Andaman - The Land of the Luscious Green and Enchanting Blue
It was our 5th wedding anniversary last month. 5 years! I still have no clue how the years went by though it has been one adventure ride (quite cliche, i know!). So this year, we wanted to go somewhere to enjoy the 5 years that passed by and the husband decided to surprise me with the location. I don't know how he came up with Andaman (Havelock island, to be precise) but it was one of the best choices he has made so far!
After much internet scouting and review readings, we finalised on Barefoot Resort, Havelock. One phone call to the Barefoot helpdesk and a couple of mail exchanges later, our itinerary was set and tickets booked. Much thanks to the Barefoot people, who took upon themselves to not only give us a good rate at the Barefoot Resort, they also helped us with the one night stay at Port Blair along with the booking of ferry ride between Port Blair and Havelock and transportation from one place to another!
After a night at Port Blair and playing touristy there, visiting the cellular jail and the water sports complex, we took our early morning ferry to Havelock on the 27th, August. After a 2 hour ferry ride, we reached Havelock by 09:30 in the morning to a breathtaking view of green trees, white sand and blue waters! It seemed like everything here got a second coating of its colour - the green was greener and the blue was bluer. We were sent a jeep to take us to the resort, where we were welcomed with a tender coconut juice and a torch (yes, a torch! since the resort was maintained in the traditional set up with no lighted pathways, you need to rely on your torch during the night if you want to go from one place to another). After a quick briefing and checking into our villa, we decided to do a quick beach visit, since the resort has a private access to the Radha Nagar beach, one of the best beaches in Asia. A walk through the thick dense trees leads to a clearing and lo, directly in front of you is one of the most beautiful beaches, just like the ones we see in pictures and movies! Pristine, clear water surrounded by luscious green trees!
We were the only three people on our side of the beach since the public access was a couple of metres away! So technically, we had the entire beach to us. We laid down our beach towels, played in the water, made castles in the sand and enjoyed every single second spent!
We didn't even realise the time pass by! With much hesitance, we went back to the resort and an amazing lunch later, we headed to our room, freshened up, caught up on our sleep and by the time we got up, it was pitch dark outside and the time was just 6:30 in the evening! We wanted to see the sea at night and off we went again, with a resort staff guiding us. This time though, we didn't spend much time there since it was not a starry night and there wasn't much we could do there. We headed back to the resort for dinner, spent some time at the bar area at the reception (where they had an amazing range of homemade infused rums - pineapple and cinnamon vanilla got my votes!), had our dinner and off we went for an early night!
The next day I woke up to the music of the forest and went to the patio to catch up on my reading, with the sky blushing its way to daylight. Once Adhrith too woke up, we both went for an early morning walk, to meet Rajan, the resort's very own elephant, who is one of the very few swimming elephants in the world. Sadly, Rajan is quite old now that he has stopped swimming with guests, but we got to spend some friendly time with Rajan!
Post breakfast, we headed to Beach No. 3 of Havelock Island for my scuba diving at the Barefoot Scuba Resort. The resort has a permanent PADI wing who does the Discover Scuba Diving programme. Once we filled the questionnaire and done with our briefing, we were taken in a boat to the place, where we would do the dive. After learning the basics, and with the trainer right beside me, off I went for my first scuba dive experience, and I must say, I felt like a mermaid in a fairy tale story. I was lost in the beauty of the underwater that I felt time stood still! If before the dive, all that I wanted was just one dive experience in my life, after the dive I would love to go there again just to experience the underwater life again! That definitely, was one of my beautiful experience, not just in this vacation, but in my entire life! I also have to add, I got an amazing instructor, Neil, who showed me quite a lot of camouflaged fishes, pointed out all the amazing beauties out there and gave me an amazing scuba experience!
We returned back to our resort, had lunch and off we went straight to the beach again. (Yes, we couldn't just stay away from the beach!). We were told by everyone at the resort, that if we walk a few metres ahead, beyond what we could see from the private access area, past the rocks, we would come across one of the most beautiful places we would ever see.
So we decided to walk till there and on our walk we kept saying how it can't be more beautiful and at that moment, right there, was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen! It was a small creek - the water was literally sparkling, crystal clear and pristine! No words could ever do justice to that place. It was an experience! We set our stuffs there and while the father-son duo went to play in the water I caught up on my reading and I felt so peaceful there. And at that moment, I really wished that time stood still! I didn't want to let go of that moment ever!
We spent our whole evening there and caught a glimpse of the sun set before we bid our goodbye to one of the most beautiful beaches we had seen till date.
