Andaman Diary : Day 12-16 : Return from PortBlair

30/31/1/2/3rd Jan 2009
(Nancowry + Campbell Bay + Indira Point)


It was the day for departure from Port Blair to Chennai. For return we had booked B-Class cabin tickets for M.V.NANCOWRY ship.


It is huge as compared to M.V.HARSHAVARDHAN. It is very long, 157mts long. It’s a passenger cum Cargo ship, it has ample space for putting big containers in the front. It has 7 decks. 1&2 are for bink, 3rd for B-class cabins, 4th for 1st class cabins, 5th for deluxe cabins, 6th for ship officers & open spaces and 7th for the bridge. It has a helipad as well at the rear end.


It has 3 eating places, one for bunk passengers and 2 for cabin passengers. The ship can carry 1200 passengers + 113 crew members. In ship crews language it can carry 1200 souls. !!!


My cabin is good, it has enough walking space and a very effective air-conditioning. It has 6 bunk beds and 6 almirahs + 2 fans + a wash basin. No attached bathroom. The a/c was so effective that blankets were needed during the night. It looked like, its gonna be a sleeping competition this time, as much as one can sleep.


Open space.
Deluxe rooms are more like regular hotle rooms, 2 separate beds, 1 small TV, a fridge, attached bathroom, 2 almirahs + room service for bed tea :D On this ship as well, cabin class dining coupons can be purchased for 600 INR(3 days). Ship’s average speed is 13knots/hrs(24kms/hrs), it is supposed to reach Chennai on 3rd afternoon. A long time to reach Far Far Away land.


Tank shaped Lifeboats!!!

Campbell bay is the must visit place for next Andaman trip. The ship goes via Campbell bay, I was lucky to have seen it. It takes around 24hrs to reach from Port Blair. The place is amazing, the scene from the ship is breathtaking. I could see huge trees lining up the beach all along the island and few peaks as well. I guess the trees would be atleast 200-300 feets tall. The whole island is a National Park and this makes the place more inviting. Helicopter service is available as well. I could see very few houses and huts near the jetty and on the rest of the island. A National Park ought to be like this. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures. I always wonder about the Forest Officers, who get this enjoyable stay across the wonderful forests. Even Havelock had a beach front Forest colony.


One more highlight for the return trip was the sighting of Indira Point. It is the southernmost point of India. It’s a small island with a lighthouse at the end of the island. It looks great.


Even from a far distance, the waves crashing at the beach are huge. There was lot of white color mist all along the coast. Being part of Nicobar islands, it is a restricted place, even for Indian nationals. It is under the control of Navy. Visiting any of the Nicobar islands requires special permissions, which is very difficult to get. A compelling reason is required, being a visitor is definitely not one of them, being a research student is one of them. The best I can do to visit Indira Point to see it from the onboard the ship.

Andaman Diary : Day 11 : Port Blair

29th Dec 2008

Not much time left to visit other islands, they are due for the next month long trip. Frankly speaking, after staying in a village for 7 days, i dont really like coming back to a city.


Abreden Bazar.


Cellular jail and the local market, Abreden bazaar should be enough. Unfortunately, the jail is closed on Mondays, but fortunately enough they do have “Light & Sound” shows on Monday evening. The jail is very near from the Abreden bazaar and the main bus stand. Auto guy charge around 20 bucks for that.


Cellular jail is a magnificent structure but with a very painful past.


Route Map.

The “Light and Sound” show, chronologically covers the construction and then the usage of the jail in last 100yrs.


Illegal picture(was taken where it was not allowed!!!)
A well worth show. There were around 350 seats, but here as well people create un-necessary queue-up for the tickets. There are 4 shows every evening in hindi/English at convenient timings.


Outside the Jail, there is a park with statues of the freedom fighters who were kept here.
Port Blair looks to be a nice, clean and little organized city. All the time a comforting breeze blows from the sea. Most of the auto-rickshaws I encountered charged nominal fares but few rascals are here as well. The Abreden bazaar closes by 9PM but eating places remain open till 10-11PM. This time I could not findgood eating places. May be next time.

Andaman Diary : Day 8-9-10 : Havelock Only

26/27/28th Dec 2008


I think beach #7(radhanagar beach) is the best beach in India. It is amazing. It’s a long and flat beach. The waves form only 10 m from the shoreline, beyond that it ia a gigantic swimming pool, no turbulence at all.


It seems still water for miles. Lot of people venture for long swims. Water is very tempting here.


The coastline is lined with thick jungle with giant trees. It is a beautiful sight. Accommodation is sparse at #7, and it is expensive as well.


There is tented accommodation with tents and domes provided by Department of Tourism. Otherwise there is barefoot, which is insanely expensive. Conveyance to #7 is not a problem. Plenty of options in the form of buses, jeeps and autos are available.




Sunset is spectacular.

This is the day for diving. I have opted just for a day’s dive. It consists of two dives. Without certification it costs 4K, and with, it costs 3K. I want to see the water here and the corals. I have heard a lot about them. Last time I did diving, it was in Redang. It was amazing. I saw a sea-horse as well there. Okay, coming back to Havelock diving, at the diving spots the water is crystal clear, visibility is nothing less than 12 feets. I had gone to Light house for diving. One in shallow and the second one in open water with back-roll. This was the first time I did back-roll, it is very exciting. Immense varieties of corals can be spotted here and loadst of colorful fishes. Next time I go diving, I will try to get my certification and to learn about different type of fishes.
Apart from Light house, other remarkable spots are the Wall, the Wreck and the Elephant beach. I am sure that there would be many more still unexplored.


Young Crab


Old Crab


Nothing much for today. Tickets to Port Blair can be purchased from the jetty. It has 2 window counters. One is for Port Blair and other one is for other islands like Rangat, etc. Rangat is a good place to go if heading for Diglipur. Tickets can be purchased 3 days in advance.

Many people I met here have been traveling around the world for year and may be year and half. If I have so much time I would definitely like to spend atleast a month in Havelock. I wish I could have so much money to travel around. By rough estimates, it would cost 20000 USD to travel around the world for a year, offcourse in cheap countries. For me to save that much, I would need atleast 10 years !!! I wounder how will I go?
May be not for a year, but couple of months should be definitely possible.


We went for hiking over a hill on beach #5, opposite Nandini and Pristine resort. It was very thick green forest. At times too thick, as there was no established way to go up, we had to make our own way. Before the hill, the level fields are occupied by coconut and banana plantations. I mean really big, plantations. It had rained last night and it was wet and slippery everywhere. The forest is a typical rainforest, full of tall trees so that no part of sunlight touches the ground. Ground was filled with broken leaves and rotting fallen trees. It was a good climb and I returned with lot of leaches on my leg. Beach is never far from any place in Havelock.


We returned to Port Blair by 2PM M.V.RAMANUJAM ferry. It took 5 hrs to reach phoenix jetty. It was a big ferry and can carry more than 400 passengers all in seating positions. I will narrate a fucking frustating incidents that happened. Everyone knows that the ferry leaves at 2PM, even then the jetty gates opened only at 1:15, inspite of the fact that the ferry was stationed at the jetty since 11AM. It definitely takes more than an hour to fill in, all the passengers. Still they opened it only at 1:15. Then, imagine 400 people waiting outside the jetty for gates to be opened. And even when the gates are opened, tickets are checked at 3 places, each time a huge queue will build up within minutes. Wtf is this, is this some way to generate employment. By 2:30PM, people were still trying to settle in.


While disembarking, again it was a mayhem. Only one way to get out and that through a narrow stair, from which only 2 persons in parallel can move. Does ferry crew considers the passengers to be animals who move like a fucking heard and then get out of a narrow gate? Cant they make 2 exits for such a big ferry? So that, atleast passengers can get down safely. Elders, ladies and kids, all had to suffer this artificial crisis, only because the fucking ship crew considers them to be too busy standing and watching all this shit happening. They are to server passengers, not to make their travel miserable.
I believe this is the story only with M.V.RAMANUJAM, while traveling by M.V.PILOWMILLOW there was no such problem.