Holiday within Holiday- At the Neil Islands

Two years ago around this time when I was in the Andamans I returned from a two day trip to a small and idyllic island, Neil Island, an hour and half journey by ship. It was another holiday-within-holiday for me, a preliminary trip to a ten day road trip I was planning to take right to the top of the Andaman’s upto Diglipur.

I got into the ship MV Long Island and incidentally, every thing in the Andamans, boats, rooms in guest houses and resorts are named after the islands or the flora and fauna. An hour and half later we steamed into Neil Island on a perfectly sunny day. It was the middle of rainy season yet the weather was beautiful. It was off season for tourism which meant I had whole beaches to myself.

Neil Island is known as the vegetable bowl of the Andamans because almost all the island’s vegetables come from here. You will know it the moment you get down from the boat from Port Blair because you will find vegetable packed in gunnies waiting to be loaded onto the boat to Port Blair.

Neil Island is adjacent to Havelock Island. Though it lacks the charm of Havelock Island, it is no less spectacular with two main beaches- the Sitapur beach (No.5) and the Laxmanpur beach which is also called Beach No. 1. The latter is the most interesting as you have to walk through dense jungle on a narrow, winding path. You will see all sorts of shells walking around and when you look closer you will see there are snails/molluscs inside.

A peculiar feature of Neil Island is that all villages on the island are named after characters in the Ramayana-thus you will find Ramnagar, Sitapur, Bharatpur, Laxmanpur there. All these places are connected by the Island’s only public transportation – a white state transport service bus that makes a trip around every two hours. Another odd thing about Neil is that it seems to have an unusually large number of neem trees. Standing on the jetty at Neil Island you can see Havelock Island appearing to be within reach. I heard dongies (the local boats) from Havelock to Neil frequently.

Neil Island is smaller than Havelock and doesn’t get many overseas visitors that Havelock attracts. I spent the morning chatting with the farmers who had gathered in a hotel in the village square, a charming place which doubles up as the bus terminus, the autorickshaw stand and every thing else. They were disappointed with the rates they get for their copra. I met a few farmers who told me what they grow- rice, vegetables and coconuts. One farmer, Asit Roy, actually clambered up a coconut tree and threw down two (daap) nuts for me. It was a nice gesture and it made me happy.

One the second day I went to the jetty early in the morning and caught this old man hauling his net into the sea.