Back in September, on the spine-jangling journey between Leh and Manali, we met Smita - an architect with an inspiring story of leaving life in Bangalore behind to work on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; a place she felt she belonged. This remote collection of islands is still part of India but is actually closer geographically to Burma and Thailand and they never featured on our travel itinerary until Smita spoke so passionately about them. Knowing that Smita's invitation to visit was one of those rare opportunities that only comes around once, we booked our tickets.
On ancient maps of India the Andaman and Nicobars are depicted with skull and crossbones with the annotation - 'here be dragons'. Indigenous tribes still live here today, some of whom have never had contact with the outside world. Allegedly some live cannabalistic lives and apparently believe that everything sighted outside of their islands belong to the spirit world - we couldn't wait to experience these distant and mystical shores.
We arrived early in the morning to the ANET base (the Andaman & Nicobar Islands Environmental Team), Smita's home and work. ANET also functions as a Centre for Herpetology (snakes) and the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust. We were greeted by smiley Smita and shown to our jungle hut. Within an hour of arriving we were asked for our blood groups - discovering that in the jungle/forest where we were to spend the next 8 days, shared with venomous snakes, monitor lizards, spiders and many mosquitos, this was essential knowledge. For the first time I was glad we were taking the anti-malarial meds but slightly concerned neither or us knew our blood group! Klas was about to face his fears and get up close and personal with the slithery forest natives; on our first day alone we sighted 3 snakes between the kitchen and our hut, including the highly venomous Andaman Pit Viper, which Hari the snake researcher/charmer captured to collect data.
Many of the researchers/marine biologists living at ANET need to dive to carry out their work and Lacadives dive centre is attached to the base which is handy for everyone as the reef in only 5 minutes away. So I decided to face a fear of my own and learn to dive again following a failed attempt 12 years ago in New Zealand which made our experience in the jungle even more surreal. One minute we were doing our best to avoid snakes and the next I was hiding under the mozzy net, watching the acrobatic action of a foot-long stick insect on the ceiling, whilst studying dive videos set in the Californian 80's!
I had the most fantastic, experienced dive instructor - Umeed, whose passion for the intricacies of the marine life combined with underwater photography made him a brilliant teacher. Umeed made it possible for a very nervous me to remain calm enough underwater at 16 metres to remove and replace my mask and eventually pass the course to qualify as a certified diver, along with my fabby dive buddy Diya - hooray! The underwater world is incredible and we were very lucky to spot a grandaddy green turtle gliding, gracefully, past us on our final dive. We also spotted crocodile fish, lion fish, huge blue star fishes, brain coral, clown fish (Nemo) playing in the anemone and the very rare leaf ghost pipefish (my favourite)! I felt totally inspired, particularly when Umeed told me you can get underwater sketchbooks!
When we weren't diving we were in the open-air communal dining area eating or getting to know the researchers at the base and learning heaps about insectivile bats, toxic cone snails, snakes and the mangroves with it's unique eco-system, as well as discussing India's issues in more detail and learning about some of the projects they work on (such as getting the council to get a proper waste management strategy in place). Rauf, one of the originals at ANET who had had Malaria 39 times!, was a true character and academic entertainer who spent half his time at ANET and half living in a large, creative commune called Auroville on the mainland. When we suggested that he lived an amazing life, he smiled and exclaimed: 'It's fucked up'.
On our last night, 14 of us piled into the jungle jeep and went to 'Sanctuary' - the local bar, serving only 8% beer or whiskey; we certainly had a good send off. Leaving the next day for Neil Island (also in the Andamans) I felt what can only be described as homesickness. We had become part of the life at ANET for a short time, having got to know an incredibly friendly and intriguing bunch of people and learnt so much during an intense week; in a strange kind of way it reminded me of what I felt in the summer when leaving Edinburgh. We would love to be involved at ANET in the future if that was ever possible; the plan to build a tree house art studio and provide opportunities for resident artists seem particularly exciting!
The empty, nauseous feeling wouldn't budge even after arriving on tiny Neil Island; I guess it didn't help meeting the only other tourist - a creepy Englishman with piercing dead eyes, and the owner of the huts - a man who looked like he might murder us in the night and put our heads on spikes! After convincing myself they were both psychopathic serial killers we moved to a different part of the island. Here be dragons indeed!
That said, Neil Island is as close to paradise as we've ever been. Days were spent settling in to the exceptional slow pace of life, cycling around the island, being lazy on the pristine white sandy beaches, snorkelling and dozing off in the hammock. We wish we could have bottled even a smidgen of this blissful place to save for a rainy day - instead it looks like we might just have to return.
