ANDAMAN ESCAPADE !
"Where are you taking me for our first wedding anniversary ?", asked Roopa all of a sudden. Taken by surprise I told the first thing that came to my mind .."well how about the Andamans".
A few weeks later I got a series of mails from Roopa sending me details of all the various resort on the Andaman. She went ahead and picked the one she liked the best, it was called the barefoot jungle resort. Roopa dint stop there, she started emailing the folks at barefoot and got all the details on the pricing. This was all done during the last week of December. I still hadn't given a serious thought about planning for the whole trip , we still had 4 months to go but Roopa had just her bags to pack !
Januvary was when I sprang into action after I was reminded of the dire consequence of jeopardizing this momentous trip. The first thing on my mind was to get air tickets from chennai, the andamans can be reached via air/sea . The sea route takes 3 days and via the air takes 2 hours . I was in for a huge disappointment when I checked the fares for andamans , jet and Indian airlines had exorbitant fare ( The one way fare looked like two and fro fare in business class !). Disappointed I went to the Air deccan site to check for the fares and I found that they did not operate on that sector ! I was about to close the browser when I noticed a ticker message saying " Starting chennai - Port blair flights from MARCH 1 ", what a stroke of luck I thought and decided that it would be Air deccan that we would take.
The toughest part of planning a trip is to freeze on the dates and this has to be done at least a month in advance to beat the air fares. One has to look ahead to make sure that the holidays don't impact work schedule , get a thumbs up from the spouse and of course make sure that the right season is still prevailing at the planned destination ! Taking all this into consideration and after checking the Air deccan fares for the nth time we froze upon April 16th - April 24 th .
Gearing up as would be the experience with anyone, happens only on the previous day of travel. instead of carrying one heavy suitcase we decided to go for two light ones. Having heard about the disastrous effect the sun/sea water can have on the skin Roopa packed a lot of different skin creams . " This is SPF 50 sun block cream , this is the best you can get ", I remember her say. She was more on the defensive as a months stay in uncle sams backyard had made her quiet fair !.
GETTING THERE ( DAY 1 )
On the 16th of April we boarded the early morning Shatabdi express to Chennai and reached chennai at around 11:00 AM. Took an auto and reached the New Woodlands Hotel in Mylapore. Since our Flight to Port blair was on the next day at 7:20 am ,we had to spend the night in chennai.
We made the best use of our time in Chennai , soon after we checked in to the New woodlands hotel, we took an auto and reached the Satyam theater. Rang de basanti was the picture on my mind as I stood in Q to get the tickets but after a minute I was out of the Q with no tickets , the movie was running houseful even after 3 months of its release ! Disappointed we made our way to the Spencer shopping complex and had our lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Roopa shopped for some clothers and this peped her mood up ! In the evening we made it to the Gandhi beech and had snacks at the famous saravanas restaurant. 
DAY 2
Next day morning we got to the airport, the Air Deccan flight was on time ! And we boarded the flight to the Andamans. Two days of waking up before 5 am took its toll on us and we had a quick nap on the flight.
"This is your captain speaking, we would be landing in port Blair in another 20 minutes " said the speaker on the plane , and we curiously peered out of the window to get the first glimpse of the Andaman Islands.
Tree covered Islands , Turquoise , greenish coloured water is what greeted our eyes.
PORT BLAIR ( DAY 2 )
We got off from the comfort of the inflight AC and faced the warth of the Tropical sun , it was 9 AM but it felt like 1 PM, the reason being Andamans Geographical location . The Island is so far out east that it should have had its own time zone , but it follows the Delhi time zone and this explains the morning heat. Port Blair is a small city , the auto fare is 10 or 20 where ever you go. Since we were to spend only a night in Port Blair and head towards the Havelock Island , I had booked a "budget motel" ( using the terminology from Lonely Planet Guide). When the taxi driver gave us a puzzled look when I told him Jaganath Guest house , I got a sense of what was about to come. When the taxi parked outside Jagannath guest house it took us a whole minute to digest the fact that this is where we were to spend the night. The place bore a deserted look , no paint on the walls, a bare 3 storied building with a board reading out Jaganth guest house. After I regained my composure , it took me another minute to persuade Roopa to get off the taxi. We checked in and looked at the room and spent the rest 5 minutes swearing at the author of the Lonely planet who had recommended this as a ok place to stay in. We dint have much choice but to trust lonely planet once again for further advice on to how we could get out of the place, another 5 minutes and we had a plan laid out ......rent a bike and go around Port Blair was what it was.
Adventure on the Roads of Port Blair.
All the kinetic Honda's at Govindam, the place where they rent out bikes were taken and we were left with just yamaha bikes. I never owned a bike and have no experience driving one. The choice in hand was to give up and go back to jaganath Guest House or somehow manage to ride the bike, I chose the latter . " Iska Gear pattern kya hai", I asked the guy at the stores. "one up, all down" was his short reply. Took the keys and after 5 minutes of test driving I was ready to take on the roads of Port Blair. The Roads were not at all congested and we were both happy with this newly discovered source of Freedom. 
The Lonely Planet book had a very detailed Map of Port Blair, marking clearly the various restaurants and sight seeing places . Roopa sitting behind became an expert at navigation and we found all the place we set out for . Corbyn Cove , cellular jail ( was closed on that day) were the places we saw.
To make up for the lousy place that we were staying at, I offered to take Roopa out for dinner at the Fortune Bay Resort, which is one of the best hotels in Port Blair. We liked the food , the ambiance and the Sea facing view there . The way to and fro to this hotel turned out to be the most adventurous bike ride of the trip. The bike devoid of a head light , Indicator and horn posed a serious problem of making us invisible on the streets at night ! People blinded me with their high beam , honked incessantly to remind to turn on the lights but little did they know about the condition of the bike.
DAY 3
Next day , we packed our bags and again left Jaganath Guest house as ealy as we could, the bike was still with us and off we went again to Fortune bay resort to indulge ourselves in the breakfast buffet. The view in the morning was even more breathtaking than the previous night. I made the best use of the opportunity pulled out my camera and took a couple of pictures. I told Roopa that these were the photos I would show her dad and brag about the beautiful place I had booked at Port Blair for our Stay !
So after breakfast we went to the Cellular Jail to pay a visit , the previous days visit had gone futile as it was closed on Mondays.
CELLULAR JAIL
The Cellular Jail is a National Memorial and it is definitely worth going to. Part of the jail complex has been turned into a large Museum with a descriptive narration of the life of the prisoners in the Cellular Jail . There is a separate room dedicated to Netaji, which has photographs that span his entire life.
The Gallows and the prison cells were the other attractions here . The prison cells are accessible to the public and I took this opportunity to lock up Roopa in one of the cells !
After seeing Roopa flash a big smile from within the jail gate I had to walk up to her and remind her that people don't look so happy locked up. She got my point and posed aptly for the next picture !
At the Gallows Roopa , again flashing a smile
reminded me of one of the "third kind"
that Mr McKenzie met (Remember Rang de basanti ! ? )
My "Role play" photography continued as we left the cellular jail , this time it was the year 1945 and kaidee Roopa serving the "kala pani saza" makes a daring escape from the jail and before giving a slip poses for a photograph !
We returned the bike, packed our bags and left for the Phoneix bay Jetty to catch the speed boat to havelock. Hut Bay was the name of the boat that was to take us 54 miles from Port blair to the havelock Island.
We reached havelock in 2 1/2 hours time. A person holding a board bearing my name was waiting for us and a 30 minute jeep ride brought us to the Havelock Island # 5 and this where the barefoot jungle lodge was located. We checked in and were shown into our room. I was crossing my fingers and hoping that the room would be no way close to Jaganath Guest House !
The Andaman Villa that we had booked was worth every penny that we had paid for, it had a huge bathroom a porch and AC , enough to make us feel good . Here are a few pictures of where we stayed.
It was 6:30 PM when we reached the resort and by the time we had settled into our villa it was 7:30 PM. The resort is situated in the middle of a jungle and the sea shore is a minutes walk, after 7:00 PM the place gets so dark that it is impossible to navigate your way out of your room ! for this reason the resort provides each of the occupants with a torch. we made our way with the torch to a nearby hut which served as a restaurant. This is where we met the rest of the occupants of the other villas, to our surprise there were no other Indians ! , most of the people were chattering away in French ! We both settled on a table and after we ordered food we were looking around to see what kind of people were out here . I recollect the following pairs
1) The Caribbean guy with long hair cigarette in his mouth and beer on his table , always in a saffron dhoti ! with a old French woman. The French woman looked like his disciple she would be silent where as this sadhoo baba used to go on and on . He looked Indian but when I spoke to him he told me he was from the Caribbeans.
2) The French families , 2 couples with 5 kids . They would come to the restaurant , the couples would take up a table and have the kids take up another table. The kids would play with the cat which they had named "Teety", this cat would always be there during lunch /dinner and breakfast time.
3) The elderly couple 1 - Uncle with a lot of white hair all over his head and face,aunt with a pony tail, and with a pretty smile on her face. They were from Switzerland
4) Elderly couple 2 :- also from Switzerland, aunt oversized with red hair, uncle thin with glasses and French beard .
5) The cheerful and happy looking English couple .
6) I don't know who couple :- The wierdest of the lot , the guy looked 40 ish had a look of an escaped convict always use to wrap a shawl around him while coming to the restaurant . The lady of south east asian origin used to stick around with this guy. They always used to find one secluded spot in the restaurant and never mixed with any one.
DAY 4
We were woken up in the morning by a thud on the door . The "thud" was a wake up call to remind us that Rajan the elephant was going out to take a bath in the sea and if we were interested we could go watch it. We made our way to the beach and witnessed Rajan enjoying his bath in the sea.
The rest of the day was spent on the beach. The barefoot jungle resort where we stayed nurtures a lot of flora and fauna , from dogs , cats and elephants to beautiful birds.
Roopa along with "Teety" and this is the Golden Oriole which I spotted at the resort.
A plum headed Parakeet and a kingfisher were also spotted.
Day 5
On this day we had planned for a snorkeling trip but as we got up in the morning we were greeted by showers that never gave hint of stopping hence the snorkeling trip got postponed to the next day.
During lunch on that day, Roopa picked up one of the board games lying in the restaurant called Yahtzee and we spent the whole of the afternoon trying to understand it, and at the end of it we had become yahtzee addicts. I did beat up Roopa 5 games to 1 I think ( Roopa correct me if I am wrong was it 5 games to 0 ? ;-) ).
By the time we had got fed up with Yahtzee , the sky had cleared up and we went to the beach to spend our time. The Radhanagar beach on havelock #5 is rated as the best beach in Asia!
http://www.time.com/time/asia/2004/boa/boa_soul_andaman.html . Turquoise blue clear water , white sand , hardly few people on the beach and absolutely clean beach is what you can find here , no doubt it is rated as the best beach. The water here is so clean and transparent that you can see the sand being pulled by the waves as they hit the shore , here are the pictures of the Radhanagar beach
DAY 6 ( Snorkeling Trip )
The skies were clear in the morning and the snorkeling trip was on. I was very excited about the snorkeling trip , Roopa was aprehensive , jumping into the sea with fins attached to your feet and a contraption stuffed into your mouth to help you breathe dint make her feel comfortable.
After choosing our gear we had our breakfast and were ready to leave , we made our way to the jetty in a jeep and this is where we met Kapil and Mili , they were on their honeymoon and had just arrived last night . We were happy to see another Indian couple arrive at the resort and we enjoyed their company during the rest of our stay. We all arrived at the jetty and got on to a boat that carried 10 people along with 3 others ( 2 guides and a cook ) from the resort. We first reached a small Island where we learnt how to snorkel thanks to the friendly guide that had come along. The next island where we stopped was where we actually snorkeled. The island itself was magnificent no big crashing waves ,everything was calm and clear. Here are a few pictures
If the view on the shore was magnificent the view inside the sea when we went snorkeling was nothing short of being breath taking with vast coral formations and thousands of fishes, each fish vibrant in colour , Bright red , blue , Yellow and rainbow coloured . The view inside was mind blowing . This was no doubt one of the most enjoyable moments of the whole trip. As we were looking around a school of blue fishes hundreds of them in a fixed formation darted right below us . On our second round we spotted a huge turtle relaxing down below , as soon as it heard the splashing of our fins it pushed its limbs out and swam away with amazing speed. After three rounds of snorkeling we came out hungry and tired and had lunch which was cooked by our boat crew , the "Khichdee" with the tomato chutney was awesome. After lunch we set out back to havelock , we had one more place where we could snorkel.
The place was the Eagle Islands , it looked more like a big boulder suspended in the middle of the sea. Roopa was shocked when the guide asked us to adorn our snorkeling gear and take a dive into the middle of the sea, after convincing her that it was ok and that I would jump in right after her she finally took the plunge . The picture below shows Roopa jumping into the sea and I following right behind.
The view down below was even more magnificent than before , we spotted a big lobster here along with lot of beautiful fishes and coral formations. After about 20 minutes of snorkeling we got back into the boat and we were ready to head back to havelock.
A whole day of snorkeling in the sun had taken its toll on us, a bad tan ( it was so bad that our skin was burning) aching limbs is what we had. You can make out the state we were in looking at this photo !
On our way back the boat was silent except for the hum of the motor as all of us were tired , the clouds opened up and sent down a light shower , everyone was enjoying the cool breeze and the drizzling rain. The rain stopped as we got close to havelock the sun was setting down and the view called for more pictures.
It was almost 8 PM by the time we reached the resort and after having a quick dinner , had a good nights sleep.
DAY 7
Our skins were burning badly even after applying the special cream the resort had provided. Roopa looked into the mirror for the nth time and swore never again to have a holiday by the beach! We stayed indoors most of the time and only in the evening went out to the beach took a few pictures on the beach.
Day 8
It was time for us to pack up and head back to Port Blair , we reached Port Blair by the speed boat at around 7:00 PM Our flight was in the morning at 9:00 Am . We had to spend the night in Port Blair . Ajay put on his thinking cap and came to a logical conclusion that spending another night at Jaganath Guest house was ok and monitarily benefitial !
Hell Hath no Furry Like a Women Scorned
We checked into to the Jaganath Hotel at 7:30 PM , we took an auto to get a print out of the Airticket for the next day sinceI had misplaced it ! From here on everything went downhill ...we started out and the rain picked up and started raining heavily at the browsing center I could not get the print out as the printer was out of order but the owner of the browsing center was himself an Air Deccan agent and assured me that having a PNR number is enough and there was no need to have a printed ticket. So back we came drenched in the rain to jaganath Guest house to find the place drowned in darkness , slowly we made our way to the office and the guy told us that the power was out as the transformer had burst !! I asked him for a torch he said he dint have asked him for a candle he dint have he added that there would be no power for the whole night and there would be no water in the taps too ! A foreigner who also had stepped out had a spare candle and he lent us that with this we could make our way into our room. The room was hot, we were sweating badly , the mosquito's had a field day . Roopa had completely lost her patience and what went on is summarized in this paras heading ! but it lasted only for the first 30 minutes and she was back joining me laughing at the horrible mess we had ended up in !
We tried to sleep but could not catch a minutes of sleep , this was one of the longest nights that I have ever spent , restless and looking at my watch now and then waiting for it to break dawn. As soon as it was dawn we got up packed and left for fortune bay for breakfast and went straight to the Airport and were back in bangalore in the evening .
THE END
Like all good things our holiday seem to come to an end too soon ! But the memories of the sinful combination of sand , sea and adventure are still fresh and would love to go back to the Andamans for Snorkeling and SCUBA !!
