Havelock Island

Originally posted on October 15, 2011.

This past week, Celina and I decided to fly out to Port Blair on the Andaman Islands. We flew out Monday, and came home Friday.
A place in India that didn't quite feel like India, Celina and I both felt really happy to be out and on a vacation to refuel.

We saw basically all of Port Blair in 1/2 of a day- and it was beautiful. From human traffic lights to hilarious light and sound shows at the Cellular Jail, we had a blast. Laughing and back packing through the town. We stayed at the Azad hostel- 600 rupees a night with a bathroom to ourselves and sheets on the bed. Nice.
Now, Port Blair is beautiful. But if you are going to make a trip out to the Andaman Islands, it would be pointless unless you planned to have most of your stay on Havelock Island. Havelock Island has some of the world’s most stunning beaches and an atmosphere of complete relaxation and chill. So we hopped on a boat and headed for this magical place.This wasn’t just any boat, this was an old, rustic, huge labor ship. Which, in turn, set us up with the perfect emotion to land on this wonderful island.
And on this boat ride, I met Mike- a dutch fisherman who came to the island for a good fishing vacation and then didn’t leave. He now has been working on the island for the past 4 years. He gave me and Celina the skinny on how to get around, the best places to stay, and the best places to eat. The island being so small, we actually got to spend time together. He had some amazing stories to tell.We came into the jetty just around sun down and headed on foot to Barefoot Scuba for accommodations. We were put up in a “Chicken Hut” for just Rs 100 a night (that is a little over 2 dollars a night) that was situated just on Beach #5 and had an incredibly clean communal bathroom and restaurant.

This next part is a bit of an adventure. The next day, Celina wanted to walk to Beach #7, which is on the complete other side of the island. She figured it would take us about a half hour to get there. Well, it took us 3 and 1/2 hours there and then, even though we didn’t want to walk back, 3 and 1/2 hours back. And it was pouring rain the entire time.But we finally did make it to the beach. White sand, gorgeous blue ocean that you can see clearly through for tons of feet in. I can now officially say that I have been body surfing in the Bay of Bengal.
And the dreaded day did come where we had to take a tuk-tuk back to the jetty and head home. But Celina and I had the time of our lives.
I will return someday, Havelock!