Travel to A&NI is kind of undertaking a mystical journey, because you have these images of blue seas, colourful marine life, palms-fringing the beaches and dotting the lands, thick forests touching the shorelines! You could almost feel like Christopher Columbus, setting sail (err... fly) to explore the mystical world.
To get there, you fly for few hours (or you could sail for few days) east-wards from Chennai, for about 1,100 kms over waters of Bay of Bengal (similar distance South-wards of Kolkata), and land into Port Blair, the capital city. Detached from the Indian Mainland, A&NI is a collection of islands - 570 plus - most of them either inaccessible or yet to be accessed. Fewer than 40 are inhabited. And then some islands attract tourists. Port Blair is populated by people from various parts of the country – Tamils and Bengalis forming the collective majority.
Some islands are occupied by natives, exclusively, of different communities and groupings. We heard with bit of awe and spookiness that if you land on some of them, you are likely to be welcomed by pointy tips of arrows, shot at you. Well, certainly not a place to look out for body piercing.
Obviously, automatically, those islands fell off even from my thought process!
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The City!
Landing in a ramshackle and very ‘sarkari’-ish Port Blair airport, dwarf-ish and grisly yellow-ish, it seemed more like a relic from an era gone by, needing a complete makeover. Stepping into the city and anticipating our usual urban chaos, my view of the city however was quickly transformed in the first few minutes after we hit the roads. The city looked clean, with freshly painted pavements and road markers, in most parts, or atleast through all its main roads, flanked by neat buildings, and the island itself dotted by ubiquitous Palm trees. Though at times, a left or right turn in any alley would bring us back to usual India immediately – chaos, bad roads, and what not, that defines our urban Indian landscape.
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The digital umbilical cord!
In one aspect, I seemed to have travelled - in one stroke - several years back in time. That is, in terms of cellular connectivity. The question whether ‘2g or not to be’ seemed like an alien concept. The touch-down in Port Blair, and my data connection was knocked-off – well, almost. It oozed at ‘1-web-page-a-day’ / ‘1-email-an-hour’ speeds. And as we ventured further on to other islands, the network bars completely vanished from the phone screen – no voice, no text. My smart phone became completely disoriented and un-smart! If you ever dreamt of connectivity seclusion, dropping off the grid and some such things, this place was all those dreams and things come true!
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Kaala Paani
One of the essentials on the to-do list was tour of the infamous Cellular Jail in Port Blair, that stands atop an atoll ironically overlooking breezy and soothing waters of Bay of Bengal. Ross Island and North Bay are visible across the sea. On a clear day, you can see as far as Havelock Island, a distance that is 90 minutes on a catamaran boat.
The Jail complex is large that initially had 7 wings, with the relic now left with 3. Incarceration cells are lined along long depressingly white corridors, arranged in a manner that no inmate could see another, a solitary confinement. The tour of the Cellular jail, aka Kaala Paani, can be over-whelming for some, considering the barbarity of the punishments that this place came to be known for. Complete isolation of inmates, most of whom were our freedom fighters, their tortures and condemnation to death – these are what this place stood for. A banyan tree at the entrance has supposedly witnessed this place since its inception, and infamous deeds that took place there. This building is an important chapter in the history of struggle for Indian independence, which we probably realised and plated as a National Monument only in 1979!
A light & sound show runs in the evenings – weather permitting, from 7 to 8 pm – that simulatingly re-creates a slice of historical events that took place here. On a drizzling evening, with thin spread of tourists, we lined up to watch an hour long show. As we neared its completion, two thoughts crossed my mind – the show itself was produced very well. The quality of equipments produced clear booming sound of the narration in deep voice, in tandem with very dramatic light effects. But eventually the experience seemed grossly underwhelming relative to significance of the place. I left with a feeling that the significance of the place and events that were tied to this National Monument had not been done justice enough!
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The Denizens of the Deep
From Port Blair, you can sail to Havelock Island. It is your first brush with very blue and crystal clear waters, breezy white sandy beaches, and palm trees filled landscape. And the place presents compelling water sports activities too.
Watching Discovery and NG kind of TV can propel you towards undertaking risky adventure enterprises that are truly at the razor’s edge. On Havelock Island, that enterprise for me took the shape of Scuba Diving – the thing that I was eagerly looking forward to! At some level, pour moi this was the raison d’etre of this voyage. I firmly pushed the fact off my minds that I don’t swim (because I can’t).
The moment and the scuba diving guide arrived. I sat patiently through the enlightening session. The Guide’s talk took us through the ‘understanding scuba diving’, how to do, what to do, why to do, perils of doing, jargons of scuba diving, its dos and don’ts, culminating in signing a release form, and thus responsibility for me disclaimed!
The talk was enough to create sense of adventurous excitement and trepidation in equal parts. At the end of it you could find several reasons to not do it (you could be left with badly injured lungs to death in the extreme case), and only few reasons to do it (adventure, exploration, thrill). Obviously, the latter won! The anticipation of events next morning set the heart pounding. On the other side of a 30-minute boat ride through gleaming turquoise blue waters, we landed on Elephant Beach at Havelock Island.
Like the new recruit, I presented myself to the scuba diving guide. The prequel to hitting the waters went through like a military drill. More instructions followed, previous instructions re-capped. Hand signs, the only medium to communicate under water, were rehearsed (ok, not ok, go up/down, pointing at a problem etc). Post the sermon-ish instructions, a 18 kg rig was strapped on to my shoulders, whose key component was a large oxygen tank. That grimy looking silver cylinder was to be my existence support system – my life depended on what oozed out of it. I anxiously checked the oxygen level meter, knowing enough that the meter needle should stay far away from the red zone on the dial! The eye mask sealed my eyes and nose from the brackish water.
And then that quintessential diver in me took the plunge! Accompanied by the guide, who in a sense was the Guy on Top. In few seconds, the marine life hit my visual field in full force. Electrifying! Couple of meters under water, and life acquired different forms and shapes. And different colours and ambience. It was like a world bred on hues and their various shades.
A pair of fishes almost as large as my body or even larger passed by, giving a jolt of fear and feeling of incredible-ness. A Shoal was parked nearby – its member fishes cleanly aligned, sparklingly colourful in the background of gleaming crystal clear waters. More fishes – singles to in-bunches, their fluid movements like an acrobatics team doing the tandem dance. Purple, neon-ish green and blue, magenta, sparkling yellow, translucent, iridescent (ok, the last one I made up!). As if the Nature was trying to compensate the grisliness of the underwater world by making its denizens as much spritely, brightly, and colourful. And more variety of animals than I can remember!
And then, sighting the Corals! If you ever need a moment to marvel at Nature, Corals can provide you that right one. Their beauty, intricacy of structure, complex mystical landscape that they form, providing a surreal backdrop to the clear waters and marine life.... well I am struggling with words here.
For those moments, underwater world became my abode, and its denizens my companions. I looked at some of them from close quarters, and some appeared to look right back at me – from frighteningly close quarters!
This marine experience is enough to light up my sensory feelings and visualisations that will last a life time!
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The Forests of Fangorn
Travelling from Havelock Island to Niel Island, the contiguous terrain along the Sea’s shoreline, densely forested, presented a very mystical and at times eerie landscape. I was awed! It constantly reminded me of the similar landscapes straight out of the famed ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (LOTR) movies, particularly the Fangorn Forest. Peter Jackson could have as well shot LOTR in this part of the World with equal effectiveness.
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Neil Island
An hour’s ride on a government ferry to the last destination of the trip brought us to yet another island. The Neil Island. The Island got even smaller than the previous one (about 7x10 kms). Number of roads got even lesser – 2 actually. And the waters – they became bluer. The population size was flummoxing – at a measly 5,000 types. As a Mumbai-ite who is used to seeing masses and masses of population constantly, and on whose street itself probably more people live, this number clearly stumped me. But then, this is exactly the kind of place, where you can escape from humans and humanity, if and when you wish to.
Climbing down from the boat on to the basic structure that made up the jetty, I paused, and with a sense of urgency soaked up all of 360 degrees visual of the breath taking landscape – sea almost all around you, donning different shades of blue – warm turquoise to almost cold steely blue. The visible corals and marine life underneath in clear waters! The sparkling water, against azure skies – both stretching endlessly, truly stops you in your tracks! When a canvas like this registers on your visual senses, the experience is energising and invigorating. I fervently wished how to make this view and feeling last and lingering forever. One way I can do was shoot – through my camera. I click, click, click furiously many many pictures. Trying to freeze the ethereal beauty that my eyes see.
The unique thing about the beach, which we trekked to to watch the sunset (and thus christened the ‘Sunset Point’), was that you see the sun setting in the sea on the West, and you also see the moon rising from the sea on the opposite side – due to that strip of protruding land flanked by waters of Andaman Sea. I so much wished that I could capture both these celestial events on to a single camera shot. I guess I will have to wait for the photography technology to progress further.
The beach is built up of pristine fine sands, almost white, soft to hold and silky to feel. You want to walk on these sandy beaches like endlessly. Corals of different shapes and sizes and intricacies, washed on to the shores, are scattered all over. I would have loved to pick up many, but for the local law that prohibits to take anything out of this island territory. Yes, that’s true. You could be incarcerated, if caught, unless you have shopped them at a store with a proper invoice. Remains of some trees, fallen over, reduced only to the woody left over trunk and hefty branches, formed beautiful abstracts of the beach landscape.
Well, you just can’t get enough!
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The End
In an insane way, I can only wish that if ever in my life, I were to be stranded on an island, it must be a Havelock-ian or Niel-ian kind. Such a grain sized land mass, almost invisible on the map unless you have zoomed enough, and so much enchanting! I can recommend it to the Explorer in you! These are jewels of India, waiting to be explored and developed. Once we are there, it can give it a run for the money to any beach destination in the world.
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