Two men
Andy and Jo
Decide to go
and thus begins ‘The Adventure of A&N Islands’
It was a 5night and 6day trip to Andaman with Kingfisher flights from Chennai.
Date: 11th June, 2011 – 16thJune, 2011
Day 1 – Reach Port Blair Airport, Go to Hotel Room, Watch the heavy monsoon showers and get upset, Have breakfast, lunch, Explore the Aberdeen Bazaar, Visit to the Corbyn Cove beach, get drenched in rain, do some shopping if required, missed cellular jail light and sound show, have dinner, go back to room.
Conclusion : Don’t assume things about Port Blair. Its just like any other city, Little less traffic, reminded me of the 10-15yr old Bangalore, Since diesel costs less most of the people own big vehicles. We were very upset with our first day experience and We looked at each other’s face and wondered whether this trip would end up a disaster considering the monsoon showers.
Day 2 – Go to the Phoenix harbor and board a ferry to Havelock Island which has the famous Radhanagar Beach. We dint get tickets for the ferry and go to know that tickets for next three days were booked. The look on our faces was horrible. Get back to room, Have breakfast, decided to go to a Three island tour.
Ross- Viper-North bay + guided snorkeling trip at North Bay.
Conclusion : Day 2 had got the smile on our face back. We felt that we had come for a trip. Snorkeling is fun and exciting when the water is clear.
All the islands mentioned above are worth a visit.
Day 3 – Radhanagar beach and Snorkeling at Elephant beach in Havelock Island. Our travel agent arranged two tickets somehow. Radhanagar beach is considered to be one of the best in Asia. Snorkeling at Elephant beach was once in a lifetime experience. Ferry Ride from Havelock to Port Blair, was like a real life water ride. Experienced what a rough sea could mean, Frightening and exciting.
Conclusion : Day 3 was simply awesome. All the Day 1 thoughts had got eliminated and we were talking about how the day went and what experiences we had.
Day 4 – Baratang, limestone caves, Mud Volcano, A sneak peek into the life of the ferocious ‘Jarawa’ tribe. It’s a 3 hour ride in a bus, we can catch a glimpse of the tribal people. Few of them looked normal with pant and short, few others were in their traditional costume. The entry to the Lime stone cave was awesome and the caves have amazing structures created by limestone. Mud volcano is a tourist spot, just go, see and come back
Conclusion : This day was fun too. We were talking about the Jarawas, how would it be to spend a day with them.
Day 5 : This was day meant for city tour. We were very apprehensive about two museums, but I must say its worth a visit. Highly informative, We got to know about the so called barren Island, North Cinque island and about the significance of the famous hindi dialogue ‘Do Kauri ka aadmi nahin’.
The two museums were ‘Samudrika’ and ‘Anthropological Museum’. One of Asia’s biggest and oldest saw mill at Chatham, The prowess of the machines there will make you standstill. Finally a visit to the ‘Cellular Jail’, knowing about the history of the Indian freedom fighters and mourning for a minute near the ‘Vir Savarkar’s’ Cell. In the end, the most awaited and well known ‘Light and Sound’ show at the cellular. Its made really well and yes it is a National Memorial.
Conclusion : We felt every visit to every place was worth it, since the day ended with the light and sound show, we were silent .
Day 6 : Little shopping, Board the flight back to Chennai at 12 noon. Had lunch on board.
Conclusion : With great memories, great experiences, we returned wanting more of such holidays.
Nice man…you covered all the places A&N islands are famous for.
well… the trip i shouldn't have missed…… WELCOME TO BANGALORE Andy. You could have added some photos with JARAWA tribe…. LOL!
HAPPY JOURNEY FOR THE NEXT DESTINATION.
TC 🙂
I visited Port Blair in September 2011 with my family. It really is a good experience. We visited almost all the places which Anil & Co. had visited. Cruelties of cellular jail and Japanese occupation were horrible. Generally, mainland Indians are not aware of such a depressing history of Andaman & Nicobar. There is a need to highlight all this so that every Indian comes to respect the value of freedom.