Locked in Havelock

I have always been a beach person, I could sit on the shores and gape at the seemingly endless sea for hours together wondering what lay beneath its fierce waves. Though the sea seems rough along the shore, I have always found the place embracing and soothing my inner self, the chaos in my mind miraculously disappears and an inexplicable tranquillity sets in. And this was why I was overjoyed when one of my friends suggested a trip to the Andaman. The exotic beach-line we had seen only in photographs and the ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ type scuba dive which had crowned my bucket list for quite a while stemmed to my mind and by that afternoon we even had our itinerary planned.

We travelled during the first week of October right after the proclaimed season started, though some say anytime is a good time to visit the Andaman.

Let me now recount what we did in the Andaman and what more we could have.We spent most of our stint in Havelock so obviously this write up is also Havelockish.

A brief stay at Port Blair

Port Blair was the first place we visited in the Andaman and we loved it instantly, for it was a city on the hills with roads running through the wild forest trees and was also an island by itself. The trees and the water surrounding us gave us a very blissful feel about the place, though I feel guilty when I say the second day at Havelock made us forget this beauty straightaway. Nonetheless we had fun roaming around the city, having the best Shawarma with freshly made Kubus in a hotel named Milan ; the city view at the time of sunset at the Jogger’s park and of course the famous Cellular Jail of Andaman which held a lot of heart wrenching stories of the Indian freedom fighters.

Cellular Jail

Cruise to Havelock

Another of my first timer experience was cruising from Port Blair to Havelock, though it was quite a  short ride of three hours. We boarded the morning cruise – Green Ocean Liner from Port Blair harbour and were quite excited at the prospect of being in the open sea. Our faces drooped down in disappointment when we were taken to our seats at the lower most deck of the ship completely walled and alienated from the outside world. The disappointment was short lived as we were allowed to the open deck, half an hour after the journey commenced. We simply relished the view of the sea stretching far till the horizon nearly from all the sides, and the glimpse of some distant islands. We were so overjoyed that we felt like dancing, someone from the crew sensed our thoughts and started playing some Bollywood dance numbers and so we danced and twirled to our hearts content. Our return cruise was not as enjoyable since there was no open deck and the ship cruised at a high speed causing nausea everywhere. Make sure to check if there is an open deck when you do the bookings. There is also a helicopter service plying between Port Blair and Havelock, so do check your options before making the bookings. How I wish I could go back and try that helicopter ride once. Experience everything like this is your last day on the earth and you wouldn’t dare to miss any of the fun.

Cruising and chilling in the open deck

Scuba

Scuba Diving was something which we were looking forward the most, and true to our expectations it turned out to be the best experience we had in the entire trip. We were initially confused since there were a lot of dive schools hosting varying packages and prices. Finally we decided to take the one which our hotel manager suggested.

We went to the dive school at 6.30 in the morning, the sun was pretty much high in the sky by then. We were given scuba wet suits and shoes (I traded them for a pair of fins later) for diving and waded to the shallow waters of a nearby beach for our training.

We were taught about the breathing techniques for surviving underwater, tips on using the scuba apparatus and the most important of all the hand signs to be used underwater.

After we were confident of surviving underwater, we were taken to the dive spot in a speed boat. We were asked to jump backwards since we had considerable weights on our back. We dived in, and the first thing I noticed was the blue sea and the sun’s rays desperately trying to penetrate into the deep fathoms of the water. A calm aura was cast around me as if I was in a different world. I was like a little girl lost in a fairy tale and then I saw shoals of fishes in stark blue lurking around the corals, now this has to be a fairy tale. I dared not to disturb them but kept watching them wriggling their tiny yellow fins. Further deep I saw many types of corals, multi coloured fishes and some weird creatures we were asked to stay away from. And then my guide pointed me to the school of Gray orange fishes that suddenly came out of nowhere and filled the blue canvas. Now and then we saw nemo fishes around the sea anemones. The blue sea, the fishes, the corals and the sea creatures could never cease to amaze us. Our allotted time was over in a flash and we had to be dragged to the surface,our minds still lingering in the deep blues.

Deep in the sea amidst corals and fishes

Sunrise

Witnessing a perfect sunrise has been a long cherished desire. How I have fantasised the sun rising slowly and serenely from the sea inching slowly up the sky setting it illuminating it in pink. I wondered if visiting an island like Andaman would finally get my wish fulfilled and I kept my fingers crossed for the D-day. On the third day of our trip I woke up while it was still dark and walked along the beach close to our resort and reached the spot where the sun was to show up from the sea any moment. The day had dawned for the sun’s rays have already reached the earth spreading warmth and light to the world, but I was waiting for the Hero to arrive in grandeur. To my dismay, it showed up not from the sea but from a layer of clouds that was just at the sea level and so I had to imagine the layer of the cloud as the sea and witness the event. The sun at first looked like a small golden orange dot and with its growing rim, it rose slowly but steadily without making any fuss and fanfare and yet the whole world seem to awaken in its presence. I watched till I was no longer able to admire its fiery with my naked eyes and then walked back to the resort promising myself that someday I would see my perfect sunrise. 

A nearly perfect sunrise

Beaches

The pristine beaches of Andaman, this was what stirred us to visit the place, where else could one find such exotic beachlines in India where man has let nature to be her own self. I had braved myself not to expect them as exquisite as in the Insta-posts, for I attributed them to be the filter effect. But to my astonishment they were even more impressive, never in my life have I seen such blue green waters, so clear that I could see those tiny little translucent fishes swarming around our legs. The mangrove trees along the coastline apart from preserving nature’s balance is a striking beauty on its own. We sat on one such tree in one such beach and watched the colours of the sea in utopia and never wanting to leave the place.

The trees, the beach and the clouds watching over them.

Water Activities

Apart from scuba, we did snorkelling, jet skiing and banana ride. Though we should have done snorkelling before scuba, I loved snorkelling too for it was a different experience and besides I loved watching the corals and fishes so close to the shore. It is easy to breathe through the snorkel mask than those scuba regulators. It would be even better if you can get your own snorkel kit and snorkel on your own, provided you can swim and know where to snorkel. Jet skiing and banana ride was fun too and the speed quotient was a thrill. After wrapping up the water activities we tried swimming in the beach but couldn’t do long since the sea water irritates your nose and mouth. We loved chilling in the beach water though and that’s what we did the longest, especially in the gorgeous Kalapathar beach.

Chilling in the beach !

Travel like locals

Private cabs and autos are comfortable, yes. But believe me, the experience you get while travelling with the locals is something totally different, the school children chattering excitedly, the locals having casual talks with the conductor about everyday affairs, foreigners enquiring about the various places to visit. At the end we all agreed that public transport is a lot more fun and rejuvenating than the comfort of the cabs.

Sipping hot tea as we waited for our bus

Eat-outs

One thing we learnt the hard way is to chuck out the fantasies of having food in big fancy restaurants when on a holiday. We emptied our pockets at an outlandish restaurant with an amazing beach view with colourful boats furrowed in, only to be utterly disappointed with the food. Luckily we had discovered a small but nice local restaurant named SQUID which served yum seafood. Do not worry about hygiene, they prepare and serve clean, I even did peek-a-boo at their kitchen so rest assured.  We also tried another restaurant – Anju Coco Resto which had a neat ambience and served tasty desserts, our favourite was the Banopi pie.

Yummy Banopi-pie

                    

People

It is a natural tendency to eye strangers with suspicion in an unknown place, but towards the end of our stay we realised that we need not have. The people were so friendly that they helped us proactively without any expectations. Once when we were stranded at a beach wondering if there would be any mode of transport back to our resort, a gentleman out of nowhere helped us catch a jeep and went his way. Nowhere in Havelock would you be able to find a locker or clock room. We were asked to keep our bags anywhere and not to worry about its safety, just like we act at home, keep our things anywhere and not think about its safety. This place was like home. Anytime, any day people make us cherish the place we visit.

Cycling

Since we had practically nothing to do on our last day at Havelock, we decided to rent a bicycle(costs 150 for a day) and aimlessly roam around.  We realised that we should have done this on the very first day. It was so liberating that I felt as if I was in my 5^th grade trying to get around the world in my first ladybird. Cycling is the best way to explore any place, we realised that places were not as far as they looked like. We covered distances which would have cost us 500 rupees in an auto and also found a secluded beach which we might not have found otherwise.

Cycling to the shore

Overall this was another such vacation that not only filled pages in my travel diary but also etched my heart and soul with its lovely memories.