Andaman Islands...heavenly place.

As my project in Chennai comes to a delayed end, what better way to finish off the great south indian tour than the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. And so we decided to spend the Dussera holiday at the island that gets its name from Hanuman (legend has it that Lord Rama contemplated choosing this faraway islands as the springboard for attacking Lanka, before he chose Dhanushkodi (smart decision, must say, as Dhanushkodi is hardly 20 odd kms from Lanka).
The journey: The flight from Chennai was full of Bong crowd as the Emerald islands are the favoured destination for the great-bengali-middle-class during Puja holidays. I know, I know. Its dangerous to be with so many psuedo intellectuals (especially after Ganguly's recent embaressment) but motivated as we were, that could not dampen our enthusiasm. Two and a half hour later as i disembarked from the plane at the lovely little airport at Port Blair, I had this huge ear to ear smile, for I could hardly believe that I was finally there. Before you start wondering about the islands' present state after last year's Tsunami wrecked havoc, let me tell you that many islands (part of Mahatma Gandhi National Park) are closed for tourists because the government wants to give some time to the delicate corals to recuperate before the great-indian-middle-class is unleashed onto them. That left us without much choice and decided to go to the best available option.
Havelock: The ferry to Havelock Island (notable thing was the utter lack of infrastructure for the transport between islands) was uneventful. Aftera long 3.5 hrs journey, under the stars (sun sets at 5pm in this part) we reached Havelock and were immediately grabbed by an enterprising local called Rishi who promised to take us to the hotel. Kumar Sanu's voice greeted us in the car as the speakers dished out Bong melodies. Before we could go into trance, we arrived at the hotel. Since people here don't seem to believe in an exciting night life (Bongs and Tams anyways don't seem to have the penchant for night life), we had no option but to sleep early. Next morning, we were woken up by a bright sun at 5am and greeted by a lovely sight. The sand was white and beach was lined with trees that have decided to grow horizontally as if to kiss the lovely sand. And then I noticed that it was littered with the treasure sea throws, carelessly, in that part of the world: Corals. And for the next hour, there was a coral rush where three Mumbai-ites went crazy. After having pocketed as many corals as our shorts would allow, we left. Soon the car arrived to take us to Snorkeling site. Since I don't know swimming (despite giving my name for the swimming camp in Roorkee, four years in a row, I wasn't among the chosen ones), I was given a lifebuoy. Armed with a snorkel, we went inside the sea. Here the water was about8-10 feet deep (Rameswaram had only 3-4ft deep water). And the world inside was simply breathtaking (thanks for the snorkel, I managed to hold on :o). Soon I completely forgot the fear of deep water and was lost in the colorful world of underwater life. I even held few corals and seacucumber (don't be fooled..despite its innocuous name this belongs to animal kingdom) in my hand. We were so impressed by this exprience, that next day we again went for snorkeling at a different site (North Bay).This place was equally good but it was here that the fateful moment arrived when I lost something that has made the sea a little richer in precious rocks and metals. It was a terrible moment as I could see it falling in front of me and as it settled down at the sea floor and in a moment lost out of my sight. If only life could be rewound...but,...life goes on. Okay no more about it.
The Beaches: Andaman has (as expected) beaches that can easily rival those in Sychelles or Mauritius (from what I have seen in pics)..though the names of the beaches leave a lot to be desired. Sample this: RadhanagarBeach, Lalaji Beach, Chidiyatapu etc. The Radhanagar beach is by far the most beautiful beach I have seen in my life. Light green crystal clear water. High waves and powder soft white sand. Locals told us that this was supposedly the seventh most beautiful beach in the world. (Incidently, Kovalam beach in Kochi is supposedly the second). The other beaches inAndaman were also good but once you have seen the best, it is difficult to appreciate the second rung beaches. :o) But here one thing to mention, nowhere else in Indian beaches, have I found the facility of bathing, changing room but here almost all beaches have this. A truely remarkable thing as any beach hopper would promplty certify.
The trek: Well, more like a 13 km hike on a road through the jungle to Andaman's highest point Mt. Harriot. In all our wisdom, and enamoured by the promise of walking in the tropical forest, we took the road less travelled (on foot i.e.). As we walked, Sumos and Jeeps, full with people who had wisely decided that tropical forests look better from inside the car, overtook us. In about three hours we were about to discover the same ourselves. It is no fun if you have to walk on Tar road, with sun beating on your back and have to bear the puzzled expressions on faces behind the glass windows of vehicles.
The Jail: The Cellular Jail is a grim reminder of what freedom fighters had to suffer in our freedom movement. To emphasise this fact, the government has done a very smart thing. There is a sound-and-light show every evening. This forty-five minute show is a passionate and emotional tale, at times overly melodramatic, peppered with patriotic songs. The presentation is quite interesting and I strongly recommend the show to those who choose to visit this island sometime in future. Unfortnately, I could not take the tour of the jail as we kept postponing the visit to the last day and on that day it was closed for Dussera holidays. To say that I was mighty disappointed would be an understatement.
Infrastructure: The infrastructure in Andaman Islands is not upto the mark. The ferries to other islands are not very frequent. The restaurants, generally, are also of poor quality in terms of ambience. There is not much you can do at night. The alcohol is not cheap. Haan, food quality is quite reasonable as this place is dominated by Bongs (who, I believe, are the biggest foodies in this world). Basically, if i compare the infra with Goa, this place would hardly get 5.
Overall: a MUST VISIT place. If you love sun and sand, it is a heavenly place. No other mainland beach comes close to this place in terms of beauty (I am yet to see Kovalam). And once you have done Snorkeling, then only you will realise what I mean when I say it is out of the world. We could not go to the Nicobar islands as it would have needed much moretime for that.

The great indian pilgrimage story:
Continuing our great south indian tour, last weekend we decided to visit Rameshwaram. This place had looked very inviting in Mani Rathnam'sKannathil Mutthamittal and so we accepted the invitation and boarded thebus to Madurai. Without spending time on Meenakshi Temple, we took a DVDcoach bus to Rameshwaram. This was to be one of the most entertaining journeys i took in tamil Nadu. As the three of us struggled to fit ourbums in the cramped seat, tam superstar Vijaykanth roared from one of the(loud)speakers in the bus. And the next two hours were gone in a jiffy aswe were mesmerised by the tricks and antics of this man who seems(justifibly) to have the tam crowd under his command. Ah..how I loved the movie (later googling revealed the movie's name was Vallarasu). It has true potential of a remake in hindi with the great Chaako da.
Snorkeling: Rameshwaram figures on every devout Hindu's to-do list. But not for snorkeling, I am sure. As soon as we landed in the hotel, a guide was arranged at our request who would take us to snorkeling. Within half an hour, we shed all (well..almost all) our clothes and jumped onto the boat. The sea is quite shallow there..Till about 2 km inside the sea it is at-max waist deep water. And Sri Lanka is only about 40 km away. So armed with a mask, i jumped into the water and a star fish greeted me. I even held one star fish while small multi-colored fish swam around me. I could see three colors of star fish (black, yellow and white) and many corals (the most notable being blue coral). After fooling around and making life hell for these innocent creatures for about an hour and a half, we made our way to a sandy patch..this is an awesome place. In the middle of thesea, suddenly you have a stretch of clean, smooth sand and water is only about a foot deep and here we took a good sun bath.
The Temple: The most unusual temple I have ever been to in my life. Built in 12th century, this place has 22 wells and in order to wash away all your sins, you have to take bath with the water drawn out of all these wells. And after you are all drenched and wet to the bone, you are told that you can't go to the main temple in wet clothes. But then, where there is a will, there is a way. :o) But truely a unique experience.
The Ghost Town: Next morning, we started for the town of Dhanuskodi. This place is an island and is extended in the sea for about 20 km. It is this place where sattelites have shown a sort of a coral formation all the wayto Sri Lanka (18 km)...this is where Lord Rama crossed the sea. On oneside it has Indian Ocean and on the other side Bay of Bengal..this island is not more than a km wide. In 1964, a great cyclone hit the town at 12 in the night and 25000 sleeping people never saw daylight. Till date, it is uninhabitated. There are unending stretches of sand on both side of the road as if both the ocean and the bay have clearly demarcated their territories. It is a sight to behold. As we walked 6km on the Indian ocean beach, the town, the ruins of a church and a temple, the old railwaystation, the arches of the houses..they all tell you a story of a devastating night when nature showed no mercy. While we walked towards the meeting point, the indian ocean was all energetic and violent but the bayof bengal was quite as if mourning what happened with Ganguly the other day. Bay of Bengal was like a calm swimming pool of lukewarm water with unending boundaries. Well..after a lovely time in both the sides we started our journey back with the great indian pilgrimage class...few words for this species: they come all the way from Rameshwaram, loaded like chicken on a truck and all they did at the beach was to wet their feet and go back dutifully to the truck for the journey back.....well...we also started our journey back....on the rooftop of a mini truck. The truck had about 15 people on the top, about 12-15 standing on the footboard andabout 20-22 odd people in the back. Rarely does one give a thought to thepoor engineers who design such a thing. It was one such moment when all i could think was "Hope you had your design fandaes clear while designingthis crawling beast, mister". And now that i am safe and sound, I guess he had his fandaes clear. :o)
Back in chennai for another week. This project is turning out to be apicnic with work in between. But who is complaining!