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Published: October 29th 2006
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There is a god!
Finally, a place where I cannot find a single fault. Havelock Island is paradise. Hi All,
Hope that you are all keeping well and that the weather there in England is not to bad, although I shall assume that it is and with Xmas fast approaching, I hope that you have all ordered your turkeys.
Since I wrote last, I have seen some truly amazing places, the highlight of which is surely my week in the Andaman Islands.
On from Udaipur, I have travelled to Jasailmer, true desert country and home of a magnificent Fort where I stayed for a few days getting driven mad by the local sellers and also where I spent the night on a camel safari in the middle of a desert as you do. The safari was fun, however needless to say, a single night of sand dunes and sand was sufficient for me and I was not at all envious of some people around me who had decided to spend a little longer than that in the desert.
After Jasailmer, I travelled onto Jaipur, the Pink City which is quite pink, but not as pick as I believed it would be. I was expecting a city scene like out of Honky Tonk Freeway but it
Desert Rooftop Relaxation
Just relaxing in Jasailmer. was more like a few pink/dirty pinkish buildings in between a hell of a lot more non pick buildingsbut despite this Jaipur was a pleasent enough city.
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From Jaipur, I travelled by Train to Kolkatta where i would be catching my flight into Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman Islands. The train journey is recorded as my longest yet and was quite a mission. A 24 hour journey which lasted 30 hours. I expect the train service to Kolkatta is not regarded by many Indians as of high priority.
Following a 5 hour sleepover in the airport and a 2 hour flight, I arrived in the Andaman Islands. These Islands are paradise and so undeveloped when compared to the neighbouring Island of Sri Lanka. The Islands comprising of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are still home to many tribes and it is not Camels Relaxing
Our camels relaxing in the desert sunshine.. permitted to visit many of them. These islands were also affected quite badly by the Tsunami and it is said that 8000 tribes people were killed by the waves and flooding.
Initially, I spent a couple of nights in Port Blair, the capital. There I visited Chatham Saw Mill, one of the largest woodmills in Asia and where of course you are allowed to walk everywhere without any saftey gear or inductions. After this I visited Celllular Jail, a jail for Indian freedom fighters in the early 1900's up until the 1940s and also a base for the Japanese who landed and resided on the Islands during the 2nd world war.
I eventually managed to get space on a ferry which was apparently booked for the next 3 days to Havelock Island. Havelock Island is the main tourist hub of the Andaman Islands and quite literally paradise. There is very limited everything on the Island and I stayed on a hut on a beach which cost just 2 pounds a night!!
Havelock is home to some great scuba diving which apparently can challenge as some of the best in the world and the beaches and none to
Camel Safari
Mahindra the camel ready to go into the Jasailmer desert.. bad either, beach number 7 being voted by one magazine recently as the best in Asia. In Havelock, i done very little apart from relaxing at the beach and of course 2 scuba dives which were out of this world. We saw turtles. sea snakes, lion fish and quite lterally a hundred different type of fish of varying sizes, such of which must have been more than 400mm long. It was my first scuba dive in 15 years and after spending so much effort getting used to actually breathing in the water which I feared was my most difficult task, i forgot to equalise for my first dive for the first couple of metres or so. This did not fair wall with my head the day after!!!!
Beach no 7 is paradise and whilst my pictures may not do it much justice, I do not think that this is a bad thing and like many things, this beach can only be appreciated by being there.
After leaving the Andaman Islands, I will be heading to Delhi via again Kolkatta, then Varanassi and Agra for the Taj Mahal. After this my time will be up in India
The Desert Gang
Me and the gang after a 'comfortable' night sleeping with the desert sand. and I will be heading onto Nepal. I will update you all soon, particularly with events in Varanassi which is apparently "India in the Raw". If it is, I dont know what ive been seeing to date!!!
Best Wishes everyone.
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Marv
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Sounds Like Edmonton
Hi Pop Excellent last entry almost like being there. Just been down the pub with my brother for a nice cold beer, couldnt do without it, dont know how you can survive! Thursday UEFA cup game Club Brugge should be a good one, hopefully Defoe wont bite anyone this time. Your descriptions of India sounds like the old days in the edmonton snooker club with pee and filth everywhere. Had a cracking curry Saturday night plenty of chicken and hot sauce lovely. Good luck in Nepal say hi to the Dahli Lama for me we go way back(LOL). See if you can get a good few pictures of everest if you go that way would be cool to see from your point of view. All is good this end, my brother is about to be made redundent which he is well happy about, dad is still mad mum still drinking nan still moaning. Gemmas got specs now no surprise there, Lucy is crackers no surprise there and julie is still waxing ladies bits (NICE). Work is work and crap nothing changes. Take care of yourself Keep the blogg going its great Marv