Our visit to India's far flung string of pearls, Andaman Islands, was in January 2014. This archipelago lying over a thousand kilometres out in the Bay of Bengal, is unlike any other place in India. Our flight was from Calcutta to Port Blair, the capital of Andamans. Our tour included stay & sight-seeing of Port Blair, Havelock & Neil Islands. On reaching the capital, the first thing you are liable to notice is a much fresher, greener aroma of the place. We were soon escorted to our hotel, Sea Shell, from the airport by car.
When we reached our hotel, we met our guide, who helped us with our check-in, and also told us that we would be accompained by two more couples and one family for the rest of the tour. He asked us to be at the reception in half an hour, so we could head to Corbyn's Cove beach. This beach was very muddy & rocky, with few water sports activity, small restaurants near by and some hawkers selling key chains, toys etc.. much like any other typical beaches in India, and could be easily skipped from one's itinerary. But we did enjoy the lovely evening
breeze, and the long walk along the beach, midst tall coconut trees, before we went back to our hotel.The following day, after breakfast, we checked out from our room, and were waiting in the lobby, we were told that we would go to an aquarium & a museum and then head straight to Havelock Islands, and our luggages would be taken directly to the jetty. The first place we visited was the Marina park & aquarium, here we got to see replicas of sea creatures and some rare species of the marine life. It was a well maintained place and provided some good insight to the underwater kingdom. Without any further delay, we headed to the Anthropological museum, this museum provided a lot of interesting illustrations about the various tribes living in Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Some of the artifacts used by these tribes like cooking vessels, hunting gear, their attires and housing models were displayed here. Few government run souvenir shops were adjoined to this museum, where I picked up few items at a resonable price. After our museum visit, we were taken to a restaurant to have our lunch, where Saurav & myself indulged in
some spicy sea food delicacies. From there we headed straight to the jetty. Our cruise 'Makruzz', was this huge vessel, which was well maintained, and provided comfortable seating space, it took us approximately 2 hours to reach our rewarding destination, Havelock Islands, and the ride was smooth with few wobbling sections, which made our journey quite thrilling.Havelock Islands was a mixture of hilly forestation, verdant farmlands and golden white sandy beaches, we were put up at Silver Sand beach resort, which was one of the top notch resorts available on the island, having a private beach. We got the cottage right next to the beach, and as soon as we checked in our luggages, we hit the gorgeous beach. Though we were told that it was peak season and the resort was almost full, much to our surprise, we had this beach completely to ourselves on many occasions. The tranquility of this place, with rooms opening to tantalizing sea scents wafting on the evening breeze and white sands giving way to clear waters with countless shades of blue, made this resort breath-takingly beautiful. Later in the evening we hired a bike and head to Barefoot Scuba Diving
centre, to get ourselves signed up for the most exciting part of our tour - Scuba Diving, this was going to be our first dive, and I was having mixed thoughts initially, as i was a non-swimmer, but the trainers at Barefoot were professional divers and explained to me about the diving process, and made me feel really comfortable. Our dive was scheduled for the following day at Elephanta beach. We came back to our resort and ended our day with some cocktails and tandoori treats during dinner.The resort beach was sun-rise facing, so both of us made an effort to get up really early(around 4 am) to see the sun rising over the horizon, we lay down in the hammocks provided near the beach, and waited patiently. At around 5:20 am, we gradually saw the horizon change colour and few fishermen's boat bobbing up and down in the distant sea, at around 5:45 we finally saw the sun rise, it was a spectacular sight and made us forget about the ordeal of waking up early.We came back to our room to get ready to go to Elephanta beach, and after our breakfast, we went to the
jetty, and in 20 mins, we were taken to Elephanta beach by a motor boat.On arriving at this beach, we got to see a much livelier beach setting, with so many people enjoying different water sports activity in various locations on the beach. Saurav & myself headed straight to the boat with the name 'Barefoot scuba', where we were suited up with the diving gear and were taught various underwater signs & gestures before the dive. Saurav being a swimmer, didnt hestitate a bit about going underwater for the first time, whereas I was completely petrified, thankfully I had a very composed trainer, who was really patient with me. Within few minutes, Saurav, along with his trainer made their way into the deep blue waters, and I was still coming to terms with the whole breathing underwater experience. My trainer was constantly telling me not to worry and that he would be with me throughout the dive, guiding me. And somehow after 15 mins of dilly-dallying, and putting my head underwater numerous times practicing to breathe through my mouth, i gathered some courage and signalled my trainer to take me underwater, and after that there was no
turning back, and I finally overcame my fear. There is nothing like breathing underwater. You feel your throat dry up, and try blowing air from your nose but you can’t. In the struggle of breathing from your mouth, you can’t help but swallow the salty sea water. And then you make a conscious effort to try and convince yourself to breath from the mouth. What fascinated me thoroughly was the sound of my own breath underwater, it was hypnotising. We kept swimming, deeper and deeper and my trainer kept on communicating through hand gestures to make sure I was all right with the water pressure. We took pictures, saw so many coral reefs and exotic colourful fishes. After about 45mins of exploring the deep waters, my trainer brought me up slowly towards the boat. The whole experience left me serene and mellow. I was in awe of the sheer magnificence of it all and just wanted time to stand still. Exploring nature is a meditation in itself. The feeling of power that you experience rejuvenates your inner self again. Saurav along with his trainer soon joined me, and even he shared his amazing diving experience, leaving both of us completely wonderstruck. We spend about an hour more at the beach relaxing & reminiscing every single moment of our dive before we came back to our resort.As per our itinerary, we were supposed to go to Radhanagar beach for sunset, but since the President of our country was visiting that beach on the same day, we were unfortunately denied access to that beach, but our guide promised to take us there early next morning. We spend the rest of the evening exploring other places, at one end of the island was Kalapathar beach, which was about 20 mins from our resort, the beach gets its name from the surrounding village, called kalapathar village and the black rocks that adorn the coastline there. The silken smooth silver sands and the sheer solitude made this beach a great place to relax. We came back to our resort after going to few more places, and as we entered our resort, I had a lovely surprise waiting for me at the beach, Saurav had organized a beautiful candle light dinner right on the beach. With star studded skies, the moon lighting up the beach, a personal butler serving up some scrumptious delicacies
and the whole setting shaped as a heart with lit-up candles, made our last night in Havelock so romantic and memorable.The next day we were all set to go to the much talked about beach, Radhanagar, before we headed to Neil Islands, and we werent disappointed. It was undoubtedly, one of the best beaches of Andaman Islands. Fine white sand, turquoise blue waters of exceptional quality and a lot of serenity were the hallmark of this enormous beach. We walked on the beach, clicking pictures and basking in the warmth and peace of this beautiful landmass, before we left to the jetty. Neil Islands was about an hour from Havelock by the inter-island ferry. On reaching the island, we got to see a much cleaner, attractive, crystal clear blue waters. The whole island was about 18kms long and could be easily accessed by walking or hiring a two-wheeler. The two main beaches, Bharatpur and Lakshmanpur beach was actually the same stretch of beach on either side of the jetty. We stayed at Sea shell resort, which was serene and an ideal place to completely unwind. After checking in our luggages and having the buffet lunch, we took
a tour of the resort, though the beach was inaccessible, there was this lovely spot next to the beach, where one could just sit and enjoy the picturesque view of the mangrove trees, making their way up the blue waters when the tide z low.We then headed to Lakshmanpur beach, which is famous for the triangular spot, also known as the 'sunset point', but we had to walk quiet a bit to reach this spot. The beach is gorgeous with a whole bunch of tourists waiting to take pics and watch the surreal sunset, looked like paparazzi's trying to get a glimpse of a celebrity. The peaceful vibe you feel on this beach, and the view of the sun making its way slowly down the horizon, would leave you completely mesmerised. We came back to the resort and winded up our day with some wine, dine and chatting sessions with our travelling companions, who had accompained us in our tour. Next morning, we went to Bharatpur beach, this beach was a bit commercialized, with few water sports activity like jet-skiing, snorkelling etc.. , but as we ended up there really early, we didnt det to see a
lot of people. The water was pretty shallow, however we had to walk for while to reach a good spot for swimming. Saurav and myself wanted to try jet-skiing, and we had a ball of a time taking it for a spin. We left from the beach and came back to our resort, to leave for Port Blair. It took us approximately 2 hrs to reach the capital, and we were put up at the same hotel, Sea shell. After checking in, we went out for lunch to a hotel close by.The last leg of our tour ended at Port Blair's main tourist attraction, the cellular jail, the sound and light show in the evening, was a sombre reminder of its punitive past. After the show, we came back to our hotel and ended our last night in Andamans with few cocktails and a buffet dinner. The following day we headed to the airport and were on our way back home. We went to Andamans as a couple, but we got to meet some really lovely people who made our trip even more beautiful.
We found some of India's most stunning beaches in Andamans, probably
the only place in the country where we could find substantial coral reefs and it was a haven for scuba divers and other water sports enthusiast. If you are looking for a holiday destination bestowed with exotic locales and sun-kissed beaches with vast stretches of pristine silver sands, that has the power to rejuvenate your soul and mind, then Andamans is the place to be.
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Zenotravel
Zenovia Iancovici
Amazing
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