“WHEN YOU GROW UP ON AN ISLAND, WHAT MATTERS IS HOW YOU STAND TO THE SEA”
Andaman is full of natural beauty, pristine white sand beaches, turquoise blue water, mesmerising sunsets, diverse marine life and an interesting albeit dark history. This archipelago has a lot of attractions for tourists and is easily connected to major cities via multiple flight options or cruise ships leaving Chennai or Vizag.
This blog post is about our 5N/6D visit to this island in the month of Jan 2017. In this itinerary, we visited Port Blair, Neil Island and Havelock Island.
Port Blair
We reached Port Blair from Bangalore by taking a direct flight. As expected, Port Blair being the capital city, had less to offer in terms of natural experience but we didn’t want to miss visiting Cellular Jail.
After freshening up, we had almost half of the day left with us and hence we decided to visit local city and started from Anthropological Museum, which is a nicely maintained place to get a crash course on local Andamanese and Nicobari tribes, their way of livings and what is left of their culture in existence.
We visited few local handloom and artisans shops and eateries and did shopping for souvenirs before concluding our first day.
We decided to dedicate entire next day to Cellular Jail as we didn’t want to rush through it.
It was truly a humbling experience walking the same corridors or standing in the same barrack as our freedom fighters would have done in the past. Among all other things, visiting cell block of Veer Damodar Savarkar was the highlight of the day.
The place was very less crowded and we were able to spend time on the roof top of the jail building from where one can see the vast expanse of dreaded Kala Paani!
Cellular jail hosts a laser light and sound show every day in the evening where an attempt is made to relive the history. We were slightly disappointed seeing the mis-management in ticket distribution and lack of online options to purchase it but eventually succumbed and spent around an hour to procure the same. However, the show was worth the hassle and we were glad that we didn’t miss it!
We stopped at a local eatery in the market en route our hotel before calling it a day.
Neil Island
We left Port Blair very early next day, post a light breakfast, on our island hopping and got onboarded to makruzz to reach the main attraction of our trip – Neil Island. One can choose from a variety of options to ferry between islands, makruzz being one of the newest and fastest of the lot. However, one also needs a tungsten stomach to deal with the bumpy ride and not throw up, a lesson which I learned the hard way!
We were glad that we had booked SeaShell resorts for our stay as the property was quite comfortable, scenic and next to a marshy beach.
We wanted to visit the island’s main attraction, a natural bridge formation, which can only be reached early in the day during low tidal water. Unfortunately, it was not our day.
Renting a bicycle is the best (and possibly only as motors are not allowed on neil island) option to roam around this small island and thats what we did! We cycled to the nearby Bharatpur beach to finally witness the turquoise blue water this island is famous for!
We then just decided to roam aimlessly on the island in the midst of little drizzling and completed a full 360 degree tour before reaching our resort back.
Neil island is relatively less known among tourists and perhaps that could be the reason of less commercialisation. That really worked in our favour before we headed to the Havelock island, a more famed, crowded and jostled place.
Havelock
Havelock is the centre for tourist attraction in Andaman and has something to offer to tourists of varying taste, be it world class water activities, white sand beaches, some lone tranquil time or feasting on local cuisine.
After we checked in to our resort (Symphony Palms Beach Resort), we rented a scooter and went straight to Radhanagar beach. With long stretches of white powdered sand to offer, this beach is considered to be one of the cleanest in Asia and often ranked in top 10 across the world. Upon visiting this beach, we were quite surprised to not see a single vendor selling items, perhaps the reason why the beach is still pristine!
Radhanagar beach is somewhat remotely located on the island, in a secluded spot connected by a chicken’s neck, which is hardly motorable. As we returned after witnessing the sunset, it also started raining heavily and we both got drenched with no option but to negotiate the rough patch in that condition. Having said that, it seems to be a fun ride now looking back at it!
We spent the remaining part of the evening in our resort indulging in some local delicacies and some cocktails.
Next day brought another surprise for this hapless couple who didn’t know swimming and with fathomless fear of water had made a booking for Ocean Walk, considering it an exercise barely demanding a skill worthy of learning! Little did we know that a storm caused the ocean walk activity to get cancelled and we were presented with an option to go Scuba Diving instead. Bravehearts as we were, took the challenge head on and here we are all geared up!
As our trip was nearing an end, we took a ferry back to Port Blair and a flight back to Bangalore the same day. This time I am glad that I didn’t choose Makruzz and a big ferry boat instead which was a lot stabler and calmer over waves.
GB Hacks
- Small trivia: Did you know that it is illegal to carry any sea shell from Andaman back?
- Ferry shuttle between islands often get cancelled and it is best to have some buffer in your plan. Even if not cancelled, the frequency will be not more than once a day for less popular islands.
- Try to go fish boating and eat your catch!
Kedia's Travelogue 