{"id":2607,"date":"2009-11-05T10:05:39","date_gmt":"2009-11-05T04:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/?p=2607"},"modified":"2014-10-27T12:08:29","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T06:38:29","slug":"andamanned-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/2009\/11\/05\/andamanned-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Andamanned – Part 2 – Nagaron ke beach main"},"content":{"rendered":"

My sarcasm regarding the airport welcome, it seemed, wasn\u2019t totally lost on the resort staff, as two people waited on\/for us at Havelock. In about 20 mins, we were at Island Vinnie\u2019s, on beach #5 (alias Vijay Nagar beach). On the way we passed Beach #3 (alias Govind Nagar, which also serves as a market place for Havelock). Havelock, I\u2019d say is Goa without the overdose of tourism. Coincidentally, I was reading Michener\u2019s \u2019Chesapeake\u2019, and was at the part where the coming of the white man destroyed the paradise the Indians had. Later, when I would remark (sometimes) on the lack of options in Havelock (compared to Goa), I\u2019d also wonder about \u2019progress\u2019, and how its positives and negatives are such a subjective thing, as is the answer to the question \u2019where to draw the line\u2019 when it comes to change and progress.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, though the watch claimed 5.30 pm IST, it was already dark. Obviously nature cares two hoots\u00a0 about IST, not unlike the Indian nature. My body, however, seemed to understand the new time very well. I was famished, and we had an early dinner at the newly opened \u2018Full Moon caf\u00e9\u2019 at Vinnie\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\"full<\/p>\n

Though some of the menu items had still not made their debut in the kitchen, there were enough options. And it felt almost like home, because Vinnie played \u2018The Prestige\u2019 by popular vote. Dinner watching a movie. We disappeared towards the middle of the movie. No one applauded, thankfully. D wanted to get up in time for the sunrise. She was told that it was at 4.45 AM. The early bird might get the worm, but on my sleep I was firm. All vacation days are like Sundays, I get to see the sun at a time of my choosing. Hmmph. She did get some awesome snaps though.<\/p>\n

\"sunrise1\" \"sunrise2\"<\/p>\n

\"sunrise3\" \"sunrise4\"<\/p>\n

\n

We\u2019d planned a snorkeling trip at Elephant Beach, so my snoring stopped at about 6.30 (!!) and we set out at 7.30. We got there to find out that the Navy guys wanted to do some shooting there, with real guns, so snorkeling was not allowed on that day. I remembered the Army guys playing spoilsport in Leh. I wanted to argue with them that they had a vast sea and many uninhabited islands to do target practice, and that I had my own shooting plans, but the gun silenced me. Talk about Navy Blues, thankfully, our resort staff took us to a nearby place which they said was equally good. Unfortunately, though, D betrayed her fishy star sign. She gulped before we got into the water, during the time we were underwater, and after we got back into the boat, when we were given samosas. No, actually, underwater, she behaved like the South African cricket team. She choked, but thankfully only after we did a fair bit of snorkeling.<\/p>\n

We got back in about four hours and spent an hour on the resort beach, where you could go a long distance into the water and would still be only waist deep in water. We had read about the Red Snapper restaurant and decided to go there for lunch. Its five minutes away from Vinnie\u2019s and worth a visit. The Goan fish curry and the full Bluefin Trevally with Chinese sauce are highly recommended.<\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

We got back and I napped (my default mode during vacations) a bit before going to the famous beach #7 (alias Radha Nagar), about 9km from Vinnie’s. I think the hype set stellar expectations, and I found it to be less impressive than say, Palolem, in Goa.\u00a0 Forget Goa, the beach at the resort was way better, I thought. But I managed to film \u201cA Snail\u2019s pace\u201d there, and D managed to get the naariyal paani<\/em>, which had been eluding her all this while. At just Rs.10. We had hired an auto for the entire trip,\u00a0 and the journey, especially the return, on winding roads, with glimpses of the village life, gave me quite a sense of peace. At a price, of course, Rs. 500, for the to and fro journey, and a wait of an hour and a half.<\/p>\n

\"r1\" \"r2\"<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uyvkAUOtzbU<\/p>\n

When Vinnie got to know our travails, starting from the ferry fiasco, he offered to knock 50% off from the \u2018Meet and Greet\u2019 package, and give us a complimentary trip the next day to see the mangroves. We accepted the latter and enjoyed it, more thanks to David who took us to Wilson Island, an amazing little place.<\/p>\n

\"w1\" \"w2\"<\/p>\n

\"w3\" \"w4\"<\/p>\n

We had a largely forgettable lunch at Seashells, and finally, it was time to say goodbye to our little hut.<\/p>\n

\"hut\"<\/p>\n

To be continued….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My sarcasm regarding the airport welcome, it seemed, wasn\u2019t totally lost on the resort staff, as two people waited on\/for us at Havelock. In about 20 mins, we were at Island Vinnie\u2019s, on beach #5 (alias Vijay Nagar beach). On the way we passed Beach #3 (alias Govind Nagar, which also serves as a market […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4649,4410,17],"tags":[1122,1128,1126,1120,1127,1129,1125,1124],"class_list":["post-2607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-andamans","category-india-travel","category-travel","tag-andaman","tag-chesapeake","tag-govind-nagar","tag-havelock","tag-radha-nagar","tag-red-snapper","tag-snorkeling","tag-wilson-island"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2607"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8813,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607\/revisions\/8813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}