Nirvana at Sea

The bright Sun blinds me as I step out on the tarmac at the Veer Sawarkar Airport. But for a few vagabond clouds the sky is so alarmingly blue that one can almost mistake it as a reflection of the sea. As I am driven to my hotel, I peer out of the window and witness the hustle and bustle of Port Blair – buses honking away, camera toting excited tourists, small eateries cheek by jowl with plush hotels, road side kiosks selling mineral water and soft drinks, a steady traffic of office goers and impish school kids rushing to their schools. As the car drops me at the hotel, I eye a vendor selling coconuts close by.  A coconut and two burps later I check in at my hotel – my base camp for a week.

Muthu - the coconut vendor and the friendly deer at Ross Island

Port Blair, the capital and the largest town of Andaman and Nicobar islands gets its name from Lieutenant Archibald Blair of the East India Company. It is connected to the mainland India by regular flights from Kolkata, Chennai and Bhubaneshwar. Intrepid sea farers may also sail to Port Blair. For centuries, their relative remoteness had given these islands an aura of mystique and kept them unexplored by the tourists. However, of late their pristine beauty and pleasant climes have enthralled all those who have come to its shores.

This beautiful town has a magical charm that slowly grows on you so much so that it easily  wipes away the scowls of the most disdainful and indifferent tourists without their knowledge.  It helps when raw natural beauty of the islands and friendly locals are on your side. Well, booze helps too!  The town runs at an easy pace and offers its unique sights and smells to tourists, whose footfalls, I am told, are on the rise every passing year.

A coral at Samudrika Naval Maritime Museum

Impressive museums like the Anthropological Museum, Samudrika Naval Maritime Museum, Marine Museum and the Forest Museum dot this lovely town. However, the piece de resistance of Port Blair remains the Cellular Jail. The imposing structure made up of puce colured bricks that came from erstwhile Burma stands a mute testimony to the travails of the Indian prisoners who endured  torture and braved abject inhuman conditions during the colonial rule with remarkable stoicism. The light and sound show at the Cellular Jail staged in the evenings conjures up a riveting and vivid imagery of the saga of pain, loneliness, sacrifice and the triumph of the human spirit. This poignant story narrated in the anguish laden  voice of veteran actor Om Puri touches a chord somewhere deep in the heart and haunts one for days altogether.

To the traveller who has had his fill of Port Blair, the Andaman and Nicobar islands have plenty of other charms to offer. One can either take a short ferry trip to the historic Ross Island – a prominent British base of the yesteryears now in ruins – partly due to the vagaries of time and largely due to the Tsunami or head for the North Bay for some fun filled frolicking in the waters.

Vagaries of time and nature 

 Nature lovers may also take the day long trip through the Jarawa passage to Baratang to witness the surreal stalactites and stalagmites in the limestone caves. It is an excellent drive on the winding roads through the mysterious woods.  Luck is on my side. A Jarawa family –  a bow wielding male, a female and two little kids cross the road benefitting me with a casual glance and the hint of a smile and then melt away in the dark  woods.  I have a feeling this image will stay with me for all my life.  

                               

On way to the Jarwa Passage

A drive up to the Mount Harriet is again an amazing experience. At an altitude of 365 metres, Mount Harriet is around 55 km from Port Blair and frequented by nature lovers who are keen on bird watching. I am glad that I made the journey to Mount Harriet on the expert recommendations of my driver. The drive is steep, the traffic sparse and the scenic beauty of the rainforest deeply enticing. Dew kissed coconut trees jostle for space with thick sinuous vegetation and flank the road as it snakes up. Shards of sunlight penetrate the green canopy of the trees here and there. But for the purr of the engine and the occasional birdsong there is a pleasing silence that takes me in its fold. I reach the top and sit mesmerised in a gazebo gazing at a ship that bobs in the sea in the misty horizon. Soon a cooing Andaman Wood pigeon heralds its arrival and perches nearby. It is bliss and some more. 

Any trip to the Andamans is not complete without a trip to the Havelock island.  Named after the British General Henry Havelock, the island is famous for its Radhanagar Beach – once rated as the best beach in Asia by the very definitive Time magazine. Just fifty seven kilometres away from Port Blair, the island can be reached by government and private run ferries and also by sea planes.

Radhanagar beach would definitely be the cleanest beach in India. I find the crowd at the beach to be just right – neither too large to be irritating nor too small to be unnerving. The amazingly clear sea beckons one with its myriad shades of blue - cobalt, aquamarine, turquoise, teal, steel, electric, tiffany, sky, deep sky, baby, carolina, cyan ……have your pick.

A Happy Rahul

Fun Time at North Bay

If your idea of a beach holiday is lazing for endless hours in the Sun, taking long walks on the beach leaving behind footprints and then secretly admiring them, allowing yourself to get bedazzled by the play of the Sun on the crests of the waves - Havelock is just the place for you. For all those given to activities more strenuous than plonking oneself in a hammock with a good book, Havelock is also the place for scuba diving. Ditto for all ye in pursuit of sea food.

The Magic of  Radhanagar Beach

Sunset at Radhanagar Beach

Young Sailors at Havelock

After two days in paradise aka Havelock, I am back in Port Blair with a day to spare. I am told a fitting finale to this trip should be a visit to Jolly Buoy island. A thirty kilometre drive from Port Blair takes me to Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park at Wandoor and from there on a further forty minutes sail by the ferry takes me to the Jolly Buoy island.

It is a truly jaw dropping experience - an uninhabited island, pristine surroundings, no garbage, no polythene bags, just a whisper of the coconut trees that sway in rhythm with the gentle ebb and flow of the waves.   I opt for snorkelling instead of the glass boat ride and get transported to a world that I never knew existed. A wide array of marine life – sea lilies, sea cucumbers, sea anemones, star fishes of different hues lie bejewelled on the sea bed even as small shoals of colourful fishes flit through the equally majestic corals. I attain Nirvana. I exclaim in wonderment at the beauty of the moment and the salty sea water stings my mouth with a vengeance. It makes   me realize the bizarre similarity in snorkelling and life - a good time to keep your mouth shut is when you are in deep waters! 

The Blue Sea

                Next day, I board the flight back home sporting a tan and a T – shirt that has Andaman and Nicobar Islands emblazoned across it in an arc above the picture of a coconut tree.

I intend to wear the two to work tomorrow. Wink …Wink!

Published Work  http://www.ehitavada.com/site.home/paper_type/10/date/2012-08-19/page_no/8