Kayak and quiet time on beach

---

---

In the morning, we wanted to have dosa breakfast at the same place again. We were taken to Kayak office "diveindia" in taxi. We were quoted Rs 3500 for both, which seemed a bit steep, but compared to other countries, comparable. Once we reached the office, we discovered that Kayak guide lady has actually advised against going at that time because its too hot and we will be blinded by sun's reflection on water. I can see that, but someone our agent did not communicate that to us. So we agreed to go in the evening, and now we had half day to kill. The guide wanted us to go back to hotel in taxi and bring us back at 2:00, but we did not want to go all the way back. Good decision as it would have costed us Rs 300 per ride which we did not know.
So we decided to hang out at that beach. This was where all the resorts were. First we searched for breakfast and found that due to all the resorts, the prices here was 3 times higher. I was anyway not too hungry, so we decided to wait to go to Village 3 for breakfast. We crossed to the beach though a resort. The beach here was nothing compared to Radhanagar beach. It was rocky, shallow waters where you could not swim. But it was nice and quiet in the morning. We just sat there, looking at horizon, and then at small activity of crabs and other insects at the beach. This is also something we have hardly done, just saw down and looked at horizon! My nose allergy was acting up, so I decided not to go into the water, also we did not bring any change of clothes thanks to the hotel agent who did not talk to us properly.
While hanging at the beach, we found the Kayak guide again (Tasnin I think). We were just making conversation with her, when she told us that she thought our agent is charging us Rs 3500 per person, which was outrageous. We were shocked, as we thought its total not per person, we need to confirm. That was also the price all resorts charge, Rs 1800 per person. She herself charges much less. So now we wondered if we could or should have booked directly with her. We went into the diveindia office and they also quoted Rs 1800 per person. But then our hotel is not a resort, and agent already caused us much trouble by bringing us here early. So we called him to negotiate, and it was very hard to talk to him on phone so, he said come to ferry terminal (jetty) to talk.
That was kind of far. So we walked a bit, then then took auto to get to jetty. The guy was not there, and not we were away from the beach also! Argh! We hung out at the jetty for a bit, and then decided to explore the place and try to go near water. We soon found a quite place in an abandoned looking resort. It was not so bad. Then this agent calls us and asks to meet at jetty. Argh! We walk down there again, meet him, tell him that he is charging a lot, and then he informs is that charges also include Rs 300 per trip for taxi. I wish he had told us before and given us space to see if we wanted to take taxi, because we did not, especially given the petrol conditions on Island, we would have preferred bus anyway. So we finally cut the deal in Rs 3000 + we were to return by bus.
We went back to our quiet place, tried to go a bit in water. It was quite dirty here as it was close to ferry terminal. and then finally headed back to jetty for a dosa lunch at same place and then meet our guide.

Kayak

Around 2:10 our guide showed up. There were more people joining our group. A non-Indian looking man from Chennai with his small son, a Canadian woman, and a young Indian couple on their honeymoon. (Did I mention that place was full of Indian honeymooners with women wearing handful of chuda and chamak dhamak. I wondered how they managed to swim and then managed the heat with that attire!). The Indian couple had not snorkeled before, and were scared, rest of us were fine. We got our boats, learned a few simple skills needed and headed into the water. It was much easier than I thought because this was calm ocean water, no real waves here. We headed into the mangroves. I again wished I had a waterproof camera to take pictures. Mangroves were interested, they grow downwards, till their roots find ground to dig into. All their root / branches were hanging out above water and they were looking quite dense. Seemed quite scary if seen in evening. I could totally imagine a SciFi movie here with deadly snakes and crocs hanging out of the branches. But nothing like that here. We kayaked in peace, had a good time and back safe in harbor avoiding the rocks that were exposes at low tide on our return.
Once at the shore, our guide met us again with the news that bus has broken down, so he has come with taxi to fetch us. I was still angry at him for somewhat spoiling our day in the morning. But there was no way for us to confirm about the bus, maybe it had broken-down afterall. So we headed back to hotel with taxi. On the way we wanted our return tickets for tomorrow morning in hand and also settle the bills. Once at hotel, we did the bills, and to my surprise, he did not try to overcharge for anything. Rooms were Rs 800 each as told, and rest was fine. He had got us more expensive tickets for Rs 350 instead of Rs 250, apparently in a AC Chair room on ferry which I did not like at all, but I guess these things happen when someone else books for you.
Overall it ended up quite a nice experience. People were quite friendly. In the end they did not seem the kind who were just out there to take money, like sometimes happens at other tourist places. Food was excellent, and beaches were great. 3 days was also perfect time to stay at Havelock island. We did not see any of Port Blair or another island which was fine with us.

---