The decision to change our travel plans and return to the Andamans was easy... getting there wasn't!
We returned to the Indian embassy in Bangkok after a nail biting week, waiting for our new Indian visas to be granted. Having risked a lot and spent a fair whack of un-refundable money to change our plans, we knew that realistically being refused entry back into India meant returning to the UK 3 months sooner than we wanted.
We had made a deal with each other that if our new visas were granted we'd celebrate with rooftop beers at our hotel, if not we'd get drunk in the nearest bar we could find. The deal was on.
At the embassy we hastily flicked through our passports to find a new visa - YES! but also a statement stamped over it exclaiming 'no entry to restricted areas' - the Andamans as a whole is restricted! We didn't know what to think, were we allowed back into India but not the Andamans?!
An official at the embassy flatly reassured us that we could go anywhere other tourists could go and that was the end of the very brief discussion. We left the embassy feeling confused and more importantly couldn't decide on whether it should be beers on the rooftop or drowning our sorrows in the nearest bar! We decided to stay optimistic and went for the rooftop, did some online research and our understanding was that 'no entry to restricted areas' is a standard stamp on all visas which we could ignore and in 2 days time would hopefully make it past immigration control at Port Blair airport.
When reaching Calcutta by 1am the following morning, the pilot announced the plane couldn't land due to fog and that we were to be re-routed to Hyderabad (the other end of India!). We then sat on the plane for 4 hours at Hyderabad airport, were fed stale sandwiches with ketchup and watched as wound-up Indians tried to persuade the pilot to get flying again.
Once we arrived to Calcutta (8 hours delayed) we'd missed our connecting flight to Port Blair. After a number of heated conversations and using our best means of persuasion with two airlines, the reality seemed to be that we would need to buy new tickets to the Andamans. It was at this point that I wondered if the universe was trying to tell us something, maybe we were never meant to go back?!
We then realised that the last flight of the day for Port Blair was leaving in 20 minutes. We didn't fancy venturing into Calcutta for the night so in that 20 minutes we purchased tickets, checked in luggage, made it through security and with the help of enthusiastic airport staff (who were convinced we were Italians?!) were accompanied/sprinted across the airport to catch the flight - we'd bagged the last 2 seats of the day and waved to each other in disbelief from opposite ends of the plane - phew!! Our obsession with the Andamans had just reached a new level!
