A picturesque island

When I decided to write this post about traveling, I thought hard about which place to write about. My last traveling post was about the field trip to the universities in Texas and this time I was thinking about places in India. We go to New Delhi and Faridabad whenever we visit India, and have lived in Delhi, Chandigarh, and Pune. I finally decided to write about the picturesque hidden gem of an island where I was brought up and have lived for 17 years. I did my entire schooling there, and after graduation from high school moved out to pursue my college degree. This place is also special for me as I met my high school sweetheart there, and we got married there after knowing each other for 12 years.

The beautiful Andamans and Nicobar Islands are located in the Bay of Bengal, and are part of India. Both my husband and I were brought up there and studied from Pre-K to grade 12 in Port Blair, which is the capital of the islands. I have fond memories of the place and visited it last in 2013 with our kids, ten and six years at that time.

My parents were both educators and were employed in the government job there since moving from mainland in 1970. My father-in-law was also in a government job after moving there earlier in 1967. My husband’s family of seven and our family of five stayed there our entire childhood well into adulthood. Although neither of us were born there but at our respective grand parents’ homes in the mainland; both of us were raised and spent almost 17 years there. Both of us left the islands after finishing high school and went to mainland to pursue our higher studies. I went to West Bengal to complete my Veterinary Science degree while he went to Tamil Nadu to finish his Engineering. We visited the islands yearly to meet our family and after college went on to start our jobs and careers in the north of India. Since our immediate family were in Port Blair, we got married there in 2002 in a simple Hindu marriage ceremony with some extended family visiting from the mainland. We moved to the United States in 2003 within a year of our marriage and now have a 16 year old and a 13 year old, whom we take back regularly to visit our extended family in India.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union territory of India, comprises of 572 islands of which 38 are inhabited. Many parts of the Andamans are off limits to preserve their rare bio-diversity and protect the six indigenous tribes that still live there, some of whom are fiercely hostile to visitors. We lived most of our lives in the capital, Port Blair, although our parents were posted in few neighborhood islands throughout their government jobs. Some islands that we have lived in when we were younger, and thus may have little or no memory of, include Mayabunder, Rangat, and Baratang.

My husband and I went to the same high school in Port Blair, which is the capital of A & N islands, and we met for the first time in the freshman year. We lived 15 minutes away from each other, had common friends and our parents were acquaintances. Port Blair is a small town with a population of little over 100,000 which includes people speaking different languages, and from different regions and states in India. We call A & N islands a mini India as it gives a glimpse of most of the 29 states of India with their rich variety of festivities, celebrations & customs. I fondly remember celebrating Christmas with two of our neighbors who were Christians as well as Eid with Muslims families. In the same way, we had family friends visiting us during Diwali (festival of lights), the biggest Hindu festival we celebrate, as well as hanging out together during Holi (festival of colors). It was really fun growing up with friends with different backgrounds but we all spoke Hindi and English as our main language there.

There are many places to visit in the islands for tourism. I would recommend Carbyn’s Cove, Jolly Buoy, Radhanagar beach in Havelock, Chidiyatapu, Samudrika marine museum, Ross Island and Wandoor to name a few, that will leave a lasting impression on anyone visiting for the first time.

If you are visiting Port Blair, the first must-see place is the Cellular Jail. It was completely built in 1906 and is an old colonial prison used by Britishers to send Indian freedom fighters from the mainland far away to the islands. The history is that in the year 1857, Britishers began to use the islands of Andaman and Nicobar as the jails to put fighters behind the bars. The secluded islands were a distant location from the mainland India. Here the prisoners were kept in the dark depriving them of the situation in the country and excluding them from the society. Thousands of Indian freedom fighters were imprisoned in the Cellular Jail, and many died due to inhumane conditions, and many were hanged till death. Today, the Cellular Jail is a national memorial monument and a reminder of all the struggles that our freedom fighters fought through to win the independence of the country.

Andaman & Nicobar Island was also called “Kala Pani” meaning black water as it stood aloof from the rest of India and the only way to reach there was seven days of traveling in a ship as flights only started later in the 1960’s. The direct flights to Port Blair are available now from all four metros in India including Kolkata, Chennai, New Delhi and Mumbai; but when we were living there the only two flight options were from Kolkata and Chennai through the Indian Airlines which offered limited flight services couples days in a week. Things have changed a lot since then, and now there are daily flights offered by multiple airlines.

Carbyn’s Cove is the closest local beach and is located three miles from the capital of Port Blair. As a child, I remember visiting this beach frequently with family friends for a picnic lunch and a day of drenching and soaking in the beach water and sand. It was always fun!

Wandoor is another one of the popular beaches of Andaman which is about 15 miles from Port Blair.

Ross Island, which is now named Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Island, is less than 1.5 miles from Port Blair and only 15 minutes away in a ferry boar ride. It is visible from Port Blair water sports complex and is a beautiful destination. Ross Island was the headquarters of the British colony and today it houses ruins of the buildings that were built during the British time. The Island has century old trees and Officers Quarters as well as rundown Church of the British times. We encountered many deers in their natural surroundings, and it is a great picnic spot as well as it offers other explorations from British times.

Havelock is an island located about two hours ferry ride from Port Blair and has not just India’s but Asia’s one of the best beaches. Havelock’s most popular beach is the Radhanagar Beach which was once rated as Asia’s fourth best beach by TIME magazine. Havelock offers snorkeling and various water sports including underwater sea walk, scuba diving, Jet Skiing, and glass-bottom boat explorations. We took the hovercraft ride and it was very beautiful, and serene from the aerial view. We booked and stayed at the Dolphin resort there.

Another popular tourist attraction to visit in Port Blair is Chidiyatapu. This attraction is located in the southernmost tip of the South Andaman region and about ten miles from Port Blair.

We also visited Mount Herriet, which is a national park about 1-2 miles trek in a deep forest.

Below is a picture in front of the Tsunami memorial located in Marina Park, Port Blair.

Summary

This post was about travel to Andamans. I hope I took you on an enjoyable exploration to the beautiful islands, which I called my home for almost two decades! If any of you are interested in learning more, please click the island’s official tourism website.