Neil Island, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India
Monday, September 22, 2014
So we get off the ferry and head to our guest house - it is the sister resort of where we stayed in Port Blair. We have a non AC cottage (marketing speak for wooden shack)
The area is stunning though and the sand so soft and white and fine against the deepest turquoise sea it is just breathtaking. And so clean. Hardly any litter and the whole island is a plastic bag free zone.
There isn't much to do here but we did hire some bikes for a couple of days so we could get around the island easier.
We rode over to "the natural bridge" which is like an Andaman Island version of Durdle Door. Nothing to do there but it is quite funny to watch the Indian ladies trying to scrabble over rocks in their sarees
Arrived in Neil Island
The sea is beautiful everywhere here. It’s a gorgeous temperature and an amazing turquoise colour. The waves are a bit unpredictable though. We watched different sections of the beach for a while trying to establish where the smallest waves were and even though we decided they were towards the tip, when we got in there were still some frighteningly large rollers hitting us.
We have been befriended by a little dog too. When we went back to our room the first evening, she was lying on our porch and was wagging her tail in a way that said “please don’t make me move - I like it here”. So we left her and she even lay there catching all the mozzies trying to get into our room so she could definitely stay as far as we were concerned.
She also like to drink from our foot wash - Basically the bucket of water we kept by the steps to wash the sad off our feet before going in the hut. She made a bee line for it every day so we don’t know what she did for fresh water before we arrived. The Indians who make up the huge majority of holiday makers here, are quite intolerant of dogs anywhere so we are sure they didn’t do anything to help her
The beach
Bryan rode up to sunset point the second evening we were here and the dog followed him all the way. He came back later without her and the sunset had been disappointing due to all the black clouds.
All was well with her until on our second morning, Bryan woke up early to go for a run and realised both the dog and one of his trainers was missing. We did find it again later that day but the next morning she had run off with his towel too. I don’t think she wanted us to leave. We found the towel too but she did look very guilty when we saw her next.
There really isn’t very much to do here and as the Indian Government choose to keep the islands on Indian time zone rather than where it truly belongs a few hours ahead, it means the sun rises around 3:30 - 4.00 am and sets again around 4:30 - 5pm. The restaurant here doesn’t serve food until 8pm so there really isn’t much to do for 3 hours. There is no entertainment here and we are the only whiteys so no one to chat to either. We have playing cards but that gets boring too after a few hands of rummy or German whist.
so lovely here
The last day we were here, we went down to the beach for a last dip and look and we were amazed to see turtles popping up out of the sea right by us. It's like they knew we were leaving and came to see us off (we know they didn't really but let us have our wistful moments please)
Anyway it's more than our little friend did. She saw our bags packed and was off. No last look back at us or little whine to say don't go. Huh!
So time to move on again and to leave the island you have to book a ferry. Trouble is you can only get a ticket on the day of travel and tickets are not always available. The main land rings ahead with the numbers of how many people are getting off at Neil Island before it travels onto Havelock Island. So until 2 hours (that’s how long the ferry takes to get from Port Blair to Neil Island) before the ferry arrives, you don’t know how many tickets will be available. Crazy!
We had decided to leave on thursday 25th September and the ferry left at 12:45. So we were there at 10:45 but after serving just 6 people they closed the ticket office and said no more tickets. What!!! We can’t stay on this island any longer we are so bored!. We were told to come back at 1pm and try for the 3pm ferry. Not taking any risks this time, Jody got there at 12:20 and was first in the queue.
Success!
Just a couple of hours to kill and we would be on our way. Phew!
Havelock is supposed to be busier and is a much bigger island even though most of it is covered in impenetrable forest. We can’t wait!
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