Island Adventures – A Family trip to Andaman Nicobar Islands

It is not uncommon that the parents in India, often, misconstrue the word “trip” to “pilgrimage”. So is the case with my parents. It so happened that, one day, while having a dinner conversation with mom, I informed her regarding the Gujarat trip that we were planning. Although her initial response was not negatory, she did raise a complaint that I was not planning any trip with the family. Dad seconded her argument and I was cornered. Naturally, I objected to the idea of always visiting a temple and calling it a trip. We had reached an impasse there! Finally, we arrived at a conclusion. It was decided that I was going to plan our next trip and they’d have to accept the proposal willy-nilly.

So I began to work on a 4 – 5 day trip. A bit adventurous and a lot less pilgrimage-like trip. After having gone through a lot of available options one fine evening, my friend/colleague, Adithya informed about his trip to the Andaman Islands with his family. I did not even hesitate to steal his idea and told him that I’d be doing the same with my family. He also gave me the required contacts to plan a neat itinerary. I contacted Travel-Triangle which connected me to a couple of travel agencies in Andaman and I was also able to get reasonable quotations from them. Finally, along with the White-Shell agency, I was able to draw a crisp itinerary. The most exciting part was that it included under-sea adventurous (not really, but yeah!) activities such as snorkelling, sea walking and scuba-diving (fun-diving to be precise :P).

The hardest part of the planning was to find suitable dates for all the four of us. Dad being the Vice-Principal, Mom being a high-school teacher and Vishaka being a freshman for his Bachelor’s at RV Engineering College, I found that applying leaves was easiest for me. Thanks to the year 2018, we had a long weekend joining the end of March and beginning of April. The dates were fixed between 29th of March and 2nd of April. For me, the best part of this trip was that I took the decision to learn swimming although it was not required for any of the under-sea activities. I somehow missed out on learning swimming at a younger age, probably because of the regions where I was brought up. Also, my parents never bothered about putting me for swimming classes exclusively. Every weekend my brother and I started going to the Basvangudi Aquatic Center to learn swimming. Although Vishaka had taken a few classes for swimming offered by his school he was no expert either. I just jumped into the pool and started waving my hands and legs all over the place. After about 5 – 6 such sessions I could swim decently. At least to an extent where I never had to ever say the embarrassing statement – “I don’t know how to swim :/ :(“

We were all quite excited the day before our departure. It was all about packing stuff. Questions such as “How many pairs of clothes? What kind of clothes for Snorkeling, Scuba and sea walking? Is it going to be hot? Do we need Sunscreen?” After a lot of tumultuous discussions, we had our dinner and called it a night. Well before the cockcrow, we got up to catch our flight to Andaman. We reached the airport at around 5 in the morning. We boarded our flight in Bangalore at 6:25 a.m. and reached Andaman at around 10:30 a.m. after a 1hr layover at Chennai. We were welcomed at the Veer Savarkar International Airport by White-shell and were given a ride to our rooms at the Island-Pride hotel. The first day’s itinerary was quite simple; we just had to visit the Kala–Pani (Cellular Jail) and return back to our rooms. After having had our lunch at the Salt & Sugar restaurant we headed towards the cellular jail. It literally hurts to even write about the atrocity of the British Government and the excruciating pains suffered by the Indian patriots. Kala-Pani roughly translates to Black Waters or the Water of Death, for, there was no escape from death once the prisoners were exiled for life. The jail is surrounded by oceans from all the directions and one would have to swim thousands of kilometres to find himself out of the hell. Even today, as I write this article, my blood boil with rage with the stories that come haunting the mind with pictures depicting the animosity of the British leaving me abominated. I offer my deep-seated respect to the great Indian men who sacrificed their lives for our Motherland and made India an independent country.

After a brief tour in the cellular jail, we went for a jet-ski ride before the light show of Kala-Pani that narrates the story of the jail. The jet-ski ride was quite exciting and moreover, Dad and Mom were not expecting that. I was quite surprised when I saw that they did not even think about stepping back. They went as if they were teenagers filled with young energy. Obviously, Vishaka and I enjoyed it very differently than my parents did. We again went back to Kala-Pani for the light show. The light and sounds filled the air around us with melancholy. After having heard the agonizing stories of the Indian patriots we returned to our hotels with heavy hearts. Having had our dinner we called it the night.

We started our journey as early as 3:00 a.m. in the morning towards the Baratang Islands. We drove for almost an hour in the torn roads through the dense forest. We then had to stop at the Jirkatang check post for the convoy. Baratang Island with its virgin beauty and natural wonders have been the abode nurturing the Jarwa tribes. In order to protect the virginity of the environment, the Andaman government has put forth a few protocols. The tourist vehicles are only allowed at a certain time of the day in batches as a convoy. Consequently, the early morning batch gets extremely crowded since no one is allowed to stay on the other end of the check post and is expected to be back by evening. We reached the Jirkatang check post quite early and found ourselves a spot in the front of the line. At around 6:30 a.m. the first convoy was allowed to proceed. We travelled through the thick dense forest in the early hours of the day. Nature welcomed us with a warm breeze and the music of chirping birds. We spotted a couple of old folks of the Jarwa tribe. In about two hours we made it to the Middle Strait Jetty. From there, we crossed the Andaman Sea strait on a huge ferry that took only about 15 minutes. Our destination was the limestone caves of Baratang Island. After crossing the strait, we had to take a 20-minute drive through the mangrove forest in a speed boat. A journey through the thick tropical forest, spotting few tribes, ride in a ferry and then a ride in speed boat; not something we get to do on most of our trips. With such thrilling experiences, the entire family was delightfully taken aback. We drove through the thick magnificent mangrove creek before we reached a small village. After a short walk through the village, we reached the limestone caves. There are massive sedimentary limestone formations, some of which are hanging from the top, some growing from the ground. These caves are constantly evolving in shape and size. As you go inside the caves, you can actually see different patterns that are made by limestone. Some caves are so dense, deep and dark inside that you need to light a torch to be able to see anything. The most astonishing sight of in here is the sparkling silica. The silica deposits shine inside the dark caves, which is absolutely fascinating. We then drove all the way back to Port Blair. Our next day’s agenda was even more exciting. Our next destination was Asia’s one of the most exotic islands, Havelock Island.

The next morning, we had our tickets ready to board the Makruzz vessel for our journey to the Havelock Islands. We had never been to a harbour before, at least not to board a ship. Right from – entering the harbour – to – boarding the vessel and travelling in it was a brand new experience. After cruising for about two hours, we reached Havelock Island at around 10 a.m. An agent from the White Shell was already waiting to receive us at the gate. Before it was too late, I informed them regarding our wish to perform all the water activities (Specifically, Snorkeling, Sea Walking and Scuba Diving). The agent helped me to book tickets for an early morning Scuba Dive on the following day and also informed me that we’d be doing the other two activities the same day. He then showed us into our hotel which offered us a panoramic view of the Andaman Sea. We did not waste any time before we got back to the Havelock jetty. We along with another family were given a speed boat to travel to the Elephanta Beach. The ride itself spoke the beauty of Havelock. Havelock is a picturesque natural paradise with beautiful white sandy beaches, rich coral reefs and lush green forest. In the month of February, one can find Dolphins swimming and diving close to the beach. Unfortunately, it was April and we did not have the privilege of witnessing any Dolphins.

As soon as we reached the Elephanta beach, we met our Snorkeling guide and we were given a briefing about the event. We all got ready with the Snorkel and other accoutrements for the first underwater adventure (Well, it’s not much of an adventure per se!). They instructed us to hold hands together and float with a face inside the water. The Snorkel helped us breathe underwater. The moment we went beyond 10m from where we started the dive, the ocean unravelled the grandeur of its beauty hidden in its womb. It was merely the entrance of the ocean and I was taken aback. God knows what’s really hidden in the darkest depths of its womb. We saw thick coral reefs of bizarre shapes and not only did we spot a wide variety of colourful fishes but also several Schools of Fish. Snorkelling only offers a distant view of all the undersea creatures. Of course, fishes often come close to you. But we don’t go close to any of the corals, unlike Scuba. Snorkelling lasted for about 20mins and we were all set for the next activity. Dad found out that he won’t be allowed to do Sea Walking considering his age. Consequently, even Mom backed out. So it was only me and Vishaka, who proceeded further for our next activity.

Sea Walking was not all that fun nor was that a great adventure although it offered a different kind of experience. We were given an astronaut-like helmet into which there was oxygen supply and consequently you would be able to breathe underwater. We sink to the bottom of the sea (just about 6-7m) close to a small piece of a coral. The best part of the activity was that we could see the Nemo fish from very close quarters. We walked around the coral while our guide kept clicking our pics. Once we finished the activity, we returned to the Havelock jetty. Our afternoon session was dedicated to paying a visit to Asia’s finest beaches – Radhanagar beach. Having had our food, we started towards the Radhanagar beach. We were astonished by the astounding beauty of the beach. With turquoise blue water and white sand, we found the place perfect to while away the evening basking in nature’s bounty. My efforts to learn swimming finally got paid for. Vishaka and I spent all the time we had swimming in the sea while Dad and Mom rested savouring the gorgeousness of nature’s beauty.

The next morning, we woke with a lot of excitement for the most thrilling activity of the trip – Scuba Diving. Our car was at the ready even before we got ready and took us to our destination. We were given a detailed briefing about the activity. Once again, unfortunately, Dad was asked to hold back from the activity because of his age. But Mom did not back out this time. The three of us got ready with all the diving costume. There was a 15min practice session before the actual dive. We learnt how to use the equipment to breathe underwater and also the sign language to communicate with the guide. And finally, we dove in to meet the weird, gorgeous and vibrant sea creatures. This was one of the strangest experiences of my life. I only had seen such creatures on TV and in cartoons and definitely not in real-life. There were fishes of varied sizes and colours. The corals by themselves were extremely amusing. And the best part of the dive, unlike Snorkeling and Sea Walking, was that we could go close to take a better look at the creatures. I almost went close to the sea bed (12m from the surface) to get a closer look at those creatures that stick to the bed. After spending about 45 mins inside water we went back to our rooms. We had our Makruzz vessel scheduled at 10:30 a.m. to take us back to Port Blair. We reached Port Blair at around 12 p.m. Our last destination was a place called Chidiyatappu, a place for bird-watching. Having had sumptuous food, we reached Chidiyatappu. Frankly, it wasn’t all that great. We just roamed around the place for about two hours before we reached our rooms at Port Blair. The next morning we took our flight back to Bangalore.

All in all, this was an amazing trip for several reasons. We got to experience a lot of stuff for the very first time. Moreover, I was extremely happy for having taken my parents with me on a trip that offered them with brand new varieties of experiences. We flew, we drove a Jet-Ski, we travelled in a ship and a speed boat, we experienced Snorkeling, Sea Walking and Scuba Diving, we saw new creatures and more importantly, we had great family time together.

Dream. Travel. Explore.

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