Andaman Trip : Summary & Retrospect

It took me 6 posts in a series to narrate my detailed experience of my trip to India's largest archipelago Andaman. Now it’s time for summary and retrospect.

How we got there ?
We took a ship from Chennai to Port Blair. The journey was 60 hours. It was initially exciting, but got bored in the later part. Anyway, it has to be done once in a lifetime. The return journey was by flight and it took just 2 hours.

Duration:
11 days: From 21st Dec 2007 to 1st January 2008, including 3 days of ship journey.

Expenses:
Because of Christmas and New Year vacation season, this trip turned out of very expensive. Total expenses were around 20K+ per head. It is difficult to provide the individual break-up. However, here are a few important expenses(per head)

• Ship: Chennai->Port Blair - Rs. 4600
• Flight: Port Blair->Chennai - Rs. 8500
• Accommodation: 8 days * 500 - Rs. 4000 [including food]

Places We Saw:

• Ross Island: A self reliant island during British era, is now in ruins. From Port Blair, it is 30 minutes ferry ride and has to been seen under guidance.
• Cabyns Cove Beach: Nearest beach to Port Blair. Frankly speaking it's not worth visiting, especially after traveling thousands of kilometer from mainland India. Waves are very less and the landscape is not that great.
• North Bay: This place is famous for corals. Because of proximity to Port Blair it will be usually crowded, so not recommended for snorkeling. But glass boat ride for 50 rupees is worth.
• Baratang: Enroute to Baratang one can have darshan of Jarawa Tribes. Prominent places of interest around Baratang are Limestone Cave and Mud volcano. While visiting these places one can have sufficient glimpse Mangrove forests. Usually, all these stuffs are covered in a single package for 200 rupees.
• Wandoor and Mavadera: 30 kms from Port Blair, this place is famous for live corals, so snorkeling is a must here. We gave up plans of Scuba diving as its cost was 9000 per head.
• Cellular Jail: A must visit place for every Indian. In day time one can visit musuem and can go inside the premises of jail to Veer Savarkar Cell, Central Tower etc. In evening there will be light and audio show in which complete story of Kaalapani is narrated.
• Mount Harriet: Highest peak in Andaman can be reached by a ferry from Chattam and from there by a Jeep to the peak. Enroute to the peak there is a viewpoint and the landscape view from that point is on backside of our 20 rupee note. From the peak, there is 1.6 km mini trekking trail to Kalapathar.
• Local Sight Seeing: In Port Blair we saw places such as Samudrika museum, Anthropological museum, Chattam Saw Mill and Aquarium. If you are traveling on your own then don’t allocate explicit time for these place, but do visit them in buffer time.

Places we couldn’t see:

• Havelock Island: It is one of the must visit places in Andaman. Radhanagar beach of this island has been rated as best beach in Asia. The problem is that this place is not properly connected to Port Blair. The ship tickets to Havelock from Port Blair are very difficult to get, especially during peak season courtesy nexus between authorities and travel agents. By the way, there is an alternate round about route to Havelock i.e by a bus from Port Blair to Rangat(8hrs journey) and from there by a ferry to Havelock. In case you are coming to Andaman by package tour make sure that Havelock island is there part of itinerary. In case it is not then extend your stay to go on your own.
• Jollybouy, Mayabandar, Cinque Island: Not much info about these places.

Shopping: Shells & Gems:
We shopped for shells at government emporium - Sagarika. For Corals and Pearls we searched at many places, and the search ended at the shop of SK Sarfaraz. His shop had large variety of fresh gems and good thing is that he proves genuineness of each one of them. Address is: SK Sarfaraz, Medical Road, Aberdeen Bazar, Port Blair, Andaman -744101(walkable from cellular jail) and mobile number 09474202007. His shop will be open only after 3 pm.

Accommodation:
We stayed at Palm Groove Eco Resort. Many rooms in this so called resort were in pathetic condition and service is not up to the mark. The food is served in the hotel itself and it's hopelessly monotonous. Since the place is 10 kms from heart of the city, there are no decent restaurants nearby. Curd is not served with the meals. Many a times we bought curd from a nearby shop at Brijgunj Junction. We became so much familiar with the shopkeeper that in last 2-3 days he used to take out curd from the refrigerator the moment we used to step into his shop ! So, if you are coming on your own to Andaman, make sure that your accommodation is in 2 km radius from Aberdeen bazaar. All the important places(including ferry terminal) will be at 5-10 minutes distance.

Trip Organizer:
Our trip was organized by YHAI, TamilNadu but many a times it was outsourced to a third party such as Darshan Travels. Our guide Subramani had a good knowledge about the place but betrayed us because of his personal benefit. He had booked a very pathetic accommodation. Also a very stubborn person as he used to intentionally speak to us in Tamil. I don’t want to be harsh, but the reason YHAI conducts these kind of tours is for national integration and holding on to ones mother tongue for guidance doesn’t serve the purpose. Since I had heard so many positive feedback about YHAI himalayan treks, there were high expectation from this trip. Actually, the way of conduct didn’t even met half of my expectations.

Adventurous Activities:
Of all the adventure activities we did snorkeling. We skipped Scuba Diving as it was very costly and also basic swimming skills are required for the same. One suggestion, in case you wear spectacles, make sure you carry contact lenses for Snorkeling. Otherwise you won’t be able to enjoy the activity to the fullest.

"Known enemy is better than unknown god"
This saying was perfect for our attempt for booking tickets to Havelock. Since our stubborn guide Subramani disagreed to arrange tickets for Havelock, we caught hold of another travel agent Vinay(of Vivek Travels). He turned out to be very cunning and ditched us twice in order to make money by selling cruise tickets in black.

To conclude, even if missed a few places it was a memorable trip. In future, might be revisiting the place just for Havelock and Scuba Diving.

For more detailed moment by moment narration read the following posts in order.

• Part-1
• Part-2 - Still in Bay of Bengal
• Part-3 - Reached Port Blair
• Part-4 - Ross Island, North Bay, Local sight seeing
• Part-5 - Jarwa, Baratang, Limestone Cave
• Part-6 - Wandoor, Mount Harriet

Azadi Express: Our struggle on Republic Day.

It was usual morning of 26th January. While surfing for TV channels I just had a glance at live telecast of Republic Day parade for a few minutes. I got bored like anything seeing struggling Pratibha Patil saluting the parade besides guest of honour Sarkozy(without Carla Bruni). Then I thought of going to one of ‘upto 50 % sale’ offer at Jayanagar. At 12 noon, came a call from Raveesh ... What about going to Azadi Express(mobile freedom struggle museum) stationed at Cantonment Railway Station. I immediately agreed and we decided to meet at the venue at 3.30 pm.

I reached the venue on dot at 3.30 pm. Raveesh along with his cousins Deepika and Babbi (its her nickname) had already reached the venue at 3.20 pm itself. Since it was a holiday I had expected a large crowd at the venue. But it was many folds more than that. There was a queue of 4-5 times length of the train to get on board. The free entry was an additional reason for such a large crowd.

It was obvious that it's going to take more than two hours to get inside the train, many people were discussing about going to a different such as Lalbagh for the flower show. Since I had heard about a lot about this train, we persisted and stood in the queue. The two hours was frustrating courtesy constant unethical intrusion of some people into the queue and honking engines of the passing by trains. We overcame this by discussing about various topics such as photography, movies and blogging.

While waiting, there was a frequent announcement that the Azadi Express will be open upto 6 pm. It was 5.30 and still 200 people were in front of us. Near to the entry door the volunteers were bit stricter as they prevented some intrusions. Finally, at 5.59 pm we were inside the train. All the twelve bogies had a different theme. It starts from 1857 war of independence and moves on with subsequent freedom struggle, Gandhijis satyagraha and ends with progress of India since independence and various fields such as science & technology, sports etc.

Since we were seeing the stuffs in extra time(after official closing time), the volunteers forced us surf through the depictions. The last coach was dedicated various achievers of India(icons) of India. There were pictures of Sachin, Sania Mirza, Yuraj, Dhoni, Kalpana Chawala and Sunita Williams. What about other people no Amitabh, SRK, Kumble, Dravid. This added to my opinion that the exhibition was biased. According to Raveesh overall the exhibition only good in patches and standing 2 and half hours in a queue was not at all worth (the time).

After the exhibition we went to nearby(1-2km) Sigma mall, there Deepu and Babbi shopped for a while and we concluded the day by doing पेट पूजा at Mc Donalds.

Read the my generic post on this at Bangalore Metblogs and also Raveesh’s post at Ee Prapancha.

Andaman Trip : Part-6 - Wandoor, Mount Harriet

This is continuation of Part-5.

Day-9: 29th Dec 2007

Wandoor trip was finally on, after Subramani leaving behind his Pondicherry desperation decided to arrange something outside YHAI itinerary. For the trip he charged us Rs. 350 per head extra as it was outsourced to some travels. At 9.30 am, a katara jeep came to pick us up at the hotel. As at Wandoor no proper food is available, we bought bread, butter, jam at a bakery on the way. At 10 am, we reached Chidiyatapu(not sure abt the name). From there we were taken in a boat to Mavadera beach. The ride through green coloured water made us feel out of the world and reminded us of various movie sequences of Mauritius.

At the beach, first we did swimming with life jackets on. After one hour we were taken into middle of sea and were shown live corals through snorkeling. With prior horrible experience of snorkeling at North Bay, I was mentally prepared second time. I avoided spectacles to make the snorkeling equipment fit properly. After jumping into water, I had a brief glance inside water the view was amazing even though I was not wearing spectacles. With sufficient practice, I was able to breathe sub consciously through my mouth. It was mission accomplished for me. Next time for such an activity I will definitely carry contact lenses.

After snorkeling we came back to the beach and had the bakery items as lunch. After lunch we roamed here and there exploring the beach. The place had still remains of tsunami destruction, many a time we had photographs standing besides the uprooted trees. At 2.30 pm, our boat was ready and we came back to Chidiyatapu. Our jeep was supposed to come at 4 pm, so while waiting we had tender coconut water at the same place and it was very horrible.

At 3.45 pm, the jeep came and took us to next destination Wandoor beach. Honourable President Pratibha Patil had visited this place a day before. Because of her visit, the place had a newly laid helipad. Some trees were uprooted to make way for helicopter landing. It’s very disgusting that such things are done for the safety of VVIPs.

Then we waited for the sun to set. Here also there were many uprooted trees. We took many silhouette photographs of these objects. We also took photographs of ourselves in different pose, style and modes. After sunset we left the place, came back to hotel and freshened up.

In the mean time we called up Vinay, asked about tickets to Havelock. ‘Sorry’ was his reply, but he promised to arrange ticket for 31st Dec. Then the brainstorming for Havelock started again. After dinner, Subramani came up with information about alternative way to Havelock. One can take a bus upto Rangat which is further (71 km from Baratang). From there one can take a ferry to Havelock. Well, Mr. Subramani you could have told this information 2-3 days back itself. We could have extended our Baratang trip to Havelock. Taking Rangat option into consideration we decided to give Vinay another chance and planned for Mount Hariet trek for the next day.

Day-10: 30th Dec 2007

We got up early as usual, but I didn’t had enthusiasm to go out because of stomach upset, courtesy coconut water which I had at Chidiyatapu. Later, it was time to say goodbye to Ragha, Mr. Bhusan & family. They left to the airport at 7.30 am. At 8 am, my conditions improved, we decided to stick to our plan of Mount Hariet.

We could have got ready by 9 am, as we thought of bathing with hot water, but geyser in our room was out of order. The maintenance guy tried to do some workaround, nothing worked finallt and we were forced to have bath with normal water. After the entire circus by 10 am we got ready.

To reach Mount Hariet we followed the instructions given by Subramani. From Brichgunj junction we took a city-bus to Gholghar, from there we took an auto Chattam ferry terminal. We reached there at 11.20 am and bought tickets for 11.30 am ferry. The ferry ride of 15 minutes took us to Bamboo flat. After getting down we took a jeep(Rs. 300 for round trip) to Mount Hariet. The ride was initially through civilized area, after half way we entered into reserved forest area. A km before the peak, driver stopped at the forest department checkpost. We had pay them Rs. 110 totally(Rs. 25X3 for entry, camera Rs. 25, jeep Rs.10)

At 12.20 pm, we were atop Mount Hariet. The place was just like a normal park and we were supposed to spend one hour. Looking here and there we came across a board in which details of Mount Hariet were given. In it a 1.6 km trekking route to Kalapathar was mentioned. Instantaneously we decided to trek, as we were particular of doing something different in Andaman. The trail was similar to regular trekking in Western Ghats, but the trees seemed to be more taller and greener. While trekking we came a across a green snake, very carefully we proceeded without disturbing it. Trekking for a few hundred meters, we came across a small stone formation. We had a close look at it, someone had written black stone on it. We thought it might be some prank and after a small break we proceeded further, but the path seemed to be going downwards. Then we assumed the junk stone to be Kalapathar and started our return trek.

At 2 pm, we were back to the park, took some snaps from the watch tower. The driver grumbled that we have taken more than one hour. While returning the driver stopped at some point and said twenty rupees, twenty rupees. We wondered what the viewpoint has to do with twenty rupees. Then driver clearly said that the landscape view of ‘North Bay’ from that point is on the back side of twenty rupees note. We were very delighted that we were at the viewpoint of such significance. Have a look at our snap from viewpoint and also image the of 20 rupees note.

After clicking photographs, we hurried towards bamboo flat terminal and were just in time for 2.30 pm steamer. At 2.45 pm we were back in Chattam. While traveling Suhas called up Krishna and asked it there any chance of going to Havelock next day. He replied there are five tickets booked by Darshan travels for Rs. 250 per head, and we had to discuss about the same with Vinay. Trip to Havelock was still a possibility ! We tried to call Vinay, but his mobile was unreachable.

Then for lunch, we took an auto ‘Light House Restaurant’ near Cellular Jail, there Anil had sea food. While having lunch we called up Vinay told him that we want three out of five with Krishna and he promised us to get the same.

After lunch we supposed go near Saagarika for gems shopping. Before that we thought of doing window shopping one or two shops near Medical. We went to a shop of S. K. Sarfaraz. In his shop there were lot of variety of gems and were looking fresh. He showed genuineness of a few pearls by keeping it next to the fire. Totally we spent two hours in that shop and together we did shopping for six thousand rupees. For a brief duration we had become experts in jewelry designing as we discussed a lot about matching between corals and pearls !! After gems shopping we concluded the day by buying T-shirts, curd and fruits. We took a bus back to Brijgunj junction.

As soon we came back to Palm Groove, we looked around for Vinay, as he had promised to get us three tickets for the Havelock trip. When we met him, he made some weird expression and told sorry that he was given tickets to his regular customers. Once again he broke the promise. We speculated that he might have sold actual Rs.150 ticket in black for Rs. 1000. He ditched us two times ! In case you are coming to Andamans beware of Vinay of Vivek travels, he is definitely not a person whom we can trust upon.

Anyway, Havelock was not there in our fate. Even if it is 7th best beach, there are six other beaches better than it. Also, we had got saturated like anything by seeing sea for so many days and we wouldn’t have done many things being in Havelock for six hours.

Day-11: 31st Dec 2007

Our return journey flight was on next day and it was certain that we have no chance of going to Havelock. We got up very casually. Anil from somewhere got enthusiasm for fishing. He took myself and subramani to Aberdeen bazazar for buying fishing equipment. He bought a few hooks and fishing line.

After lunch at Palm Groove, Anil searched the scrap yard for some wooden stick. With the help of carpenter he got a nail attached to a stick. At 3 pm, we left to Cabyns Cove beach, as it was nearest beach to Palm Groove. We took a bus till Carbyns chowk and from there we walked for a km for reach Carbyns Cove beach. First we took various solo photos as we were wearing Andaman T-shirts. Anil got his equipment ready. As the waves were too much, we couldn’t find a ideal place for fishing. Anil lost the enthu after trying for 15 minutes. Then we had snacks sitting on the beach rocks and later we had brief beach walk. There was no proper sunset view from the beach. When it was almost dark, we decided return to hotel partially by walk and rest by bus.

Overall it was a disappointing day. We were supposed go to Havelock, it didn’t materialized. In Port Blair environment no where there was an environment that it’s going to be a new year next day. After dinner we played Poker, got bored as we were only three people. We saw a few new year programs in TV channels. Anil and Suhas slept early, but I was awake till 12 midnight and welcomed 2008.

Day-12: 1st January 2008

Return journey.

At 7.45 am, we had breakfast and left to Veer Savarkar airport. We finished all check in and security formalities by 9.30 am. We boarded the plane at 10 am and it took off at 10.20 am. Here is the video I shot while taking off.



We landed in Chennai at 12.20 pm and took an auto to bus stand. The 2 pm KSRTC Airavath was full. In SETC bus seats were available. We took the tickets immediately, kept the lugguages and had some fast food in a hurry. At 2.30 pm the bus departed. In the bus I met some new people. Initially I chatted with Madhoosudhan a software professional. After that I slept for while. Till last 2 hours the journey was very boring, then when I was just having glance at highway boards to look for distance of Bangalore, I accidentally talked to Lokesh, a property consultant. The casual chat turned into a big discussion. He asked me many curious questions about our Andaman trip. Then the discussion topic changed to property price, real estate and who’s who’s in the real estate market. With the discussion, the time moved very fast and we were back to Bangalore in a jiffy. I got down at dairy circle and took an auto back to home concluding my dream Andaman Trip.

My series on Andaman Trip ends with this post. To be followed by a Retrospect post.

Lalbagh Flower Show: Jan 2008

Update: Find August 2008 flower show report at Lalbagh Flower Show - Aug 2008.

Entry Fee:
Adults: Rs.20 on weekdays/ Rs.30 on weekends.
Children: Rs.10

Timings: 9 am to 7 pm.

Duration: From 19th January to 27th January.

Last Sunday I had been to biennial flower show at Lalbagh to continue my experimentation with photography. This time I was bit disappointed as there were no centers of attraction as last year. So, those who had been to the show previously can give it a skip.

The only improvement I found this year was that the security has been stepped up. One has go through metal detectors twice once at the entry gate and other at the glass house.

Gaalipata : One step forward, two steps back

Gaalipata was one of the most awaited movies of Kannada film industry in recent times. As of the core team of the movie was same as that of most successful movie of the industry - Mungaaru Male, obviously expectations were very high. The hype was built up in a nice way, courtesy marketing team of the movie.

[Image source]

After such hype, getting tickets in the first weekend is an arduous task. Since it was known that the movie is technically is very good and majority of shooting was done in beautious locations of Kodachadri, I thought of seeing the movie in PVR itself. I was continuously waiting for opening of online booking of the tickets in the PVR website from 2 days before release. Unfortunately, the bookings for the movie never opened. Even on Friday morning the movie was not coming in the options for online booking. At 12 noon when I checked website again, the Gaalipata option came in combo-box, but the tickets were sold out. This is very unfair indeed, and illustrates one more example for lack transparency with respect to booking of tickets in PVR.

Now we had look forward to single screen. As we(Harsha, raveesh & me) didn’t want to waste our time standing in the queue, hence decided to go for tickets in black if it is available at a reasonable price. On Saturday morning as per the plan we met at Eshwari theatre at 10 am. The tickets for the morning were sold out by that time, so we hunted for the people selling tickets in black. After all searching we got a man selling the tickets at three times the actual price. As we had no other option we unanimously agreed for his deal.

The show was supposed to start at 11.15 am, we went casually inside the hall ten minutes before the start. But we had to rush to our seats as the movie had already started, the title song ‘Akaasha ishte yaakideyo’ was getting screened.

The movie is about three friends Ganesh, Digant and Kitty frustrated with city life, this decide go away from city for peace of mind. The place they chose is ancestor house of Digant in Muglipete somewhere in Sahyadris. From there on, audience are treated with many clichés and stereotypes such as

• Three guys meet three girls in a single incidence.
• Out of location duet songs.
• Seeking of parental permission for marriage.
• Percepting a wild boar as vishnu’s incarnation.

The major USP of Mugaaru Male was its unique treatment and absence of stereotypes. I am sorry Yograj Bhat avare, in Gaalipata you have taken a few plusses of Mungaaru male but packaged it with many stereotypes. This is what happens when one tries to emulates success.

It’s unfair to compare the movie with Mungaaru Male, but it is inevitable as there are many similarities.

• Protaginist: There is hardly any difference between characterization of Pritam in Mungaru Male and Ganesh in Gaalipata.
• Dialogue Delivery: The comical sequences are nice, but emotional dialogues are very much similar to that Mungaaru Male. For example famous Pritam’s monologue in Mungaaru Male, the similar type of monologue is emulated not once but 2-3 times in Gaalipata.
• Shooting locations: In Mungaaru Male, Jog Falls was captured in a unique perspective. Similarly in Gaalipata the director has tried to project Shimsa falls from a different angle.
• Songs: Music wise and situation wise Minchaagi neenu baralu ninthalliye is very much similar to Anisuthade yaako indu.
  

The movie could have been better if all the departments had blended together seamlessly, as it was in Mungaaru Male. But in Gaalipata some stuffs such as cinematography and comedy stand out very evidently. Overall it’s a watchable movie, but not worth the hype.

What others say:
- Abhishek S. N. : Gaalipata Gimmick - A Funny Review
- Raveesh Kumar: Gaalipata(Kannada) - Film Review
- Times of India: Gaalipata - Movie Review
- Rediff.com: Galipata: A class act
- Deccan Herald: Gaalipata-Review

Update:
This post was listed in a thatskannada.com editorial ಬ್ಲಾಗ್‌ಮಂಡಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಗಾಳಿಪಟ ಚಿತ್ರವಿಮರ್ಶ(Gaalipata reviews on blog posts).

Andaman Trip : Part-5 - Jarwa, Baratang, Limestone Cave

This is continuation of Part-4.

Day-7: 27th Dec 2007

The agenda for the day was to tour the places around Baratang, Middle Andaman (Port Blair is in South Andaman). Like North Bay trip, it was at macro level organized by YHAI and at micro level was a package tour conducted by some travels. The bus to Baratang was at 4 am, so we woke up at 2.45 am and and got ready immediately. We also packed our luggages and dumped at reception as Subramani promised us to move a new room from infamously memorable bhoot bangala. At 3.30 am, a TT came and dropped us to Bathubasti(outskirt of Port Blair), the pick up point of bus. While waiting for the bus we had tea at some shop. While waiting we saw many Aiyappa devotees chanting mantras and walking barefoot towards the port for boarding ship to Chennai and from there obviously to Sabrimalai.

Jarwa Tribal Reserve, Mangrove Forest

At 4.30 am, 'Anu' bus came and we got the last row seats in it. The journey was very uncomfortable because of combination of bad roads, rash driving and poor shock absorbers of the bus. At 5.30 am we reached the check post at Jarwa Tang. From there the vehicles are left in form of convoy. The gates for the first convoy opened at 6 am. The journey through tribal reserve was like a safari ride as we were going amidst dense tropical rainforest and looking for wild animals, Jarwa Tribals to be specific.

At 7.30 am, we were dropped at the banks of Mangrove Strait. A 500 meters before this point we saw a few Jarwa tribe people. I was expecting that the trip organizers will take us near jarva settlement, but it wasn't in the itinerary. The photography of Jarwas is prohitited as some time back a tourist was stabbed a Jarwa, while being photographed. From Mangrove Strait we were taken in a steamer to Bartang. The 30 minutes ride was memorable as it was our first date with Mangroves. At Baratang, we waited till 9 am for boat to Limestone caves.

Limestone Cave

As part of package packed breakfast(Idly, chutney) was given while traveling in the boat. After traveling for 45 minutes along the Mangrove Strait, we reached a small opening in between Mangrove vegetation. From there we are transfered to a small motor boat. The motor boat takes people in batches of ten to a wooden platform. From the platform a km trek took us to limestone cave. I expected the caves to be something like Yaana, but it was very different and unique. The guide there explained how the calcium carbonate rocks emerged from the earth because of an earthquake, leading to formation of caves. It was pitch dark inside the caves, after taking sufficient photos(mainly with flash) we came out of the caves. Just before starting off return trek we had lime juice at a shop 50 meters from the caves. The masaledar lime juice for Rs. 5 was simply amazing. Just curious was the taste of lime juice had something to do with proximity of the shop to limestone caves ? Then we trekked back to the same wooden platform and transfered to the big boat again by a small motor boat. We experienced the memorable mangrove ride for the second time and captured the same in the video below.



The big boat left after a long delay. The organizers tried to load as much people in the boat. Because of this one person got very angry and started blasting the organizers like anything. After all this the boat left and we reached Baratang around 2 pm. Then we were immediately put into a 10 seater jeep and taken to the Mud Volcano. After photo session and board reading at the site we came back to Bartang and had lunch at a small hotel(inclusive in package). At 3 pm, we were taken by a steamer back to the place where we were dropped in morning by 'Anu' bus. We boarded the bus, this time we made sure that we occupy the front seats. In the initial part of the return journey we saw a few Jarwas again. I slept for a while and when I woke up, we had already reached the check post. There the bus halted for a brief time and we had tea and malpoa at one of the tea shops.

At 7.15 am, we were back in Port Blair. We got down at Bathubasti, there Subramani picked up us in a van and took us back to our hotel, Palm Groove. After reaching there, he handed us key of new romm and told had all the things in the YHAI itinerary are covered and for the remaining days we have to go on our own. We verified the same by looking at online itinerary in yhai tamilnadu website. Hello YHAI, what's the point in condcuting a Andaman trip without Havelock and Wandoor ?. After it was final that we had to go on our own, we did a brief brainstorming for the next day’s plan. Whether go to Havelock, Wandoor or Mt. Hariet etc.

Day-8: 28th Dec 2007

As nothing was planned for the day, the discussion continued. Our planned departure from Port Blair was on Jan 1st. But Subramani was very desperate to leave Andaman as early as possible. He suggested us to spend new year switch in Pondicherry. We declined the offer chose to explore more places in Andaman itself, as Pondicherry is easily reachable from Bangalore, but the same is not true for Andaman. We mentioned that he have to see Havelock and without that our Andaman trip wont be complete. Subramani tried to brainwash us saying there is nothing in Havelock, there one Radhanagar beach just like Marina beach. Come on, Subramani you are comparing the best beach in Asia to Marina beach, I know you were desperate go Pondicherry but not to this extent.

Later after all brainstorming on previous day we decided to go Mt. Hariet and if the sufficient time is there we thought of going to cellular jail museum. Mr. Bhusan’s family also joined us. At 10 am, we left Palm Groove. We went to Birchgunj Junction bus stop and boarded a local bus. Subramani asked us to take tickets till ‘Medical’ stop. We realized that the plan was changed and we were going to Cellular Jail Museum first.

In the museum, there were photographs of Subash Chandra Bose's visit to celluar jail. The model of actual cellular jail, uniform of prison staff were also on display. There was also series of photographs of various Indian president’s visit to cellular jail. Instantaneously, we discussed that the next in the next series will be photo of Pratibha Patil’s visit. We were also allowed inside the prison into bowel house, Veer Savarkar’s cell and prison’s tower.

At 12.30 pm, we came out of the cellular jail and realized that there is not enough time to cover Mt. Hariet. We should have gone there first. Subramani put the blame on Mr. Bhusan’s family saying they wanted to see Cellular jail first. Anyway, we thought of doing better business for the remaining day.

First we went to the shipping corporation for booking ship tickets to Havelock. At the information center we came to know that tickets for Havelock cruise for next day are sold out and booking for the ticket for a particular day opens previous day only. Then we had look at the status display at the reservation center. It was showing that 6 tickets are available. By the time we went to the counter it was lunch time. We waited for 1 hour did sufficient brainstorming. At 2 pm the counter opened, the clerk at the counter rejected our reservation request stating that the 6 tickets are available in the islanders quota not in the tourist quota. I feel it was not the genuine reason, there may be big nexus between official and travel agents. Since Havelock is a happening place, the tickets may be sold to travel agents in black. We had to come out of reservation center empty handed.

It was very late to go back to Palm Groove for lunch. So we decided to have lunch at Hotel Kottabomman(Chettinad hotel). As we were very late, there was no curd, payasa and many of the lunch items were exhausted. After lunch, we had ice cream in a stall next to the hotel. Then went to the market and bought fruits. Subramani took us to Sagarika by walk. Anil bought some stuffs there. Havla(red corals) were not available there, so we went in search us of havla to a shop besides Anthropological museum. There the cost of cylindrical havla was rs. 130 for one bead. I didn’t buy it as my mother needed the spherical ones . While shopping, Subramani interfered like anything. For each and every item he used to say that it's very cheap in Chennai.

After shopping we came back to the hotel. Then for the next day after a lot of 'tu tu main main' Shivamani agreed to arrange a trip to Wandoor(place suggested by Vinay). Later we went for a walk had tea at the junction, we bought curd for the dinner and snacks for the Wandoor trip. After the dinner, and later had a brief gossip session with Mr. Bhusan. He told us that he ever insisted Subramani to take us to cellular jail first. After discussion we came to conclusion that Subramani has exploited the communication gap between us. Later, we had discussion with Vinay(of Vivek travels) for the Havelock trip. He promised us to book us three tickets(obviously in black) for 6 am Havelock cruise on Sunday 30th dec.

Continued in Part-6

Andaman Trip : Part-4 - Ross Island, North Bay, Local sight seeing

This is continuation of Part-3

Day-5: 24th Dec 2007

We got up lazily as there was no urge to see sunrise. At 8.30 am, we had breakfast at the hotel; it was Idly, chutney and sambhar. The agenda for the day was to cover three places Ross Island, Viper Island and North Bay. At macro level it was arranged by Subramani(YHAI), but at micro level it was one day trip conducted by Darshan Travels.

Ross Island

At 9 am, our TT came and took us to the ferry terminal at the sports complex(near cellular jail). From there 30 minutes ferry ride took us to Ross Island. The entry for the island is Rs. 20 and camera fee was Rs.10. Right next to the entrance you will find a Japanese bunker, built at the time of World War 2. The bunker seemed to be renovated recently, but it was looking very artificial.

Ross island once upon a time was a self reliant township of Britishers. At that time it had everything from water distillation plant, printing press, church to bakery. Now many of the things are in ruins. All the details were explained in a nice way by Sanjay(guide of Darshan travels). There was a small museum 'Smritika' in which photos of olden days were displayed. Overall I liked the place, since it had so much historical significance.

Viper Island

Next we were taken in another ferry to Viper Island. At the jetty of Viper island there was an old semi inverted boat, courtesy Tsunami 2004. Instantly, Mr. Bhusan named it as a Tsunami memorial. At Viper island there was an old gallow, this was used before the construction of cellular jail. At the same place Sher Ali was hanged to death. There nothing else to see in island. At one and only shop in the island, we had we had Amul strawberry milk to quench our thirst. Time was 1 pm, our next destination was North Bay. On the way, in the ferry we were given packed lunch (pallav and gravy). There were no spoons, we had to eat with dirty hands, but the experience of having food was different.

North Bay

In 45 minutes we reached North Bay. The place is famous for corals. It can be seen using two ways, one by snorkeling and other by glass boat.

First we were showed a trailer in a glass boat which took us to shores of North Bay. Since it was holiday season, the place was crowded and we had to wait for our turn for snorkeling. After relaxing in water for 1 hour, we got our turn. Initially instructor asked me not wear spectacles. For the first time we couldn’t see anything. In order see properly, I put my head further inside and salt water went inside my nose. Immediately, I took out mask and requested the guide, allowing me to wear specs. Thankfully he allowed, the view got better and I was able see the corals. After this activity we took the ride of glass boat. I expected the boat to be some transparent coracle. Actually it was a normal canoe with 8 feet X 1 feet glass framing at the bottom. Anyway corals were visible from it. For me, the experience was better than that of snorkeling. In the latter one I was not able to see properly due to extra concentration on taking breath from mouth.

At 5.00 pm, at sun was almost set (which is very obvious in Andaman) and we started our ride back to sports complex ferry terminal. During return journey, I had a brief chat with Sanjay (guide of Darshan travels). While discussing about Havelock, he mentioned that there is a beach by name Radhanagar beach, it is rated as 7th best beach in the world. Well, the discussion further increased our urge to go Havelock.

After reaching Sports complex we had tea and coconut water at adjacent shops. On the way back to hotel we bought curd at Gandhi circle. After coming to hotel (bhoot bangla of course), we freshened up ourselves and had dinner. After dinner we had a walk exploring the locality outside hotel. The area was called Portanapur and bus stop name was Brijgunj Junction. Near junction there were a few shops snacks and medicines. We came back to hotel and before going to sleep we reviewed the photos and also the video of corals which Anil took while taking glass boat ride.



Day-6: 25th Dec 2007

On Wednesday the plan was to do local sight seeing. First we were taken to Samudrika, marine museum. It had stuffs such as corals, shells on display. Also, definition and explanation about them were mentioned. The last hall had information about sea archaeology; it included some explanation about Dwaraka etc. Outside the hall, in the lawn there was display of huge skeleton of whale.

Then we went to Government Saw Mill at Chattam Island. This is one of the oldest and largest wood factories. There is nothing much see in this place, except a museum of wooden items, in which items made at Chattam were kept on display.

Next in the itinerary was visit to Cellular Jail museum. Adding to our misfortune cellular jail was closed, courtesy visit of Pratibha Patil. Then we were taken to Aquarium nearby. It was a very small place. Photography was prohibited but videography was allowed for Rs.45. Since I had photographed so much of live marine stuffs in Seoul aquarium, I decided to leave my camera outside. There a few live fishes in the aquarium, while majority of them are kept in formaldehyde solution. One can skip this place if (s)he had seen aquarium abroad. For me after seeing corals previous day, a few stuffs like sea urchin, combination of clown fish and anemone looked interesting to me.

After aquarium we came back to our hotel for lunch. At 4 pm we left to Cabyn’s Cove beach. I and Suhas went into the water. The waves were very less in the beach and we got bored in 10 minutes. We came out and had shower at the bath complex, paying 2 rupees. Later we had tea at a hotel(can’t recall name) opposite to the beach.

Next was the visit to Gandhi Park. We were on the way and the music system of TT was playing the song ‘dil armaan aasuye ke sung beh gaye’. Mr. Bhusan was expecting something unfortunate to happen. Suddenly a call came to Subramani that all roads are blocked in the city and as expected something unfortunate happened. We canceled our plan of Gandhi Park and made a premature return to the hotel.

We bought snacks for next day’s Baratang trip and also curd for the dinner. At our resort(hotel) a big group of 30 people(G-30) had come from Bangalore. There were on a package tour conducted by Vivek Travels and their guide was Vinay(or Vinayaka). Suhas had long chat with him in Tulu. Vinay suggested us to go a place by name Wandoor, where density of corals is more than North Bay. We told that we will come back for details after our Baratang trip.

10000 visitors !!!

Sunil Gavaskar on March 7 1987, Sachin Tendulkar on March 31 2001 and BSE Sensex on Feb 7 2006 have something in common. Yes you guessed it right, it is crossing of magical figure 10000 in some respect.

Similarly, today my blog has crossed the magical figure of 10000 visitors. Hurray !!!

Thanks to all and keep visiting.

Andaman Trip : Part-3 - Reached Port Blair

This post is continuation of Part-2.

As per schedule, we were supposed to reach Port Blair on Monday morning. In order to see last sunrise being on ship we had decided get up as early as possible. In deep sleep, I woke up suddenly and saw my watch, it was showing 5.30 ! So, I jumped off my bed immediately and shouted on everyone, to wake up. Only Suhas responded, relax .. it's still 2.30 am. By mistake, I had seen wrong display of my digital watch. After realization, I continued my sleep and later got up at actual 5 am.

After getting up, I immediately went to the front deck. There Bhupathi and Senthil were doing some experimentation with photography. I joined them and took snaps of full moon on western side. The ship was standstill, 5km from port blair, waiting for the orders. In distance, we witnessed lighthouses around Port Blair were flashing lights periodically. After spending few minutes at the deck, we went top floor canteen and had coffee and waited for sunrise to happen. Like previous day, sunrise was disappointing again. I came back to cabin, finished all morning activities. Then Bhupathi took me to bunk-class canteen for breakfast. We came back to front deck again, but this time it was crowded like anything and the ship was slowly approaching port of Port Blair.

After some time a small pilot ship came towards our ship and one official from it came on board. When the ship reached front of passenger terminal, the pilot ship took one rope and attached to terminal. Then our ship pulled using the same and got itself attached to the terminal. When this process was going on, I had a small chat with a co-passenger who looked similar to Carlos Moya. His name was Clemente, he was from France and had nothing to do with Carlos Moya.

Finally, at 8.30 am our ship got attached to the terminal. Because of bottleneck around the exit, it took 20 minutes to get down. It was end of our maiden ship journey of 60 hours approximate. First day experience was good especially sunrise, flying fish etc. But second days onwards we got bored a bit. The gadgets which we were carrying and also DVD collection of Bhupathi kept us occupied throughout the trip. I had a nice time interacting with co passengers of different backgrounds. No doubt, a memorable journey, I will cherish the experience for many days. I recommended everyone experience this ship journey once in their lifetime.

We came out of the port, and boarded a tempo traveler(TT) arranged by YHAI to the lodge, which was 10 km from the port. While traveling to our lodge we had curious glance left and right and compared the actual city to our imagination. The city had resemblance to a coastal city like Mangalore. On the way to the lodge, from a viewpoint we saw a plane taking of from Port Blair airport. The complete stretch of runway was visible. Our TT driver halted for a while, and enabled us to see the complete take off.



At 9.15 am, we were at the hotel. Its name was Palm Groove Eco Resort. As soon as we got down, buffe system breakfast was ready for us. It was dosa, chutney and sambar. Nice breakfast and good looking reception raised my expectations about the accommodation. After breakfast, Subramani took us to a room which had no windows, no wardrobe and more than that four people were expected to sleep in 10feetX10feet room. Frankly speaking, it was the worst accommodation I had seen in my life so far. Then we came to know that it is not really an accommodation. It is just a makeshift room for us, as actual rooms were not available. Come on YHAI, we had booked for this program 2 months back. How come there won’t be any accommodations available in Port Blair, so many days back.

Carbyns Cove Beach

Cursing YHAI and of course Subramani, we finished our bathing and washing activities. Then we were taken to Carbyns Cove beach for time pass. We had photo sessions at several potential subject points. The beach was designated as litter free zone and due to his there wasn't a single vendour on the beach. At the same beach, some bulldozer activity was going on; it was taking out remains of chopped coconut tree.

After spending one hour at the beach, we came back to hotel for lunch. There was a slight delay, so we played 2-3 games of poker. Since the hotel’s owners was a Tamilian, we were expecting a decent South Indian lunch. We were disappointed again, it was just place rice, dal and some gravy. I asked the server for a curd, he replied curd won’t be part of our menu. Well, we had no other choice, our hotel was in outskirts of Port Blair, so no good restaurant were nearby. On eating spicy dal and rice, there was a burning sensation in our stomach. To quench our burning sensation, we had mosambees which we had bought in Chennai and fortunately carried it so far.

After lunch, we were taken to anthropological museum. Cameras were not allowed inside the museum. Actually it was blessing in disguise, we went though each and every thing in the museum, instead of just clicking photographs. The museum had description about various foragers of Andaman. The details about formation of Andaman and Nicobar Island could have been better. While coming out of the museum, Suhas had a bad fall, further adding pain to sprain in his ankle.

Cellular Jail and Veer Savarkar Park

After museum, we were taken to cottage industry emporium ‘Saagarika’ for shopping. There I bought Balmuri Shanka (Dakshinamukhi Shanka). After this we were dropped in front of cellular jail entrance. The Light and Audio show was at 5.30, till that time we were supposed to spend time in Veer Savarkar Park, opposite to the entrance. Since Suhas wanted to buy crepe bandage, we decided to go to the market. While going downhill, I took photographs of various landscaping in the park. While walking we saw one VIP movement, it was actually drill for the convoy of Pratibha Patil(President of India), she was coming to the island on 26th Dec for official visit cum vacation.

Walking further, we enquired about the availability of rooms in some lodges, since we were already frustrated with Palm Groove Resort. The rooms were booked till 31st Dec in each and every lodge. We came back to cellular jail, there tickets for 5.30 pm Hindi show were sold out, and so we had to wait for 7 pm English show.

We didn’t have curd rice for 3 consecutive days(2 days in ship). So, I and Anil went in search of curd, to the market. The market is famously known as Aberdeen Bazaar. We enquired about curd at one corner shop in clock tower junction. Thankfully, curd was available at the same shop. We also had Lassi at the same place. It was awesome and made the day for me. We also took the same as parcel to Ragha and Suhas who were waiting for us in the park.

At 6.45 pm, we went inside the jail. While entering, we met Bhupathi’s group. They were staying some accommodation, 2km from the cellular jail. They were discussing that there is a place by name Havelock Island. It’s the must visit place in Andaman and one can go there only by ship from Port Blair. It’s very difficult to get the tickets for the same. We thought of asking about Havelock to Subramani later and is it there in our itinerary or not.

Light and Audio show

At 7 pm, the light and audio show started. It had narration of the story of Kaalapani. It was narrated keeping clock tower as one of the character and a witness to the entire happenings, the voice was of Naseeruddin Shah. There was a brief introduction about Andamans, its name, and when it was geographically plotted etc. Then story of Veer Savarkar, Sher Ali were also narrated. The show was very informative but was boring in patches. In spite of authorities warning people not to click snaps, some people did, that to with flash on. It was really irritating; I lost the track in many places. I feel authorities have to be stricter.

After the show we came back to the hotel. On the way we bought fruits at the shops opposite to bus stand. The prices were very high orange 60, apple 80, grapes 120.

Bhoot Bangla - भूत बंगला

With inspiration from the story of Kaalapani, we had actually thought of doing Veer Savarkar’s type of strike at the hotel for better accommodation. But Subramani seemed to be one step ahead; he came and told us to shift our luggage to a different room. The happiness was short lived, as were taken to some haunted house(भूत बंगला), 500 meter from actual hotel.

The house was spacious with six beds, but the ambience was very bad, lot of dust, no bulbs in bathroom, no washbasin. We thought of using kitchen sink as washbasin, but in the sink there was stagnant water full of larvae of mosquitoes Yuks !! Staying in such a pathetic accommodation, we were helpless. We four were together paying 2000 per day(500 per head) for such a hopeless accommodation. There seemed to be some scandal and we suspected some adjustment between Subramani and hotel owner. The higher authorities of YHAI should make a note of this; there is a threat to YHAI’s reputation.

After realizing the situation, we came back to the hotel for dinner. Again it was same old dal, rice and roti. But we were having our own curd and had it with plain rice. Finally, we ate curd rice after 3 days. Filling our stomach, we went to sleep and hoped that things will get better next day.

Continued in Part-4.

Andaman Trip : Part-2 - Still in Bay of Bengal

This post is continuation of Part-1 of Andaman Trip Series.
Also read Andaman Trip : Summary and Retrospect

Day -2: 22nd Dec 2007.

I woke at 5.30 am. The daemon of witnessing sunrise was running all over my head. After brushing my teeth, I immediately rushed to the front deck where many elderly people were doing morning walk and some were doing pranayama too. Around 6.15 am the beautiful sunrise happened and I managed capture it in my cam, the experience was just amazing to see a sunrise amidst Bay of Bengal on a ship.

At 6.30 am, bed tea was served to our cabin. In the ship there for food there was a strict time table - Breakfast 8.30 am, Lunch 12.30 pm and Dinner 6.30 pm. Looking at our punctuality on the previous day, Subramani warned us that we have to strictly follow the time table and the dining hall will closed on other times. So following his instructions, at 8.30 am we went for the breakfast. Bread, butter, jam and Uppittu(Kharabath) were served. 9.45 am we went to the front deck, had a brief photo session. Bhupathi, Senthil and Subramani joined us. At 10.45 am, we came back to cabin and played Poker. Luck favoured Suhas and Anil who were new to the game and Suhas turned out to be winner. I don’t want to be judgmental, but of all the poker games I have played so far freshers always turn out to be winners.

After finishing bathing activities, at 12.30 pm we went for the lunch. After having lunch, we came back to our favorite place i.e. front deck. This time we were allowed further ahead next to the containers. From the deck, we saw many Flying Fish. I don’t know much about its biology. This sparrow sized fish flies sidewards escaping from the water displacement of the ship. While observing the same, we met one of the fishermen; he narrated his experiences when the ship takes 7 days to reach Port Blair at the time of cyclone.

We came back to our cabin and after lot discussion we continued watching 'Dus Kahaniya’ and finished it completely. At 3.30 pm, we had tea. Then exploring the ship further, we borrowed carom board from the library by paying 200 rupees deposit. The board was good but most the pawns were of plastic, so it was bit uncomfortable. Initially, I pouched two pawns with confidence, but could not continue with rhythm courtesy plastic pawns. We played only two boards and went outside to see the sunset at 5.15 pm.



Meeting a IPKF army man

While taking sunset photographs, one army man just checked out how the photograph has come. He was an army man working for IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Forces). He narrated his experiences of his services at Sri Lanka in 1988 during Rajiv Gandhi’s era. He explained me how mistakes made by Indian army officers led to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. He also shared experiences of his recent assignment of social service at Sudan. His next assignment was at Andaman for that he was going to Port Blair.

He appreciated our enthusiasm for traveling by ship to Andaman and mentioned that it was the right time to travel by ship. Otherwise if the sea was rough there is a fair chance of getting sea sickness (vomiting etc). The discussion went further from tourist places in our country, to cultural richness of our country, to Ram Sethu etc.

Then I came to the front deck for taking photographs of almost full moon. There I met Paniappan, originally from TN, working at electricity department of Andamans for 25 years!!! Even though he was a Tamilian, his conversational Hindi was very good. My first question to him howz the electricity supply at Andaman? He replied there is no power generating station in Andaman. The power which is supplied is generated using diesel generator. The power tariff is Rs. 1.25 per unit for domestic usage and Rs.2 for commercial usage. He mentioned things have changed very much since 2004 tsunami; the government is giving more importance to Andaman. Discussing about places to see in Andamans, he mentioned about one active volcano. It takes 4 days by boat to reach that place. He also mentioned that nowadays it Andaman is better connected to mainland India courtesy cheaper air fares and modern ships. Ten years back it used to take atleast one week to travel.

At 6.45 pm, we had dinner. Since the table was full, we had to wait for 15-20 minutes waiting for our turn. After the dinner we had a brief walk on the side deck. We were discussing something loudly in Kannada. A person from a group sitting on a bench, got up and called us 'Yenri Kannadavara ?'. His name was Mahadev Prakash, he was working for Indian Air Force(IAF) at Car Nicobar. We had general chit-chat and he too mentioned about sea sickness.

Then we came to our cabin and watched the movie ‘The Bourne Identity’. It was re viewing for me, but it was a big relief after the torture of Dus Kahaniya. After the movie I read a few pages of Mark Tully’s ‘India – an unending journey’ and went to sleep.

Day-3: 23rd Dec 2007

From 3 am onwards, I got up frequently every half hour just to check the time. Finally, I got up at 5 am and had a glance outside, it was still dark. 5.30 am, I decided go out to have a look at sunrise, Anil and Suhas joined me this time. Unfortunately the horizon was completely covered with clouds. The sun played eye spice with us. It was very different sunrise than previous day, the sun rays were penetrating between clouds and all of us captured in our cams.

As previous day 8.30 am we had breakfast. It was almost same as previous day, but this time there was Idly in place Uppittu. In the dining hall, we were late by a minute didn’t get seats, ultimately had to wait for 15 minutes. We came to cabin and saw Mungaru Male movie in suhas’s laptop. It was really refreshing even thought I was seeing it for third time. Before bathing we just roamed in the deck. There Mr. Patel told us that a he saw some sharks twenty minutes back. So, we decided to spend time in the deck after lunch.

At 12.30 pm we had lunch, this time we made sure we were at the dinning hall 5 minutes before time. The lunch was pallav and some gravy. As usual dal was also part of the menu. After lunch we went to one side of deck. Myself and Ragha started reading books, anil and suhas waited and waited for sharks.

After some time I had handwriting analysis session with Mr. Patel. He nodded head for my analysis but gave me only 65 percent accuracy. Later while returning to my cabin I saw one man reading a Hindi panchanga. I asked him whether he is an Astrologer. He was basically a Kashmiri pandit but actually he was an army man. He was trying to understand 2008 Panchanga. With a little bit knowledge of astrology I was able to discuss with a few basics of astrology.

Rendezvous with a Crew member

While discussing astrology, a crew member tried to be a spectator. I involved him in the discussion. His name was Raja Gopala. After ending Astrology discussion, I had a Q&A session with him, clarifying my doubts about the ship journey.

Q. First of all, what's the speed of the ship ?
A. Maximum speed is 16 knots, usual speed is 14 knots and 1 knot = 1.82 kmph..

Q. What kind of fuel is used ?
A. The fuel used in the ship is crude oil not the refined diesel or petrol.

Q. Why the ship took so much for departing from Chennai ?
A. Actually there will be many clearances. One of the clearances will be from MMD surveyor for B certificate. They will check whether the ship has sufficient water and ration. In the port between the channel the ship is guided by pilot ship. After crossing the channel it's taken over by the captain of the ship. All these procedures take a lot of time.

Q. Who actually control's the navigation ?
A. The navigation of the ship is controlled by duty officers who work under the captain. They have to make sure that the ship is going in the right direction. From Chennai to Port Blair direction is 279 degree and from Port Blair to Chennai it is 99 degree.

Q. Why the colour of water of Bay of Bengal is so dark.
A. No idea. But because of this dark colour, the cellular jail of Andaman is infamously called Kaalapani.

While discussing I analyzed his handwriting too. He was very satisfied with the analysis and gave me 99 percent accuracy.

At 3.30 pm we had tea. Then, I went with Bhupathi to take photos of bunk class, canteen, library and laundry site. At 4.30 pm I returned the borrowed carom board. Then we took photos of sunset. Because of clouds we hardly could see the setting sun. Then we tried capture rising full moon on the east side. After roaming here and there, we decided to play poker. It was a head to head game. In between the game 6.30 pm we had dinner. Since there no proper dessert, we had ice cream in a shop next to the library. After this we continued Poker. It was a nail biting game. I won it despite being at 249 points for four consecutive games. Later we saw Aaja nachale, in a DVD given by Bhupathi. In between I went outside the cabin, to have glance ship’s movie room. There ‘Jab we met’ was being played. I came back to cabin and continued with Aaja Nachale, the ending of the movie was not there in the DVD. With partial disappointment we slept.

Next day at 8.30 am we were supposed to reach Port Blair. More about it in Part-3.

Andaman Trip : Part-1

It was one of my dream trips and had to make so many tough decisions before getting on board the trip. First in the list was informing my manager that I will not be available for a probable onsite assignment in December. Unlike my colleagues I chose to give a frank reason that I have already booked for a trip thru Youth Hostel Association of India(YHAI). It's really tough to balance between professional and personal life !

Other decisions were not so significant. I had say no to my regular trekking friends for other trips/treks. There was request from Tassa, Seena to conduct some trip during Christmas. Rohit(Roti) tried very had to get me on board for his North Canara trip. I had to say no thru straight face :) ‘Life is not a popularity contest’.

Usually YHAI trips don’t get cancelled but this was almost on the verge getting cancelled. The reason was the ship on which we were supposed to make return journey was going into maintenance. So the only option left for the return journey was flight. Since it was holiday season, the air-ticket prices were at peak and we had to shelve out 4000/- extra to materialize the trip. Since I was mentally prepared for the trip I said yes, so  do Anil, Suhas and Raghvendra. One way it was matter of prestige for us, as we had told about the trip to many people. However, other people Yeshwanth and Jatin decided to drop out.

Bangalore to Chennai.

20th Dec, I came from office taking 5.30 pm cab and surprising I didn't face traffic jams which I usually face before going for a trip.

Packing the luggage didn’t take much time since I already had made the checklist. But some of the clothes I couldn’t carry as they were very wet, because of two days incessant rain in Bangalore. Thanks to my mother she literally dried some clothes with iron box.

Our tickets to Chennai were reserved 11.45 pm Kaveri Express. I left home at 10.30 pm and by taking an auto managed to reach Bangalore City Station well within departure time. The train starting from mysore was supposed to arrive on platform-5. 11.30 pm anil, suhas came and introduced myself to Raghvendra. The train arrived within 15 minutes, but there was a small confusion we couldn’t find our S13 bogie. Then we came to know thru announcement that our S13 bogie will be attached in Bangalore. Within10 minutes five bogies including our S13 bogie were attached. We were on board, the train departed and we slept.

Day-1: 21st Dec 2007

Morning 8 am we were at Chennai Central railway station. We were supposed go to Royal Lodge, Pycrofts Road. At the exit we were approached by several taxi and auto drivers. Anil who knew Tamil discussed with an auto driver. The driver agreed take us to Royal Lodge for 100 Rs. But just before starting the auto the driver increased the fare to Rs. 120. It was very unfair, we kept quite and thought of arguing with him when reach the destination. By calling subramani(our guide of YHAI) we reached Royal Mansion Lodge.

Subramani asked us to get ready and come for breakfast. We were late by 15-30 minutes. For breakfast he took us to a nearby hotel. The breakfast was usual Idly, vada and Pongal. After breakfast we withdrew money from the ATMs and paid the extra balance amount (18570) to Subramani. We got ourselves introduced to other members of YHAI trip. Incidentally all other groups were families. Uncles, aunties and kids. We were bit disappointed as we were expecting a young crowd. Anyway, it didn’t matter as our G-4(group of four) was big enough.

Then we went to nearby Marina beach. This beach was one of the major victims of 2004 Tsunami. The beach was in very dirty condition. We just walked for 10 minutes and came back. On the other side of the beach, we saw Chidambaram stadium. We also saw prestigious Presidency College of Madras University. Then, we came back to the lodge, had bath and had lunch at 12.30 pm. The lunch was typical plate meals with a tomato soup.

2 pm we were ready to leave to the Chennai Port. All of us (including other groups) went to the port by a maxicab arranged by YHAI. We were taken till gate 7. Before entering the port, a security stopped us and asked me to get a custom letter for my camera. Come on man, get a life. Andaman is part of India, I am not going out of India. After some argument we were allowed inside. I feel the security was supposed say that photography is not allowed inside the port. He was able to articulate it properly.

A km walk took us to the passenger terminal, next to which our ship majestic M. V. Swarajdweep was standing. In the terminal, we had to take stamping of medical check up on our tickets, for formality sake. Then, security people scanned our baggage for the explosives. Everything done, we came out of the terminal and stood next to the ship. Here thankfully photography was allowed. The scenes of Titanic movie lingered and lingered. After waiting for a while, at 4.30 pm we got on board the ship. For me the feeling was equivalent to 'stepping foot on the moon for mankind'. The cabin crew guided us to our first class cabin. The first class cabin was just amazing. It had four beds with bedlamps, attached bathroom, wardrobe for each individual etc.

At 5 pm, the ship was supposed to depart. We went to the canteen deck and went up further near the crow nest, as there was no barricade. A crew member approached us and told that the passengers are not supposed enter near crow nest area. We said sorry and had a small chit-chat him. He was a trainee crew member, originally from Port Blair and had done some diploma course.

Then we waited and waited for the ship to depart. Surprisingly, I met my colleagues Bhupathi, Senthil and Sudhagar with whom I had been to Tirupathi in Nov 2006. They were going on their own to Andaman, were traveling in bunk class. Since there is no plug point in bunk class, they plugged in their camera battery charger and portable dvd in our cabin.

Again we went out to the canteen deck to see the ship departure, but it was still attached to the terminal. We lost patience and went to the dinner. At the cafeteria one of the staff was explaining the code of ethics to a person wearing shorts - no shorts or lungee in the restaurant. Initially, the restaurant appeared like a sophisticated place. But for eating there were no spoons in the restaurant. There was no hand wash, we had to go to a lavatory nearby to wash our hands. I feel facilities in the dinning hall facilities could have been better.

While having dinner the ship departed. We experienced continuous left and right motion of the ship for the first time. After having dinner we came back to the cabin. We thought of watching a movie, saw Dus kahaaniya. Within 10 minutes we got irritated like anything and stopped watching the movie. At 10.30 pm, we went to sleep.

More in Part-2.

Happy New Year !!!

Happy New Year !!!

Last year I welcomed 2007 on sitting on a hospital bed. This time I was determined it make it big and welcomed 2008 at Palm Groove, Port Blair.

Yeah Post Blair !!! I am just back from Andaman Trip. It was one of the most eventful one. We covered almost all places in Andamans. In this trip we achieved a unique distinction i.e. we traveled in all modes of transport train, ship, plane and bus.

From next post onwards I will be narrating all my experiences in detail in a few posts and concluding the series with a retrospect. Keep visiting regularly. As of now have a look this snap captured at one of beaches in Andamans.