Havelock Island – Andaman Islands

Island Time - nice. After a couple of weeks of South India, it is time for some turquoise water and white beaches. The Andamans seem to be more than anything like the islands in Thailand around Krabi, just without the crowds, not yet. Geographically the islands are closer to Southeast Asia than to India, only 150km from Indonesia and 190km from Myanmar. The islands, and especially Nicobar which is off limits for tourists, were severly hit by by the boxing day tsunami. As a result, the dream of a hut straight on the water’s edge is over as new policies don’t allow any housing straight along the edge.

Today, only 12% of the population remains indigenous and the number is decreasing. Some remaining tribes include groups like the Onge, Sentinelese, Andamanese, Jarawa, Shompen or the Nicobarese. Only 150 of the Sentinelese remain mean that extinction of the tribes is inevitable. As a tourist, you will have to obtain a special permit at arrival which limits your movement to some major areas and to 30 days. Even the major North-South road is only open for a couple of hours a day and stopping and photography is strictly forbidden.

Port Blair is the main gateway to the islands and a place to leave as quickly as you got there. The ferry to the islands is scary – do not book the more expensive fare and you will end up in the near windowless coffin-like lower deck of the boat – but the first impression of Havelock Island is more than rewarding: white beaches, clear waters and the famous diving elephant ‘Rajan’ (yet to be discovered). It is Island Time.