Ok this is going to be a huge comment...
so the index is 😆 para 1 - about Andaman
para 2 - Kalapani
para 3- beaches.
para 4 - 3 islands I covered in a day.
Andaman was awesome. A bit of geographical info, I did not correct Honey last time because I did not have enough time in hand. Andaman and Nicobar is on the east and Lakshadeep on the west. Mauritius in fact is to the southwest of Lakshadeep as far as I remember . very far away from India. So around 70% of the population is bengali and they were called settlers because they belonged to what is now Bangladesh and had come to India during partition so they were given land to live and cultivate in Andaman. A school teacher I met on ferry told me that.
This was the best trip I have been on. India me bhi saaf suthri natural jagah hai, I was surprised to see. Itne tourists hone ke bavjood, its clean , hats off the administration. ( Out of context , but I think its because its a union territory so Lt. Governors rules the place. I find them more reliable than the members of Loksabha ) Anyway, back to the trip, first day we landed there early in the morning and then we went to kalapani jail. I am sure , all of you have heard of it but I would repeat because Dia had asked about it. Kalapani gets its name from "kaal " which means death and because its surrounded by water its called kalapani . Very few people used to return after being sentenced to kalapani. In jail, prisoners were given two langots (a cloth to be treated as underwear) and only one set of cloth. citing excerpts from autobiographies of various prisoners , the langot was too small to hide the genitals and they were made to work on kolhu ( I do not remember what they call it in english but Dia, you can think of it as a small oil mill ) and extract some fixed horrendous amt of oil (that I dont remember of course ) plus they had to make rope out of coconut fiber . failing which they were beaten up black and blue and red and purple . they were made to do other things too but all the inmates found these two very difficult. Prisoners had peeing time too . They could not use wasrooms at other times. Cells were such that no two prisoners could see each other. back of a cellar facing the door to another. SO I can go and on about it and small revolts that happened in the jail, other inhuman acts like standing with bars and hancuffs on for days in rain and so on and so forth. No one could go to court for it because there were no proofs about the ill treatment. Kalapani me ek lightshow hota tha jo ki recently band kar dia gaya hai.
Coming to beaches, I have been to almost every tourist spot in south India and I have never seen itna clean beaches. This is about two beaches in another island (
not the one having Port Blair ) Havelock. Its a very small island. Almost everyone works for tourist agents or hotels. We were ferried to the place . 5 hours from Polair. First we went to kalapatthar beach . No tourist infrastructure made me happy. The place has been left as it is for the nature . The next is Radhanagar beach ( Asian rank 2 and world rank 7) . Its so f**king clean. I did not feel like going back to the hotel.
Next day we went to ROss island, viper island and north bay. So Ross island tsunami me almost doob gaya tha. but was administrative headquarter in British period for the Andaman and Nicobar. There are a lot of deer, barasingha, different birds there. Viper island was te place jaha kalapani se pehle jail di jati thi. supposedly, there were a lot of viper snakes in the island and hence the name . There were a lot of crocodiles in the area and so no one could escape. Also, there is gallows at a height of about 10 m from where people who were hung were thrown into te sea with the help of some lever. North bay was where I scuba dived . 😃 It was great fun. I could see fish and corals and sea bed. My guide made me enjoy . You dont need to know swimming to scuba dive in andaman ( The place with corals is not as deep ) . no harbours because corals will get destroyed. there were beautiful fish and colourful corals. you can see them opening and closing and the fluorescent colour...
I did not go to Diblipur but the school teacher I met on ferry said that I should have had. So next time may be 😃
oH yes... few additions to the trip... Went to Meenakshi devi temple in Madurai. It has changed a lot and I dont quite like the changes . Went to Chennai, mom went to Sankar netralay and she is fine but will need regular check ups. I went to see a friend I had not met for long. We had fantabulous CHinese food. On my way back from Andaman , stopped for 5 hours at Kolkata but did nothing except having amazing food at AAI canteen. It was cheap and yum... My flight was dreamliner of Air India which has currently restarted. It was full of follies. And someone should teach manners to Air India's hostess and stewards. Such ill mannered people. also, Taj should learn to pack things better. What is up with them. they pack things like chhola and curry in such a way that it will falll off the bowl. And the air hostess shouted 😲 on a passenger. I wished she shouted on me so I could teach her a lesson. A passenger forgot his wallet on the seat and the steward gave such a pathetic expression and later opened the wallet 😲
I will be back on independence and leaders and Britishers. Dia would not want to know of it because she has seen my emotional drama on it. 🤣
