Overs, Wickets and Boundaries
Trip Start
Jan 22, 2011
1
18
26
Trip End
Mar 28, 2011
Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India
Thursday, February 24, 2011
But first...
THURSDAY, FEB. 24
NEIL ISLAND TO PORT BLAIR
The original plan was to stay at Neil Island until Saturday, spending Simon's birthday (Friday) doing a beach clean-up in the morning, watching New Zealand play Australia in the Cricket (yes, cricket) World Cup and then having a final fire on the beach at night. That plan changed when we woke up Thursday morning to a rolling and pitching boat that was much closer to the rocks than it should be. So instead of our nice birthday plan we took off for Port Blair.
We were still up in the air about when we'd actually start the passage back to Thailand - Saturday, Sunday and Monday all possibilities - until we knew the check-out procedures and regulations. Based on the check-in routine we figured anything was possible. In the meantime we took the earlier than expected arrival in Port Blair as an opportunity to get a head start on boat prep and provisioning for the long trip back.
The first order of business was filling up the diesel tanks. In Port Blair that isn't as simple as pulling up to a pump on a dock. Instead you take your cans to the filling station, fill them up, take them back to the boat, empty them and repeat the process. (Luckily) there wasn't really a need for all of us to be a part of the refilling fun so I volunteered to entertain otherwise myself. And I found this entertaining.
I eventually made my way to the Marina Park right near the ferry jetty. The park contained a few historical memorials, a cool map of the Andamans and for some reason this dinosaur (or Godzilla?).
Moving on... While we were having dinner Time arrived and we were invited over. By the time we got over there Simon and Amanda had been joined by the Dreamers and were already a few drinks in. That's when we got the news that this would likely be the Germans last night on the boat. Seems things had reached a bit of a boiling point and right now they were ashore checking out hotels and flights. Simon tried to talk Trevor or Richard into a crew swap so they'd have some help for the passage but no luck. Although if it were up to me I'd jump ship in a heartbeat. I mean... nothing against the 'Fly but... an endless supply of hot water? Are you kidding? Or as Simon and Amanda would say, "Far out!" And on that note, a little aside... with the exception of "That 70's Show" I haven't heard "far out" as much in the past 20 years as I have in the past month. Seriously, is it still used regularly in New Zealand and Australia? And if so, why? But the best part is the whole inflection thing. There must be 20 different uses for it based on how and when you say it.
And now back to the Germans... They got back to the boat with a plan in place so it would in fact be their last night.
We were now also about 90 minutes away from Simon's birthday - and to celebrate he and Sven jumped in the dinghy and set out on a little adventure. Now you may remember the last time Simon & Sven set off on a drunken dinghy adventure. It resulted in Sven falling overboard during their (not so) sneak attack at Rutland Island - so this would be interesting.
Unfortunately the dingy had been having a bunch of motor issues and that meant rowing - which after a few drinks is harder than it would appear. It took a while but they eventually got underway. First stop the Dream to annoy and ultimately kidnap their Germans. That went surprisingly well and as we looked out into the harbor we saw Simon and now three Germans rowing across to get Greg (who had planned on a quiet night back at the boat) and some 300 rupee vodka. Mission accomplished, Simon rowed back with Greg, three Germans, a bottle of vodka and a hideous warm Fanta mixer.
Of course, since the pre-birthday celebration had actually begun a few hours ago, it didn't take all that long for things to get a bit out of hand. I mean, I'm not sure how else you would describe Amanda having Nicky (who it should be said is some sort of jewelry buyer/supplier, etc...) re-pierce her belly button. With a fishing hook.
Sadly, (although not surprisingly) we didn't make it to Simon's birthday. Well, more accurately Simon didn't make it to Simon's birthday - disappearing below deck by about 11:30. And that was our cue to leave. No worries, even without the beach bonfire and the dicey bar situation we'd find a way to celebrate on Friday!
FRIDAY, FEB. 25
PORT BLAIR
Today's main priority: finding a place showing the Australia/New Zealand cricket match (did I really just type that?) and also serving beer (yup, definitely typed that). It proved to be a lot more difficult than we expected. If anyone is looking for an investment opportunity - I say open a sports bar in Port Blair. I mean, far ouuuuut. (and with that inflection it means wtf?).
We started the day being tourists and heading to the Cellular Jail - a prison constructed by the British in the late 1800's-early 1900's and used mainly to house political prisoners. It was designed to keep the prisoners almost entirely in solitary confinement with the front of one wing facing the back of another - so there could be no communication.
History lesson complete it was most certainly time for a beer and the cricket so we asked a tuk-tuk driver waiting outside the jail where we could go. He pointed us around the corner and said "hospital". We figured he must not have understood what we were asking so we tried again... "Watch the cricket and have a beer?" The same response... "Hospital."
Okay, maybe there was some place near the hospital showing the cricket. We walked around the corner. No bars. No shops. Just the hospital. So we asked another tuk tuk driver if they would be showing the cricket. We got just the response you'd expect, "Hospital. No cricket." Of course not. So we asked him if he knew where we could watch the cricket - this time we got the head bobble. Okay, it was a little promising... maybe he knew someplace. We asked again, this time with the emphasis on the beer. "Beer and cricket?" It took a few seconds but the bobble turned into a nod. We piled in his tuk tuk and one other and were off... to a place with no cricket and no beer. It was near the town's cricket field though so that was something.
Not about to give up we walked back up to the area near the clock tower. One of the shops on the way had the cricket on so Simon and Trevor were able to get an update. I was able to pick up that New Zealand was still batting but I had no clue what the score meant. The guy at the shop pointed us to the bar on the other side of the clock tower. Ah, we knew it well. Of course we didn't remember there being a TV but maybe they brought it out for special occasions. Nope. So back to the shop we went to see if he had any other suggestions. This time he sent us in the other direction with instructions to turn right by the temple and left after the rubbish. And remarkably there, in the alley, was a bar. With a TV. Now unfortunately that TV was tuned to some bizarre Indian soap opera but our order of five big beers (and the promise of more to come) convinced the bartender to switch to the cricket.
By now New Zealand was done batting and Australia was up. I got a crash course and learned enough to almost sound like I knew what was going on. I could throw around terms like "wickets" and "boundaries" and "overs" and even kind of understand the stats at the bottom of the screen. Well, understand them enough to know that there was pretty much no way New Zealand was going to win. Besides the whole game thing the Aussies (Trevor) and Kiwis (Simon) also disagreed on what to call the guy throwing the ball. I'm siding with Simon and going with "chucker" rather than Trevor's "bowler" and I've decided that from now on I'm going to start calling baseball pitchers "chuckers" and pitches "chucks" because it sounds so much cooler. Anyway, with the score tightening and a bunch of chucks and overs left Australia seemed to be ready to finish things off. No birthday win for Simon. And in case you were worried that there would be no more cricket talk to come... don't worry... India vs. England is on Sunday so we'll be right back in the alley bar for that one.
Game over it was time for a birthday BBQ aboard Time - which meant a trip to the market to pick up some chicken. Which meant I'd be sitting in the tuk tuk while Trevor and Greg went to get the chicken. Dinner was spent discussing plans for check-out and the trip back. The Dreamers decided to leave Saturday and we'd go on Monday in company with Time.
SATURDAY, FEB. 26
PORT BLAIR
We spent most of Saturday running around doing boat things - which in steaming hot Port Blair is about as much fun as it sounds. With a full day of cricket (and the accompanying big beers) ahead of us on Sunday we decided it was best to lay low a little bit. We did do some shopping and my big purchase was a wristband in the colors of the Indian flag to wear during the match.
SUNDAY, FEB. 27
PORT BLAIR
Hard to believe today is our last full day in Port Blair - but at least we were going out in style. We decided to play tourist again in the morning and hopped the ferry over to Ross Island - which was the former British administrative HQ. The remains of many of the buildings are still there, although with all of the out of control trees some of them are difficult to see and it gives the whole place a bit of a strange feel. I'm still trying to make sense of this though...
The Japanese took over the Andamans in World War II and some of their bunkers are still on Ross Island as well.
Enough tourism. It was time for the cricket and a bizarro continuation of my World Cup tour from last summer: watching India play in an Indian pub. I, of course, was wearing my awesome wristband and for the occasion Greg went so far as to swap out his red bandanna for a green one to better match the Indian flag. Simon and Amanda each had small Indian flags. All of this created quite a bit of confusion though as it was assumed by everyone else in the bar that we were English. India batted first and they got off to a great start. Sachin Tendulkar (who as those of us cricket aficionados know is one of the top players in the world) went for the century and ended up with 120 runs. While the Indians were a bit reserved while their team was racking up the runs we were not. It should also be noted that while we were throwing back the beers, the Indians were not.
338 runs later came my new favorite part of any sporting event. The tea break. And with that it was off to get some food before England's turn to bat.
Time for more cricket! When we got back from tea there were a bunch of new people in the bar and they weren't too pleased to see us walk in since we had to be England supporters. Then they got a little angry. It seems they thought we were mocking them when we all started cheering at an England out. Matters were made worse when they thought we were disrespecting their flag by waving it and then laying it down with one end touching Trevor's leg. Thankfully the bartender stepped in to explain that we were not English and we were supporting India. International crisis averted... back to the cricket.
India looked to have things in control but then England started piling up the runs. Amazingly on the very last ball they tied it up at 338. I said it before, I'll say it again... 8 hours of cricket led to a draw. Are you kidding me?
