A Holiday at Andaman - A Review - Day 4

This is Part V. If you have not read Part IV of this review, you can do so by clicking here --> Day 3

Day 4: 18 June, 2012 


Bye-Bye Sea Shell:
The check-out time at Sea Shell resort is 11:00AM. So, we decided to pack everything up and check-out and leave the bags in the car while we visit the last thing on our itinerary at Havelock - Kalapathar Beach. It is with a heavy heart that we bid goodbye to Sea Shell. Loved the resort, its private beach, its splendid bar and restaurant. We will be back there soon!
Kalapathar Beach, Havelock:
We had heard a lot about Radhanagar Beach before we set out for Andaman. But nobody ever told us that Kalapathar beach is so damn beautiful. We were literally jaw-dropping shocked when we reached here. The first thing that came to our minds when we set foot here was, "Why in hell do movie-makers spent so much cash to shoot their movies abroad when such an unbelievably beautiful place is right here in India.

Kalapathar Beach, Havelock

Things you should know about Kalapathar:

• We spent 2 hours here and we were completely alone. Not even a stray dog in sight. Super romantic!
• Not good for swimming - full of corals. But, you will regret it if you didn't dip your feet in the icy cool, crystal clear, waves.
• There is so much peace. You can sit for hours and hear the sound of the waves and think of nothing. NOTHING!
• Walk around a bit, there is one big rock on which you can shoot a lot of pictures and see some crazy crabs fighting :)
• Pretty corals are just lying around for you to pick up and admire. The whole beach is filled with corals of different shapes and sizes.

Kalapathar Beach, Havelock

It was an unbelievable experience and is a definite don't miss! I am going to say no more about this beach for I can never say enough. It just takes your breath away!

Bye-Bye Havelock:

We skipped lunch, like we always do before travelling by sea. As we stepped on to our cruise back with nothing but good memories of Havelock in our minds (onto our boat - MV Rangat), we had no idea that the next 3 hours were going to be hell!

Corals on Kalapathar Beach, Havelock

In an hour's time after setting off from Havelock, MV Rangat made a stop at one other island called Neil Island. Locals filled in and we set off to Port Blair. We were mid-sea when a storm broke out!

MV Rangat and the Storm:

The sea that looked majestic and beautiful quickly changed its color. It now looked dark and threatening and extremely angry. The little boat that we were on rocked from side-to-side and took deep plunges and sailed over high waves. People all around us started vomiting right where they were seated for getting up to move was out of the question with the ship rocking so much. Kids started crying at first. And then the ladies. We could not bear to sit among all this so we got up and went to the open end of the boat at the rear. This was one of the scariest thing I have ever seen. Each time the boat took a plunge, a load of water rushed into the rear of the ship and then slowly trickled out. The sea looked so menacing and threatening. It started to rain.

Porthole of MV Rangat

We climbed to the top of the ship and stood in the open rain, getting drenched and watching the threatening waves all around us. But atleast we were far from all the crying and vomiting. This was much better but still scary. It took us a total of 3 hours to reach Port Blair from Havelock and it was a wild experience. Let us just say that we were really relieved when we walked out of that boat and onto land!

Candlelight Dinner:

We checked back in at Hotel Sun Sea :( and got ready. Then walked around Middle Point and did some souvenir shopping for friends back home! Lots of small shops selling lots of interesting stuff that you can buy from here.

Candlelight Dinner @ Sinclairs Bay View

A part of our honeymoon package was the candlelight dinner with wine and cake at Hotel Sinclairs Bay View (Port Blair). It is a nice hotel, will try staying here the next time we are here. We had a bottle of red Zinzi (by UB Group) and a cake followed by a fantastic dinner. This was the best night of our stay in Port Blair and the dinner and service was excellent. The sound of the waves and the cold sea breeze all made the dinner special. 

Exhausted from an eventful day, we slept knowing that we have to leave early morning tomorrow.

Tip: Book tickets for the noon of the last day. Not early morning. This gives you enough buffer to catch up any place that you have previously missed. Our flight back was at 05:30AM on the last day. So that was a waste of one day in beautiful Andaman!

Day 5: 19 June, 2012:

Back to Bangalore:

Landing @ Chennai

Our driver dropped as at the Airport. I had picked up around 5 corals from different places as souvenirs. Our driver had warned us that we will not be able to take it back home - the Airlines will not permit it. We had hence kept it right on top of the suitcase in case they wanted us to take it out. Our suitcase went it to the scanner and took an hour to come out. Then it was pulled to the side. I went up and asked what happened. The lady behind the x-ray machine said, "Sir, you have a cigarette lighter in the bag. We cannot allow that." With a broad smile on my face, I pulled out the lighter, threw it away and left grinning from ear-to-ear knowing that the corals are coming home with me :)

Back @ Chennai

So we reached Chennai in 2 hours time, took a prepaid cab from the Airport to the bus station and finally reached Bangalore around 05:30PM. We lost our recent purchase, Princess: by Jean Sasson, on the bus before we could finish reading it - that being the only loss of the entire trip!

By the time we reached back all we could talk about was how tired we are and that we had to go back to work from tomorrow. :( All we could think about was enchanting Andaman and the great time we had there. :)












Thanks a lot to Andaman Island Travels Pvt. Ltd. for making our honeymoon so memorable. Thanks a lot, guys!




Read Part VI of this review here --> A Summary