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 They are well over a 150 islands and islets stretching down the length of the Bay of Bengal. All are densely wooded, many have beautiful, lonely beaches and their underwater coral gardens are superb. For those who want to escape from the razzle-dazzle of modern ‘civilisation’, the Andamans are the nearest thing to paradise - the legendary, and lost, Garden of Eden. But even Eden wasn’t for everyone, as we discovered when we visited the Bay Islands recently.
Kolkata was full of sulphur lights and ground mist when we flew out, winging over delta lands, mangrove swamps, and the deep blue Bay of Bengal. Then clouds curdled below like a yogurt dressing, cleared just in time for us to see the island of South Andaman spreading like a Rorschach Test: a dark green inkblot fractured by inlets and estuaries winding through the sponge-dense forests. This is the main administrative island of the Andamans.
 We circled and landed in Port Blair. It was what Kochi had been before the Gulf boom gave it instant fame and fortune. Like Kochi, it was pleasantly warm and smelt of burgeoning vegetation. Unlike Kochi, this capital of the Bay Islands seems to be constantly surprised at itself like a bashful milkmaid in a Lycra dress. Streets wind, twist, turn, rise, descend past shanty towns, and then, suddenly modern office blocks appear; corrugated roofed settlements straggle, then a sophisticated promenade sweeps around a bay; paddy fields spread green and truly rural, then the multi-floored Anthropological Museum rises, its access path still tacky with newness. Port Blair is a town in a hurry: not quite sure where it is going but it’s racing to get there anyway.
We checked into the state-run Megapode Nest with superb views of Phoenix Bay, ferries plying, the heritage island of Ross in the distance. We were happy in our independent Nicobari hut with dawn gilding our room and sea eagles swooping and calling in the bright sky above.
 Driving around Port Blair we visited the mini-zoo and the museums. Samudrika, run by the Indian Navy, is excellent and encapsulates a treasure trove of information about the Andamans in layman’s language and is fascinatingly presented. The Fisheries Museum has an aquarium and displays that opened our eyes to the wonders of the submarine worlds of the islands. It really is strange that there is no mechanised fisheries industry in the Andamans. The Anthropological Museum is also first class. The Negritos of the Andamans were the first people to have colonised India and were ousted, or absorbed, by the Austrics, Dravidians, Indo-Iranians and the Mongoloids. More aggressive races subdue more passive ones and reduce them to the status of menials, slaves or dasyus. Particularly if they stand up to their overlords.
Nowhere, except perhaps in Belsen and the other Nazi extermination centres, was this racial hatred expressed more cruelly than in the Cellular Jail: that notorious emblem of the most despicable aspects of the Raj. But we were very disappointed with the English version of its son et lumiere. Every time the anguish reached out to grip our hearts a trite filmi song trivialised it all. Don’t go there expecting too much and, with a little bit of luck, you will probably like it.
 On a lighter vein, Port Blair’s town beach, Corbyn’s Cove is very popular. There are snack bars, no public changing rooms but, though we saw very few swimmers and no scuba divers, the gentle surf of this beach had attracted a large number of paddlers. They screamed and leapt as the surf drenched them, unconcerned by the fact that their soaked garments had become quite see-through. Modesty is, clearly, a comparative term.
We caught a ferry to take the quick way to Bamboo Flats, the jetty of the next, much vaunted, attraction: the 1,193 feet high Mount Harriet. That’s high for the Andamans. Here, on a forested hill, the British governor had his mansion. Only the foundations remain now but there’s a guest house run by the forest department, views of the jungle-clad slopes falling to the sea, and the start of a 16 km trek. If you are interested in this sort of thing, you might like to pay Rs 25 as the entrance fee, and another Rs 25 for your camera, plus the taxi fare to get to the mountain and back.
We found Wandoor Beach far more interesting. Here, a
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