We decided to finish the Indian sub-continent leg of our travels with a bit of a treat and some serious relaxation, well after all, we had done some serious trekking in Nepal and some hard core, off the beaten path travel in north India. We reckoned we deserved it and 6 days in the Andaman Islands sounded just the ticket.
The islands are as you may expect in the middle of the Andaman Sea and although they belong to India they are geographically and culturally closer to their South East Asian neighbours, Myanmar and Sumatra in Indonesia. In our minds they conjure up images of clear blue sea, palm trees swaying in the breeze and squeaky white sand; let’s hope we are right as not all our plans on this sojourn, well actually my plans as chief travel planner, have worked out for the best.
Our specific Andaman destination was Havelock Island, but to get to this far flung piece of Indian paradise took a while, as all things in India do! We took a flight for 2 hours from Kolkata to the main town and capital, Port Blair. The flight went without a hitch and we were soon dropping into a very cloudy, soggy Port Blair runway, erm not matching those pictures we had in our minds. Oh well, never mind, Port Blair is only a stopping off point for the more remote and hopefully sunnier Havelock. However, we had to stay the night because we didn’t land in time to catch the last ferry to Havelock. We got a taxi into the town and wandered around looking for a cheap guesthouse as it was only a quick overnighter. We found what our Lonely Planet guide book (aka ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare’) said was a very cheap and clean guesthouse. Well in the year since the book was published and when presumably they visited (yeah right, not been here for years) it had doubled in price and not been cleaned at all during this period. It’s only one night, better get ferry tickets sorted for tomorrow as I don’t think Emma will be on for a two night stop strategy!
We got a tuc-tuc down to the ferry port and walked into the booking office, it was mobbed and total chaos, thought it might have been a bit more chilled here but no, it’s still India alright. Bumped into a guy we met on the plane and together we decided to try and find the more upmarket and expensive Makcruz ferry office. We asked several police officers in the port but they had never heard of it, some people said it was in town near the clock tower so we hopped into another tuc-tuc. At the clock tower no one had a clue where the office was but we spotted a travel agent, so in we went, he said yeah he could book tickets but the internet is down, ok we’ll come back later. We wandered around for a bit and eventually stumbled on an agent for Makcruz. He got us sorted within a few minutes and we had return tickets for the times we wanted. It was getting on by now so we had some grub at the Lighthouse roof –top restaurant and went back to our luxury digs for an early night as we had to be up early for the ferry.
Surprisingly, giving the surroundings, we were up before the alarm and down at the port in plenty of time to catch the bus from the ferry gates to the ferry office. This is all of 100m inside the port and oh about 20m from where the police officers were stood who claimed to have never heard of Makcruz ferry! The ferry was pretty big and luxurious with comfortable seating and a café etc, we were glad we had paid the extra to not go on the local ferry. The sun was shining and about two hours later we disembarked at the tropical island of Havelock. Even better, there was the usual mad scrum of rickshaw drivers and touts wanting to take you to their favourite (ie commission paying guesthouse) but there was someone there with a piece of paper with our names on it. Result. Now we had booked 4 nights at The Emerald Gecko on the imaginatively named Beach 5, but we hadn’t expected a free pick-up, always nice. So we were soon winding our way along small palm tree lined tracks to the guesthouse. The staff smoothly checked us in and we were ensconced in our 2 storey bungalow in a beach garden surrounded by palm trees and the crystal blue sea glinting a mere 50 m away. This is the life.
As always when we get somewhere we like to have a quick explore to see what was on offer so we headed down to the beach to hopefully find a beach café for lunch. The beach right in front of the Emerald Gecko is nice but pretty small and you couldn’t walk far down the beach at this time due to high tide and rocks so we cut in off the beach in search of fodder. We spotted the Wild Orchid restaurant which looked nice but a bit posh for a quick snack so we decided to go back to the guesthouse and check out Blackbeard’s Bistro. Now this is strange, the staff on reception were great but the restaurant was manned , well I say manned but it was more like ‘boyed’ by some school child! The menu was extremely limited and it was hard work to get any sense out of anyone. We thought we would give it a miss and try elsewhere, but as we were leaving a storm rolled in and the heavens opened. We were stuck. We managed to order a pizza and a cheese sandwich, about an hour later we were served a pizza and an omelette! The pizza was ok but after sending the eggy thing back, the sarnie was not worth the even longer wait and was rather expensive.
The afternoon was dictated to us by the rain and we hid on our balcony reading. By evening it was still cats and dogs, no way could we face the effort to get Captain Blackbeard to cook us something, so we legged it to the Wild Orchid. The food was pricey but really really good, the local style fish curry I had was excellent. The only snag was that after sitting at a table in the restaurant and ordering a beer we were told we had to drink it in the bar, the food arrived in no time and consequently we had to eat our grub on the cramped bar as all the tables were full with people in the know regarding the crazy beer drinking rules. Yep still is India.
The next day brought clear blue skies and I ventured out up along the beach and found a lovely patch of sea and sand for a wee splash around. Think Emma was typing some nonsense at the time for all you travel fans out there (well both the mums at any rate!). Unfortunately, the weather pattern seemed to be set in as again the afternoon saw heavy rain and us making good use of our balcony.
By day 3 Emma was starting to get cabin fever, and that meant we had to explore the island even though it was supposed to be a relaxing end to our travels. We hired bikes from a roadside shack and they were certainly cheap, but without gears or usable brakes probably overpriced at a pound for 24 hours! Our goal was to hit the other side of the island and check out the famous Beach 7, supposedly one of the best beaches in the world. The ride over to the beach was beautiful, through paddy fields and small villages. The road ends at Beach 7 and we found lots of Indian tourists coming over from PB for the day. The beach is a huge stretch so we managed to find a quiet spot to fry, yes the sun was out for its morning appearance again. I went for another dip in the sea which was much rougher on this side of the island and made it good fun to splash about. Now to be fair the beach is gorgeous and the sea blue but it is not as clean as it should be and in my beach snob opinion; it is still not as nice as the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia and it cannot hold a candle to some of the beaches we visited in the Galapagos!
We had a spot of lunch in one of the shacks by the road just off the beach and then made our way back to Beach 5 with a diversion via Elephant Beach. Now even though this beach had a proper name we weren’t expecting any elephants. Seeing some of the famous Andaman swimming elephants would have been amazing but there are not many wild elephants left here but they do use them for logging. So we followed a logging track on foot through the forest to the beach, well we would have done if we hadn’t come to some muddy estuary which blocked our path. So we turned back, the main reason to come here is because it is supposed to be good snorkelling but seeing as I couldn’t find anywhere to hire snorkel equipment or indeed find the sea, it wasn’t my best ever snorkel trip! As we neared our side of the island once more the scheduled rains came and we had to take cover in an internet café.
In the evening we once again visited the Wild Orchid as they had satellite TV for City’s early kick off against West Ham. However, the TV wasn’t in the bar so we weren’t allowed a beer. It was like being at the ground as we legged it to the bar to neck a swift one at half time and getting back to view the 2nd half. City won which was great even though the league had gone by this time.
Our last full day on the island saw us explore more of the countryside by bike as we still had time left on our pound hire and I was not going to lose out on value for money! This time we headed up the road from Emerald Gecko along the coast and then inland through a few villages until we came to the end of the road. We had been down every road on the island and it really is a scenic place with a nice chilled out feel (it reminded us of inland Langkawi, away from the tourist centres). We spotted another secluded beach and decided to rest there for a while.
On the last day we chilled out at the guesthouse as they kindly let us stay until 1 pm while we waited for the ferry. Again they provided a free tuc-tuc back to the jetty which was greatly received and we had a last meal at Barefoot Bar and Bistro right on the waterfront. Here the food was very good, eating grilled calamari overlooking the sea was an excellent way to end our Havelock experience. We got the ferry back to PB where we had to stay another night before the flight the next day. However, this time we walked 50 m up the hill from the ferry to Aashvaana Guesthouse (or some such) which although basic was much cleaner than our previous gaff. The friendly guy at the guesthouse recommended a hotel restaurant up the road, The Sea Shell Hotel looked a bit posh for us but we were hungry so sod it, hang the expense, supposed to be a holiday after all. We went to the roof-top bar and were rewarded with fantastic views over leafy Port Blair, excellent, good value food and a couple of cold beers.
The next morning we still had a bit of time to kill before heading to the airport so we headed to the market and picked up a few nick knacks before going to PB’s main tourist sight, the old colonial Jail. We weren’t expecting much and if these sort of sights hold our attention for half an hour we are pleased, we couldn’t believe it; 2 hours later when we stumbled out into the sunlight. No, they hadn’t locked us up for all that time, it was actually really fascinating. The jail was built by the British to house political prisoners who were uprising against colonial rule. They of course treated the prisoners horrendously and the museum tells the story of some of the inmates and the fight for freedom and independence in India. The Japanese used it during World War 2 and by all accounts were even worse than the British. The building itself is interesting and some of it is well restored and you can visit the cells and enjoy the views of the sea from the roof that only the guards and not the inmates were privileged to see. All in all well worth a visit and quite well done for an Indian museum. By this time we had to rush to catch our plane back to Kolkata.
Once we had landed safely back in Kolkata we had another night and day to while away before our evening flight back to England so we treated ourselves to a 5 star hotel! For the princely sum of $9.60! How come? Well we had a bit of a run in with a booking with Agoda for a hotel previously in India and for once my ranting at them paid off as they gave us $100 reward points which we used to book The Chrome Hotel. Now this is not our usual sort of place to lay our hats but is was actually pretty cool. It is a very modern, trendy hotel which looks a bit like a piece of cheese from a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Yeah we have stayed in many hotels with holes in them but these were supposed to be there all in the name of modern architecture. The rooms were very swanky and we took full advantage by ordering room service, watching the IPL on the flat-screen TV and using the wifi.
Our last day in India saw us getting even more value for money out of our $9.60 by being cheeky and asking for a late check-out, the staff were great and asked when do you need to leave, we said 4pm and they said ok. We stuffed ourselves at the buffet breakfast, used the roof top pool and more relaxing in the room. Ok, not the most exciting way to spend your last day in India but it beats pounding the sweaty, noisy, polluted streets of Kolkata while you wait for your plane, besides we have done that on many an occasion.
So that’s it folks, the end of our gap year, well not quite a year as Emma has gone and got herself a job. The travels have been great with many highlights, especially the South American leg with Galapagos, Bolivian Andes and salt flat tour and Machu Picchu being right up there with anything we have done on previous travels. Then the Asiatic lions in Sasan Gir, the Golden Temple in Amritsar and trekking in the Everest region recently, what about Guatemala and the rain forest in Costa Rica? So much cool stuff, hope you enjoyed the tales that Emma so diligently wrote and the couple of photos I snapped.
Now it is back to England for Emma’s brother’s wedding then off to start a new life in Uganda. But don’t worry, Emma only has to work for 5 weeks then she gets the long 6 week break so we can start to explore Africa. Plenty more travel tales to come methinks.
