90 Days in Andamans- The First Impressions

I started for Port Blair on a Sunday morning, and one of the several first that marked this trip was flying in two planes the same day. After a brief stopover at Chennai, finally I was in the plane to Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. While the plane hovers above Port Blair, you can see a couple of islands, full of greenery and with a rim of surf all around, from the window of the plane. It is a beautiful sight shown in all tourism brochures. One of those islands is the Sentinel Island, home to the Sentinelese tribes who shoot first and don’t even bother to ask questions later.

I arrived at noon, to a sultry day on the last day of April. The fellowship included free accommodation in an apartment that I had to share with, at various times, nearly eight persons. Only an intern seemed a long time resident there at the apartment which had a refrigerator, a television and air-conditioning in two of the bedrooms. The apartment was in Delanipur which was one name I rather liked among several quaint names of places in Port Blair- Haddo, Phoenix Bay, Chatham and my favorite, Junglighat. Aberdeen is the main shopping centre of Port Blair and can be said to be the heart and soul of the entire Andamans.

Port Blair is a quaint little town with an uneven landscape and with the sea on almost three sides of it. The sea is just minutes away from anywhere in the town. There are autorickshaws that take you anywhere for ten rupees. There are city buses also and the fare is quite cheap. I saw only one Mercedes Benz, a silver one, and though I was told there were two of them I couldn’t see the other one. Of course, there is a ferry service between other islands. That’s about transportation and I took the autorickshaw on most days and some days I just walked from the apartment to the office of the NGO.

Life begins at around half past four in the morning in the Andamans which is when the sun comes up. One of the many joys of staying in Port Blair was the early morning visit to the sea side, especially the Marina which is one of the most beautiful spots in Port Blair. It is quiet in the morning with only a few walkers and the gentle sea breeze fills one with a freshness that lasts the whole day. The Marina was the first place I visited on the day I landed. Being a Sunday, the market at Aberdeen was closed and I just took a quick walk around with another media fellow who quit the next day.

That was about the first day at Port Blair. In later posts I will write more about the places I visited during my three month stay in the Andamans.