Landing in Paradise... Finally!!!
After the aggravation from last week tails, we left the Andaman Island's big city of Port Blair which ended up all good (because in the end, everything always works out) and I would be happy to go back to the city and main land India!
We were on a boat to Havelock, a beautiful paradise with welcoming smiles from the police and the rickshaw drivers who were happy to tell us that the bus to Beach No. 7 was the best and cheapest option!
We stayed at a chill little place called DreamLand Resort, it was cheap and nice enough for us (actually it was perfect for us!). We had our own bamboo hut on top of an elevated earthen floor, a cute little porch with two chairs and an ashtray!
Tibo, who we met on the ferry from Port Blair, was also staying at DreamLand. I must have talked his ear off about The People's Caravan, a traveling art collective and it turned out Tibo knew tons of underground artists in Marseilles and squats all around France. Perfect for spreading the idea of the Caravan!
We love to meet like-minded travelers and artists across the globe!
Beach No. 7, also known as Radhanagar Beach had this long soft curve with the finest of sands and was a beautiful place to swim. Though we never really got the answer as to why the beaches on Havelock were numbered, even Indian tourists called it No. 7... They were as always fully dressed while playing and swimming in the ocean and for some reason concentrated on the area closest to where buses had dropped them off. We would set our towels just a couple hundred feet away from that main area where there were less people, the ladies from our neck of the woods could swim in peace, in the types of bathing suites that show skin... This mostly avoided creepy Indian men from gawking and drooling too much!
Still further down was a beautiful little creek that was even less frequented by tourists in a rush. In India it's usually a pretty rare thing to be alone in such an amazing spot. Here we could swim naked, only a few foreigner would see you and probably the occasional creeper quietly hiding in the jungle.
Havelock was a fun place to ride scooters, there wasn't many vehicles and there really was only one road to the main town. We rode all around the island one day looking for a room on the more populated side of Havelock but found where we were to be so much better, even if you better get dinner before the 3 restaurant on Radhanagar Beach close which was usually 21:00!
don't know what's going on with my face there but it's the only picture we have riding!!!
Besides a bike day and lazying around the rest of the time, making sand designs and dipping in the sea, there wasn't much else to do. We could watch people riding the couple elephants being walked around the wooded edge of the beach but the only real entertainment we had was at one of the restaurants, the old man there would tell us to eat lots and eat slowly. Every time we went there he'd give us candy before our meal, in the middle and for desert!!! Funny old guy, he made us laugh a lot. He enjoyed making people laugh and he obviously loved life...
Right before dusk, the smooth beach turns into a busy city of crabs making these beautiful patterns as they sift through the sand searching for food
Jess is hard at work making pictures
There was a bar, a fancy bar from the one high-end resort with a cleaning staff all in white linens, valets and gorgeous baristas. We had a couple drinks there through our stay at beach No.7 but you know, when you're on the road for 8 months that money can be much better spent where the real people live.
Although we only stayed a week before moving on to Niel Island, life in the Andaman Islands so far is very very much slower than anywhere else we've been in India.
Island life as you'd expect it to be, with a twist of curry!
...and a few more pictures:
To Be Continued...
Episode 01 ~ Episode 02 ~ Episode 03 ~ Episode 04
Next Week (Will be posted a few days late due to a spontaneous trip to Puerto Rico because I got fired!):
DIY Soviet Wine, Strange Creatures on the Beach and Really Long Fish Dinners...
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Don't forget...
#DreamsComeTrue!!!