ANDAMAN ISLANDS - dreaming with an endless summer (Part 2)
Hey there, my beautiful friends! Welcome to part 2 of Andaman blog. I hope you guys are enjoying it so far. Don't forget to leave your love and comments behind.
INSTAGRAM HANDLE - Don't forget to stop by my Istagram handle for more pictures from the trip.
Huh! I'm so glad that you guys made it to the second part of the blog. Honestly, it gets much more interesting from here.
Day 3 - Havelock
(Kala patthar beach)
Since Andaman falls more towards the east side, and also it being summer, the sun rose peculiarly early in the Islands. I remember waking up to a bright and clear sky at 5 am in the morning, with the sun rays peaking through the glass window. Day 3 started quite early for us, since we had to reach the Jetty and catch the cruise taking us to Havelock at 7 in the morning. Being sleepyheads,we had packed our belongings the previous nights so it wasn't inconvenient the next morning.
We reached the Jetty only to find out a huge crowd of excited people ready for a new destination ahead, and somehow that flushed our blood too and we no longer were sleepy zombies. LOL
{Booking of cruise - We had booked our cruise online the first day we had reached Port Blair. But it is honestly very important that one pre books the cruise as it's usually not available in the last minute. Great shoutout to Saijal Uncle again, for putting in a recommendation that gave us the experience of the Delux deck of the cruise - Makruzz (cost - INR 2100 per person)}
It took us around 3 hours to reach Swaraj Dweep. Though I passed out for the majority of the ride, but I've been told that the the view was mesmerizing haha.
We collected our bags and luggage from the cruise, walked to the auto stand right outside the port.
We had booked two cottages in El dorado Resort, which was around 15 mins from the port. El dorado probably has one of the prettiest real estate a sea side hotel can posses. With the shady coconut trees and the colorful flowers, the area in and around the hotel was mesmerizing. To add to this, the beautiful gazebos and the stunning private beach is the main attraction of the resort, and trust me when I say this, one can never get enough of the place.
{(INR 4200 per room) may vary depending on the season of visit and availability}
As part of the complimentary breakfast, we were served with the most famous Indian morning cuisine, Chole Bhature, and it was just the thing we needed right after the journey from one port to another. Since April is an off season for the Andaman Islands, as I had mentioned earlier in the first part of the blog, there weren't much tourists in the resort, and most of the rooms remained available. The host of the resort was generous enough to allot us the suit room for the same price.
That evening we just sat by the private beach, in our resort, and enjoyed the full moon night, with the shadow reflecting on the calm sea, undisturbed by the crowd, forgetting all our worries of the mundane life.
Day 4 (Nemo and Radhanagar Beach)
Another day, another adventure! The fourth day of the trip started with a blast when we headed to our new destination, Nemo beach. Yes, to all those who haven't been to Andaman, or haven't heard about the place, Nemo is the beach where people usually go for scuba diving in Havelock. There are many other beaches around the island where one can go for Scuba diving, but Nemo is considered to be one the cleanest beaches and has clear water which is ideal for one to see the life underwater.
Since Scuba diving was an experience of it's own, I'm going to document it in the next blog post with the details of the do's and don't, and things to keep in mind before you end up inside the water.
Radhanagar beach
After the whole scuba diving experience and managing to breath underwater for 40 mins at a stretch, and coming out with blocked ears, we went back to the scuba office to return our diving costumes and complete the left over formalities. We were told that we would receiving our pictures that evening, and honestly, it was worth the wait.
I remember driving back to the resort, feeling like a zombie on a scooter. Worn out and exhausted, I passed out for couple of hours after lunch, until Siddharth (groupie) woke me up only to make me realize that we were gonna miss the exclusive sunset from the Radhanagar beach.
Since it was already few minutes past 4pm, we started chasing the partly setting sun through this beautiful green road leading us to the pristine beach of Radhanagar. I'll be very honest in this part of the tour, more than the famous beach, I loved the approach road that took us to Radhanagar. It was green & clean, and completely covered with palm and coconut trees on either sides of the curvy road.
When the sun started setting, and eventually merged in with the sea, the view was absolutely stunning, and no camera could ever do justice to such beauty. We just strolled around the beach absorbing the beauty of the place.
INSTAGRAM HANDLE - Don't forget to stop by my Istagram handle for more pictures from the trip.
- Since the Andaman tour was of 7 long days, I've divided it into two parts. As you can see this is the second part of the blog, and it consists of all the experiences in Havelock and Neil Island. (Link to part 1 ↓)
Huh! I'm so glad that you guys made it to the second part of the blog. Honestly, it gets much more interesting from here.
Day 3 - Havelock
(Kala patthar beach)
Since Andaman falls more towards the east side, and also it being summer, the sun rose peculiarly early in the Islands. I remember waking up to a bright and clear sky at 5 am in the morning, with the sun rays peaking through the glass window. Day 3 started quite early for us, since we had to reach the Jetty and catch the cruise taking us to Havelock at 7 in the morning. Being sleepyheads,we had packed our belongings the previous nights so it wasn't inconvenient the next morning.
We reached the Jetty only to find out a huge crowd of excited people ready for a new destination ahead, and somehow that flushed our blood too and we no longer were sleepy zombies. LOL
{Booking of cruise - We had booked our cruise online the first day we had reached Port Blair. But it is honestly very important that one pre books the cruise as it's usually not available in the last minute. Great shoutout to Saijal Uncle again, for putting in a recommendation that gave us the experience of the Delux deck of the cruise - Makruzz (cost - INR 2100 per person)}
It took us around 3 hours to reach Swaraj Dweep. Though I passed out for the majority of the ride, but I've been told that the the view was mesmerizing haha.
We collected our bags and luggage from the cruise, walked to the auto stand right outside the port.
We had booked two cottages in El dorado Resort, which was around 15 mins from the port. El dorado probably has one of the prettiest real estate a sea side hotel can posses. With the shady coconut trees and the colorful flowers, the area in and around the hotel was mesmerizing. To add to this, the beautiful gazebos and the stunning private beach is the main attraction of the resort, and trust me when I say this, one can never get enough of the place.
{(INR 4200 per room) may vary depending on the season of visit and availability}
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| El Dorado private beach |
As part of the complimentary breakfast, we were served with the most famous Indian morning cuisine, Chole Bhature, and it was just the thing we needed right after the journey from one port to another. Since April is an off season for the Andaman Islands, as I had mentioned earlier in the first part of the blog, there weren't much tourists in the resort, and most of the rooms remained available. The host of the resort was generous enough to allot us the suit room for the same price.
We freshened up and headed towards our next beach, Kalapatthar beach.
We had hired a scooty (INR 500 per scooty/ per day), and the shop fortunately seemed to be situated right opposite to our resort. The ride to Kala Patthar beach was amazing - beautiful natural greenery all along the road leading to the beach, one can feel the freshness in the air with all the green forest and the clear blue sky of the summer morning.
Kala patthar beach was a long stretch of white sand with big black rock beside the blue sea. The blueness of the sea was astonishingly different and enhanced from all the other beaches in the island. Interestingly the water was deep and clean enough to swim and is not affected by high tides.
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| Kala patthar beach |
We spent couple of hours by the beach, playing and swimming in the sea, clicking loads of pictures and sipping in fresh coconuts. We probably sat in the there, chillin', till our skin felt salty and sticky, and the tan turned us red. By the time we decided to head back it was already an hour past noon, and we directly drove to this amazing restaurant that had sea food as it's specialty. Afterall, what's a visit to an island without consuming a whole lot of crabs and lobsters.
That evening we just sat by the private beach, in our resort, and enjoyed the full moon night, with the shadow reflecting on the calm sea, undisturbed by the crowd, forgetting all our worries of the mundane life.
Day 4 (Nemo and Radhanagar Beach)
Another day, another adventure! The fourth day of the trip started with a blast when we headed to our new destination, Nemo beach. Yes, to all those who haven't been to Andaman, or haven't heard about the place, Nemo is the beach where people usually go for scuba diving in Havelock. There are many other beaches around the island where one can go for Scuba diving, but Nemo is considered to be one the cleanest beaches and has clear water which is ideal for one to see the life underwater.
- We reached the Office at around 9 in the morning. We were instructed the details and were made to fill up a form that contained certain serious medical issues, and one is usually allowed only if you're illegible after a thorough check up. We scribbled our signatures on a declaration that said we would be solely responsible for our death. lol! We got our scuba clothes after we had completed all our procedures and were allotted to our respective scuba instructors, who then further drove us to the Nemo beach .
Since Scuba diving was an experience of it's own, I'm going to document it in the next blog post with the details of the do's and don't, and things to keep in mind before you end up inside the water.
Radhanagar beach
After the whole scuba diving experience and managing to breath underwater for 40 mins at a stretch, and coming out with blocked ears, we went back to the scuba office to return our diving costumes and complete the left over formalities. We were told that we would receiving our pictures that evening, and honestly, it was worth the wait.
I remember driving back to the resort, feeling like a zombie on a scooter. Worn out and exhausted, I passed out for couple of hours after lunch, until Siddharth (groupie) woke me up only to make me realize that we were gonna miss the exclusive sunset from the Radhanagar beach.
Since it was already few minutes past 4pm, we started chasing the partly setting sun through this beautiful green road leading us to the pristine beach of Radhanagar. I'll be very honest in this part of the tour, more than the famous beach, I loved the approach road that took us to Radhanagar. It was green & clean, and completely covered with palm and coconut trees on either sides of the curvy road.
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| Road leading to Radhanagar Beach |
When the sun started setting, and eventually merged in with the sea, the view was absolutely stunning, and no camera could ever do justice to such beauty. We just strolled around the beach absorbing the beauty of the place.
Later that evening we went back to the scuba office to collect the pictures taken that morning. We found this cute little boutique in that locality that looked really attractive from outside and we decided to take a look at the local merchandise, which honestly turned out to be pretty interesting. One of the best ways to know the culture of the place you visit is to stroll around the streets and walk into these tiny shops with the local merch, they have a lot to tell.
We headed back to our resort after dinner and called it a night.
Day 5 - Neil Island
Neil Island was the last island of the trip, and yet not the least. We sailed in our cruise from Havelock to Neil at morning 9 only to arrive to this beautiful and one of the cleanest docks among all the islands. Neil is known as the vegetable bowl of the Andaman islands, thanks to its climatic conditions, the land is ideal for cultivation of fruits and vegetables.
So honestly, Neil kind of gave us a hard time finding a nice resort, and after El dorado had already set the bars up high, nothing in and around attracted us anymore. We kept searching for quite some time that suited our budget and the ideal location, until we arrived at Silver Sands resort. If I was to express how I feel about this property, it would just be one word - speechless! What topped our list was the clean private beach and the cozy little cottages.
(Silver sands resort - INR 3500/ night)
Since Neil Island is mostly unexplored, it is sort of difficult for one to find transport for visiting the beaches, and it's advisable one hires an auto. We freshened up and made our way to laxmanpur beach.
(They usually take around INR 300 to complete both the Laxmanpur beaches)
Laxmanpur beach
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| Natural bridge - laxmanpur beach |
Laxmanpur beach is a must visit in Neil island. Remember to visit it only during low tides, since it covers up the major part of the natural rock bridge and the corals leading to it. The place harbors a habitat of shallow marine faunas like the star fishes, crabs and marine fishes. It has the most beautiful natural rock formation and one can pick up the tiny creatures like the star fishes, sea cucumbers and touch me nots in their hands, and trust me it's a whole new experience of it's own.
Later we headed towards Laxmanpur beach 2, were we sat for sometime to enjoy the beautiful sunset, munching onto aloo pakoras and chai.
Since it was our last night in the island, we headed back to our resort early. We sat by our very own private beach, sipping in whiskey, filling ourselves up with more sea food, and deciding where to go to next.
Day 6 - Port Blair
We returned back to Port Blair early that morning since we had to catch our flight later that noon. We roamed around the capital city one last time, visiting the shops, buying souvenirs for friends and families, in the memory of the beautiful islands of Andaman. I remember how sad I got when we had to part our ways in the airport, leaving behind a piece of our soul in the place and taking tones of memories in our hearts.
Spurred by the writing of this blog, about my lazy summer days by the beautiful beaches, I find myself wandering the halls of memories, reminiscing about the days in Andaman. And that's when I realized that, once a nomad, always a nomad. "until next time.."
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| THE END |
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