An escape from Thanes Hurricane - Andaman Nicobar Travel Guide

Yes. Andaman Nicobar is indeed a honeymoon destination where serenity of a beach blends with a laid back attitude of a Hill Station. 

Actually whenever you go to Andaman Nicobar Islands, you actually never visit Nicobar group of Islands. All the tourist attractions are part of Andaman Group of Islands.

We witnessed a disastrous hurricane named Thanes while on our way back in a cruise from Havelock Island to Port Blair in the middle of the sea. Somehow we managed to reach Port Blair but as it was pouring like cats and dogs for next 4 days due to Thanes, we couldn't leave our hotel room even for a minute (100% honeymoon) and thus we couldn't follow our itinerary of the last 4 days and had to miss those travel attractions. As such bay of Bengal is a violent sea compared to an Arabian sea.

Best Season: Oct – Feb (winters are best, monsoons are crazy)

Peak Season: 15th Nov – 15th Feb (Heaviest rush is observed between 15th Dec – 15th Jan and thus high fares)

I visited: 21st Dec – 29th Dec 2011 (8 nights, 9 days)

Approx cost - for 2 adults: 1 Lakh (Mid Range Hotels, air fare and Non AC Indiaca)

:Travel Itinerary and quick tips:

Day

Origin - Destination

Travel Time

Stay

Hotel / Airline

Room / Seat Type

Itinerary

Cost for 2 (as on 2011 Dec)

1

Pune – Chennai

2.5 hrs (early morning flight)

-

Indigo

Economy

-

5000

Chennai – Port Blair

2.5 hrs (continuing flight)

-

Jet

Economy

-

12500

Port Blair

You reach by 2 pm. Have food and get ready

Port Blair

Megapod Nest

AC Sea Facing Cottage – basic one

Marine Museum, Visit Cellular Jail (during day time), Cobny’s Cove Beach, Sound and Light Show at Cellular Jail

5500 + Tickets

Tips:                      First Glimpse of the Andaman Nicobar Islands from the Air   Marine Museum – Carry your camera. There is a fee to it. (Unfortunately I didn’t). It’s worth visiting cellular jail during the day time. Just by being there, you will definitely get the feel of the sufferings - our captivated freedom fighters must have gone through in this prison complex. There is a small museum in the complex too. Cobny’s Cove Beach is the name of the beach at Port Blair. Way to Cobny's Cove Beach Cobny's Cove Beach At any cost, do not miss sound and light show if you are in Port Blair. You might want to watch it again especially if you are a Maharashtrian. Voice-overs by famous actors like Om Puri make it an experience in itself. Cell in a cellular jail Swtyantra Vir  Vinayak Damodar Savarkar Cell  Replica of Cellular Jail Cellular Jail Night View

Day

Origin - Destination

Travel Time

Stay

Hotel / Airline

Room / Seat Type

Itinerary

Cost for 2 (as on 2011 Dec)

2

Port Blair – Bartang – Port Blair

6 hrs – 1 way (Leave at 3 am Travel by Bus)

Port Blair

Megapod Nest

AC Sea Facing Cottage – basic one

Lime Stone Caves and Active Mud Volcano

5500 + Tickets

Tips: Ask your tour operator to take the necessary permissions. Because bus passes through the restricted area of Jarava (adivasi) tribes. Do not click any photograph or video of the tribesmen. It’s illegal. (Already there has been a huge international issue because of this). Do not offer any food / money to the tribesmen. Bus drops you till a nearby village (I do not remember its name) then a jetty takes you through mangroves to Bartang and then you need to walk half a kilometer to reach limestone caves. (All fares / tickets are included in the Bartang package including Lunch) Jetty Ride through Mangroves Walk begins… There are magnificent deposits of Lime Stone (stalactites and stalagmites in English, lavan-stabha in Marathi) as well as of silicate (which gives it an adorable golden hue) Limestone Deposits Silicate deposites Next, walk down to mud volcano. Do not expect anything extraordinary. Mud volcano is nothing but an air bubble escaping from the mud. So there is no picture which I could capture except the uploaded video… Way to Mud Volcano Return to Port Blair at around 8 pm, all exhausted.

Day

Origin - Destination

Travel Time

Stay

Hotel / Airline

Room / Seat Type

Itinerary

Cost for 2 (as on 2011 Dec)

3

Port Blair – Havelock

2.5 hrs (Leave at around 9 am by sea route)

Havelock

The Kingdom

AC sea facing cottages

Radhanagar Beach, relax

5000 + Taxes + Boat Tickets

Tips: Instead of The Kingdom, I would suggest The Wild Orchid, Symphony Palms or Sea Shell resorts just for good restaurants they have and their closeness to the beach. But these are costlier hotels. Candle-lit dinner was a memorable experience worth its cost (for a cost of around 3.5K) though on a higher side. Radha Nagar Beach has been voted as Asia’s best beach few years back. But I feel it has been overhyped. Radha Nagar Beach Kala Pathar Beach is far more pristine than Radha Nagar Beach. It is serene with little to no crowd. Don’t miss this beach for different hues of the water one could observe. But it has got no hotels to stay.   Shades of Water  Kala Pathar Beach  Coral Stone  Shell with a live shrimp  We travelled by Macruz company’s boats. They were quite good, AC and on the way back saved our lives through Hurricane ‘Thanes’.

Day

Origin - Destination

Travel Time

Stay

Hotel / Airline

Room / Seat Type

Itinerary

Cost for 2 (as on 2011 Dec)

4

Havelock – Port Blair

2.5 hrs (Boats generally leave in the afternoon)

Port Blair

Megapod Nest

AC Sea Facing Cottage – basic one

At leisure

5500 + Taxes

5

Port Blair

Full day Cruze

Port Blair

Megapod Nest

AC Sea Facing Cottage – basic one

North Bay Island, Ross Island, Viper Island etc

5500 + Tickets

Tips: We had to skip this because of Thanes. Ross Island has the ruins of the British administrative buildings. You can easily skip this Island and rest others in the package except North bay North bay Island is famous for exotic marine life, underwater corals. Thus one can opt for a) snorkeling (swimming under the water with a breathing instrument – I have herd one need not know swimming to try this out but not quite sure) or b) scuba diving (deep sea diving) or c) glass bottom boat rides so that you can see the beautiful coral reefs without getting wet (but it has got its limitations as all the tourists have to crowd up near the small glass opening at the bottom of the boat).

Day

Origin - Destination

Travel Time

Stay

Hotel / Airline

Room / Seat Type

Itinerary

Cost for 2 (as on 2011 Dec)

6

Port Blair – Neil Island

Not sure about the time required

Neil Island

IPTC resort

No Idea about the cost as we had kept this day free (Honeymoon you know!!) but you could visit Sitapur, laxmanpur and bhartpur beaches.

Tips: Localites feel this could be a better alternative to Havelock island as it has got lonely beaches to enjoy some me time! You also have an option of snorkeling / scuba diving / fishing on Neil Islands

7

Neil Island – Port Blair

Not sure about the time required

Port Blair

Megapod Nest

AC Sea Facing Cottage – basic one

Cathom Saw Mill, Wandoor Beach, Gandhi Park, Jogging Park, Spice Garden, Rubber Plantations

5500 + Tickets

Tips: We skipped Catham Saw Mill – which is one of the oldest and biggest operational saw mill in the area and as such we couldn’t go out because of Thanes and visited following destinations on the last day. Wandor Beach could be another option to Neil / Havelock islands because of its lonely beach but it has just one basic hotel on the beach. Avoid this if you are with your spouse only. Great option for Bachelors. But worth a visit. Wandor Beach  An Island seen from Wandor  Wandor Beach  Spice Gardens / Rubber plantations – you could by 100% pure and original spices like clove, pepper, cardamom, cinnamon etc at a government authorized shop at Rubber plantation. They also send a boy with you to explain the entire process of rubber making right from the rubber tree. Coffee Tree Drying Beetle Nuts Rubber Tree Drying Rubber Sheets Gandhi Park, Jogging Park – nothing special. But look at the jogging track photographs below and don’t forget to check time. Andaman islands being on the extreme east of India, it gets really dark at around 5.15 pm. Veer Savarkar Airport Runway view from Jogging Park at 5.13 pm  Port Blair city from Jogging Park at 5.31 pm

Day

Origin - Destination

Travel Time

Stay

Hotel / Airline

Room / Seat Type

Itinerary

Cost for 2 (as on 2011 Dec)

8

Port Blair

Port Blair

Megapod Nest

AC Sea Facing Cottage – basic one

At leisure / shopping

5500 + Tickets

Tips: Buy some souvenir from Sagarika Shop – which is a government authorized shop for promoting its cottage industry. I bought few shell artifacts and 2 foldable chairs of Paduck wood (also referred as gold of Andaman) which are sure relief for sore back. Rates are fixed as it is a government operated shop.

9

Port Blair – Chennai

2.5 hrs (early morning flight)

-

Indian Airlines

Economy

-

12500

Chennai – Pune

2.5 hrs (continuing flight)

-

Indigo

Economy

-

5000

8 nights 9 days

78500

General Tips:

1. Anandaman Nikobar trip might work out to be as expensive as any out of India destination.
2. There are hardly one or two good restaurants and even the service is not up to the mark. You could get good food in the restaurant of Hotel TSG Emerald View. But over all food is costly.
3. Travel agents say that only BSNL and Vodafone mobiles get good net work coverage, but my Idea no. was working perfectly fine at all the places.
4. Bay of Bengal as such is a violent sea (specifically if you compare it with Arabian sea).
5. While in Chennai (at airport), do not forget to buy ‘Mysore Pak’(मैसूर पाक)  a confectionery (mithai) which just melts in your mouth and tastes far better than what we get up in North India.
6. We saw the havoc caused by 2004 Tsunami. Even 7 years after Tsunami, sea water hadn’t resided from the land which was once inhabited. Here are some photographs:

You can checkout rest of the snaps at: Andaman Photos

Travel Guide Ref: www.wikitravel.com (Please visit the site for latest updates)

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