FASCINATING ANDAMANS

Andaman  Islands – The  Emerald  Necklace  of   India – Heaven  on  Earth  - This  was my impression of these beautiful islands ever since I saw the pictures of the exotic locales in the photo album of my friend,  Rupa way back in the year 2003, when I was studying M.Tech. I instantly fell in love with this place. This place was my first choice of tour after my wedding in the year 2006. But due to the unfortunate Tsunami that had devastated the islands in 2004, I felt that was not the right time to visit this place, as it really needs a lot more time to rebuild tourism.

Since then, I badly wanted to visit this place. I was so enchanted with these mysterious islands that I even read a book written by Dr. Tilak Ranjan Bera, which is a must read if one wants to know more about this place. After a long wait, finally, it so happened this year that we happened to visit the Andamans. On 20^th of June 2013, my husband Suresh went to PortBlair from Chennai, as a part of his office site visit and meetings. I sadly baded good bye to him, with an envy in my heart. The next day, he called me up and asked me if I wanted to come there. I was thrilled and immediately jumped into flight and headed off to PortBlair, along with my daughter ‘Shriya’.

The beauty of the islands mesmerized me. The aerial view of the islands from the flight was simply superb. The green islands covered with forests truly looked like a piece of Emerald Necklace. Our flight Spice jet landed in PortBlair, amidst a shower of rain. There is one think you can’t expect in Andamans, and that is………… ‘rain’. All of a sudden, the sunny sky showers rain; and even before you hit your umbrella button, again all of a sudden the rain stops and gives rise to sun. The reason is obvious. These islands are covered with 80% forest area, which is the reason why this place receives good amount of rainfall. 

Day-1: 22^nd June 2013:- PortBlair:

PortBlair is a beautiful place, with the roads being dashed by the sea waves. It is in fact a ghat area, with hills on one side of the road and the deep sea on the other side. The ride on the roads of PortBlair itself makes for an adventure trip. After going around in the island for some time, I got a clear understanding of what an island is. An island can be defined as a hill that rises from the sea bed to a level higher than the sea surface water level. This is the first lesson I learnt from these islands.

On the first day, we visited the Sagarika museum, which has a wonderful collection of sea shells of gigantic sizes. The other collections of this museum include corals and an aquarium which exhibits variety of fish.

GIANT SIZED SEA SHELLS AT SAGARIKA MUSEUM

SKELETON OF BLUE WHALE

Then we went to Anthropological museum which houses information about the native tribals of the land, rare photographs of the tribals, model tribal huts, their fishing equipment, tools used by the tribals etc.

Some of the aboriginal tribes of the A&N islands are:

Jarawa Tribes – Mostly concentrated in the Baratang area. Uncivilized.  Negroid origin. Now extinct.

Shompen Tribes- Indigenous people of The Nicobar islands. Features similar to Mongolians.

Sentinelese Tribes: Inhabit the Sentinel Island. Hostile. No contacts with the outside world.

The following picture gives knowledge about the population of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

LINGUISTIC DIVISION OF POPULATION OF THE A&N ISLANDS

Later we watched the Sound & Light Show at the Cellular Jail, where famous freedom fighters like Veer Savarkar were prisoned. In fact, the Airport of PortBlair is named after him as Veer Savarkar AirPort.

SOUND & LIGHT SHOW AT CELLULAR JAIL

Day-2: 23^rd June 2013:- Havelock Island:

Early in the morning, we headed off to the harbour and boarded Coastal Cruise for our visit to the most famous Havelock Islands, which is at a distance of 67 km from PortBlair. The cruise looked spectacular and it travels with a speed of 45 kmph.

COASTAL CRUISE TO HAVELOCK ISLANDS

As it was rough sea on that day, probably due to full moon day, it was more like a roller coaster ride over the bouncing waves. So it is better to have nausea medicines handy to combat sea-sickness.

INSIDE COASTAL CRUISE TO HAVELOCK

On reaching Havelock, we set off by a boat to a coral beach for snorkelling. The boat man took us snorkelling. Snorkelling is an activity, where in, one can float over the water with help of a tube and see the wonderful underwater life by means of magnifying glasses. One has to breathe by a pipe connected to the mouth. It was my first view of the underwater life and the experience is nothing but fantastic. I got to see various colourful fish and corals, which I had never seen till then. It was so enthralling that we went for a second round of snorkelling.  

SNORKELLING

Shriya and myself did jet-skiing as well, which was quite stimulating.

JET -SKIING

The beach looked beautiful with fallen trees and the seashore was entirely covered with heaps of dead corals and sea shells. Shriya spent time watching the huge collection of corals, sea shells and playing in the shallow sea water.

BEACH  AT HAVELOCK WITH FALLEN TREES & DEAD CORALS

After a quick lunch, we spent time at Radha Nagar Beach, which is said to be one of the best beaches in Asia. The beach looks flat, even and safe for playing. It is known for its pristine white sand beach, for the sand in the beach is fine, unspoiled and as white as talcum powder.

RADHANAGAR BEACH AT HAVELOCK – ONE OF ASIA’S BEST BEACHES

Day-3: 24^th June 2013:- North Bay & Ross Island:

Do you remember the picture of the coconut trees behind the backdrop of beach on a Rs.20 Rupee Note? Any guesses where the picture is taken? Of course no prize for the right guesses! The famous picture is taken at North Bay island.

NORTH BAY ISLAND

This day - we set off by a boat to North Bay island. We went on a glass bottom boat ride, through which we can see the fish and corals in the sea water. But relatively, the view from snorkelling was much better.

Later Suresh and myself did sea-walking. Sea-walking is literally walking over the sea bed. A 35 kg helmet is put on the head of the sea-walkers, through which oxygen is supplied. As the helmet is kept just before going underneath water, the weight is not felt.  Suresh and I slowly got down from a ladder on the pontoon in the middle of the sea. The divers took us deep into the sea. We reached the sea bed and started walking over there. The underwater marine life is simply amazing with different kinds of fish and colourful corals. Corals look like stones or plants. But corals are actually a group of tiny animals which survive by eating algae, micro-organisms and even tiny fish. They survive in shallow, unspoiled waters of the sea. We got an opportunity to see the reaction of various corals to the touches of fish. We got a chance to hand feed the fish with bread crumbs. As soon as I held the pack of bread, I was completely surrounded by various fish, some small, some big and some even bit me. But the presence of the skilled divers around made us feel confident and comfortable. The 25 minutes of sea-walking was packed with thrilling moments. It was an experience of a life time. The Andaman Islands boasts of the first and one and only sea-walking facility available in India.

SEA-WALKING

As soon as we came on to the pontoon, we saw Shriya busily feeding fish from the deck of the pontoon. So many fish gathered around that place and some fish were jumping to catch the bread crumbs.

Next we went to Ross Islands, which is said to be the first British establishment prior to Port Blair. We saw the old British structures covered with roots of massive trees, which reminded us of a thriller movie set-up. We even got to see the Japanese Bunkers, which were established at the time of Japanese rule over the land.  

ROSS ISLANDS

OLD BRITISH CONSTRUCTIONS AT ROSS ISLANDS

 

Later Suresh had a fish fry freshly prepared at Ross Islands. What is Andaman tour without sea-food!  We came back to Rajiv Gandhi Marine National Park in PortBlair, where we started our journey in the morning. Shriya and myself did another round of jet-skiing at the Marine Park. On our way back to hotel, we saw sea-plane, which is used to travel to islands. Sea plane has two boats attached below the legs of the plane. It can actually land over the water, as run-ways are not available in all the islands.

Day-4: 25^th June 2013:- Baratang – Lime stone Caves & Mud Volcano

Early in the morning, we travelled to Baratang island on road. Our car stopped at Middle Strait. The vehicles are allowed in convoy, which is permitted at certain stipulated timings. This area is covered with forests which are inhabited by the Jarawa tribes. The convoy is a line of vehicles - private vehicles, buses all are sent in a line, among which police security is also available. This system is not only to ensure the safety of the tourists, but also to ensure the safety of the Jarawa tribes. Stopping the vehicle, taking photographs of the tribes is strictly prohibited.

 

CONVOY TO BARATANG

 Luckily, we happened to see the Jarawa tribal people enroute Baratang. They looked like Adi vasis, with spears in their hands.  After crossing the forest area, we boarded vehicle ferry and reached Baratang island.

 

VEHICLE FERRY

From there, we headed off by a speed boat over backwaters. These waters are said to be inhabited by crocodiles. We reached a thick jungle area with wooden bridge. We got down from the boat and started walking in the jungle until we reached the limestone caves.

    

WOODEN BRIDGE OVER BACKWATERS

  



LIME STONE CAVES



When we reached back, we noticed that there was high tide and there was a rise in the water level. Even the wooden bridge which we walked on earlier was partly submerged under the water.

  
  We set off by our boat through the thick mangrove forests. Mangroves are trees which grow in salt water. As the water level rose higher, it became difficult for the boat to pass under the mangrove branches. We literally had to sit on the floor of the boat and bend hard for the boat to pass under the bridges and the thick mangrove branches. But the ride was quite thrilling. We had thumbs up after the adventurous ride. 

BOAT RIDE THROUGH MANGROVES

After the tiresome walk in the jungle, we had lime juice near lime stone caves, which was really refreshing. One good thing at the Andaman islands is - packaged drinking water only from the reputed brands like Bisleri, Aquafina & Kinley is available, even at the road side counters. Another thing is that – I didn’t see a single plastic bag being given in any shop in my entire trip. The best part is that the people of these islands live along with the nature. They get along with the crocodile creeks. They don’t want to cut a single mangrove branch even under adverse conditions. They respect and value nature. We, the people of the mainland kill the nature and think ‘we are living’. Had it been in the mainland of India, the mangrove forests would have been cut off and a concrete bridge would have been made to the lime stone caves; even part of the caves would have been demolished to make way to a 5 star hotel; finally we would have made a concrete jungle out of a real jungle. Hats off to the People of The Andamans, the real preservers of nature!

GO GREEN

Then we went to Mud stone caves, which is again a walk through muddy forest. The forest comprises mostly bamboo trees. Atop a small peak, we saw the mud volcanoes erupting mud. This place is a must watch for geotechnical people like us. Our boots were struck in mud and we had to clean them with water.

MUD VOLCANO

After the strenuous day, we had tender coconut water and tasty samosas. On our way back, we saw the Tsunami affected farm areas, which are now covered with sea water.

TSUNAMI AFFECTED FARM AREA

(Trunks of Old Coconut Trees & Mangroves newly mushrooming in the sea water)

We returned to PortBlair in the evening. We had a short visit to an aquarium which houses a variety of fish, corals and skeletons of underwater creatures. I did shopping at Samudrika emprorium. Some of the shopping items include show pieces of tribal people, T-Shirts with Andaman beach pictures, bracelets, ear studs and necklaces made with sea shells, ganesha idol made out of coconut, tree hut made out of coconut shell, photo and video albums pertaining to The Andaman islands.

SHOPPING AT PORTBLAIR

AT SHOP - SHOW PIECES OF JARAWA TRIBALS

Then we reached our hotel. We attended a dinner party arranged by Suresh’s office colleagues.

Day-5: 25^th June 2013:- Port Blair

We stayed at Government Guest house in PortBlair, which has rooms overlooking sea. The view from the rooms was enthralling. One can wake up to the mystic view of the sea. Morning – we had a cuppa coffee with the refreshing back drop of the beach. We played Frisbee with Shriya, while nice breeze was coming from the sea. We could see a number of sparrows chip-chirping everywhere, which have now become quite extinct in our mainland of India. 

VIEW FROM HOTEL ROOM

 Then we headed out to make a visit to the famous cellular jail. The cellular jail originally had seven wings, out of which only three are remaining now. The other wings disappeared due to encroachments by other buildings. We saw the places where the prisoners were punished, prisoners’ cells, gallows, place where the last wishes were made. It was quite touching to see all these places.

CELLULAR JAIL

Then we came out and waited for the vehicle to arrive. There were so many pigeons flocking that area, probably, symbolizing freedom. Meanwhile, Shriya spent time feeding the pigeons and enjoying with them.

SHRIYA FEEDING THE PIGEONS

We thanked Suresh’s office colleagues for helping us in all aspects and making our trip a memorable one. They gifted Shriya a lamp cover made of sea shells.

We boarded our flight and baded good bye to The Andamans – The most beautiful place I have ever seen……… the serene, unspoiled beaches, the wonderful corals……… Overall the trip was fascinating, thrilling, joyful… and I don’t find more adjectives to describe my experience!



The inscription on this statue reads,
"We have given our today
for your tomorrow".
JAI HIND