Its one of the best tour I've made in my life.
We toured the islands between 06 June to 10 June, 2007. It was a off-season time and the place was without much tourists. And that's the kinda time we want to tour as well.
Myself and Naveed did this tour. We must thank my close Friend Yogi and Nags for this trip. We all had planned it together in the month of March. However due to my work commitments myself and Naveed pulled out of the trip.
After we landed in Port-Blair, we had no idea as to go where and do what and when. We just had Tea in a stall infront of the Air-Port then took an Auto-rickshaw to the city.
We were just lucky as well as with our keen-ness to try new things and take things as they come, we ended up in a very nice hotel, Megapode-nest. It's located on a hill just over looking the Phoenix Bay Jetty. A nice view of the Sea from the room, restaurant, lawn with view of the Sea down-hill... it was a nice beautiful place.
We made visits to Anthroplogy, Aqua and Samudrika Museums on the same day after getting refreshed. We visited to Lighting show at Cellular jail in the evening. Cellular jail is a giant structure.
Second day we headed to
Havelock Island - Its exotic.
We stayed in a resort called Coconut Groove. I think Wild Orchid, Island Vinnies are nice ones. We came to know of Island Vinnies only later and Wild Orhid was under renovation. Only 4 of the 25 resorts were in operation when we had been there.
We hired a motor cycle for our local travelling. It was Rs. 300/- per day for the bike plus the fuel cost (Rs. 60 per litre). Havelock island has no petrol pumps and you have to get all your fuel from the person who has provided the vehicle.
It has two tourist beaches - Radha Nagar (Much of the tourists visit just this) and Kala Pather (Black Stone - not many people do go there). The island has a small strip of road running just along the beach all the way to the Kala Pather beach. One can find hell lot of places to have fun on the beach while going on this road.
I had the best time of the tour on one of these spots where we stopped and had a great time in collecting small shells. This is the place where it was nothing less than my imagination and fascination of beach I had in my mind. We did collect very small beautiful cute cowries and few other fantastic shells.
Kala pather beach is little ferocious in looks. It has a Elephant training camp there. We could not spend much time there as it was with full of small creatures on the shore.
We rode till the dead end of the road and returned. Then we went to Radha Nagar beach.
Radha Nagar beach is not well maintained. It was quite dirty even in this off season time. However, its very nice to be there at evening times. When it will be desolated and you have 1.5 to 2Km stretch of the beach to stroll and sit and listen to waves on the shore.
All the resorts are like huts here. No concrete structures. All the resorts are located along the beach and thats one wonderful thing. Beaches are amazing - shallow, aqua blue and calm. Awesome place.
In the early morning you can make a visit to Elephant Beach with the help of local guyz having small boats. Its another beautiful place with calm and crystal clear water. You can go snorkelling and see amazing structures of Corals and their varieties in colours and shapes. Damn, you can see equally colourful fishes. I never had a clue I could see them in wild. Amazing experience it was. The local guyz charged us Rs. 800/- for the trip to Elephant Beach. You should visit it within 9 AM to avoid the crowd.
Damn it, I had forgotten to mention... Crows... Crows make different sound there. Its more wild and intense than how crows sound in South India. Cocunuts!!! ho they have 1 Litre of water stored up in them... u just keep drinking them... on and on... Naveed could not finish 'em up.
Coming back to Port-Blair. I did not mention much of Ferry ride. It was superb experience standing on top of the ferry all while travelling. Naveed has captured one of the best sunset pictures while travelling on this ferry back to Port-Blair.
Also he has captured one photo which I treasure most (the one I've used at the top) - on Havelock island at the Island Vinnie's beach.
We had two choice with a day left for us. Either make a visit to Red Skin Island and go snorkelling and have nice time or try ChediyaTapu (which not much toruists are not aware of yet).
We decided to visit ChediyaTapu. Am sure, its going to be one top priority spot for toruists in coming days.
Chediyatapu is covered by Land on 3 sides and hence has almost stand-still sea. It has nice view with trees submerged in water. Its the southern most point of Andaman (PortBlair) Island. We took a local transportation bus to reach there. Dude, looks like all the bus conductors will do the duty being drunk :)
It's known for Sunset view. It has a sea facing the west.
From there, many tourists go till MundaPahar. Mundapahar is just a small beach. We found thousnads of Jelly Fishes on the shore. Dont know whether they were dying on the shores or its part of their life cycles.
Further from there we went to other side of the cliff crossing the forest. We can go in to the forest following a path way used by local fishermen I guess. I think, hardly any toursists go there. It must be around 400-500 M from Mundapahar. There the cliff opens to south-east facing Ocean. Open Ocean. Amazing place it was. We sat there on the edge of the cliff 50ft above the waters. Drank Amul Masti butter milk we had taken along. It was tiresome reaching these spots, with humidity and climbing the cliff.
Finally, If they say pictures (read photos) speak thousand words. Man!! Photos of this trip speak may be more but they fall short to portray what a place it is. You have to see to experience it.
Tour details:
Cost: Rs. 14K to 16K
Season time: Nov - Feb.
Ideally, 10-15 days is what is required to thoroughly enjoy these islands like Diglipur, Rangat, Jolly buoy Island, Long Island, Neil Island, Ross Island, Barren Island (Only active volcano in India) et al...
The place is not expensive in off-season time. I came to know that the charges for hotels and resorts double or triple during the season time (Nov - Feb).
People who do not want the places to be crowded (like us) should visit these islands during June-August.
