Blue, Blue and more Blue…..

Lakshadweep’s been on my list of places to visit for a very long time and going there for my honeymoon just happened to be an added bonus (thanks A). It’s been 3 weeks after I have come back and the hang over still continues!!

My first impression of Lakshadweep was – Wow!! I have been to a lot of beaches, but have never seen something like it before (for once the travel brochures weren’t wrong). The white sand beaches with crystal clear blue water just took my breath away. Speaking of blue, my definition of “sea blue” has undergone a change now. There can be so many types of sea blue – the light/sky blue, the greenish blue, royal blue, ink blue, etc. I got to see all of those colors in the water there- all in a span of a 2 km radius!!

Let me keep the raving for later and start from the start :-). We stayed at the Agatti resorts which is govt. run and the only resort on the island. Agatti has the highest population among the island (of about 8000 people). It’s also the only island with an air strip. Statistics apart, it’s a beautiful place. The beauty of the island hits you while walking from the airport and just the feeling of awe just stays with you for days to come. We started the trip with what the rest of the tourists were doing – sun bathing!! I cannot imagine having so much fun lazing around in the sun and doing nothing but stare at the water and the turtles in it. To my surprise I enjoyed it; maybe it was the rest from the constant mode of doing something, whatever it was, the rest and the remote place worked for me. Apart from all the lazing around and being total beach bums, we also went coral reef watching and spotting turtles. It was really nice to see such an amalgamation of colour in the reef and the fishes. We saw all types of colored fishes (I thought they existed only in aquariums). After the first day of learning to spot turtles, I saw so many of them swimming/eating very close to the shore. The highlight of my trip was to see them not being afraid of human beings. It was also good to see that us human beings respected them and left them alone.

The other highlight of my holiday was the visit to Bangaram. Bangaram is one of the 35 islands in Lakshadweep and has only a private resort. So why visit it? Its one of the most beautiful places I have seen till now (and I have seen many). It’s breathtaking!! That’s the only way to describe the place. The waters that surround the island have so many different shades of blue due to the varying depth of water. During low tide you can even walk from one island to the other with water just touching your ankles. The place is a vision, but the highlight of the trip was the boat ride to Bangaram. We went in a small fishing trawler crossing the high seas in the opposite direction of the winds, when it was very windy. Well, the less said the better, but at one stage I thought we would topple over. What bugged me was the boatmen and A enjoying looking at the worried look on my face. A especially since he doesn’t even know to swim. I wasn’t scared of drowning (I know how to swim) and neither was I scared that A would drown. There was enough supply of life jackets to save him till help came and the water wasn’t cold either. I was scared for my camera. I knew toppling over would mean death of my buddy (yeah I am in love with my camera). Anyways, nothing happened apart from me being the butt of jokes!!

The good thing about my vacation was that I got a chance to visit the village in Agatti, even if it was in the pretext of visiting the hospital. It was very quaint with coconut strewn all over. We got to know that the auto we went in was the only auto on the island! I also met a German couple who ran the diving school in Agatti. For 9 months in a year, they stay in India and the rest monsoon months in Germany. They’ve been here for more than 10 years and that’s the job – scuba diving and teaching people to scuba dive. I was so envious. I wish I had a cool job where I could actually make money out of a hobby!!

Tips:
# You can go to Lakshadweep by ship. However incase you plan to travel by ship, make sure you are flexible with your travel dates. The ship schedule is most likely to change last minute.
# Always plan to either visit or stay in Bangaram. Bangaram is much more expensive than Agatti. However it’s completely worth staying there at least for a day.
# Alcohol is prohibited in Agatti. Another reason to visit Bangaram :-).
# Be prepared to get used to salt water. Its in the sea and your bathrooms.
# If you know Malayalam, use all of it there. Since most of the tourists are foreigners, the locals completely like Indian tourists and if you are Mallu you are adored!