Leaving Neil

Mon 23 Dec 2013

After a paranoid and restless sleep we woke early to jump on the 8am ferry.

We were told to get to the ticket office at 6am sharp, as we couldn't reserve tickets.

"No tickets" the man behind the plexi glass calmly said.

"No tickets left, all full."

I couldn't believe it, how could it be full, we were 3rd in the queue and you can't book tickets in advance, how could it be full!?

Reminiscent of 'portblairgate' I found the urge to shout and scream about the obvious lack of any sense to the ticketing system. Luckily, speechless in disbelief it took a few moments for the rage to register and Suzie took charge of the situation.

Smiling, calmly she asked if there was anything they could do, in true Indian fashion they said they would phone port Blair and ask for us.

We waited for what seemed like forever while nothing happened then out of the blue we were asked for our permits and money and we had tickets...

Suzies cool calm friendly approach to the situation seemed to be a lot more effective and we were booked on the early ferry to head back to the (slightly) busier Havelock island for Christmas fun.

We had a cracking parotha, samba and coconut chutney (we've only just found out that is what the white sauce with mustard seeds is) in the nearest wood fired hut, and waxed lyrical about the deep with a local diving instructor, with Suzie keen to gain knowledge of local turtle hang outs.

We arrived on Havelock around 10ish and were instantly shocked by how busy it seemed, quickly we jumped in a tuk tuk and headed in hope to coconut grove. The place that our new friends were staying.

We chatted to the owner Harry who said Robbie had asked to reserve us a hut but unfortunately they had no room, so it was back to sea view where we had come from, and although we were on the other side of town, it was a really nice, calm and quiet place in comparison to the loud party atmosphere of coconut grove.

We booked into the only room left, a large room with a sea view and only slightly tipping the budget.

All settled we couldn't relax as we had jobs to do.

1. Book the ferry back to port Blair
2. Buy Xmas booze

It was the most we'd had to do for days and I wanted to get the chores done quickly so we could relax again.

We grabbed a scooter, smashed up to the port and, strangely managed to reserve tickets back to port Blair in advance for the 26th ready to get our flight the following day.

We cruised passed the road makers and dogs and rubble to the (very nice) booze shop where we expertly over purchased.

1 btl - cheap red wine
1 btl - white wine
2 btl - sparkling wine
1 btl - vodka
1 btl - Rum
4 btl - Beer

In hindsight this was a lot for what was essentially 2 days between 2 people on an island that doesn't really drink, and getting the extra bottle of red the following day 'just in case' was a bit silly, but the whole lot came to under £25 and... well... It's Christmas.

Absolutely exhausted from our tiresome and tedious tasks we decided to visit beach number 5, just at the end of our huts, we sat and read and soaked up as much sun as we could.

Well relaxed but Feeling unsatisfied from the lack of adventure we jumped back on the bike and headed south, away from anywhere we'd been.

It was an incredible road along the coast dotted with secret beaches and sun and trees and lagoons and rivers, and little towns with all varieties of domesticated animals.

After 2 dead ends and with no path through the dense jungle we headed back to book our Christmas Eve boat trip. 4 dives sites and a beach didn't need selling and we signed up then and there at the Internet cafe with the trip appearing to be the perfect balance of local knowledge and amateur charm.

Later that evening after a few games of Chinese poker and a few glasses of 'gets better the more you drink' wine Robbie rocked up on his bike to invite us to what Peter named Blue Dabber (still not sure why), a little eatery besides the market which does cheap but brilliant (so Suzie tells me) crab.

Highlight of the evening was Peter buying a full size hammer from the hardware shop to tackle his crab with when the restaurant ran out.

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