Two sides of the same coin!

Spotted as a tiny dot in the map of India, far away from all the states, making one wonder how an enthralling place have its own brutal stories, proud to have almost zero crime rate,  if you still could not guess the place – this travel story is all about Andaman. Amidst the Covid and a zero travel in 2020, we took the risk and landed at the place comprising of roughly 300 islands situated at the Bay of Bengal on Mar 10^th 2021. Being my first experience of an island aerial view, it appeared like tiny forest submerged in the vast ocean. 

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After a quick fresh up, we went to explore the Ross and North Bay Island by taking a boat from the Water Sports Complex. The boat drove at such high speed making the water splash across and bringing us to the gateway of one of the prominent historical places which is “Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Island”, erstwhile known as “Ross Island”.

Named after Sir Daniel Ross who was the first to inhabit the island in 1788, serving as the British colony’s Administrative Headquarters for 85 years since 1857, acting as the center of penal settlement, occupied by Japanese from 1942-45 during the Second World War, serving as strategic location to Netaji to take Japanese help to fight against the Britishers who hoisted the Indian flag on Dec 30, 1943, the ruins of the bazaar, bakery, church, printing press, water treatment plant, cemetery, pond, hospital, swimming pool, the Chief Commisioner’s residence, the Japanese bunker, etc each of it speaks the history of this abandoned island. Other than the history, this place has more to offer – sanctuary which is filled with deer and peacocks whereby you can closely interact with them and feed them too. With the rich history associated and as a tribute to marking 75 years of first time hoisting the Indian tri-colour in British India, the island was renamed as “Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Island” on Dec 30, 2018.

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Post spending close to 2 hours, our next stop over was at the North Bay Island which is featured on the backside of old INR 20 note. It is a place for water sport activities – Scuba diving, Sea Walk, Dolphin Glass Boat, Snorkeling, etc and one can visit the light house as well. I did Sea Walk in which the guide took me around 8 feet down where I could walk on the seabed, the close views of the corals, fishes were a visual treat.

Later in the evening, we spent some moments of silence with a cup of coffee, pakora and bonda and lost ourselves in the ecstatic Corbyn’s Cove beach surrounded by tall coconut palm trees. After the wonderful moments of quietness, we attended another deep thought-provoking event which is the light and sound show at the Cellular Jail in Port Blair, a must visit place. Serving as a colonial prison, this building has seven wings each of it having seven stories comprising of 696 cells and the building materials were brought from Myanmar (Burma). The spokes were so designed to isolate prisoners whereby the face of the cell in one spoke saw the back of the other.  The prisoners were brutally tortured & given inhumane treatment in terms of no sanitation, hygiene, impractical quotas of oil extraction, were served limited food and water not fit for human consumption leading to insanity and death of most of the prisoners which is very well exhibited in the show and the background songs surges the patriotism hidden inside you. The museum and the entire jail will take minimum around 2-2.5 hours to cover which we covered on Mar 14^th after returning to Port Blair to take the flight back to Bangalore. The peepal tree, the walls, the hanging room, the prisoner dresses, the clock, the oil mill, every brick, everything echoes aloud the horror stories of the Kaala Pani and it is my personal urge to everyone reading – “The freedom we enjoy today was at the cost of innumerable lives, struggles and torture and let’s not take it for granted. Let us not disrespect this place by reducing to just another selfie spot without understanding the scarifies behind it or a simple walk around the museum without knowing our history” and here I conclude with Veer Savarkar quote who served 50 years in the jail bearing all tortures “Oh Motherland!! Sacrifice for you is like Life. Living without you is Death.”  

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The above depicts my search for answers, my turbulence while travelling in the ferry from Port Blair to Neil Island for close to 2.5 hours on Mar 11^th morning. We stayed at Neil Banjara, a decent budget resort and the best part was the network was poorest with zero Wifi. Neil renamed as Shaheed Dweep, is a tiny island untouched by commercialization which can be easily covered in a day and a half. To have a unique experience, explore this miniature in a cycle, the roads are flat making cycling a cake walk. Our first exploration was a naturally shaped bridge like rock also known as the Howrah bridge, a name given by the Bengali settlers. After walking around 200- 300 metres and crossing a short path of the dead corals, the view opens to the natural wall, once we cross the natural wall and start moving, we witnessed innumerable under water creatures like stag horn corals, finger corals, color-changing corals, variety of fishes like zebra fish, star fish, sea cucumber, etc which are always visible in the shallow water during low tides.  We spent half a day exploring this place despite the scorching heat without even realizing it’s 3 PM and we were empty stomach. I had never seen such variety of live creatures so close in a natural environment and hence this place gave me immense pleasure. The excitement we had every time we spotted a different type of coral or saw a unique kind of fish is overwhelming. Grabbing Maggie, Aam panna and having a giant sized tender coconut on the way we rushed to Lakshmanpur beach for the sunset.

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I fell in love with the Lakshmanpur beach in the very first sight. Turquoise blue color, white sand and the sun rays, feeling ecstatic ended up meditating for some time without realizing that we would have the best view the next day morning when we cycled again to this beach where there was not a single human or dog on the beach. When beauty meets silence and you are just alone, the experience is always blissful.

Before heading to Lakshmanpur, we had been to Sitapur beach around 4 AM, enjoyed the sun rise sipping cup of coffee. Sun rise & set happens very early in Andaman, being an avid traveler, waking up early was never an issue, in fact adored the scooty ride from resort to the beach.

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It was time to bid adieu to this lonely planet to head towards the most happening destination of Andaman – Swaraj Deep, popularly known as Havelock island on Mar 12^th.

Though we mostly travel on budget, we did not want to compromise on luxury at this place and hence landed up in Havelock Beach Resort with a sea view room. The plan for the day was to explore the most popular sun set at Radhanagar beach. The view of the beach made me think that someone must have got mesmerized with its natural beauty, and hence named as “Radha” comparing with the Hindu mythological figure Radha’s unparallel and splendid beauty. Surrounded by coconut trees, tropical forest and the infinite view, I could have easily spent one full day relaxing in the huts / benches / chairs on the beach, but unfortunately, since our ferry from Neil to Havelock got delayed we could spend only 2 hours in the evening at this beach.

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While we were dancing and merrying at the DJ organized in the resort, got a call at 11 PM to reach the spot for Night Kayaking. This is my first experience in Kayaking and to add on to that excitement, I was doing this activity in the dark expecting to see a lot of bioluminescence. Bioluminescence is basically the production and emission of light by living organisms like glow worms and deep-sea fish. Both of us being amateur in Kayaking, we were either paddling in opposite directions or at different speeds making the kayak boat take rounds initially but after a while we were on track. Once we were away from the city light, we were able to see the wonder of the world, the sea glowing every time we paddled, it seems like the LED lights we use for home decoration during Diwali / Christmas. We rested for a while in between and as we gazed up, could get an incredible star view.  We paddle and look down or we relax and look up, both gave us a radiance view that we did not realize being amateur we have paddled for 3 hours with no signs of exhaustion.

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Next day on Mar 13^th, early morning we were up for another adventure – our first Scuba dive and it was now time for us to tick off from our To do List!  There are 3 kinds of scuba dive – Shore dive, Boat dive and Discover scuba. We opted for Boat dive, the guides explained and trained us prior to dive with immense patience and now it was time for me to jump and discover the under water world life.

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We had very minimum time left to go to the next place – Elephant beach which if one wishes to go by trek need to reach the place by 12PM. Alternatively, one can take the boat to reach the place. I recommend the trek trail as we got to see few tall trees, pass through a mangrove & witness few sulky creatures at the mangrove. This place is famous for water sports activities and recommend carrying a spare dress if you wish to do any activity. I just did the Jet Skiing and had nice fun moments sitting on the wooden logs seeing people doing various activities like sofa ride, banana ride, para sailing etc.  

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Next day , it was time to see the last sun rise for us at Andaman at Kalapathar beach and the black rocks at this sea is what earns its name. Be the sun rise at Sitapur or Kalapthar, both were exclusive in its own way and now we had to return to Port Blair to explore the unfinished places – Cellular Jail and Chidiya Tapu

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Owing to Covid restrictions, we were not allowed to visit the captain room or get the front view from the ship, but God heard our prayers and the captain of this ferry was broad minded to let us explore it. We spent most of the journey from Havelock to Port Blair talking to the captain and his crew, understanding their life and experience, etc and even getting the view from the ship front.  

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We did not factor in the 1 hour loss due to lunch time closure of the cellular jail, around 2 – 2.5 hours ride and 30-45 minutes trek to reach Chidiya Tapu hill top view in our initial plan and hence due to time constraint, we had to rush exploring the cellular jail. Andaman has many other spots to be explored, and hence we decided that we will keep half day only to explore the cellular jail in our next visit. Though we did not feel good not exploring this place by reading through everything in the museum, we consoled ourselves saying the most famous dialogue from the movie YJHD – “Tum kitna bhi try karo Bunny, Life mein kuch na kuch chhotega hi, toh jahann hain, wahin ka mazaa lete hain na” and enjoyed our highway ride to the Chidiya Tapu. We were just in time before the gateway to the hilltop could close. Just parked our bike, and started trekking our way, the entire trail is a jungle way with snapshot of the sea sometimes appearing like a movie trailer. The view of single massive rock staying grounded on the endless sea made me think again we are a microscopic creature of the entire Universe. We had to walk back again as the sun set spot was a different one. While walking back, since it was getting nearer to sun set, could hear a lot of birds chirping justifying the name – Chidiya Tapu. The cool breeze and the highway made the ride back from Chidiya Tapu memorable one.

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As the sun said goodbye for the day, it was time for us too to end our voyage at Andaman and fly back to Bangalore taking the early morning flight next day on Mar 15^th. Few places were a bit of rush, we felt a day extra would have helped, but nevertheless we relaxed and spent colossal time as well in lot many places. The horrifying historical tortures and stories on one side and the beaches, the sand, the corals, varied sea creatures, the rising and setting sun, the chirping birds on other side made me feel like a place having two faces of the same coin – one face making me feel awful, gloomy of the sacrifices and other one giving me enormous pleasure and bliss.

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