How does the thought of visiting pristine, white-sand beaches with turquoise water, crystal-clear enough for you to see your feet, sound? Now how does a fully-sponsored trip to said place sound? Boils your blood, does it not?
Well, I was lucky enough to have visited the Andaman islands in the second week of April, completely sponsored, by office.
For those who aren’t aware, the Andaman & Nicobar islands are union territories attached to India. A plethora of islands form Andaman and a smaller number of islands make up Nicobar. These islands are situated in the majestic Bay of Bengal sea and is a good distance (2.5 hour flight from mainland India). There’s only the 1 airport, in Port Blair, which is the capital of the islands. There is another international airport which is WIP and may become operational in the next 2 years.
As lucky as we were to enjoy a free trip, we weren’t cut any slack by the weather, which was as hot and humid as it could be. If you’re looking for the best time to visit these islands, it’d surely be in winter (from November to February). The heat prevented us from truly going out and exploring the local life in the islands, wander around the streets and have food. Also, since the islands are geographically in the east but follow the IST, expect very early sunrises and equally early sunsets.
The entire city and all of Andaman is extremely clean and we were exposed to smooth roads, garbage-free streets and beaches. Suffice it to say, A&N have to be the cleanest place that I’ve visited in India.
Language isn’t a barrier, since all locals speak good Hindi and have a decent capacity of English. Besides tourism, there isn’t much of a livelihood option here, we figured.
Swatantrya Veer Sawarkar was the jail’s most famous inmate and his cell was highlighted. One can only imagine how the prisoners survived during the turmoil days and how they would have spent years lodged in tiny cells.
The jail also includes a Light and Sound show which highlights the struggles and tribulations of the jailers and inmates and the history of this jail. It is definitely a show which is to be watched, and preferably at a time slot past sunset, so the lights visibly stand out against the backdrop of the stretched alleys of the jail.
A quick visit to Corbyn Cove’s beach took care of the remainder of our day of sightseeing at Andaman. This was the first time on a beach which was cleaner than any other beach I had ever seen. Even though none had planned to go into the water, we enjoyed the cool breeze on our faces, which can across as a welcome change for every tired soul.
After a well deserved night of sleep, the group then headed to Havelock islands, another beautiful and highly recommended island, via ferry. Now here’s the important part - there is no other mode of transport to visit the island and so you have to book for your tickets well in advance. What did come across as a bummer was the fact that no one was allowed on the deck of the boat and all the windows were tinted. The journey seemed no different than a flight and except for a 5-second wavy chaos, the right was pretty boring, especially since we had to wake up pretty early to catch the ferry at 8pm.
Havelock islands are much greener and give you the feeling of living in a laid-back village. Our resort of Coral Reef was absolutely gorgeous and had an even better private beach to itself. Blue waters everywhere. Best part is, the water is so clear, you can see your feet even when you’re waist deep in the sea.
After another chilled out evening to ourselves, we finally decided to go for the best experience of our lives the next day - scuba diving.
As much as I am confident of swimming and being able to save my life in water, I couldn’t help but feel a little anxious about going underwater, albeit under supervision. I think I was majorly concerned about my cough and what would happen if I had to cough under water. Long story short, nothing happened.
Here’s the thing about scuba diving, for a practiced swimmer, it is actually difficult in learning how to breathe with the tube, mainly because you are so used to holding your breath under water. It took me a while getting used to breathing with the equipment. Pro tip - use your mouth to drag the oxygen inside and blow it out from your mouth as well, like you would when you have to blow a balloon.
The scenery inside was something right out of a dream, everything was blue and slow and the schools of fishes and their variety of color made me want to settle down underwater forever. Everything seemed so peaceful, it is like every living thing was aware of the co-existance of others and respected it, very much unlike the chaos you see on land.
The sea anemone or the clown fish as you’d call it (the fish from Finding Nemo) really hogged the limelight, with everyone posing for a mandatory picture with the fish dwelling in its sea household.
Not to forget that the group had to wake up pretty early to enjoy this excursion - at 5 in the morning. After a well deserved nap, the group enjoyed a sumptuous meal of fish and prawns and chicken. I did totally forget to mention, food here is a non-vegetarian’s paradise - especially the seafood. Try the local restaurants, if you want to better relish the experience.
We then tried out a soothing and relaxing Kerala ayurveda massage - I have to admit here, I’m not particularly up for this thing, not when the masseuse applies liters of oil on your skin. A casual swim in the pool with a mocktail in hand makes for the perfect end to an adventurous yet relaxed kind of a holiday.
Advise - you can probably avoid the Elephant beach on Havelock island, you cannot swim here, you cannot go beyond a certain stretch of restricted area and there’s no direct access to this beach - you require to book tickets on a smaller ferry to get here. You don’t have the freedom to go back to your hotel rooms either, the boatsmen/guides give you a stipulated time to spend 3 hours in the heat. All you can do is enjoy a few watersports - jet ski, parasailing, glass bottom boat ride (isn’t as good as it sounds).
The only good part is the boat ride to the island and the clean beach, which by now had become ubiquitous with Andaman. Make the most out of cameras and get yourself the perfect display picture.
As we made our way back to Port Blair, we couldn’t help but feel that we had overstretched our vacation by a day or two here. If you have to shop, all you can do is shells, which seems like a stupid thing to shop for, it doesn’t excite me neither does the prospect of gifting shells to anyone seem enticing.
On our penultimate day of the trip, we went for an organized tour around Port Blair, a couple of museums here and there - a Maritime museum and another tribal museum. We then took another small boat ride to Ross Island, which is just 10 mins away from Port Blair. If allowed, I’d have swam across, you know, just saying lol.
This island bore significant importance as it served as residential quarters of the British. You can see the remnants of WW-2 bombarded buildings and church and shops and can only imagine what royal life the British would have led then, on Indian soil.
Everyone was now eager to get home and just waited to count down the hours to take the flight back. As mentioned, 3-4 days on the island is enough to have a good time.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time out there, seeing a pristine island really ticks a mark out of my bucket list. But I’ll choose to stay away from islands for a while now, probably do a strenuous trek to North India next. When I do, I’ll ensure to post an article too.
Cheers