Havelock island and Mundapahar beach

(Andaman trip – 3)

In the early morning of third day (18/1) we vacated the hotel in Port Blair and left for Havelock island, now called Swaraj Dweep, for a day’s stay.  Since we left before breakfast, the hotel authorities arranged for us packed sandwiches.  Since we were coming back to Port Blair next day we took with us

only hand luggage leaving the boxes in White Shell Travel office.  The ferry we took was Makruzz.  We had a pleasant experience while trying to get our seats allotted.   As we were standing in the queue one of the staff took our booking sheet, got premium seats allotted and escorted us to the ferry.  No doubt we had a comfortable journey enjoying the view from premium top deck seats.  After 90 minutes journey we reached Havelock Island.   The travels’ representative met us at the jetty and took us to Radhakrishna resort.  This person was very unhelpful and grumpy, a total contrast to Anil.

Radhakrishna resort is one of the eco-friendly resorts in Havelock island.   With trees all around it has a relaxing ambience.  With only a visit to Radhanagar Beach on the agenda we made good use of the leisure enjoying the laid-back atmosphere in the resort.  Radhanagar Beach lies on the south coast of the island.  Rated as a Grade A beach of outstanding quality, this beach is also rated as one of the best beaches in Asia by TIME Magazine.  We visited this beach after a rest of two hours in the resort.  Since there was a good vegetarian restaurant in the Beach, we had our lunch there which was of a buffet type.  We had a pleasant surprise in the restaurant as we met there our relative in Bombay, Anandhi, who was also holidaying in Andamans with family and friends.  We spent a pleasant three hours chatting with them sitting in the cool shade in the Beach before getting back to more rest in the resort.  This Island has avoided much of the devastation of the 2004 earthquake and the Tsunami and there are no documented casualties also. This island is one of the three islands renamed on 30 December 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and this island was renamed as Swaraj Island (Swaraj Dweep).

The next morning after breakfast, we vacated our room in the resort and went to the pier to join the ferry Green Ocean for return journey to Port Blair. The return journey was a complete contrast to our onward journey as we had to wait in a queue for hours for boarding the ferry and we had seats in the lowermost deck completely shut off from outside world.  To add to our misery, the return cruise took a longer time i.e.135 minutes.  To our relief Anil was there in Port Blair pier waiting for us with our bags left in safe custody of White shell office.  He took us to our new hotel, Kavitha Regent.  This hotel also had no lift and rooms were in first floor.  But luckily the dining room was also in the first floor.  And the hotel was in the Aberdeen market area close to Annapurna and Kattabomman restaurants and there was also a Hanuman temple nearby.

After lunch and rest we went to Mundapahar beach, in Chidiyatapu, which is about 25 kms from Port Blair.  The beach is famous for viewing sunset.  But on that evening of our visit, the sky was cloudy and sun itself could not be seen.  But as the climate was cool and pleasant and there were also wooden benches on the beach sands and mangroves aplenty, we did not regret missing the sunset.  We also met here a tour group from Coimbatore with whom we spent a nice time.  There is a biological park nearby.  As it closes at 4’o clock, we couldn’t go there.  This park houses varieties of birds for which this place is famous. People also go for trekking in the forests close to the beach.  The beach is also noted for coral viewing and shell picking and is a much loved picnic spot for locals as well.  On returning to the hotel we went to the nearby temple to offer our thanks-giving prayers for a trip well-completed. Next morning Pinky Roy of Shell Travel sent us a gift of a framed photo of ourselves, with Anil.  With that photo and with pleasant memories of the trip, we left for Chennai, by Indigo flight.

74 Photos of  Andaman trip can be viewed in Flickr album “Andaman trip” @

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam-sekar/albums/72157676079937497

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