We started our trip to India in the early winter. We landed in Trivandrum and booked a semi-luxurious hotel for accommodation. With the help of our tourist guide we went to various tourism spots like Napier museum, zoo, Kowdiar palace, boat ride in Vellayani Lake and others. Since our main destination was not Trivandrum, we did not spend a lot of time enjoying the Kerala backwaters tours or other attractions near Trivandrum. I should say I regret missing the house boat ride in backwaters.
From Trivandrum, it was just 2 hours flight and additional two hours waiting time to reach Port Blair. It did not look anything like the pictures we saw about Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This was till we reached Have lock Island. Half of us went for scuba diving and remaining stayed on the beach enjoying it. It was a great experience. The elephant ride on Havelock beach was enchanting, though I was a bit terrified by the sight of the animal. By the time we reach Viper Island, we did not have enough energy left to do any adventurous activity. We chose a silent picnic spot and have a restful time amidst the palm trees and water.
Next day we visited the forest museum and mini zoo in Haddo. The rest of the day was spent in Corbyn’s cove. We enjoy boating and surfing there. We had our dinner in a restaurant outlooking the beach and rested in a beach resort for the day. The next day was totally dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi Marine Park. It was migration time when we visited this place. Thus, we found a lot of birds. The sea turtles were the most beautiful of all.
On the last day in Andaman, a few of us visited Cinque Island for some diving and others visited Long Island and took a bicycle ride through the island. It was energizing and also we had a great time exploring the bay. We reached Port Blair to get into our pre-booked ferry to Chennai. Though it was very long and slightly expensive, the ferry ride was very entertaining.
After we reached Chennai, our flight was just 10 hours away and we did some last minute beach vacation at Besant Nagar beach and started towards airport.