes you would get all of them on Flickr, but it was too difficult to resist the temptation - it was just way to awesome. And so join the bandwagon. Pictures all around, and stunned silence. As the pyrotechnics get over, the stars come out one by one. And soon again, the sky is the same diamond encrusted one - quite common by now ;-)...the ferry trip is magical and as it gets darker, Port Blair comes into view, in all its light splendour - as the boat approaches the jetty, there is a sense of poignancy - a point of ending what can only be called one of the most magical moments of my life.

We found a hotel close to the market area - decent and clean, but not too expensive. TSG Emerald View - Double A/C for Rs 1300, breakfast included. We were too tired to get out for dinner. Sometimes there is just nothing better than room service.

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