An Island called Neil

In my post about a vacation in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, I had mentioned that my favorite place was the quaint little island Neil and that it deserves a long post of its own. So here it is.

We spent about 2 days and 2 nights on this island. And I could have spent a week there! We took an early morning ferry at 6:30 AM from Port Blair and reached at around 9:00 AM. The short cruise was a wonderful experience. The blue sea, fresh breeze, the early morning sun and glimpses of islands along the way....do I need to say more? We had packed some breakfast that we had on the ferry. We didn't want to waste time finding a place to eat after reaching. 

Our ferry leaving behind a trail of white surf

When there was the "Land ahead" murmur among our co-passengers, I turned around - only to be struck by the beauty of what I saw. A piece of the island jutting into the sea with a cluster of tall trees. It looked out of this world. I don't yet own a high end camera so what I captured was nothing compared to what I saw.

First glimpse of Neil. That's the sunset point.

Can't wait to land here

People waiting at the jetty to board the ferry

We stayed on Neil for 2 and half days and were longing for more. The place we stayed at was the most advertised resort - Tango resort. It's not one of those luxurious resorts run by some big hotels group. But it was clean and comfortable with the staff trying their best to help us. Its run by a group of enterprising locals. It has standard rooms and log huts. We stayed in a log hut facing the beach.

The sea front near the Tango resort was beautiful too though not much of a beach.

Beach in front of our cottage

Sunset near the resort 

Nature patterns on corals

 There are about 5 to 6 sight seeing places listed on this island. The Bharatpur beach which is right next to the jetty, the Laxmanpur beach which is where Tango resort is located. The sunset point, the west most tip of the island, just a little walk from Tango. The natural bridge and Sitapur beach which is also the sunrise point.

The 2 and half days were more than enough to see all the places but to really experience this quaint little island I feel one should stay there for at least a week. Being a small island, with a population of only around 5000, it has such a different feel to it. And the fact that tourism is relatively new here and still very little, only makes it better. The people are wonderful. They are still nice, friendly and helpful unlike the highly commercial lot of Havelock.

You can rent a bicycle or a motorbike and go around the island on your own. Its about 5 kms at its widest point! Or you can hire a auto-rickshaw or a cab to take you around. A bicycle or motorbike would be best in my opinion. The main market is just one small stretch of road with shops and one or two small eateries. I have no idea how the food at these places would be, but the sweets were great! Having a population of 95% Bengalis, the sweets like Rasagulla, Chamcham and Mishti Doi were wonderful. My personal favorite was the Chamcham. We were told they have lots of good breed cows on the island and Neil supplies most of Port Blair's milk.

We visited the sunset point and the walk to and fro from the resort is great too.

 Waiting for the sunset

Where the sea and the sky meet

The setting sun and rising moon

We went to the Bharatpur beach multiple times. We took the glass bottom boat ride from here to look a the under sea life and the corals. We did some snorkeling off this beach too. 

The Bharatpur beach

The owner of the boat gave us the idea of  a picnic the next day to what they call 'Lonely beach' which actually is the back side of the Havelock island. We left the next morning to this mysterious Lonely beach and were blown away by the pristine sands of this lovely location. There's some great snorkeling you can do off this place as the waters are extraordinarily calm here. You can even spot a few live corals and lots of clams embedded in the rocks. There's a small strip of beach, behind which is the dense vegetation of this uninhabited part of Havelock. To one side is a small patch of mangroves and a rocky beach. You need to be very wary of mangroves and rocks as crocodiles frequent mangroves and there are some deadly Stone Fish among rocks that look exactly like rocks but sting anything that comes near them.
The place was so picturesque that each shot looked picture postcard perfect!

Each time I look at these pictures above, I wish I was a talented artist who could paint these. I even tried a hand at it. Will put it up in a separate post.

 The rocky beach and the mangroves

Transparent fish!

We even went on a Dolphin sighting trip in the same boat the next morning. We left early with a packed breakfast and were out in the open sea for around 3 hours. We did see dolphins eventually although only in brief glimpses as they swam just ahead of our boat for about 15 mins. But if you are really lucky they will swim alongside the boat and keep jumping out of the water. Though we weren't that fortunate but the trip was worth every penny. It feels so great to be out in the open sea in the early morning sun with only blue waters all around. And the boatmen took us all around a smaller uninhabited island called Small Neil. And we had the privilege of seeing the natural bridge from the sea!

The natural bridge on Neil

And soon it was time to go. I hope I'm able to go back there again....soon.

Waiting on the jetty

I'd wanted to write a series of posts covering each of the places we visited in detail. That would also give me a chance to show off more pictures :) But it's an year since our visit and I've just managed to do 2 posts!

A Vacation in Andaman and Nicobar Islands

We'd been on a very extravagant (in terms of time) trip to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in March. We were taking a vacation itself after a very long time. And a 2 week long vacation! That was unheard of for us.

And we couldn't have chosen a better place! Oh my God! It was such a wonderful experience! (forgive me for all the exclamation marks....but there are definitely going to be more in this post. In fact I think there will be a series of posts) We had small kids and my elderly Mother in Law with us. So we took a lot of rest in between trips and skipped some things that would be too tedious for them. You can cover a lot more in 2 weeks than what we did.

Sunrise from our guest house in Port Blair

Now when people hear Andaman and Nicobar, they think of only Port Blair and the historical cellular jail notoriously known as Kalapani or black waters. Well Port Blair is going to be your starting point as its the only place connected to the mainland India by air and sea. You can fly in from Chennai or Kolkata. Or if you have time to spare and are upto the experience, you can opt to sail from Vishakhapatnam or Chennai. We went by air and let me tell you this is one trip where you will want a window seat in the aircraft. You'll get some great glimpses of the islands surrounded by beautiful waters. The flight from Chennai takes 2.5 hrs.

Once the flight lands, you find yourself in a small airport where you walk in the open sun from the flight to the terminal. And you are bound to notice the hot sun overhead. There are numerous hotels and resorts all over the place but we were the fortunate lot as my Brother-in-law, a Commander in the Navy was posted at Port Blair. Now you know why we went on this trip :)

Port Blair seems like any standard Indian town with small roads and shops. The places to see in Port Blair are -
Cellular Jail - This calls for 2 trips. One during the day for a tour of the premises. Best to take a guide as they  show and tell a lot of interesting facts. The museums and display rooms are bound to moisten your eyes with photographs and heart rending stories of the brave freedom fighters exiled here.
Photography is allowed in the premises but I didn't have the heart to take pictures of the place. But I have one aerial shot taken from the seaplane we rode between islands. (More about that later)

An aerial shot of the Cellular Jail which is now a National Memorial. Only 3 of the original 7 wings remain now. The rest were destroyed during Word War II bombings and after Independence. 


You need to make a second trip in the evening to attend the sound and light show. Its a must see. Please not photography is not allowed during the show.
The cellular jail makes you wonder what kind of monstrous minds must have driven the British to plan and build such a dreadful place. And the jail was run with a ruthlessness hard to imagine. But it's not just the British. Every ruling class in history has shown the same ruthlessness towards the less privileged. I guess it still exists today but in different forms.

Samudrika - A Marine museum run by the Indian Navy. I won't say its a must see but nevertheless you can stop by as it wont take more than half an hour. You get to see a variety of the local fishes in the aquarium but some of them are in a pathetic condition. In fact the Parrot fish which is abundant in the Andaman seas and a bright green in color is a sad discolored grey in the aquarium. We got to see lots of bright Parrot fishes just glancing down at the jetty or from the boat.

Sagarika - The Government handicrafts emporium. A good place to visit if you would like to pick up shell, coral and semi precious stones jewelry, wood carvings, bamboo and cane furniture etc. There are a number of shops in the city markets that sell these stuff.

There is an Anthropological Museum which showcases a lot about the native tribes of the islands and their living.

Nariyal Bageecha - A beautiful and well maintained rocky beach good for a quiet family picnic. But if I'm not mistaken the general public doesn't have access to this beach. It is situated inside the army area and needs special permission which was easy for my Commander BIL. :) The beach and the garden near it was beautiful. The tall coconut palms give the place a wonderful feel. The waves splashing against the rocks and the white sands with lots of shells and coral pieces makes it a nice place to relax.

Coconut palms at Nariyal Bageecha

Kids playing in the park at Nariyal Bageecha

There are other places that we couldn't visit - Chidiya Tapu a tip of the island with breathtaking views and great bird sighting opportunities. The sunset there it seems is worth watching.
A trek to Mount Harriet, the highest point in Port Blair, offers spectacular views of the town. With 2 kids aged 4.5 and 1.10 yrs, trek was out of question for us.

And the islands that you can visit. Well ....each is a different story (read post).There are some that can be covered in a day trip but others that call for a few days.
The day trip islands are -
Ross Island - The island that can be seen across the creek from the cellular jail was the home of the Britishers. They had a well equipped and nicely planned settlement on this island and used to ferry to and from the jail. Its a nice island to visit and will take a few hours to cover. We went for this trip and so this calls for an individual post.

North Bay- is another island that can be seen from Port Blair and is the home for the most visible landmark the Lighthouse. There are snorkeling trips to this place. Its mostly covered as part of a 3 island tour - Ross, North Bay and Viper islands. From what we heard its not worth it. North Bay is a good snorkeling and diving point because of its corals. Viper Island though has nothing much except a gallows used by the British.
We opted to go only to Ross Island as we'd seen quite a few corals around Neil Island and were planning to go to Jolly Buoy as well.

The lighthouse at North Bay Island as seen from a Ferry

Jolly Buoy - is a must see with its live corals and various varieties of fish and aqua life like starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumber etc. Its a half day trip. The boat leaves from Wandoor and brings you back after 3-4 hours as no one is allowed to stay overnight on this island.

Neil Island - My personal favorite! Its a small quaint little island surrounded by blue green waters filled with corals and colorful fish. You can either take a ferry or the hovercraft.

Havelock - Home to Asia's best beach - Radhanagar beach. You can either travel by a ferry (2.5 hours one)  or by a hovercroft Makruzz (1.5 hours I think) or by a seaplane (15-20 mins). The ferry and the hovercraft stop over at Neil. So you can plan to spend a day or two at Neil then go to Havelock from there (or the vice versa) before returning to Port Blair.

You have to wait for my exclusive posts on Neil and Havelock. 

From Port Blair you can also take a day trip (a long day but) to Barataang. We decided not to do this trip as it takes 4 hours one way.  The includes a stretch through Jarawa area which requires all vehicles to go in convoys. Jarawa is a native tribe that the Government of India is trying to protect against exploitation by tourists. Once you reach Barataang you can see a limestone cave and a mud volcano. Its not about the grapes being sour, but I heard from other tourists that you don't miss much if you skip it.

If you have more time and are more adventurous, you can go all the way to Digilipur, Mayabunder and Rangat in Middle Andaman. I wasn't fortunate enough to visit these but I've heard these are very beautiful.

If you have even more time, you can visit  Little Andaman which is supposed to be the best of the lot.