The Andaman Islands: India for Beginners

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India can be a daunting and demanding place to visit, unless you visit the Andamans that is. Scott and I have frequently commented to each other that the Andaman islands are the perfect first destination to ease you into travel in the rest of India. You get a taste of the true India experience without too high a dose of the associated hassles. Here are a few examples:

- You get to experience the infuriating Indian non-concept of queing. It can take three or more hours of pushing and shoving to buy ferry tickets, and you still might be left empty-handed, but at least you only have to do it once when getting onto Havelock Island, and once when getting off, minimizing hassles if you stay for a month!
- You can take an auto-rickshaw through lush green rice paddies while listening to a blaring dance version of the Hare Krishna song but not get choked by fumes in the process (like you would in the big cities).
- You can take a bumpy bus ride which lifts you completely airborne out of your seat and almost falls off the road , but at least you can only fall into a soft rice paddy. (And the buses still have gaudy silk flower arrangements on the dashboard and a shrine to ganesh complete with flashing disco lights)
- You can marvel at magnificent big horned cows wandering the streets, but feel happy that they are eating grass instead of plastic bottles, as in the cities.
- You get to experience the Indian pastime of honking vehicle horns repeatedly when visiting the villages, but can get away from it all on the beach or on the quiet paths.
- Finally, you get to experience the "shanti" traveller - the ones that refuse to wear shoes of any variety, wear red dots on their foreheads, and love to talk about their most recent ashram experience.

Despite our "India for beginners" assessment, our start to the Andaman islands wasn't so encouraging. We left Calcutta in sheeting rain and arrived in Port Blair to another full day of more sheeting rain. It was so drenching that it was hard to even leave the hotel as you would be soaked to the skin even with an umbrella! We had known that November is a shaky month for the Andamans, December being the start of high season, but we had hoped for a little better weather.

Once on Havelok Island, things looked up. The ferry arrived to the first rays of sun. We found ourselves an auto-rickshaw driver and sped off along the narrow palm-lined road to look for accommodation. The first place we checked had decent enough rooms so we decided to make life easy and just check in, abandoning our "check three" rule. I would describe the accommodation on the Andamans as reminiscent of Thailand 10 or more years ago - simple beach huts made of woven straw often furnished with only a bed and a mosquito net. That's all you really need! Oh, and a fan to keep you cool is nice, too. It's quite nice to feel as if you are almost out in nature, being lulled to sleep by the lapping of the sea or the chorus of frogs. $6 a night is music to our ears, too, especially after Europe! There were other not-so-nice sounds, too, like the alarming rate with which coconuts slammed into the tin roofs with a loud "whack" - we were just grateful it wasn't our head!

Encouraged by the sun, we headed straight down to the beach right in front of our hut. It was gorgeous at first sight - azul blue water and white sand backed by tall palm trees. We soon discovered two problems, though: first, at low tide it is impossible to get in the sea as it is too shallow, and second, there are hundreds (literally!) of stray dogs. There are even signs around town encouraging tourists to carry a stick as people have been attacked and hospitalized - crazy! We never had any problems with them, luckily.

The next morning marked the start of an almost two-week stretch of perfect weather, much to our delight. We quickly started exploring the isalnd's many beaches. All of the beaches had one thing in common: hermit crabs. Until I came to the Andaman islands, I had always thought of crabs as being rather solitary and unemotional creatures, and ones that creep me out due to their similarities to spiders with their bony legs and their fast movements. Well, I have found a new respect for crabs - hermit crabs to be precise! These little suckers are all over the place on the beautiful white sand beaches of Havelok Island. They seem to hang out in groups like teenagers, and all prance around sporting the cutest shell they can find. It is fascinating to walk along the beach and watch dozens of shells suddenly twitch still as you approach, the crabs inside them tucking themselves securely away until the evil human giants pass. Luckily for them, they don't have to worry too much as the beaches here are so quiet. They are your typical white-sand blue-sea scenery, but instead of being backed by swaying palm trees, our favorite beaches (Radha Nagar Beach and Neill's Lagoon) are backed by a huge forest, the tall trees being held up in the sandy ground by huge buttress roots. It's quite unique.

Speaking of animals, Havelock island really does have its fair share of wildlife. We saw tonnes of huge flying bugs which turned out to be cicadas, 3 snakes, a strange jungle bug disguised as a cluster of twigs, nasty looking centipede squished on the road, mice, geckos galore, monitor lizard, goats, cows, chickens, ducks, praying mantises, large grasshoppers, and a big cockroach or two!

About two weeks into our stay, the inevitable happened - the mini monsoon arrived. For two days it rained non-stop, and when I say rained, I mean it really rained. The noise of it bouncing off the tin roof of our hut was enough to wake us up in the night with a start. Following this we had a few days of decidedly dull weather, but that gave us the impetus to get to a few errands. One was going to the local post office, which looked like something from the 1930s. The post master came out of his house and opened up the shack of a post office for us and carefully glued each stamp onto our postcards as we stared around at the yellowing books and ample cobwebs. Scott commented afterwards that he half expected a carrier pigeon to come in and carry them off!

Another errand was a trip to the barber for Scott, which he had been putting off. It cost just 30 rupees (60 cents) for a hair cut, and I was glad I stayed to watch. The barber gave him the full treatment, starting by massaging Scott's scalp, slapping it around a bit, and then cutting the sides of his head, neglecting to take anything off the top at all! It all ended with another head beating, and I suggested to Scott that he has some taken off the top as it was still really long. I think Scott was too freaked out by this time and just wanted to get out - the rest will have to wait until Bangkok!

For our final few days on Havelok Island, the sun came out again and we finally got to go diving. We had already put it off twice due to ear infections and poor conditions. I was glad we got to do it as they had a really pretty site called "Johnny's Gorge" with lots of coral and schooling barracudas and jacks. We also spotted a metre-long grouper, a white-tip shark, and a sea snake. As soon as we arrived back from the two dives at 1:30pm, we rushed back to our hut, finished packing and checked out, leapt into a rickshaw, and hurried off to the ferry port. We were hoping to make the 2pm ferry, but when we arrived, it was still in port but had just closed the gate - we were too late! Instead, we lined up and waited for the office to open at 2:30pm, preparing ourselves for long lines and lots of shoving and pushing, as had been the case coming here. It was totally different, and we managed to get a ticket for the next ferry that afternoon, much to our relief. During the bad weather, several people staying at our resort had been unable to get off the island due to the ferries failing to run, so we'd been getting nervous. Plus, others had lined up for over 3 hours, two days running, and had still failed to get tickets because of the computers being down. There are just too many risk factors when you have such a string of flight tickets relying on the Indian ferry system. As Jack Johnson describes in his song, "Port Blair, where boats break and children stare". How true!

Once back in Port Blair, safely waiting for our flght back to mainland India, we had two days to wait. On the first we visited Ross island, formerly headquarters of the British, now over-run by out of control tree roots giving it the feel of Agkor Wat in Cambodia (kind of!). In the afternoon we visited the Cellular Jail, built in the late 1800s by Britain and now a memorial to India's freedom fighters. The whole day made me feel not too great to be British!

The next day, we took an autio-rickshaw to Corbyn's Cove. What a disappontment! Instead of spending a lovely last day on the beach, we instead stared at the piles of garbage and derelict buildings, and got straight into an auto-rickshaw back to the town for a mammoth email session.

Our final destination in India was two days in Calcutta. We visited the main sights: the Victoria Memorial, the flower market, and the narrow streets near Chinatown filled with rickshaws, goats, and just about everything else. I found Calcutta to be quite a depressing city, the gap between rich and poor never so evident. We went out to a nice restaurant one night (it had tablecloths and air conditioning so it HAD to be nice) and sat surrounded by rich locals and tourists alike ordering up a storm, while outside, whole families slept on the pavement and skinny old men ran past barefoot, pulling more rich people in rickshaws.

By the end of our time in Calcutta, we were ready to leave. More than two days in an Indian city can do that quickly to you. Our next destination is Bangkok, where we spend just a day and a half before going back to the States for a two-week visit.

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Photos

Sunset on Radha Nagar beach
(notice the elephant footprints)

Comments

[Jatin]

Great Trip
Thanks....that helped a lot!