Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Jennifer's Mum and Dad came over for three weeks so we took the opportunity to go away with them for a while to Goa, then on the the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.  

In Goa we stayed in the Hotel Severina which is a delightful, refurbished, colonial residence in the Calangute area of North Goa.  The hotel only has sixteen bedrooms, in the main building, with eight upstairs and eight downstairs.  The majority of the downstairs is taken up with a large Romanesque fishpond.  The outside bar was great for mosquito bites in the evening, and the restaurant was great for quality of food, and the usual rubbish standard for Indian service.  It was in easy reach of the main beach and a number of cafes, restaurants and bars.

Goa is similar to other parts of India, albeit a little more upmarket due to the low taxes and strong tourist revenue.  I was surprised at the number of older people there, and some cafes were a sea of grey washing over a plethora of red plastic tables and chairs.  So many English pensioners staying there to escape the British Winter and to spend their Winter fuel allowance on tea and Werther's Originals.

The other side of the clientele were new age traveller types, there for the omnipotent beach parties and accompanying drugs culture.  Mixed in with fat Russian drugs barons, local hawkers and the ubiquitous Indian brown street dogs, it makes for a compulsive people watching experience.

We had a car and driver for our time there which was convenient, if not a little over opulent, but meant that we had the local knowledge without the usual problems of being ripped off by taxis.  Calangute beach was really busy with domestic Indian holiday makers.  A strange bunch to see on the beach.  The Indian people have a very conservative attitude to beach life.  Exposure of any skin whatsoever is discouraged, and you will see many bathers with either full length swimsuits, or even more commonly getting into the water fully clothed.  I did a couple of scuba dives while I was there, and there was an Indian girl with us, who did the dives wearing her jeans.  Remarkable.  In any case, we got out driver to take us further North to Anjim beach.  It was much more peaceful up there, but still plenty of bars and eateries, in the usual form of ramshackle huts strewn along the beach.

The stray dogs were funny here.  They were really friendly to the tourists, but aggressive to any hawkers that came by.   This meant that we were all left alone to lay in the sun, without getting pestered to buy some ill-constructed rubbish or partake in what appeared to be an Indian torture session meted out on unsuspecting individuals, in the guise of a session of soul cleansing spiritual massage.  At one point an elderly man came along with a long horn type instrument, and a decorated cow in tow.  He would play the horn and try to get money from people.  However, the dogs took exception to this and went for him, and nipped the heels of the cow.  It was sad, but somewhat satisfying sight, to see them flee in Monty Pythonesque style down the beech.

One day we went to the spice plantation, which I would recommend.  it was interesting and informative to see how all the spices were grown and harvested.  There was also an opportunity to go on an elephant ride.

Then it was back to Bangalore for an hour only to repack suitcases (don't ask - a nightmare with cancelled flights etc which I won't bore you with) then off to Chennai for the night.  The next morning we flew to Port Blair and had a night at Corbyns Cove.  We were spending the next week in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.  While still sovereign to India, they are closer to the coasts of Burma and Thailand.  You need a special permit to go there and even then you are only allowed on certain islands.  Many of them are still inhabited by tribal aborigines who have never seen a foreigner.  If you accidentally get onto these islands they will throw spears at you, kill you and eat you.

On arrival, I got into my swimming gear and went down to the cove for some snorkeling.  The visibility of the water was rubbish, and I did get a really strange feeling.  Can't describe it, but felt a bit uneasy.  There weren't many people in the water and those on the beach seemed to be looking at me.  In any case I got out and went back to the room, got changed then headed for the bar.  

The next morning when we were checking out, the guy on reception said he had seen me snorkeling the day before, and at the spot I was in, just as I was getting out, he said he saw two 10 feet salt water crocodiles.  This was also later confirmed by the security guard who told Jennifer's Dad the same story quite independently.  The receptionist said that they usually advised guests not to swim in the cove due to the danger of the crocodiles.  Of course I explained to him the obvious merits of informing the guests of this at the time of check-in, rather than waiting until they have almost been eaten and are checking out.  A couple of years ago a tourist actually did get eaten, so it can be quite a serious problem.

Then we were off on the ferry to Havelock Island. it is quite a small island, and has only really been opened for tourists in the recent past.  As you would expect, accommodation and facilities can be somewhat spartan, but for us were acceptable, and the excellent restaurant made up for any deficiencies in other areas.  I am not a great fan of seafood, but I could not resist the unbelievably fresh Red and White Snapper, Kingfish, curried Barracuda and many others that were just out of the sea.

I did quite a lot of diving while we were there.  The visibility was very good and there was plenty of diverse marine life on several dive sites.

The beaches were really quite and unspoilt with clear turquoise water which was quite shallow, so you could wade out some distance.  Although, you would have to remember that you were still in India so the chances of some random elephant just turning up out of the blue on the beach was always a strong possibility

It was a privilege to be able to visit such an out of the way destination, which is still so unspoilt.  Somehow, if everything worked and it was full of modern conveniences, the charm and ambiance would just not be the same.