Well the time has almost come for the holiday to end. I go back to Chennai tomorrow. But i thought, I would let you know what i did over the last fortnight.
My first stop from Port Blair was Havelock Island which a nice small island with the most amazing beaches all around. The beaches there are very mechanically named in numbers "Beach no. 1", "Beach no. 2" and so on.....Beach No. 7 (or Radhanagar beach) is an absolute paradise. It runs for miles and miles and has the most beautiful beach. The colour of the sand was clear ivory and the beach was totally clean and the colour of the waters around were the most amazing shades of blue. It was pure bliss. one could spend hours and hours on the beach - jogging, playing frisbee, volleyball or frolicking in the water. Even with my lack of knowledge of swimming, I used to be in the water for a very long time. Every evening i used to go for a jog on the beach and one day I was challenged to an endurance run by this american girl (in my misplaced machismo i accepted). I did lose though not too badly - later over the beer (which was the bet), she told me that she had run the boston marathon last year (Liz, you owe me one for that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
I spent 6 days at Havelock and subjected myself to a really gruelling schedule (sleep, eat, read, laze, go to the beach, sleep, eat, ........). The only decisions that had to be made during the day were the following -
A. what to have for meals ?
B. which beach to go to ?
C. which hammock to sleep in ?
A real tough life, indeed !!!!!!!!.
One day I went camping with these Isreali backpackers I met on the beach. It was pretty exciting for me (having never done it in the past). They had those collapsible tents (one of them was not feeling upto it so had to go back to Port Blair so they had an extra space in one of the tents). We put up the tents right next to the beach (making sure that we were at a safe distance from the high tide also). It was really heavenly being in the open with the relentless sound of the waves in the background. we made a bonfire and the inevitable beer was consumed. Of course, amidst all the jokes and games, we never got much sleep. By the time we did decide to call it a night it was almost dawn and the mosquito's started troubling as did the pi dogs. so we never got ANY sleep. but it was real fun.
When i felt that all the shopkeepers in the little market at Havelock started nodding to me and that i had practically met all the tourists there, i figured it was time to go. I decided to move on to Neil Island (about 2 hours by ferry from Havelock). I didn't like Neil Island too much (though the beaches were very nice but somehow it lacked the character of Havelock since Neil was much smaller and there were fewer people). After spending 2 days at Neil, I decided to move on to Long Island.
Before some of you start getting a bit worked up, this is NOT the long island of which the Iced Tea is famous. It is about 6 hours by ferry from Neil Island and has one famous beach there called "Lalaji Bay Beach" (Dhruv, are you listening ?). Unfortunately, I never got to see that beach !. The ferry was so late that it reached there at some 8 in the evening (remember, it gets dark at five in the evening) and since I had not made any reservation at any place to stay (I later found that there weren't many) I was in a soup (no still no Iced Tea just soup). There was only one forest rest house for which one had to make a booking in advance from Port Blair (which ofcourse I never cared to do). For getting permission to stay in this rest house one had to meet the "Ranger Sahib" who ofcourse on seeing my condition (totally harassed) decided not to give me a place. He said, in true bureaucratic style, "You should have done booking in Port Blair before coming here, I cannot help you now". But then seeing my face drop, he had a change of heart and said (in a very conspiratorial tone) that "OK OK, I will try and manage". He called somebody who took me to this Rest house (which was like miles away and one had to walk through thick forest - with no light and lots of snakes all around). And somehow when we reached there I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief but i couldn't when i saw the rest house - It was straight out of a Ramsay brothers movie (or "Psycho") i.e. totally spooky and i was staying in that huge place alone. No food, no chowkidar, just poor little me alone in a huge isolated house. Needless to say I hardly got any sleep that night half expecting to see Waheeda Rehman or Sadhana dressed in white with a candle in her hand. I was paid a visit by the policemen in the night also who wanted to know when i was going back (they don't have visitors on that Island often). "By the next boat" was my answer !!!!!!!!
Fortunately, the next boat was early next morning and the next day saw me back at Havelock again. I spent another 4 days at Havelock doing exactly the same what i had done in the previous round - going to the beach, meeting people, going to the market and having coffee or tea at the chai stalls, snorkelling, watching a game of cricket in the local school, playing carrom. Unfortunately, It all came to an end today and I am back in Portblair.
Travelling alone was also an experience - everyone ended up asking me, why i was travelling alone. I took it as a challenge to come up with a new reply everytime. Some of the replies with which i surprised myself were "I am a writer by profession and am suffering from writers block. have come to the andamans to overcome the inertia", "Me and my wife are planning to divorce each other but before we made the final decision we decided to spend some time alone to think about it - she has gone to Lakshadweeep and I have come to the andamans")
I go back with a lot of memories, a heavy heart ("I don't want to go back") and lots of sand in my bag and clothes.
P.s. - Earlier Andamans used to be where people used to be sent for jail. Now going back to the mainlandI feel as if i am going back to jail. What Irony !!!!
