Travelling In The Andaman Islands

If there was one thing that put us off when traveling in the Andaman Islands, it was the exaggerated cost of the hiring taxis. They overcharge you and then overcharge you some more. Never ever in any place has hiring taxis been so expensive.  So keep that in mind when traveling and account for it beforehand in your expense budget.  I am all for supporting tourism everywhere, especially where it is a primary way of making a living. But things turn sour when you get the distinct feeling that someone is fleecing you. Let me narrate the experience I had with the taxis in Andaman. There doesn’t seem to be anyway around paying an exorbitant cost because all the taxis stand united and no one will agree to a lower fare and you don’t have that much time to really explore what’s going on. All the taxi drivers have come to some sort of a consensus. It may even be possible that some helpful employees of the hotel we were staying in were in cohorts with them and taking a comm...

The way back to Port Blair from Neil is same as the way you went. You catch a ferry from the docks. We caught the Makruzz ferry which probably is the ferry of my choice. Always remember to check ferry schedules to see how many boats leave from the island and at what times. This is because Neil has lesser number of ships arriving and leaving the port. So if you miss the one in the morning, your next window will be in the evening. This is specially important if you are catching a flight back from Port Blair on the same day.  Neil has a shorter jetty than Port Blair, thankfully. But if you reach before time for the ferry, as is advisable, there is a que at the gate of the docks. The gates open when the ship arrives. This is not uncommon and happens in every port. However, things get tricky if it starts to rain :).  Que leading to the gate of the docks on Neil Island. Waiting before the Makruzz ferry arrives.  Most people traveling don’t c...

You will hear a great deal about Radhanagar Beach if you are traveling to the Andamans, especially if you are on Havelock Island. That’s where the beach is. You will also get to read on a lot websites online, mostly those prompting travel and tours of Andamans, that Radhanagar Beach is the #1 rated beach in Asia and rated #7 in the world by Times. What most of these websites will fail to mention is that this rating was received in the year 2004. Right. Radhanagar is a good beach. It’s sandy and stretches out for miles in either direction. That in itself makes it different from a lot of other beaches. There is a lot of sand and surf for sure. Also, it was the ONLY beach I came across where you can actually swim. Radhanagar is the only beach where you can get into the water to swim among all the popular beaches you will visit in Port Blair, Havelock and Neil combined. Most of the other popular beaches are rocky beaches. For example, Kala Patthar is a beautiful beach. But...