The day having got over, i decided to bore you all with this description of what i have been doing for the last 3 days. For those who don't have the patience to read on, don't read on. you won't miss much.
Day 1
The flight from Chennai to Port Blair was pretty dull. all one could see was clouds and the sea below. but when we were nearing port blair one could see the cool blue / turquoise / green seas. what a lovely welcome. after quickly checking into the hotel, i decide to explore (one of my friends' misuse of the word 'excavate' in place of 'explore' comes to mind!!!).
Port Blair is a hillstationy kind of town with roads with steep inclines and drops. of course, the weather is not as cool as any hillstation. day time tends to be pretty hot but mornings and evenings are pretty cool. It gets dark very fast here (by 5:00, it is pitch dark) because we are so far east (as my limited knowledge of geography would seem to indicate!).
after excavating (oooops exploring) the town - not much to do here, took a short cruise to ross island (don't get any carribean ideas from the word 'cruise') which used to be the first place where the britishers settled. now it is an uninhabited island (the only inhabitants being deer) with ruins of old buildings which gives it a very spooky look (a ghost town!). the boat (ooops cruise!) leaves you there and comes back after a couple of hours to take you back to p.b.It was a good couple of hours spent looking at the sea and the crystal clear waters. Once back at p.b., took another cruise called harbour cruise which takes one around p.b. for 3-4 hours. it started raining and yours truly caught a cold. (which meant that i headed straight back to bed after the cruise)
Day 2
Went to Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park at wandoor from where one takes a boat to go to jelly buoy (hang on, you will know what it is!). It was a one hour boat ride which takes you till about 200m from Jelly Buoy (the island in question). From there one has to take a smaller boat (which for some inexplicable reason had a glass bottom). only when we got into the boat and it started moving towards the island, did i realise why the boat had a glass bottom - the sea bed was about 4-5 metres deep and one could see the most beautiful corals with 'schools' of fish swimming through them. The colours were indescribable (for those who have seen 'finding nemo' or Discovery channel would have an idea of what i am saying). Once we got to this uninhabited island, we stripped to our swimming shorts and were taken snorkelling to see the corals more closely (we were given about 10 min to get used to the candy shaped breathing tube and frogman goggles before we were allowed to go in the deep). I was given a rubber tube (since I don't know swimming - i know i know it is shameful that i don't know swimming). Anyways, we got to spend a good one hour in the deep watching all the beautiful corals and the fishes that went through ones legs. There were all sorts / shapes / sizes / colours of fishes (including clownfish, was nemo there ?). It was truly mindblowing. After one came out, one got to explore the island. The beaches were ivory, the sand was white and the water was crystal clear. amazing ! one one side on could see heavy rainfall in the distance and on the other side one could see bright sunlight. and all around was greenery of the most green and unspoilt kind.
After coming back to p.b, decided to see the cellular jail (since you ask, cellphones don't work in p.b. - i only use it to see the time). The jail was pretty haunting (considering the fact that 4 out of the original 7 wings were destroyed in an earthquake). There was also a pretty patriotic 'son et lumiere' show in the evening. after that i decided to call it quits for the day.
Day 3 i.e. today.
Having done all the touristy things in p.b, i decided to do some planning for the next 14 days. Planning ones itenerary in andamans is a pretty involved process as one has to figure out the schedule for the inter-island ferries and bookings for the hotels. Have decided to visit Havelock Island and Neil Island and spend 4-5 days each on them. The whole day was spent in planning that (as the place where one books ferry tickets is in one part of town and the place where one books hotels is in another part of town). but finally all is finished and i am all set to go tomorrow morning.
