Amazing Andamans
- September 18th 2019
Table of Contents
King of the Green Islands
During the early days of my childhood in 1973 in Durgapur in West Bengal, I had gone with one of our Bengali family friends to watch a Tapan Sinha directed Bengali Movie – Shabuj Dweeper Raja meaning King of the Green Islands.
This movie, an adventure thriller was shot in the islands of Andaman & Nicobar and as a kid, I was bowled over by the scenic and natural beauty of the place and the verdant greenery all around. Managed to locate the DVD of this movie and must have watched it at least 4 to 5 times.
The first opportunity to visit the Andamans came in the year 2010 when I had to go to Port Blair on some official work. And thankfully with the meetings scheduled around a Thursday and Friday, stayed back for an additional couple of days with a colleague and managed to go around the island a bit.
A couple more of official visits followed and a plan to visit this place with family remained firmly etched in my mind but the exorbitant fares was always proving to be a deterrent.
How did the visit finally happen
Kept looking for Port Blair whenever the plans for a vacation were being drawn but invariably, the family kept narrowing down on some or the other location whenever Port Blair was being suggested, given the prevailing high fares.
During the peak season between October to May, travel to Port Blair can become prohibitively expensive.
The search continued until I got a fantastic deal on Indigo for return fares for all the four of us at Rs.27,426/- in the 3rd week of September. Without batting an eyelid, got the tickets booked immediately.
We decided to take our chance knowing that it could pour cats and dogs in September but thankfully the weather gods were kind to us almost through out our stay.
Else it could be incessantly pouring throughout the day and could turn out be a big deterrent with flights getting delayed/cancelled and ferry trips getting cancelled.
A 4 day trip itinerary was quickly chalked out with stays at Port Blair for a couple of days and a night at Havelock Island. The flights were booked online with Indigo, the ferry bookings with MAK Logistics for a return trip to Havelock Islands and the hotels through Booking.com
The Best time to visit these Islands
The months of October to February is when the tourist influx is at its peak as the temperature, humidity and rainfall are on the lower side. March to May could be okay for a visit if you are able to manage the heat during the day time while June to September is when the monsoons are at its peak.
Where does one stay in these islands
At Port Blair, one could look at Clark’s Exotica Island House, Symphony Samudra Beachside Jungle Resort and Spa or Welcomhotel by ITC, Adhvasaha Beach Spa Resort, SeaScape, Silver Sand Sentinel and many more but do read up the reviews and check the ratings before narrowing down on your choice.
Havelock Island also has some lovely resorts and one could look at The Barefoot, Hotel Havelock Gateway, Sea Shell Resort and Spa, Coral Reef Resort and Spa, Ile Bay Resort, Tilar Siro Andamans, Silver Sand Beach Resort, Munjoh Ocean Resort and many more.
We had booked ourselves at The Ocean Terrace a lovely property overlooking the sea and the mountains. This was at Haddo, located around 4 kms from the City Centre in Port Blair.
At Havelock Islands, we had done the reservations at Havelock Farms Resort, a lovely property with great food, a nice ambience and with very friendly people who went out of the way to make our stay comfortable.
How does one reach Port Blair
The Veer Savarkar Airport at Port Blair, the capital city of this Union Territory of the Anadaman & Nucrobar Islands is connected to most metros through a direct or a single hop flight. For reasons that there is no Instrument Landing system here at Port Blair, there are no flights into this island post 2 PM. Most major airlines however do have flights to Port Blair.
Getting to know Andaman better
The Andaman and Nicobar islands is a stretch of 836 islands grouped into the Northern and Southern islands and separated by a 150 km wide channel out of which only 31 are believed to be inhabited.
These islands are sandwiched between the Bay of Bengal to the West and the Andaman Sea to the east and shares maritime borders with Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand.
The capital and largest city of the islands lies equidistant to the metros of Chennai and Kolkata at an approximate distance of 1200+ kms.
Studies around the genes and culture suggest that the indigenous Andamanese people may have been isolated from other populations during the Middle Paleolithic age which ended over 30,000 years back.
The Chola empire is believed to have used the islands as a naval base in the 11th Century CE to launch attacks in South East Asia and had also established a trade route via these islands between India and South East Asia. The European colonization started around the year 1755 when settlers from the Danish East India Company arrived here and they managed these islands from Tranquebar.
Denmark’s presence formally ended here in October 1868 when they sold the rights of the Nicobar islands to Britain which made them part oif British India in 1869. A Cellular Jail got constructed here between 1896 to 1906 to house prisoners of war and political activists fighting for the independence of India.
During the 2nd World War, the Japanese captured Port Blair from the Britishers and on 6th November 1943, these islands were finally handed over to them.
The journey to Port Blair begins
The flight to Port Blair took off at 8.25 AM and touched down at Port Blair by around 11.00 AM. We hired a cab from the airport and headed for Haddo where our hotel Ocean View Terrace was located. Check-in formalities done, we settled into our rooms until it was time for lunch.
There was a slight drizzle outside and instead of going out to a restaurant for lunch, we decided to try the food at the hotel itself. The food was excellent and after a couple of hours of rest, we took a cab to Chidiya Tapu.
Hotel Ocean View Terrace
Sightseeing at Port Blair on Day 1
A visit to Mundapahar Beach & Chidiya Tapu
The Chidiya Tapu beach is located around 28 kms from the main town and is at the Southern most tip of South Andaman Island. Known to very popular amongst tourists for the sunset views, bird watching and the panoramic scenery around. The rains proved to be a dampener as the skies were overcast and cloudy and we missed the opportunity to get a good capture of the sunset. The rich mangrove forests around are home to a wide variety of birds.
Earlier photos of Chidiya Tapu beach from my 2011 visit. A lot more drier at that time.
Corbyn's Cove
After spending around an hour and a half and post all the photo shoots, we headed for Corbyn’s Cove which was around 21 kms away and entailed a 30 minute travel. This is the only developed beach in Port Blair and the shoreline has a lot of palm trees. We were there at the beach till around 5.30 PM in the evening and headed back to our hotel, 8 kms away from this place.
The evening was spent watching some TV until we decided to order some dinner at the Hotel itself. We were to board the ferry to Havelock the next day by around 8.00 AM and the reporting was an hour before.
Havelock Island
The evening was spent watching some TV until we decided to order some dinner at the Hotel itself. We were to board the ferry to Havelock the next day by around 8.00 AM and the reporting was an hour before.
- September 19th 2019
We were ready by 6.30 AM and after checking out of the hotel, we headed for the ferry point from where we were to board INS Makruzz, a Catamaran Ferry to go to Havelock Islands, located around 70 kms away. After going through the check-in formalities, we were all set to leave by around 8.10 AM and after a smooth ride for 90 minutes, we touched base at Havelock Islands, currently known as Swaraj Dweep.
The air conditioned ferry travels at a maximum speed of 30 nautical miles per hour and the large windows offer mesmerizing views of the blue ocean. We alighted at the Govind Nagar Ferry junction and after collecting our luggage, spent some time photographing the beautiful views on offer. The ferry tickets costed us roughly 1,500/- per person and included a sandwich and coffee.
Havelock or Swaraj Dweep as its known as from the year 2018 is one of the largest islands in Ritchie’s Archipelago to the East of Great Andaman, famous for its picturesque and pristine beaches, snorkeling and scuba diving sites and vibrant coral reefs.
The next 15 to 20 minutes were spent in some photoshoots around the Jetty. The entire surroundings looked very picturesque and the sight of the tranquil blue sea against the backdrop of the white sand and verdant greenery made for some lovely views. We then booked a cab for ourselves and reached The Havelock Farms Resort by around 10.30 AM. The check in formalities done, we settled into our rooms. We had our lunch at the resort and booked a cab to take us to the beaches around.
The Kalapathar Beach
The first of the beaches we visited was the Kalapathar beach. True to its name, this beach is partially rocky and is located at a distance of around 7 kms from the ferry point. The lush green forest cover runs parallel to the blue coastline. Compared to the main beach at Radha Nagar, the tranquil blue waters of the sea offer a picturesque solitude and is an ideal place where one can unwind and relax.
The Radha Nagar Beach
We then moved onto the crescent shaped Radha Nagar beach. Also known as Beach No. 7, this palm fringed white sand beach is rated amongst the 7 best beaches in the world and us recognized by Times Magazine as the best beach in Asia in 2004. The turquoise blue placid waters of the sea and the white sand shoreline stretching to almost about 2 kms makes for some amazing views.
One can also indulge in swimming in the waters and shower and change rooms are available for the general public. It becomes dark pretty early and one is not allowed to be on the beaches beyond 6 PM.
We were back in our resort by around 6.30 PM and after lazing around for sometime, went to the restaurant for dinner. The food here is amazing and even if one is not staying here, include their restaurant as a must dine in during your stay at Havelock.
A few more photographs from the resort the next day morning.
Dining over the couple of days at Havelock
- September 20th 2019
The Vijaynagar Beach
We were to take the ferry back to Port Blair the next day afternoon at 4.00 PM and had some free time during the day. Hired a Tuktuk (Auto) to go to the nearby Vijaynagar beach which was just about 1.2 kms from our resort. After spending around an hour we were back at the resort.
We headed for an early lunch at the resort’s restaurant. By around 2.45 PM we completed the checkout formalities and headed for the ferry junction for our return journey back to Port Blair by INS Makkruzz. The ferry reached Port Blair at around 5.00 PM and we checked into the same Hotel Ocean View Terrace.
We had nothing much planned that evening as it was already late and took an auto to the Water Sports Complex and then to the Cellular Jail complex to view in the sights of the jail before and after the lights come on. A detailed tour of the jail complex was planned the next day afternoon
We headed for an early lunch at the resort’s restaurant. By around 2.45 PM we completed the checkout formalities and headed for the ferry junction for our return journey back to Port Blair by INS Makkruzz. The ferry reached Port Blair at around 5.00 PM and we checked into the same Hotel Ocean View Terrace.
We had nothing much planned that evening as it was already late and took an auto to the Water Sports Complex and then to the Cellular Jail complex to view in the sights of the jail before and after the lights come on. A detailed tour of the jail complex was planned the next day afternoon
We were back at the Hotel rooms by around 8 pm and after an early dinner, finished off our packing before we retired for the night. The next day was to be our last day at Port Blair and we had a couple of places to see before catching the evening 4 PM flight back to Chennai.
We had to give the Jolly Buoy and Neil Island a miss as we were constrained for time.
Both these islands are supposed to be very picturesque and ideal for sea walks, scuba diving and snorkeling. I did have the opportunity to visit Jolly Buoy island in 2011.
A 45 minute ride takes one to a beautiful stretch of white sand beaches and which have less tourist inflow compared to the rest of the more popular islands/beaches
Visuals from Jolly Buoy from the year 2011
- September 21st 2019
Sightseeing at Port Blair on our last day
The Ross Island
We reached the ferry point from where we were to board a motor boat to Ross Island, a 3 km and 15 minute ride away. These islands, which were renamed as Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Islands in 2018 was once the administrative headquarters of the British Raj. This continued to serve as a Convict Settlement after being established in the year 1858 to house prisoners captured during the Indian rebellion of 1857.
After World War II, the Britishers were handed back possession of the islands by the Japanese. An earthquake in the year 1941 unsettled the inhabitants and a number of people fled away. Lot of old building lie in a dilapidated condition including a Ballroom, Government Houses, a Swimming Pool, a Bakery, a Hospital and the Chief Commissioner’s house. There is a nice deer park in the island and one also gets to see lot of peacocks roaming around.
The Cellular Jail
By noon, we reached the Cellular Jail, the infamous Colonial Prison of the British era. A building which today stands as mute witness to all the wrongs of the past, the inhuman torture which all our freedom fighters had to undergo, their saga of struggle and sacrifices to earn our freedom.
Each cell has a story to tell and the Light and Sound Show conducted every evening for an hour is a beautiful tribute to our heroes. I was witness to this show in 2011 and the baritone voice of Om Puri narrating it would definitely moisten one’s eyes.
Each parapet and stone of the 7 winged pronged structure of the Jail stands witness to the glory of illustrious dissidents like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Upendra Nath Banerjee, Yogendra Shukla, Batukeshwar Dutt, Nand Gopal and many others. Sordid tales of the conspiracy cooked up in 1868 when 238 prisoners had tried to escape and how they were caught and amongst them 87 were mercilessly hanged abound.
The prison took almost 10 years to build and was originally in an earthly pale pink color. Rocks imported from Burma were used for the construction and a central tower was built to be used as a watch tower for keeping a vigil of the prison inmates. The 7 wings are spread in a straight line and the entire design resembles the spokes of a wheel.
A large bell was hung from the middle tower to raise an alarm in case of any kind of emergency while each cell was designed for solitary confinement.
We spent close to over an hour going around the jail complex and then went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Our luggage was packed and kept in the hotel and the plan was to pick it up from there and head for the Airport for our 4 PM flight back to Chennai.
We were at the Airport by around 3 in the afternoon and after an uneventful flight reached Chennai by around 6 PM.
Would definitely want to visit these islands once again and explore islands like the Parrot Island near Baratang Jetty where thousands of parrots gather at dusk, the limestone caves of Baratang, Barren Island, the sighting of the Mud Volcanoes, the Ross and Smith Islands and many more.
