Unlike mainland China, I never thought I would use a phrase like mainland India, but in the Andamans, which is as much a part of India as is Uttar Pradesh or Telangana, it became a necessity to refer to the much larger and more significant land chunk of the nation as such. Separated more than a thousand miles from the mainland by sea, closer to Thailand than to us, it felt like being in a different country, and the kids had to be reminded that we were indeed on Indian soil. Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India with its capital at Port Blair, is an archipelago of 572 islands.
Port Blair has direct flights from Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Chennai. As we came out of the Veer Savarkar airport, I was reminded of the older, simpler, not-so-jazzy airports that India had till a couple of decades ago when flying wasn’t as popular among Indians. A new one, though, is coming up soon.
Largely uninhabited, its major economy is tourism. There are no language issues as everyone can understand and speak Hindi, though Bengali, as we came to know later, is predominantly spoken here. Andamans is also home to a lot of immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh who reached here via sea routes and set up home here. They feel grateful to India and treat Indian citizens well, who are also the main tourists to the Andamans. The local folks are generally honest and friendly, which I realized when my wallet that I had left behind on a public bus was safely returned to me by the driver.
As one would expect, Port Blair is a small city built on a hilly area of South Andaman Island. The streets go up and down the hills coursing along the Andaman Sea on one side. Our first visit was to the cellular jail, infamous as the dreaded ‘Kala Paani’ built by Britishers to incarcerate felons who were sentenced to life. Political prisoners who had to be kept in isolation from mainland India were also housed here, including Veer Savarkar, whose cell is now staged and preserved. It’s now a monument of National importance. Out of the original seven towers that housed the prisoners, only three now remain. The rest were not restored, and now a government hospital stands in its place. It’s called ‘cellular jail’ as each prisoner was kept in his own cell measuring 7 ft by 13 ft.
We chose to spend five days on a small island called Swaraj Deep, known earlier as Havelock Island, about seventy kilometers from Port Blair. Swaraj Deep is reachable only by ferries that ply between Port Blair and Havelock. We boarded a small ocean liner called ‘Green Ocean’ from the jetty.
Our journey aboard the Green Ocean was one of the longest sea routes ever traveled by us. It took us two and a half hours to reach Havelock. Other ferries like Nautica and Makruzz go faster, but one is confined to the lower decks, while Green Ocean allows its customers time on the top deck. We spent most of our time on the upper deck, relishing the cool sea breeze and the fantastic view of the vast deep blue waters around us. One can also see smaller uninhabited islands along the way covered with mangrove forests. The munificent sea obliged us by not rocking our boat much.
Swaraj Deep is one of the largest islands of the archipelago spreading across an area of 92 sq. km and home to more than five thousand people. Though in the middle of nowhere, the island has many resorts and hotels and works like a small city with its own public transport service, its own power generating station, etc. The locals are conscious of the need to keep their island clean and environmentally safe. Bottled water is available only in two-liter bottles, and shopkeepers don’t provide any plastic carry bags – instead, they pack items in old newspapers.
Our resort, The Havelock Island Beach Resort, was only about a kilometer from the jetty on the main Havelock road. There is only one main street on the island that runs across the entire length of the island, starting from the jetty to Radhanagar Beach. It was around 4 pm when we reached the resort. The resort boasted a private beach which was the chief reason I had booked it. Well, they did have a private beach, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. I was hoping for a big sandy beach where one could spend an entire day looking out into the ocean. The picture below is what the beach was actually like.
It was not a sandy beach. The sea bed was covered with hard and soft corals that could be seen during low tide. We had to walk about a hundred meters into the sea to reach a place where small waves could be seen. We sat down on the sea bed and enjoyed our private shallow pool, which was the Andaman Sea.
Something that attracted the honeymooning couples was a heart-shaped swing construct where all husbands were expected to do the needful, i.e. click a picture with their better halves.
We were hungry now and ventured out for an eatery, though not hoping for a pure veg one; as luck would have it, we found one close by, and the food turned out to be good. We had our dinner there every night. What chance was there of finding another good pure veg restaurant anyways?
The resort provided complimentary breakfast, which was the highlight of our stay. It was a good spread with a choice of South Indian and North Indian recipes. The first day was obviously the famed Radhanagar beach, voted as the 7th best beach in the world. It was a pleasure to ride aboard a nice, environmentally friendly electric A/C bus that was affordable and very punctual. Riding the bus every day not only saved us a lot of money but got us in touch with the local population. That’s how we realized that almost all islanders spoke Bengali.
Radhanagar Beach was very much hyped up in my head, and it lived up to the hype. It’s possibly the cleanest and most scenic public beach in India. About a kilometre-long stretch of soft white sands between two rocky formations makes it secluded and private. The water is very clear and is a beautiful turquoise colour which gradually turns into deeper shades of blue as the Bay of Bengal extends out towards the horizon. One would possibly reach Chennai if one kept swimming in a straight line from here. The two rocky formations jutting out into the sea on both sides of the beach seemed like two arms of a gigantic person trying to embrace the sea but falling short by a few hundred meters. Alas! It takes one to be a thousand miles away from mainland India to find a beach this clean. Not even seaweeds come floating onto the beach. Radhanagar is a BLUE FLAG-certified beach that it received for being an environmentally friendly beach.
It is any wonder that we all immediately jumped into the sea. The water temperature was perfect. The sea waves came crashing at a rhythmic pace. I had a good time enjoying the small ones but got out when the wife felt the urge to ride the bigger ones. As someone who is wary of water bodies, I refrained from going in deeper, but the others couldn’t get enough of the sea. Reyansh found a hundred rupee note floating in the water. I asked him if he was doing ‘Samudra manthan’, making Lakshmi Ji come out of the sea. We stayed for many hours, and while I mostly sat on the shore, the others came out intermittently only to run back to the beckoning waves. It was great fun. Radhanagar is a wonder and a must-visit destination for the Andamans.
The next day was all about water sports at Elephant Beach. There is no direct bus service to Elephant Beach. One can either take a boat from the jetty or do a two km trek through a reserve forest to reach there. We took the bus en route to Radhanagar Beach and got off at the start of the trek. We took a guide to take us through the forest. People trek without a guide, but first-timers would find it daunting, and we felt it was better to pay for the guide. He also pointed out the various flora and fauna along the way and gave us instructions about avoiding the crawlers that one can encounter on the way.
Our trek ended in a Mangrove forest just before we hit the beach. We could see a lot of trees destroyed in the great tsunami of 2004. Mangroves of Andamans are forests with special trees that grow in the sandy areas next to the sea. They suck up salty water from the sea and filter it before they use it. It takes a long time for them to grow up as they have to battle harsh environments.
Elephant Beach is named so because people could ride on elephants till some years ago. The elephants perished, but the name remains so. Now it’s famous for all sorts of adventurous water sports. We had made it a point to reach early to avoid the crowd that usually swelled up by noon. The first activity was snorkelling which I found myself unfit for. Though a very innocuous activity, I could not let go of my psychological fear of water and bailed out as soon as we started. The kids floated up to a hundred meters along with the divers and saw the marine life and the reef along the shore. I did not bail out of the second activity, but I should have. The banana boat ride seemed easy enough, but it turned scary soon as the speed boat took us far from the shore and dragged us at very high speeds making abrupt turns meant to thrill the riders. There was no safety harness. I held on to the rope with all my strength fearing I would fly away at any instant. Five minutes seemed to be a much longer time. I had enough adventure for the day, so I stayed back from the jetski ride. Next was parasailing, which the entire family did. It was a no-thrill activity but good for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We were taken on a speed boat about a mile into the ocean and made to hover about a hundred meters above the sea using a parachute. One can see very far on all sides. As far as my eyes could see, I saw blue. We trekked back through the jungle to the main Havelock road and boarded the bus.
We still had the Kala Pattar beach to enjoy, so the third day was spent at the Kala Pattar beach. Kala Pattar Beach is on the other side of the island, opposite Radhanagar Beach. The weather had improved over the last two days, and it was a perfect combination of sun, sand, and sea. We took the public bus that plied on the second route to the Kala Pattar beach. The water was absolutely clear at the perfect temperature. The only thing against it was that it was not Radhanagar Beach. I would have found it picture-perfect had we not visited Radhanagar first. Small rocks lay on the sea bed, but it is easy to avoid them if one looks closely into the water. The waves weren’t as big as in Radhanagar, which is possible because this beach is on the Andaman Sea, which is calmer compared to the Bay of Bengal. One can enjoy sitting in the water and enjoying the smaller waves. There were many shops selling trinkets made from sea shells. The wife spent much time sampling the wares and buying a few.
We tried Kayaking the same evening. I stayed back that day but went for it the next day with the younger one. Kayaking is a simple water activity, and it’s done either early morning or early evening so as to be able to witness the sunrise or sunset. The guide leads the group along the shoreline into a narrow channel within a mangrove forest. One has to learn how to steer the kayak using the double-sided paddle. I soon got a hang of it after some initial struggle. It was fun, especially steering it through the narrow water channel.
We saved the best for last, the Scuba dive. I was not even remotely interested, knowing that it was all about breathing underwater. Oxygen cylinder or no oxygen cylinder, I could not be dragged into it by a hundred horses. It’s an early morning activity when the water is clear enough for the dive. The wife and the elder kid were game enough, and so they went. Once out into the ocean, they suited up and were asked to jump into the sea along with a trained diver. I don’t know how they felt when they were down there or what they could see, but it’s not an easy activity, even for swimmers. The small boat that rocks violently on the surface can alone give someone shivers. A lot of people chicken out at the last minute. I am glad I didn’t even care to venture.