Sick in Paradise: The Andaman Isles

Utterly deserted, Kalapather beach, Havelock Island.

There's never a good time to get ill, but it felt particularly annoying for it to happen, as it did for me and the kids, in the middle of the remote but paradisiacal Andaman Islands.

I was first to be struck down by the fever and aches of what felt like a really bad cold. Flu seems a ridiculous idea in the tropics but maybe that was it. Anyway I was knocked out for a day before Jess was struck with the same ailment and Otto followed shortly after. All of us taking it in turns to lie motionless in the sanctity of an overpriced air-con room or to sweat it out on the beach blanket.

My views on the Andamans is sadly tainted by our illness but one thing I cannot deny is that aesthetically it is stunning. White sands and turquoise seas abound. And thankfully no crocodiles were sighted.

My paranoia on that front was thanks to the lonely planet guide and the terrible incident 7 years ago (look it up if you want my fear). My phobia saw me carrying a knife with me to the beach most days. I'm not too much of a scaredy cat but if there's one animal that freaks me completely it is a crocodile. Those beasts are ruthless predators and I didn't want to be fighting with my fists (although I don't fancy my chances even with my knife: Mick Dundee I am not).
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Scaling palms near Govind Nagar beach, Havelock island

We stayed initially on Port Blair as everyone does, it's where you fly in and out of from the mainland and where you wait to get your onward ferry (which can get sold out for a few days in advance). We also stayed on Havelock and Neil islands and visited Ross and to summarise these were my impressions, (sorry I can't give more detail but my sickness has tainted me somewhat).

1. It's expensive for India: I'd say nearly double mainland India (except at a few exceptions, Garden Village on Neil).
   
2. The beaches, however photogenic they are, are not great for swimming. Mostly rocky reef beds means unless it's high tide you find it hard to swim at most of them.
   
3. Ross island is well worth a visit, Jess, Otto,Mikes and I all loved clambering over the reclaimed ruins, pretending we were Indiana Jones.
   
4. The best beach is Radhanagar on Havelock island, here you can swim at all tides and the waves are perfectly formed A-frames: great for bodysurfing. And although it's busy by the parking area, you only need to walk 50 metres in either direction for solitude.
   
5. It is full of honeymooners (look out for the gold and red bangles).
   
6. The local ferries, although they are cheap are not easy to book. Unless you are willing to wrestle in queues for hours at a time, days in advance you may struggle to get them. We were lucky moving from Havelock to Neil and Neil to Havelock, it was super easy but we wrestled to and from Port Blair. We had to wait two days and Mikey took on the scrum in line on Port Blair before we could get leave for Havelock and our return back to Port Blair was almost a disaster. I queued for 3hours in a bunfight which even the police couldn't sort out only to give up and book a private ferry.
   
7. The private ferries are lovely. Take them. They're ace. Enough said.
   
8. Don't expect to find much in the way of culinary delights. Unlike the rest of India, the food was disappointing on the islands. We only found two restaurants that we liked and even they were not a patch on the food of Kerala and Goa
   
9. Beer is hard to come by, beware of bars offering beer, we went to one, it was a store shed with a bare light bulb that was peddling 6month old Kingfisher.
   

Anyway, not to disparage it further, I have no regrets going there. It was stunning and often we were the only ones on the beaches which gave it a remote desert island feel unlike any other we've been on (with maybe the exception of the Corn Islands). However, we won't be hurrying back.

We left Port Blair for our mammoth journey back to Europe, almost looking forward to the night train from Chennai. We would be disembarking in beautiful Kerala albeit at 4:20am!!!

Boarding the train was traumatic, having just finished reading Lion, the situation we found ourselves in with two big bags and two young kids negotiating a path through thronging crowds all scrambling to get on many trains about to traverse the lengths and breadths of the country freaked me out a little and involved a lot of me shouting stay close, hold my hand, where are you. But we made it and the train was bliss. New, clean, quiet and on time! It was like India knew we were leaving and was desperate to leave a lasting good impression.

Our journey was thankfully totally uneventful; a sleep filled night followed until 4:20am when we arrived in Kalicut on time. We checked into the immaculate Raviz Hotel where we were given an enormous suite. We only stayed one night but managed to eek out two breakfasts and 38 hours of 4-star bliss.

India, Oman, Turkey and we landed in Barcelona. Back on European soil.
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Petrified trees at Ram Nagar beach (no3) Neil Island