Travelers Honeymoon ~ Episode 05 ~ Andaman Islands
Landing in Paradise... Finally!!!
After the aggravation from last week tails, we left the Andaman Island's big city of Port Blair which ended up all good (because in the end, everything always works out) and I would be happy to go back to the city and main land India!
We were on a boat to Havelock, a beautiful paradise with welcoming smiles from the police and the rickshaw drivers who were happy to tell us that the bus to Beach No. 7 was the best and cheapest option!
We stayed at a chill little place called DreamLand Resort, it was cheap and nice enough for us (actually it was perfect for us!). We had our own bamboo hut on top of an elevated earthen floor, a cute little porch with two chairs and an ashtray!
Tibo, who we met on the ferry from Port Blair, was also staying at DreamLand. I must have talked his ear off about The People's Caravan, a traveling art collective and it turned out Tibo knew tons of underground artists in Marseilles and squats all around France. Perfect for spreading the idea of the Caravan!
We love to meet like-minded travelers and artists across the globe!
Beach No. 7, also known as Radhanagar Beach had this long soft curve with the finest of sands and was a beautiful place to swim. Though we never really got the answer as to why the beaches on Havelock were numbered, even Indian tourists called it No. 7... They were as always fully dressed while playing and swimming in the ocean and for some reason concentrated on the area closest to where buses had dropped them off. We would set our towels just a couple hundred feet away from that main area where there were less people, the ladies from our neck of the woods could swim in peace, in the types of bathing suites that show skin... This mostly avoided creepy Indian men from gawking and drooling too much!
Still further down was a beautiful little creek that was even less frequented by tourists in a rush. In India it's usually a pretty rare thing to be alone in such an amazing spot. Here we could swim naked, only a few foreigner would see you and probably the occasional creeper quietly hiding in the jungle.
Havelock was a fun place to ride scooters, there wasn't many vehicles and there really was only one road to the main town. We rode all around the island one day looking for a room on the more populated side of Havelock but found where we were to be so much better, even if you better get dinner before the 3 restaurant on Radhanagar Beach close which was usually 21:00!
don't know what's going on with my face there but it's the only picture we have riding!!!
Besides a bike day and lazying around the rest of the time, making sand designs and dipping in the sea, there wasn't much else to do. We could watch people riding the couple elephants being walked around the wooded edge of the beach but the only real entertainment we had was at one of the restaurants, the old man there would tell us to eat lots and eat slowly. Every time we went there he'd give us candy before our meal, in the middle and for desert!!! Funny old guy, he made us laugh a lot. He enjoyed making people laugh and he obviously loved life...
Right before dusk, the smooth beach turns into a busy city of crabs making these beautiful patterns as they sift through the sand searching for food
Jess is hard at work making pictures
There was a bar, a fancy bar from the one high-end resort with a cleaning staff all in white linens, valets and gorgeous baristas. We had a couple drinks there through our stay at beach No.7 but you know, when you're on the road for 8 months that money can be much better spent where the real people live.
Although we only stayed a week before moving on to Niel Island, life in the Andaman Islands so far is very very much slower than anywhere else we've been in India.
Island life as you'd expect it to be, with a twist of curry!
...and a few more pictures:
To Be Continued...
Episode 01 ~ Episode 02 ~ Episode 03 ~ Episode 04
Next Week (Will be posted a few days late due to a spontaneous trip to Puerto Rico because I got fired!):
DIY Soviet Wine, Strange Creatures on the Beach and Really Long Fish Dinners...
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#DreamsComeTrue!!!
You guys seem to be having a blast on your loooong honeymoon! I'm from India and I still haven't been to Andaman, but like most other places, I'll say it's on my bucket list. Actually, Andaman is the only place in India which I thought would be very unlike India. Looks like even it has been quite commercialized. I enjoyed reading your post and will be reading through your previous posts as well.
I'm curious to know if the scooter in the picture above is what you guys rode on? 😀 Cheers, to many more dreams coming true! Have fun!
Wow thank you so much, that was a beautiful reply!
The scooter was similar to the one featured in the picture, a bit newer though. I just really like that photo. It was in 2013 really cheap to fly to Andaman and it wasn't too commercialized at the time, even less when we moved on to Niel Island. I remember waiting two hours for a fish dinner a couple times (I will talk about it in next week's post) and the tourism infrastructure was almost none existant there!
It makes me really happy to hear someone is interested in readin the previous posts of the honeymoon!!!! Yeah it was long but it was for sure very fun...and sorry if at times I seem a little rude about some Indian culture. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with your country.
No matter what, it is still one of these places I would go to again (that would make it my third visit!)
I hope you enjoy the rest!
Take care
PS: I really enjoyed your Alazka post, if you find some time here was mine https://steemit.com/homesteading/@senorcoconut/alaska-homesteader-paradise
Don't worry! Every country and culture has its own strengths and weaknesses. The fact that so many people want to visit India and are curious about it says a lot about the country. :)
Thank you for stopping by and reading my post. I'm kind of new here and still trying to figure out my way. I'm definitely going to read about your Alaska experience. I love that place so much!
Yea it does say a lot about India, I've said it before I have a love/hate relationship with India.... mostly love it though!!!
I am also trying to find ny way around on steemit. I found Discord is good for learning and networking.
Thanks for your reply
That looks like a lot of fun. Aimee and I didn't have nearly as long of a honeymoon, it also wasn't as tropical. We did enjoy ourselves though.
Those crabs are crazy. The shapes they were making look like some sort of fractals. I really don't know much about them but my brother is obsessed so I hear about them all the time. :)
The point was that you enjoyed yourselves!
I kind of like to bragg about taking 8 months instead of 8 days and saying that those two word got mixed up in translation somewhere!
...but we're travelers and really can't help spending time exploring our beautiful crazy planet.
I'd love to hear what your brother has to say about these little crabs, too bad I don't have a picture of them in action!
Did the crabs move in some sort of coordinated manner? In the pictures it looks like there is some sort of pattern or organisation to them.
They were pretty hard to spot... they could hear (or probably feel) our foot steps and hide. But I when we waited there a while they'd come out. The pattern was a bit mechanical and kind of choppy, they moved in semi-circles getting farther away from their little crab cavern picking up sand, amd either eating it and poopingnit out or spitting it back out, I can't remember completely! Either way it's amazing..
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If you engage, have fun, and establish a sense of community with communication, you will succeed and won't have to beg for upvotes, follows, or resteems.
I completely agree with you that subject @bitfiend. Interaction is why steemit is great... yes the money that can be made is great too and that's probably the insentive for interaction.
Yeah money is the biggest incentive, for sure. It's a lot more fun not worrying about what you'll make and just having fun though! :D
What we invest here on this platform is our time. The value is in our content, so it feels much safer than trading crypto on an exchange.
Great Honeymoon place! It seems so quiet and nature. Nobody is there. Thanks you describing in detail...
Yea you're welcome. It was one of those places that doesn't have a lot of tourism just yet, so the infrastructure isn't really built up. But that was in 2012 and things these days move fast, so who knows...
Thank you so much for your comment!
Great pictures! While there was not much entertainment there you still got to connect with nature. I liked the plastic litter sign. We all must reconnect with nature. The sand designs were really cool too! I wouldn't mind buying a property in the middle of nowhere and living off the land one day.
Old man giving away candy? Yeah he's a happy guy.
Ah yea it was great and amazing to be so close to nature and still be in India. There aren't too many areas in India where you can find so little people!
So there were these really cool patterns made by the crabs all perfectly designed and than we had made more "sand paintings" like the one eye chicken looking thing in the post, but apparently didn't take any pictures!
Will do this trip for sure now that I have that Steemit incentive....
The property we own for our future homestead feels like it's in the middle of nowhere and we call it No Man's Land!
Thanks you so much
NIce. I was wondering what made those perfect patterns... I was also going to stay home this weekend instead of going snowmobiling but that Steemit incentive made me get up. I thought it would make a good post and even better pictures. With my night schedule it's hard to do anything during the day but I was motivated.
Some people joke about the town that I live in. "It's the City that tries to grow but never does" Seems like we've been growing lately, ever since Outside Magazine nominated us the Greatest Outdoor City in America. Some say "Duluth is 2 hours north of the end of the world" so I guess I'm already living in No Man's Land! Just outside of the city, there are many parcels of land for sale. Typically about $1000 per acre. I'm hoping to buy when 1 Eth hits 100 grand :D
Cool so did you make a post of the snowmobiling? I'll head over to your page in a bit...
Are you in Minnesota? Just asking cause you know, sometimes there are towns with the same name in every state.
I like the $1000 an acre...much better than NY! So you think ether can hit 100 grand? That would be nice... I'm waiting for SBD to turn back around to what it was a month ago!
I'm actually working on the snowmobiling post right now. It'll be up today! I am in Minnesota. Duluth/Superior AKA "The Twin Ports", we are a very important port for the USA!
I believe there's a Duluth in Georgia, but not sure if there's one anywhere else.
Love this place and all of its seasons! Are you in NY? I would like SBD to go back, but there are certain witnesses that are trying to drive the price of SBD back to $1. I am not sure what their reasoning is as I just found out. Gotta do more research, but I need to make this post first.
Ah interesting, about the witnesses. I would like to find out why too. I would rather see Steem going back down to $1.
You can pm me the link if you like after you write the snowmobile!
Later
@originalworks
Cool Couple ;)
Thank you @highonthehog! I like that name...High On The Hog. What does it mean?
to put it in a nutshell, this means to have the best cuts of life.
Ah nice, thanks for the explaination! The best out of life!