Thursday 2 November 2017

Miles of backpacking to Isles on honeymoon





Honeymooners find paradise in the destination of Andaman and Nicobar Islands where the most romantic beaches are situated. Very often, people end up in the most visited destinations of Havelock and Neil Island when they plan their honeymoon. On my journey, I wanted to make sure that we would be visiting a less travelled place than the usual places. The unknown fact is that a lot more of Islands are located at Andaman where tourism is allowed but are not often visited as not everyone are aware of these locations. On having more days to tour and the zest to explore, the couples can have the beaches just for themselves as it always remains isolated. An Andaman honeymoon package sets the pace of privacy and enticing moments together which we had felt when we had been there. Both the places are rarely visited but meets any need of the honeymooners coming from northern states of India as the beaches located there do not offer the travellers with better to dip in.



We flew to Port Blair from where we had been set up with a cab by our tour planners, Andaman tour travels. This eco-friendly destination is located on North Andaman Island where many beautiful sights of the sea, than any other beach destination in India, awaits the tourists. We had to travel for 12 hours in the car to reach this destination. The travel distance was one reason that the Island was less visited by the travellers. But we had quite a lot of time in our hands and like the hippy couple travellers, we were quite excited about our journey. but it was not our first journey together. When we had been working together at places like Kolkata and Chennai, we had been on several field trips which were exactly when we figured out that we were to get married. On reaching Chennai, after both of us got transferred, we were in search of places that would give us solidarity and peace which was something we had never found at Chennai. This was probably one thing we were in need of and had chosen Andaman synonymously. We took several stops in between as the journey had been long. As we rolled down the windows, we could smell the sea. And both of us mutually felt that the sea and sky were healers and both these factors seemed to give us the vibe at the place already.   



After a fast-tracked journey of eleven and a half hours, we reached Diglipur. We had booked a beach resort through our planners but had not really expected to have an extremely beautiful accommodation on the top of a small hill by the beach We lived by the Marina beach in Chennai but this place seemed to be multiple folds different. At some point, I felt like this beach view room was more than enough for us but after filling our stomachs, we set off to the beach. A long walk through the bushes and trees made way beach. On reaching the beach we felt like we had entered into another zone of the earth. The turquoise blue water glanced in the sunlight. We had slept less and was supposed to feel droopy but the place had lit our eyes, mind, and soul and what a beautiful destination stood in front of me!  I had been on a couple of beaches at Chennai but had I ever seen the waters that could literally mirror my face in it. I had my tripod and camera with which we clicked our first honeymoon picture of our Andaman tour package from Chennai. My wife posed all over after which I took my turn. We finally laid down on the sand where hardly we could notice people. I took a deep breath and wished we had our apartment here rather than the crowded Marina. After spending hours sitting on the shores we walked back to the resort for a short nap.



Then we set off to Kalpong lake which is the only lake existing at Andaman. Known to be originating from the saddle peak which is the highest peak located in Andaman, we were in awe to see what was the factor that made the beach and the lake of the Islands different. The water was more green reflecting the greenery from the bushy forest that surrounded the place. It reminded me more about the wildlife sanctuary in Chennai which had also had lake stream, going amidst the forests. But the lake there seemed narrow than what existed here. We did not even know the depth of the lake but definitely fell deep for its beauty. Here again, we spend quite a lot of time chit-chatting and clicking pictures. After seeing the hydro-electric project that is present at the location, we left to the resort as the moon lit the place. We were served with some authentic delicacies of seafood along with rice after which we dozed off immediately. 



The next day we set off to Cinque Island through boat service and reached the amazingly beautiful destination in few hours.The tale this place had got to tell was that it would provide us with some game activities connected with the sea as it is mandatory to get engaged in at least one beach activity when at Andaman. As we reached the resort here, we dropped our bags and got down as game fishing was going to start in groups on the beach. We were given fishing rods and in different boats, we set off to the middle of the beach where we were supposed to find fish but had no clear idea of how it works. My wife had tried during a day out with her friends at Chennai for a seafood cook contest. But that was a man-made pond and was quite an easy task. We were not even sure if we had been doing it right but for the fun of it, we engaged completely in it. Accepting failure, we got back with a tiny little fish which had by mistake got into the rod. If there would have been inhabitants of Chennai here, they would surely have scored not because fish was their staple food, but because they often preferred setting ponds and putting rods in it to catch the fishes they breed. It was a fun activity and we had got back to our resort to change. We had booked a snorkel session to dive deep into the sea just to check on the fish beneath as they have not given us a chance to win the game. As booked, we reached the beach by the time and with an instructor and few hand signals learned from him, We dived deep into the water. Like toddlers, we moved as this was something we had never experienced ever before. It was a quick 20 minutes of exploring and we were able to see what people boasted about the underneath of the sea in Andaman. It bloomed with richest of corals and aquatic animals. We got to the restaurants and had quite a lot of food as we were to travel long hours back to the airport as our flight was scheduled in next 14 hours. The place had treated us much better than expected and had gifted with the best memories of our lifetime.