Diving is a rite of passage for the serious backpacker (I did my Open Water on my last travelling adventure 12 years ago), and the Andaman Sea is one of the most popular places in the world to do so - in Thailand. However, the islands that give the sea its name are untouched, unspoilt and uncrowded. To dive at the Andamans instead of 250km to the east is like when you have that perfect day in the Alps - crisp sunny morning and fresh powder overnight - but instead of sharing the experience with thousands others near the ski-lifts, you have it all to yourself because you hiked up two days earlier, stayed in a remote hut and is now anticipating the joy of sharing the untracked snow with your good friends only.
The Andamans rewards people who go out of their way to get there and the diving we've done there together with Lacadives is nothing short of perfect paradise moments. You wake up slightly earlier than normal (6am), have a quick Chai and walk to the beach (whilst Shyam speeds past in the jeep with all the gear), then load up the dunghi and set off with the sun rising over the emerald blue sea. Our boat is the only boat out there, we're the only divers there, new sites are still being discovered, and you dive with people who care, love and know so much about the incredible coral reef and its life there. In between dives you drink more Chai, eat biscuits, listen to music, go snorkelling, sun bathe and compare underwater stories - its an underwater version of the perfect powder day.
During the last week at ANET I mourned the departure of the tree house team and spent my days either in conversation with Tasneem and the core ANET team about future projects and possibilities for linking up (we feel so completely at peace here and can't wait to return!) or went diving. We got to dive around Chirya Tapu (1 hour drive from ANET) - on the wreck dive we had 30m plus visibility, the descent was like a slow-motion skydive and the fish life was straight out of Nemo, and we also dived at Cinque Island, an amazing underwater boulder landscape, with huge amounts of fish in formation everywhere around us.
When we set off for some island hopping, emotional and hung-over after the crazy, shakira-dancing art exhibition leaving party the night before, we were looking forward to seeing more of the islands but sad to leave ANET behind again. First we travelled through Middle Andamans on the controversial Andaman Trunk Road that cuts straight through the territory of the anthropologically mysterious Jarawa tribe - from an African negrito background (Africa is far away...). Ravi, ANET's Mr Fix-it-all who took us to the station in the morning, assured us over morning chai that we would never spot them. So when four of them were stood next to the road when our convoy passed (vehicles are only allowed on the road at certain times in convoy) Ruth and I felt a strange mixture of excitement, privilege, sadness and shame over modern society's interaction with them. There really are very few places left in the world where people live completely untouched by Apple, Google, Coke or concrete, and a glimpse into their world is selfishly exciting. But realising that their continued existence is seriously threatened by development and over-population is really sad and makes you question whether we really need to map out every corner of the world.
The rest of the journey to Ranghat was spent in contemplation (we were hung-over after all) whilst our bus cut through incredible thick lush jungle and rolled on and off rusting car-ferries crossing narrow expanses of river like sea inlets - perfect crocodile territory (didn't spot any though). On route we met Radju, the chef at Blue Planet, Long Island, where we were headed. Together we travelled through quiet, peaceful little villages to reach the jetty where a small fishing boat navigated the backwaters through dense mangrove forest to reach Long Island just before sunset. We immediately fell in love with this exceptionally sleepy place where we spent 5 days marvelling at the stunning timber buildings - now in a suitably photogenic, weathered/run down state, and drinking Chai with the locals and finding out about the difficulties facing the island after the timber saw mill closed down (sadly many people are now un-employed and the very skilled carpenters no longer pass their skills to the new generation who choose to leave the island). We also had a lot of time for reading books at Blue Planet, we hiked to remote and perfect Lalaji Beach through dense jungle, and we digested and reflected on our amazing time at ANET.
On our last day we joined the very pleasant early morning island rush hour, involving two Chai stops, before getting on the ferry to Havelock Island. Havelock is THE place to go in the Andamans and we had been given a great deal of mixed reviews about it which was partly the reason we didn't visit in December. I was expecting a Koh Tao - a heaving backpacker dive island spiced with Indian honeymoon couples and package tourists from the mainland, and Havelock is busy, but by Andaman standards. So instead Ruth and I were super-excited to find it chilled-out, with great cafes, friendly locals, smiling travellers and perfect beaches - this is where you find Radhanagar Beach and Neil's Cove, regularly voted as one of the top beaches in the world, where we lazed the days away with books, yoga or snorkelling.
Adding to our Havelock experience, Susheel, who joined our party at the last night at ANET, and his Austrian wife Uli looked after us with great generosity at their magical jungle resort, and Zan, a Canadian yogi/dive master/professional traveller who we met at ANET came out to see us again. Together we dined, dived and discussed our time away in paradise. On our dive we spotted a rare, and very shy, little sea horse, as well as a huge giant grouper, and an electrifying cuttle fish, and in conversation I learnt about the scary corrupt power of the Indian concrete companies that is destroying the vernacular architecture of India.
On the second last night Smita, Tasneem, Savita, Chetena, Paroma and Pooja all came out to join us from ANET and that night, whilst surrounded by good friends and laughter, we felt as though we had stopped travelling altogether. The Andamans has completely opened its arms to us in a welcoming hug and the sequence of events leading us here - flying to Ladakh in the north of India in September, me getting altitude sickness and us therefore choosing to leave early leading us to meet Smita on the long and spine-jangling journey to Manali and therefore ending up visiting and falling in love with ANET, has really come to define our travels. We have gone with an open mind and fate, God, clinamen, or whatever one believes in has taken us to paradise!
Ohh, and what's with the title you wonder? Well it's not all great friends, tree houses, art making, emerald seas, mind-blowing diving, crystal white beaches, humid jungles and facinating wildlife. Blue Planet, which is run by a lazy, colonialised British woman; "resting on her laurels" as Ian, a true British original weirdo, so eloquently put it, is the only place to stay on Long Island and is an unfortunate example of the dangers of monopoly. It is nice enough but cramped, run down, expensive and the rooms are shared with permanent rodent residents. This is not actually that unusual when it comes to permeable bamboo hut living but it is nonetheless not a pleasant experience to, whilst still lying in bed in the morning contemplating how to best spend another day in paradise, beeing peed on by a rat!
