The indian version of a tropical island paradise..
Trip Start
Aug 06, 2007
1
48
59
Trip End
Jun 03, 2008
Havelock Island, India
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Havelock island was divided/named as 7 villages/settlements. One was the jetty where we arrived, two was further down, three was the main town where there was a market (fruit+veg) along with random shops and cheap restaurants, dunno where 4 was, we were on five which was further down the road south of 3. On the other side of the island, a 20min bus trip away, was 7 (dunno where 6 was either) which had what was said to be the nicest beach in Asia.
So we were having our first breakfast when Harry&Millie from the boat came along to have breakfast there too since it wasn't that good where they were staying (the next resort along). So we got chatting and stuff and eventually decided to go to beach 7. It was pretty damn nice beach, esp after seeing the beach on our side of the island which we weren't too impressed with (there were ridiculous low and high tides that changed drastically over the course of our 3 weeks there, sometimes there was no beach and sometimes there was no sea!). Beach no7 had white sand, great water, lots of space and not that many ppl considering. We got there in the late afternoon, so we only had really hot sun for about an hour (and it was scorching, and there was no shade) after the temp was amazing. The only annoyance of the beach was the sandflies, which bite! There were also sea fleas which bite too! But it wasn't soo bad.
Harry&Millie were on Havelock only for another few days, then they were going to go camping on another island. We met them again a few days before we left the island, and they told us of their time camping. Apprently it was now illegal to camp for too long, so police conducted regular raids of the beaches to shoo off campers. Camping consisted of sleeping in a hammock with a mosquito net around it. So they found a bit of beach and just got comfortable when harry stepped on a hyperdermic needle that was in the sand in the middle of their camp!! So he freaked and went to the hospital on the island (where the needle originated from, they regularly dumped their waste on the beaches...) but since the needle was old there was no risk of infection etc. Then it rained for a few days in a row! So all in all they weren't having much luck, so they decided to pack it up and come back to Havelock, which was where we met them again to hear their story.
As for us during this time we got into the habit of buying fresh fruit and veg for our lunches. At the jetty there was a liquor store, so we bought some rum and whiskey that lasted us nearly the entire time on the island, which was great: having a rum+coke while sat on a bench outside our hut as the sun was going down listening to the sea and waiting for it to be dinner time. We got a hammock made from some material, and hung it just outside our hut. Our days were relaxed and carefree really, with much time spent on the beach (which was still nice once u got use to it). We kept meaning to go back to beach no7 more often or going to Elephant beach where they apparently had elephants and good snorkelling - but we were so laid back that we didn't make it, and didn't really mind hehe.
Everyone at our guesthouse was really nice (other ppl, not the staff who were thick as bricks and half as friendly). There was an israeli couple called Maya+Yuval who had been there for a month already, this scottish couple who'd been there for like 3months or something, another nice young british couple etc. all of us living in the "budget huts" as they were called, so we were all neighbours. About twice a week they held gigs at the bar, where the scottish+israeli couples would play like an hour set each and was great fun, often followed by jam sessions etc.
For dinner we'd eat at one of two places. One was the restaurant in our guesthouse, which was a bit expensive but was like gourmet food. They had daily fresh fish which was unbelievable and cold beers. But we couldn't afford to eat there every night, so other nights we would go down the road to a little restaurant owned by an indian family, the woman running it was really nice and took really good care of u, the food was excellent and she always offered u extra.
During our last few days we thought we'd make an effort, so we went snorkelling at beach no7. It was amazing! There was a lagoon just a bit further up the beach, and u swim out a few meters and ur suddenly above amazing corals with amazing fish! We saw one that was just massive, like seriously massive, i wanted to go chasing it but Gisele grabbed my arm and was scared to get near it. Also saw a massive crab that was pouncing at passing fish from under one of the corals. The rest were just an array of wildly coloured fishies that just took ur breath away, esp seeing as ur soo close to the beach.
I guess thats everything! Writing this 2months after being there was kinda tough to remember everything. The only thing i might add would be the sunrises and sunsets, which were always amazing and very different on the different sides of the island. During the exact full moon nights, where the moon would actually rise out of the sea like a sunrise - was amazing.
I guess i also should tell u of our outward journey. The boat from havelock back to port blair were in the afternoons, but flights out of port blair were in the morning so we were forced to spend a night there (horrible place remember!). The next day we took a flight to Chennai, spent like 4hrs in the airport then caught a flight to Delhi. Gisele's indian visa was expiring on the 5th of may, and we had the idea of going to live in Dharamkot near where we first met in Dharamsala for a month - in order to do that we wanted to save time, so instead of taking the boat back to calcutta then a train to delhi, which would have taken like a week altogether, we took 2 flights and were there within 24hrs.
