Andaman Islands -5

At the end of Jarawa territory, there comes the first ferry. The ferry has two barges that carry all types of vehicles. Our bus too crossed the creek on one of the barges. The wait for the barge to reach the jettey was one of the best moments we had had in Andamans. The magnificient scenes of the natural beauty was in full diaplay on both banks of the creek. Those thick mangroves on the banks will simply blow over the onlooks. Cameras digital canvas is not enough to copy such images. Treat your eyes by being right over there.

 

The ferry was of around 10 minutes long. Then the bus ran along a place that resembled the northern Keralam. Those bettle nut trees were all like a relic from the God's own Country. The road is called a High Way, but it looked like a village road. After an hour's run we reached the second ferry. Another 10 monitues there.


The mangrooves were there too to greet us. Looking at these nature's gift to this planet, I had a bad thought crept into my mind. For how many more years these mangrooves are going to survive? There is an increasing trend among the 'development' oriented species of universe to distroy everything that is made for helping them. If destroying the mangrooves fethches some money, there are people to do this too. This is happening in different parts of the world right now.
 

Ratish Bhai and family were waiting at Baratang to receive us. By the time we reached there, it was almost 7 in the evening. He drove us to his home. The car moved to Billi ground where the bus also goes. Now we got closer to the sea. This was the sea that showed its ugly face a few years back in the form of a tsunami.  The killer waves that day took away a lot of lives and battered Andamans to a bad shape. It was pitch dark and we could only hear the roaring sound of the waves at that time. Bhai's car's headlights were showing us the way forward. Ocassionally a vehicle crossed us on the opposite side. Sitting in the front seat with my friend, the scene unveiled on the road was so saddening.

There were a number of reptiles and frogs lying dead on the road. A lot of snakes and frogs were seen still moving towards the road only to be crushed by the vehicles. It was so saddening to look at these creatures meeting such a gory death. I am sure, Bhai's car would have crushed an uncountable number of frogs and snakes on our way to his house. This justifies the ban on night trafic in certain places to protect wild life. Here too, I wish, vehicles were prohibited to run in the night unless it is extremely necessary.

When we reached Bhai's house it was eight in the night. There was a sumptious dinner waiting for us. The house was a single storied wooden structure. Simple but elegant. A sarkari babu's dwelling place cannot be otherwise anyway.  Most of the buildings in Andamans in rural areas are built with wood. Those who are built with cement and bricks have a maximum of 3 storeys. The precaution is to survive earthquakes. Andaman experiences frequent earthquakes and hence light structures are a must to absorb such distructive tremors.

After enjoying the warmth of a freind's hospitality for two days, we started back to Port Blair by the same bus. The important thing I observed while I was with Rathish was that, not only the matching of minds matters in a married life, the  dress that is worn too. Later on I found out through many photos of theirs, that the good husband and wife wear dresses with a nice colour combination. It took a visit to Andamans to discover such a phenominon!

 The last item in our itenerary was a visit to Red Skin Island.  The morning was greeted with intermitent showers. The sky was overcast since morning. We travelled upto the Wandoor village from Port Blair by the car arranged by the tour operator to catch the boat to Red Skin Island. The boat cruised along the back waters against the back drop of beautiful sceneries. There were so many islands along the route. All islands have thick greenry and the shores are rich layer of mangrooves. The beauty is to behold, come and enjoy. It is a recommendation to one and all to take some time off the busy work schedules and witness the nature's unadulterated manifestations.

After an hour's journey the boat reached the Red Skin Island. The boat was stopped a few meters away from the shore. There was no boat jettey to bring the boat close to the land. From the boat, we were transferred to a small motorised boat with transparent bottom. The bottom part of the boat had magnifying glasses. As the boat slowly started moving, we all looked down through the glass with dropped jaws. The awe struck tourists were easily blown over. Such was the beauty of the corals. It was far more marvelous than what we saw at North Bay Island.

When we reached the shores, we all changed our dresses to have some fun in the water. My boy enjoyed the most. Perhaps, for him this was the best time he spent in the Andamans. We swam, well, we pretended to have done so, splattered water on each other, walked in water...the revelry was the best part of the Andaman Tour. By noon we returned from Red Skin Island.





My kid meanwhile went for a guided snorkeling. The guide took him a little far away from us to show him the corals very close. When he retured, I asked him how was the experience. The fish were so beautiful to watch, he replied!







On the way from Wandoor to Portbialr, we could see vast area of marshy land with a number of headless coconut trees standing all over in it. The driver told us that these were the land that was devastated by the Tsunami. They stand there as a symbol of nature's fury to which the mankind has no resistance to offer.


See a few more photos here :
https://picasaweb.google.com/ppnatesan/Andaman?authkey=Gv1sRgCOW6w8Kx4o6m2QE&feat=email#


As we packed up our baggage and checked out of the guest house, we were a happy lot. Life's one ambition had been fulfilled. But before checking out, how many more ambitions we did not churn out in our minds! Andaman will remain like a soothing dream in our minds. Perhaps, the missed Havelock trip may even make us think of a second visit to Andamans. While landing at Chennai airport, we had one ton of luggage with us. All those were of the charming memeories of  a trip to a bunch of fascinating islands...