Summertime

It is summertime in Bangalore and the heat wave is not letting up. April and May are the hot months and the locals say it is unusually hot this year. Late afternoon thunder storms are welcomed, bringing with them cool winds. In fact, at the first sign of rain (it’s been five months), Alanna runs around outside until she is soaked, singing, dancing and doing cartwheels!

Some say the heat is a side effect of cutting down too many trees in the city. Construction continues in every corner of the town and it seems there is a price to pay. For most families the heat makes it difficult to sleep. They can open the windows to let some air in but then the mosquitoes come in too. Keep the windows closed and it feels like a sauna.

We have fans and air conditioning – most, of course don't. However, the electrical can only handle one A/C on at a time and three fans (if we are lucky) or else the entire electrical trips.

The drawback for us is not being able to sit outside on the (covered) patio. After 9:00am it is just too hot. Walking a block to the mall produces such a sweat, one needs to bring along a change of clothes. Thank goodness for the pool - at least the water has warmed up to a nice temperature now. For much of the year it was on the cold side.

Of course the flowers and trees are blooming, our bananas are finished for the year, but the papayas keep on coming. And now it is mango season and the little rain that we do get ripens them, making them juicy and wonderful to eat or blend into mango lassi - yum!

Andaman Islands (Part 6): Port Blair

Click here for the latest version: Andaman Islands (Part 6): Port Blair

We left Havelock on the 2:00pm ferry. This time we specified that we wanted seats on the upper deck and all together. Last time our seats were all over the place although we managed to find some close together. In hindsight we should have taken the newer catamaran which is a comfortable one hour trip vs the two hour older ferry.

Arrived in Port Blair and stayed overnight at TSG Emerald View Hotel. It's a 2 1/2 star hotel and it felt clean and luxurious compared to Barefoot at Havelock. We had an excellent meal at the hotel restaurant, including huge tiger prawns, chinese chili chicken and more at very reasonable prices.

Unfortunately we didn't make it to the sound and light show at the Andaman Cellular Jail and in the morning when we went there hoping to tour it, it was closed for Good Friday.

Port Blair was stinking hot and humid. The kids went back to the room and Michael and I went for a walk through the town. Very pleasant little town, lots of little shops, temples and quaint cottage style houses painted in blues and greens. Lot of trees and statues as well.

Off to the airport to catch our Kingfisher flight to Chennai and once we got there we were told that our next flight, Chennai - Bangalore had been cancelled. We would have to wait there for six hours for the next one at 8:30pm. Not too happy about that so when we got to Chennai we went to book in and asked if there was any other flight that we could take. Much to our relief Kingfisher put us on a Jet Airways flight that left at 5:30pm. So kudos to Kingfisher, I was impressed with that. But I must say the Jet Airways plane was much nicer and took only 40 min. vs one hour.

Andaman Islands (Part 5): Waves

Click hear for the latest version: Andaman Islands (Part 5): Waves

When we first arrived at Havelock it was almost a full moon. The waves at Beach #7 were pleasant for body surfing.

After the full moon and by the end of our week waves were much bigger and crashing very close to the shore. Does the moon have anything to do with this?  There was also a 6.6 magnitude earthquake near the Andamans on March 30th, right in the middle of our stay. Perhaps that caused the larger waves?

Our kids love being out in these huge waves and so on our last day that's what we did. We hung out at the beach with some people we had met from Mumbai. I started taking pictures and then this other family came along - a Mom with three young children and the grandparents. They start blowing up those inflatable rings for the kids to float in. Sure enough their first wave was their last. The wave was huge and sent the kids into the "washing machine" effect...and out they came. You can see them in the above picture just before getting pummelled. Others didn't know whether to run towards the wave, or away from it!

...and here's a couple more...

Andaman Islands (Part 4) - The Other Side of the Island

Click here for the latest version: Andaman Islands (Part 4) - The Other Side of the Island

One day we ventured to the other side of the island. We walked through the forest to the main road and got a three wheeler (tuk tuk). Havelock is a small island, but hilly and jungle like, with the occassional coconut grove or rice field.

We stopped at Village No.3 (exciting names on this island, eh?) to look around a bit. Village No.3 is found at a junction and is just a few touristy shops and local shops selling this and that. Not much to see so we carried on to the beach and past multitudes of backpacker huts. Stopped at Emerald Gecko and walked to the beach. Very pretty, turquoise water but we could tell it was full of coral, nowhere to swim.

Lots of backpacker types with dreadlocks hangin' on the beach. We walked from Emerald Gecko to Wild Orchid and stopped there for lunch. Had some really good Thai curries, fish and chips and the best cheese naan. The beach all the way was sandy, but narrow, even with the tide out.

We found lots of hermit crabs along the beach. They are so cool to watch. First they just look like shells but then you realize they are all moving.






The kids enjoyed them, as well as these tiny little crabs on Beach #7 that would dig a little hole and then make little balls made out of sand all around - super cool sand art.

Andaman Islands (Part 3) - Snorkeling

Click here for the most recent version: Andaman Islands (Part 3) - Snorkeling

We snorkeled at three locations.

One, Neil's Cove, is easy to get to as it is just around the corner from Beach #7. It is a beautiful little area, good for both swimming and snorkeling. It is best to go there when the tide is low as the tide goes almost up to the tree line when it is high. There is a good variety of fish in smaller numbers and some nice patches of colorful coral. We saw a school of Bump Head Parrot fish each day we snorkeled at Neil's Cove. Very cool. Unfortunately I do not have an underwater camera (although one could be a worthwhile investment), so here's a video link to these fish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DiDnxWgDHA

One day we did a snorkel trip and went to South Button and Lighthouse. South Button is a 1 1/2 hour boat ride from the Havelock Jetty. We booked it through Barefoot Adventures and it cost 2500Rp/person. This included snorkeling at two spots and lunch on board the boat. There were 12 of us and 5 crew.

South Button is a tiny island. We jumped in the ocean, put our snorkel masks on and looked beneath the surface. There was a  wall of yellow fish - hundreds of them, maybe thousands - it was unbelievable. The water was clear and the coral was magnificent in all shapes and sizes. Alanna tugged on my elbow and we went to the surface, "This is sic!" she said. That's a good sign.

We swam around the island in about fifty minutes. The tide was quite strong so for the first half it swept us along. There were many fish, in numbers and variety, and lots and lots of healthy coral. Of course on the return trip on the other side of the island it was a bit more difficult to swim against the tide.

Once we all got back into the boat we had lunch, a good Indian buffet. We relaxed and enjoyed the ride until we got to our next location: Lighthouse, only about ten minutes from Havelock. Here, there were not nearly so many fish but there were some giant clam shells which were impressive. It was nice to snorkel twice but it certainly was not going to come close to South Button. The kids took to jumping off the top of the boat for fun - sometimes I think that's their favorite part of snorkeling.