Andaman Islands, Kolkata and Sundarbans

India is certainly a country full of incredible contrasts. In the last few weeks we’ve been jumping between both ends of the spectrum, firstly in the beautiful and chilled beaches of the Andaman Islands, then the bustling and surprising city of Kolkata (Calcutta), and again relaxing in the villages and waterways of the world’s largest mangrove forests in the Sundarbans trying to catch a glimpse of their elusive inhabitant – the Bengal tiger.

Getting between places can sometimes be a bit draining, as it was getting to the Andamans. Generally the kids have taken it in their stride with the help of their devices, music, and good headphones.

…and with the Andaman Islands awaiting, there was added enticement of twelve days on an island with a mission of ‘total chill.’ We’d never been on a small tropical island like this as a family before, so this was a good chance to weave a bit of a holiday within the travel.

There are 572 islands in the Andamans, with only 38 of them inhabited and only six open to foreigners. Our destination was Havelock.

But first, we needed to endure the main town of Port Blair for a day while we navigated the beaurocracy of organising a ride on the government ferry. With internet down across the whole island we were reminded of the early days of our travelling when the internet was in its infancy. We went old school to get around and work out what to see and do and where to eat. We didn’t do so well. The most interesting thing we saw was this pregnant goat!

The tourist office wasn’t much help with no information on anyhthing. We tried to organise to see some light display in the ruins at Ross Island. We were directed through several doors to the IT department, which of course was the natural place to buy tickets, which were unfortunately sold out.

We reached our hut in Havelock, where the beach didn’t quite look like it did on TripAdvisor!

We all breathed a sigh of relief the next morning when the tide came in. Today’s ‘school’ was answer a general knowledge question correctly – stay dry, get it wrong – get wet!

Our main reason for coming to the Andamans was for what was under the sea. For Iris and I, our dive at Nemo Reef was the first dive since our advanced open water PADI dives 15 years ago. For the kids, it was their first introduction to scuba. Sofia loved it. Liam might take some convincing to go again…

On land, Radhanagar beach on the west of the island is the star attraction for Havelock. It’s a beautiful undeveloped cove, with rolling waves great for body surfing and fringed with native forest. Domestic tourists tended to congregate in the middle where we were on the first day, leaving the rest of the beach deserted.

Liam and Sofia with their new buddy, Jona.

Little did Sofia know, she was building a tourist attraction…

Our ‘go to’ hangout was at Dive India and the Full Moon Cafe next to our huts across the road at Green Imperial.

There is a lot of high end development happening at the moment along the east coast of the island where we stayed. Sadly, this beautiful eco-site with thatched huts, dive site, a super chilled cafe, and native trees is likely to become a new site for a resort when the lease expires next year.

Hermit crabs were everywhere in all of the beaches, with sometimes the entire beach seeming to move. They often congregated in some unexpected places…

Our place at Green Imperial was also great to hangout

Our favourite beach was undoubtably Elephant Beach on the north of the island, involving a half hour trek through an elephant trail. Not having snakes in NZ, I had my first wild snake encounter, almost stepping on a tree snake on the way.

We got around these beaches mostly by tuk tuk but also rented a scooter for the day, which the kids loved!

The snorkelling was absolutely spectacular, with largely undamaged coral and a huge number and variety of fish. It’s probably fair to say we enjoyed it more than the diving!

Again, all domestic tourists congregated in a single section of the beach with package boat and snorkelling tours, leaving the rest of the beach and reef practically deserted.

Liam and I went on a 3am paddling tour with Tanaz through the mangroves. Our strokes lit up the water with impressive bio-luminescence from the photo-plankton. It was also a great introduction to astronomy in the the northern hemisphere sky, where we were both surprised to be still able to see the southern cross.

We were expecting a hard landing when we arrived in Kolkata. Like probably most people who have a image of the city without being there, our expectations were of a brutal city of desperate poverty and hardship. Those days appear long gone. In fact, we experienced a surprisingly cosmopolitan feel with relatively developed infrastructure, little obvious extreme poverty, and a generally positive, welcoming, and energetic feel to the place. It was a superb city to just ‘soak it all up’, which we tended to do rather than take pics – always a delicate balance. Here are a couple of the few snaps that we did take.

This was at the Maidan, a massive park in the city centre. With cricket in front of the Victoria Memorial, it somehow felt very ‘Indian’

And up close…

Some parts of the city were less developed than others…

And animals don’t seem to have it that great here. Part of the region why we’re staying mostly vegetarian and occasionally pescatarian for this trip.

Taxis were used to transport fish to the market…

When you do enough touristy stuff, you have hits and a few misses. The boat ride on the Hooghly river at sunset was probably the biggest miss so far. There was nothing to see in the manually paddled boat except a very very polluted river.

The next day we headed south to the Sunderban national park with the excellent ‘Tour de Sanderbans Backpackers’, hoping to get a glimpse of India’s endangered national emblem, the tiger. Like all good trips, getting there and back was half the fun…

The village near where we were staying was beautiful to explore at dawn and dusk

Unfortunately, our main camera was on its last legs so thanks Ailie for some of the pics below!

Almost every single house has a man made pond filled with rain water where the family bathe and wash clothes and dishes…

Drying cow pats for cooking fuel

We visited some nearby mangroves during an evening boat ride

Me, Sofia, and mud was never going to be a good combination…

Local musicians sharing songs with the group

With just over 100 royal bengal tigers in 1,300 square kilometers, it was the equivalent of searching for a needle in a haystack, but that somehow added to the appeal. Nobody really expected to see one, but it would have been quite special if we had. The tour was more about enjoying a unique environment with a great bunch of people.

Man made pond near one of the two watch towers we visited

The Sundarbans are a dangerous place if you are a villager. Many women die or are severely injured by crocodiles while drag-fishing.

Tigers claimed the lives of over 70 villagers in the region last year. Most at risk are honey collectors; for three months out of the year the mangroves are flowering, attracting bees from as far away as the Philippines. Men go out to collect the honey and many lose their lives despite now wearing masks showing faces on the backs of their heads in the hope that tigers feel like they are being observed. Tigers are pretty smart though, so its not always effective.

The number of attacks has been steadily declining which is partly due to extensive fencing around villages and along the river banks.

…and then it was back to the other end of the spectrum again at Kolkata Howrah railway station to head inland to the remarkable city of Varanasi…