Saturday, February 16, 2013

Our Honeymoon trip to Andaman & Nicobar Islands

 

            If there was a day, that we wouldn’t forget for heaven sake, it would be 17th Feb. This was the day when we piled our luggages towards the First honeymoon (?) voyage to the most exciting and Romantic Andaman & Nicobars Island. Our flight’s scheduled Departure time was by morning 05:30 –we hired a taxi from nanganallur and reached the Meenambakkam airport. That was my debut trip in flight as well. With tons of joy, I entered the airport a couple of hours. My husband was explaining me about the formalities. We got the boarding pass and opted a window seat. The baggage Check-in was followed by Security check-in. My husband’s security check got completed earlier than mines and to jointly get into the bus that takes us to plane. However he was forced to get into the bus by the impatient Security head leaving me in panic. I couldn’t imagine the consequences and was fear driven. The old lady standing before me was having lots of keys and purses. Strangled by suspicion, the security were  checking her for a long  time, that made me bite my nails without the need to do so. With an umpteen delay, I got into bus and met him near the plane that had a surging smile. When I saw my husband, I got relaxed until then I was like a child seeking for mom. At last we both got in to the flight. Ever since child hood, I was dreaming for a flight journey. Through the journey, I was always peeping out while flying. In the flight they gave us instructions on how to wear a jacket during taxiing. WOW! That was an unforgettable moment. In the flight, they gave breakfast. I was hungry by the time when it was served and hence I ate Sumptuous. We reached port blair in just 2 hours.

No sooner we stepped into port blair airport, we took a so called “Selfie“ with the plane. A security in the airport warned not to take any more. Lately, I realized that we were in a stringent union territory. And that we had already booked a taxi from port blair to markuzz ferry, driver Ram took us to the  ferry spot. On the way, we had to acknowledge that the road was clean and narrow. Or is that, the condition looked too good (only) at the early morning. Ram gave us some suggestion for site seeing in Havelock, for which we were heading to. We took a ferry bus to reach ferry terminus and were first to the spot as well. I was startled to see a lady smoking with her husband in the ferry bus. Within few minutes we reached the ferry spot to check in our luggage, took few snaps and were peeping the couples made for (smoking) each other. Later, we got into the ferry, with a first class A/C after seeing second class we thought we should have booked second class itself because the view was really good in the second class compared to the first class. First class window was very small impacting our scenic views. Hence those who read this blog, ensure you book a second class for the ferry to Havelock. With half satisfaction we sat in our place to see a cute baby (boy) around 1 to 2 years. His facial expression was too good that our camera’s 1/2000 shutter speed setting seemed less efficient. My husband is an awesome photographer, that he captures and sends to the respective people. Someone gossiped that the picture in our rupee note is an exact replica of coconut grooves that we watching on the way to Havelock.

 It took couple of hours to reach Havelock. As usual, we were getting the gospels from the workers for taking photos with our tripod, when every other co-passenger left the ferry terminus. There we took one auto to our resort “GOLD STAR”, which had a private shallow beach beside. We heard about the word “pristine”. For the first time, we realized Pristine. This made us think as why merina beaches are not pristine. My husband clarified that higher the depth, violet color in “VIBGYOR“ alone intrudes the water for its lengthier wavelength. Hence water in merina looks violet bluish while that in Andaman is greenish. After refreshing we came to eat in the resort run mess. It was a total mess for waiting over an hour. By evening we came outside by walk to buy a rental scooter and to purchase some cloths. While returning home, we had our dinner and came to resort.

                      Next day by morning, 5 O clock we got up and went to Radha nagar beach in a scooty. During our travel we enjoyed a lot and expressed it by shouting and laughing. We also stopped every now and then in roads and took some snaps in beautiful places. Had if we hired a taxi, our privacy and freedom would have been buried. Hence strongly suggest hiring a bike. The roads were very narrow and none were there during our travel in the morning. We had seen the mist floating above the plants, needless to say they were lucrative. It took nearly one and a half an hour to reach radha nagar beach. We saw the beautiful sunrise in the early morning. We felt happy to see the sunrise and the water was shining like a silver string. There is no doubt as why this is beckoned as the best beach in asia. This is shallow to an extent like any other beach. We strolled the beach multiple times, went deeper into seas. Climbed the trees, sat around the branches and watched foreigners enjoying their stint. My husband lost half sovereign golden ring as an ill luck which was truly disappointing. That was purchased by my parents and I was even more anger. This anger got converted into what I would say as our first fight. I forced my husband to provide the scooty. I rode very fast and at one juncture and I couldn’t manage the balance and we both fell down .Blood was bleeding in my leg some people helped me with some water to wash the leg. My husband put some sand on the wound to prevent it from becoming septic. We went to off-course a small hospital in Havelock, That day night we spent our time in the private beach. That is the heavenly place meant for all peaceful lovers and lovely couples .

                     Next day, we reached kalapanthar beach. One shouldn’t miss this place as the road path to this resembles like the one to Kerala. Unlike Radha Nagar, this is not crowded and meant for couples. Quickly we moved to Havelock harbor to swing into water games for the most awaited Elephant beach. Wow- whitish sand. Do not miss this beach. My husband was not letting me to scuba diving with the fact that I knew no swimming. I have to make myself blessed with snorkeling in pristine water. Snorkeling is walking in water with a depth of < 8 feet guided by the guide. You just need the snorkeling tube that makes your breathing easy with your mouth. You need not know swimming. However in Scooba Diving, you will get into a depth of at least 40 feet. You need to carry those oxygen cylinders. If You are on your honey moon trip, you would be slightly worried to get into the middle of sea, which is like consuming a heavy meal . So better choose Snorkeling, a mini meal. We also went for a glass bottom ride to have a look at the sea creatures. This is an average ride. They also had banana rides,  Jet skying. Due to huge cost we had to refrain from them. We had to leave Elephant beach with a heavy heart and went to Radha Nagar beach for seeing sunset. The water turns orange and yellowish color and is one of  the highly watched events like Thiruvannamalai deepam festival. At last we reached the resort..  Third day we have to leave Havelock, we were worried that we should have for 2 more days here itself. Here we had one problem. We planned to take oil bath and we were preparing for applying oil  by that time resort manager came and asked us to vacate .we were shocked and  we told to the manager that we would leave by 12 noon . The manager said there weren’t any rooms. We thought that was not possible because we should catch the ferry for portblair by noon. So we rushed and came from the resort after facing so many problems. Then we had no place to stay because our ferry departure time is 11.30 we were just  having 2 hrs.  We had to return the scooter with a penalty of Rs 2000 penalty. We paid some prepondment charges and got the ferry before 11.30.That day was terrible to us. 

                 We reached portblair and went to hotel “Hill Top”. We took rest on that day had oil bath. Then on next day we went to jolly bay. There were so much hype about this place but after going there we realized that it was not worth the money. Especially having visited Havelock, this was totally disappointing.

Next day we went to Mahatma Gandhi national park. It was bit pleasant, the fact being it was sea facing. It has swings and tree hut views that are eye catchy. We moved to cellular jail that was built by British. The best part of this was again the sea view. Many of the prisoners , who tried escaping died few meters when traversing in sea. We were not happy with the cost of hotel hilltop and we had to shift one another with the help of tamil friend.

              Next day we took ferry and went to North bay island. This is little cheaper when compared to Elephant beach.It is advisable to do  jet skying, sofa ride. Snorkelling could be avoided as water is bit dirty. We met a character “maza nahi “  who wanted much more adventure with her soft husband. The banana and sofa rides, they drop u in water and my husband was roaring like a wounded lion, when dropped after the ride. You could plan to buy some Andaman takeaways here. Then we reached Ross island, in that place lots of coconut tree and deers. Nothing much to do in this island. I was for all tears when a ship got submerged here in 2014 , due to overcrowd.

Next day we went to chidiyathur beach that was not so bad. We faced one problem in that place , we didn’t get bus in the evening. We almost lost hopes. There were only 2 couples including us. We were also scared to go by autos who could deceive us with added cost. By 6.30, we got the last bus and came to the hotel.

                  Finally the next day morning ,we had flight from portblair to Chennai.Our budget went to Rs 77000 for both of us including hotels, food, flight journeys and penalties. More importantly we had loads of fun.


Watch the link for more photos 

https://photos.google.com/u/2/album/AF1QipNbnFJk--JfmfyGdcFNQERsC7EEWHciNpcJn4sv


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