My first day in heaven. Andaman!

Yeah, yeah I know. It's been a LONG time since I've posted anything here.
Now, in my defence, I'm lazy. That IS a fact!

But also, I'm working on like a million other things, none which won't make any sense at all.

Now back to continuing my previous post about my journey to & through Andaman, which in my opinion is a piece of heaven on earth. Why do I say that? Read on...

Prior to landing in Port Blair. Diamonds!

Still Day 1:

I had done enough contemplation during my flight from Kolkata to Port Blair. So much so, that I decided to never contemplate again, and that turned out rather well for me.

As soon as the flight entered the airspace of the Andamans, my eyes got fixated out the window. There was no looking anywhere else from there on. The most beautiful cluster of islands, looking like a bunch of diamonds in a velvet clothing. I knew I was in love.

The flight landed, and I got out after thanking the surprisingly polite and helpful Air India staff.
When I got into the Airport, all I could think was to get out there, and then head straight to a beach. But a mix up caused the flight luggage to take 30 minutes to get to the luggage belt. I waited, all the while making up plans in my head for the rest of the day.

The moment I got my bag, I literally ran out of the Airport, searching for my name on a piece of paper (prior arrangements, eh!).

Here it was, slightly misspelled but recognizable. The driver turned out to be the nicest person you could meet in the Islands, and that says a lot since they are a welcoming bunch.

I was taken to the Hotel. Alright, alright, a guest house, and a pleasantly good one at that!
Put my stuff down, freshened up a bit and was ready to hit the beach in no time. The driver was waiting outside the guest house, took me to the beach nearby, Carbyn's Cove Beach.
And what a place to be. The water as clear as it comes, the sand as fine as it gets, the people as few as can be!

What a beach!

About the people part, I really don't like crowded places, you never really know what to do there. Have a look around the place or try your best not to bump into anyone. That is what I like about Andaman, few people. And if you visit in the month of May-June, even fewer.

Now, don't get me wrong, it wasn't a deserted place ( it's a beach not a desert after all :p ), there were people there still. But there weren't as many people as there are in, say, a Goa beach, where you literally can not get a Selfie without 10 people in it (exaggeration is a license I overuse sometimes).

The weather was warm, since it was around 1 PM. But it gets so much more better as the day goes on. The weather is among the best things about Andaman. It's in the range of 15-25 degree celsius almost throughout the year, a pleasant change from the extreme variations of New Delhi (0 - 48), and the extreme hot weather of Goa (like 30-50). And god know how much I hated Goa because of it's weather. Went there in December (for New Year's), and almost had a heat stroke during the afternoon. In December!

No such problems in Andaman, I personally like the weather in May-June (off season), because it rains almost every day at 5:30PM dot! And I'm not one to complain about rain! If I need to get away from the world and disappear (which I probably would soon enough), I'd disappear in Andaman, so that shortens the range for the search team. If there's any!

I spent about an hour at the beach, since it was getting late for the Anthropological Museum. Now, if you know me, you'd already know that no matter how much I deny it, I really am a Museum person!
I have been completely mesmerized by history, and collectible things ever since I can remember. So no points in guessing that I absolutely loved it. There's so much to see there, from the tools used by the natives of Andaman, to the kind of houses they used to live in to the diverse flora & fauna of the islands. Believe me, you can spend an entire day in that museum and still come out wanting to go back inside.

A model of Cellular Jail (Kaala Paani) in the Anthropological Museum.

A model of an Andamanese Tribal colony.

Exited the museum around 4 in the evening, headed straight to a restaurant to have my lunch.

After lunch, went straight to the Cellular Jail. Now I know what you're thinking, you're thinking I didn't pay for my lunch and ended up in a Jail. No. That's just not my thing!

The entrance gate of the Cellular Jail, aka Kaala Paani.
Tried my best to take a shot without people in it.

Cellular Jail btw, is very famous in Pop Culture in India. It also goes by the name of "Kaala Paani", yes the one from the phrase "Sazaa-e-Kaala Paani". The one where a lot of our Freedom fighters spent countless years for trying to free their own land. The moment you enter it, it hits you right in the face. Emotions come creeping in and you just can't hold them back. The sheer number of Freedom Fighters that were incarcerated there, and the hostile conditions that they were kept in will bring a tear to your eyes, at the very least.

More about that in the next article, which I promise, will arrive next week. Since it has the kind of tonal shift that it demands a separate blog post, and not just a mere mention here.

See you in Kaala Paani next week...

The Andaman, heaven on this blue-ish little planet! It's been a long time coming.

So, it was way back in March this year that I shared my first & last post on this blog.
And it's not because I haven't traveled much since, but it's because I got stuck with my other kind-of commitments.

Now, with my focus back on track, lets go on a journey together. To the places you've been to already, and to the places you've simply imagined in your most beautiful dreams!

And there isn't a better place on the face of this blue-ish planet to start with than The Andamans!

Oh how I love thee!

If you know me in real life (consider yourself blessed :p ) then you know my love for this particular chain of islands in the Bay of Bengal. I simply cannot stop talking about it, and I literally force people to watch my photographs from that place!

It may be more than 2,000 kms away from my home, but when I'm there, I feel oddly at home. At peace with myself. Maybe the reason for that is the distance it has from my own city. Where I'm constantly reminded of all the troubles of life. Or maybe, I simply have some mystical connection with this place, as quite a few people have pointed out (more points on it later on).

Maybe I was a fish in my past life. Trust me, I'm a Piscean, so that's not entirely implausible!

Now, let's start this journey with day one.

Day 1 (d'uh): Boarding a flight to Calcutta from New Delhi.

So, my day started with getting up rather early, at 5 AM, a whole 1 hour 30 minutes late. As always.
So I pretty much had to rush through the morning drill and had a 30 minute window to leave for the airport.

Locked the main door, and running down the stairs, when I noticed I forgot the CAMERA!!!

Yep, forgetting the camera on a trip to one of the most scenic places on the face of this little, blue-ish planet thingy. That's quite a start!

Ran back, got the camera and finally left for the airport.

Made it to the flight just in time and boarded it, and now, I was just sitting on the window seat, contemplating "Why can't I ever get up on time, specially when I have to wake up early?", and some other morning stuff.

Looking outside the window, there was this scenic view of the collective cemented monstrosities created in the name of the ever-crumbling civilized societies of the modern world.

So I think blah-blah -blah -blah -blah -blah -blah -blah ..............................blah .

Now, let's skip the part in Calcutta, only had a 1 1/2 hour stop there, and then boarded the flight to Port Blair aka, The Andamans, to, you guessed it, The Andamans!

Now, this was the first time that I was traveling there, so obviously, I had a lot of misconstrued prejudices in my mind about that place.

1. I thought, they would all be like 'forest people'.
2. No food. At least anything edible.
4. I'll probably forget about the 3rd point while writing the article.
5. Who am I kidding? I'm terrible at maths.
6. Mosquitoes, lots and lots of them. And those doe-eyed spiders!

An hour & a half later, the flight landed in Port Blair's Airport, which by the way, has one of the most picturesque runways!

And the moment I got out of the airport, all those supposedly prejudice points I had in my mind were gone. Poof!

Though, some of those points did come back to haunt me. Literally! And no, not point no. 3!

The rest of the day, to be continued!
Hey, I gotta get some rest, you know, tired from all flying n all!

To be continued...

Things are going to kick off real soon!

I roam around the world, a lot!

And naturally I take a ton of photographs, and by the rule of probability, quite of few of them turn out to be really really good, so I've decided to share those photographs and the story related to those, all in a blog.

Stay tuned!