My Journey To The Andamans
During these pandemic times, a good vacation would help us reduce stress in the work-from-home situation. I started looking for places with beaches. My first choice was to plan a trip to the Maldives as the location has some serene views and clear water. Considering the elevated costs due to the pandemic and not many adventure activities, I was looking for an alternative. My wife suggested Andaman would be a good place. So here is a post on my journey in Andamans.
A Jail with many tales
We started our journey in Port Blair, one of the most visited places is the Cellular Jail. The jail was used by the British empire and the Japanese. Later was made a national memorial monument by the Indian government. The documents displayed have many stories on how the prisoners were captured and tortured. Later that night, the cellular jail has a special light and sound show. The show narrates the story from the perspective of a tree, which has seen many stories in prison. The sound effects were so good that occasionally you can visualize the scenes.
Traveling through Tribal area to visit two tidal islands
We started the next day to visit limestone caves near Bartang. The journey included passing through a tribal area, where tourists are restricted interaction or taking pictures of them. We are allowed to travel only in specific time slots. Prior permission is required, and overtaking is prohibited.
At the end of the tribal area, we need to take a ferry to reach the Bartang. A boat needs to be hired to visit the limestone caves. It involves a short trek in the forest. The limestone caves are alive and growing. The guide even explains how they have grown.
After visiting limestone caves, we started to Diglipur. Diglipur is in north Andaman. I was rethinking my decision to travel after the journey to Diglipur as the roads were so bad that I was not sure if I was traveling on a roadway or a ship moving towards a cyclone.
The next day, we visited Ross and Smith Islands. It was the only attraction we saw after enduring the journey to Diglipur. The islands form a pathway to walk in between during the low tide. The blue waters were scenic, we were allowed to stay on the Islands for 3 hours. Fortunately, we visited the islands during a low tide, so we could walk between the islands.
A day on two islands
We visited the Ross and North Bay Islands the following day.
Ross Island was renamed Netaji Subash Chandra Bose island in 2018. This island used to be the headquarters from where the Britishers used to operate. The island had the remains of the old buildings and churches. We are not allowed to enter the waters as it is maintained by the Indian defense on this island. The ruins in the island were further destroyed during the Tsunami in 2004 and helped reduce the impact on Port Blair.
The North Bay Island is known for water sport activities. We were restricted to two adventure activities due to timing constraints. We enjoyed the sea walk, which was walking under the water with a spacesuit helmet pumping oxygen. We got a chance to see many fishes. We also traveled on a semi-submarine in the hope of seeing more marine life, but the water was not clear, so not many fishes were visible.
Visiting the blue waters to Deep-sea dive
The next day we boarded a cruise to Swaraj Dweep island, previously known as Havelock island. There was heavy wind and the journey of 2 hours felt like an eternity as the ship was rocking in all directions making people throw up. We visited Radhanagar beach to watch the sunset later that day. Sunset was not visible as it was cloudy. The environment was serene with the blue waters and tall trees.
The next day was cloudy with light showers, but we managed to perform a deep-sea dive. We went to the Oval reef where different kinds of corals and various schools of fish were visible.
No cellular network to clear water
The next day we started to Shaheed Dweep, previously known as Neil Island. Upon reaching the island, we understood that no cellular network was functioning due to some outages. We had trouble finding the places and meeting people.
We visited Bharatpur beach that had water sport activities like deep-sea dive, snorkeling, and banana rides. The water was so clear, and the beach was so shallow that we almost walked a mile in the beach and still could not get the water to the hip level.
Later we visited Laxmanpur beach to watch a beautiful sunset. Laxmanpur beach was on the opposite side of the water to Radhanagar beach from Havelock island. So it had the same type of plantation and blue waters.
The next day we visited a natural bridge which was formed by two corals joining one other naturally. We started back to Port Blair later that day and returned home the next day.
The vacation did not have much time to relax, but it has given me good vibes by spending some time in nature. The serene views and blue waters gave me some good memories. Though every vacation has to end at some point, I can’t wait for the next one.
I will keep updating my travels on these blogs. If you find my post interesting and feel like supporting me, do buy me a coffee.
