Andaman | Two days in Port Blair

Some great poet wrote,

If there is a paradise on earth, It is this, it is this, it is this!

These lines are quoted quite a few times by various people for Kashmir and I feel all these people must haven't experienced Andaman. It's been close to four years since I visited this place and it's still as fresh in my memories as it may have happened yesterday. Every single time I think about my time spent there, I feel urge to be there again. 

It was a five night trip that started with a morning flight from Delhi, incidentally it was first time I was to fly and also the first time that I was to see a beach. To top this all it was also first anniversary of the day I met love of my life with whom I was about to enjoy this vacation. 

We landed at Port Blair airport in afternoon and during landing got greeted with mesmerizing view of sea and islands from plane's window. In evening that day we visited Corbyn's Cove beach. This place had picnic spot kind of environment with quite a few people hanging around. This beach had some options for water sports but we chose to enjoy that evening walking on sand with waves splashing our feet. Sitting there staring at vast expanse of water in front of eyes, holding hand of my soulmate was an experience that made me feel like I was watching some romantic movie of sort :)

From Corbyn Cove we reached Cellular Jail where a light and sound show took us back in colonial time between prisoners who were tortured by British in jail cells, thousands of miles away from their home. Ordeals of men who faced extreme pain for our motherland, evoked so strong emotions. Since we visited here in evening we could not get to see the whole campus and have to return once the show was done. From there we walked our way back to hotel, soaking that clean atmosphere, shopping for coral jewelry and some souvenirs. By the time we reached hotel concluding our first day of Andaman vacation we were sure that we chose perfect place for our vacation.

Ferrar Beach

On second day, we visited Ross island(Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep). To reach there from Port Blair, one needs to take government ferries or private speed boats from Rajiv Gandhi Marin park. We opted for government operated Jetty as it moved slow and gave chance to enjoy ride, it was cheaper as well. Its a navy controlled island and is full of palm and coconut trees and has a hidden gem of a beach named Ferrar beach. This beach has best of both worlds, a rocky section of beach where you may sit on rocks and enjoy waves and a clean white sandy section.  

Later on that day we visited Chidiya Tapu. It was a decent place with a quite calm beach, encircled by forests on one side and the short hills on the other. We did a nice little trek in the forest to what we thought as suicide point and did head back before actually reaching there. If you plan to visit this place, I'll suggest to first check this video and make sure what to expect. It was kind of let down for us, partly because of our timing and partly because we aborted our trekking mid way due to lack of knowledge. From there we headed back to our hotel ending second day of our vacation.

There's a lot more in Port Blair that we wanted to see but we had to reach Havelock next day. Havelock is recently renamed as Swaraj Dweep but I feel its original name is close to what it is! heaven. I'll surely write about it some other day and will add a link in here. I hope you enjoyed reading this and might help you plan your trip a little better.