BEST TOUR PACKAGES FOR ANDAMANS

Visit Andamans!!!

 

Dear friends, over the past one year or so, I’ve been receiving hosts of requests on my blog and here on Facebook too, for hands-on information about how to visit the historic emerald islands of Andaman & Nicobar, the “Floating Paradise on Earth”.

 

 

Hence, I’ve decided to post some of the most comprehensive, economic yet splendid Tour Packages out of a lot of others that are currently available for the gorgeous tourists’ destination in the Bay of Bengal.

 

Now, you can book the comfortable packages at most reasonable rates and visit the fantastic wonder of nature for an experience of a lifetime in the enviable splendor of my exemplary domicile, these historic Indian coral islands.

 

The Packages Include:

 

Ø      Pickup from Veer Savarkar Airport at Port Blair.

 

Ø      Room tariff ( A/C DBL Room)

 

Ø      Food ( Breakfast- bread toast/  idly Vada/  poori sabzi/ pongal/ dosa/ uttappam etc., + tea/ coffee,  Dinner- chapathi, plain rice, dal fry, 02 veg or 01veg + 01 n/veg, papad, pickle, salad, sweet.

 

Ø      Treat your taste buds with lip-smacking Sea-Food and your choicest drinks on extra charges.

 

Ø      Complimentary Lunch is provided for Ross Island, Viper Island, North Bay and Baratang Island only.

 

Ø      All entry Tickets, Permits & Vehicle Charges

 

Ø      Drop to Airport.

 

Tentative Tour Itinerary:

 

2 Nights & 3 Days:

 

Ø      Pickup from Airport; after lunch, City Tour starts- museums, Fisheries Aquarium, Corbyn’s Cove Beach, the historic Cellular Jail, and Light & Sound Show.

 

Ø      After b/fast, visit the historic Ross Island (British capital of the Islands that was popularly known as “Paris of the East”), North Bay Island & Viper Island.

 

Ø      Drop to Airport.

 

 

3 Nights & 4 Days:

 

Ø      Pickup from Airport, after lunch City Tour starts- museums, Fisheries Aquarium, Corbyn’s Cove Beach, the historic Cellular Jail, and Light & Sound Show.

 

Ø      After b/fast, visit the historic Ross Island (British capital of the Islands), North Bay Island & Viper Island.

 

Ø      After b/fast, visit Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park, Wandoor Beach, by boat to Red Skin Island or Mauvadera or Jolly Buoy Island for enchanting coral viewing & snorkeling.

 

Ø      Drop to Airport.

 

 

4 Nights & 5 Days:

 

Ø      Pickup from airport; after lunch, City Tour starts - museums, Fisheries Aquarium, Corbyn’s Cove Beach, the historic Cellular Jail, Light & Sound show.

 

Ø      After b/fast, visit the historic Ross Island (British capital of the Islands), North Bay Island & Viper Island.

 

Ø      Boat Cruise to Havelock Island (The swimming Elephant in Andaman) for exotic Beaches (Radhanagar Beach is the 7th most beautiful beach in the World According to a tourist journal Survey).

 

Ø      After b/fast, visit Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park, Wandoor Beach, by boat to Red Skin Island or Mauvadera or Jolly Buoy Island for enchanting coral viewing & snorkeling.

 

Ø      Drop to Airport.

 

 

5 Nights & 6 Days:

 

Ø      Pickup from airport; after lunch, City Tour starts - museums, Fisheries Aquarium, Corbyn’s Cove Beach, the historic Cellular Jail, Light & Sound show.

 

Ø      After b/fast, visit the historic Ross Island (British capital of the Islands), North Bay Island & Viper Island.

 

Ø      Boat cruise to Havelock Island for Beaches (Radhanagar Beach is the 7th most beautiful beach in the World, according to a tourist journal Survey).

 

Ø      Baratang Island about 110 kms by Andaman Trunk Road through Dense Tropical Rain Forest, Lime Stone caves by boat, unique Mud Volcano (on sharing basis Tata Sumo, Scorpio/ Bus)

 

Ø      After b/fast, visit Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park, Wandoor Beach, by boat to Red Skin Island or Mauvadera or Jolly Buoy Island for enchanting coral viewing & snorkeling.

 

Ø      Drop to Airport.

 

 

6 Nights & 7 Days:

 

Ø      Pickup from airport; after lunch, City Tour starts - museums, Aquarium, Corbyn’s Cove beach, the historic Cellular Jail, Light & Sound show.

 

Ø      After b/fast visit the historic Ross Island (British capital of the Islands), North Bay Island & Viper Island).

 

Ø      Boat cruise to Havelock Island for Beaches (Radhanagar Beach is the 7th most beautiful beach in the World, according to a tourist journal Survey).

 

Ø      Baratang Island about 110 kms by Andaman Trunk Road through Dense Tropical Rain Forest, Lime Stone Caves by boat, unique Mud Volcano (on sharing basis Tata Sumo, Scorpio/ Bus)

 

Ø      After b/fast, visit Mount Harriet, the second highest peak in the Islands (see on the back side of Rs. 20 note).

 

Ø      After b/fast, visit Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park, Wandoor Beach, by boat to Red Skin Island or Mauvadera or Jolly Buoy Island for enchanting coral viewing & snorkeling.

 

Ø      Drop to Airport.

 

 

 

City Tour Points:

 

Ø      Cellular Jail - National Memorial.

Ø      Light & Sound Show.

Ø      Fisheries Museum (rare species of fishes & marine life)

Ø      Anthropological Museum (Depicts the life of the aboriginal Andaman tribes (Jarawas, Onges, Sentinalese, Great Andamanese, Shompens & Nicobarese), early settlement of Andaman Islands)

Ø      Samudrika Museum (Naval marine museum)

Ø      Mini Zoo.

Ø      Water Sports Complex & Marina Park 

Ø      Chatham Saw Mill (Asia’s oldest saw mill)

Ø      Forest Museum 

Ø      Gandhi Park (small amusement park with the historic Dilthaman Lake)

Ø      Sagarika Emporium (shopping – Sea Shells, Souvenirs, local Handicrafts etc.)

Ø      Eagle view – view of the historic airport & Port Blair city from hill top.

Ø      Corbyn’s Cove Beach

Ø      Science Center.

 

 

Other Terms:

 

Ø      Children below 02 yrs - FREE.

 

 Ø      Children below 02 – 06 yrs - 50 % off.

 

 Ø      Children below 06 – 10 yrs - 25 % off.

 

Ø      Above 10 yrs - Full rate.

 

 

 

Hotels*:

 

1.  Sun Sea Resort, Middle Point, Port Blair.

2.  Blue Sea Hotel, Middle Point, Port Blair.

3.  Hotel Aparupa, Gol Ghar, Port Blair.

4.  Hotel Abhishek, Gol Ghar, Port Blair.

5.  Hotel Andaman Residency, Gol Ghar, Port Blair.

6.  Palm Grove Eco Resorts, Prothrapur, Port Blair.

 

*(Subject to availability)

 

 

For quotes of rates, bookings and any further information or queries, please feel free to contact us at –

 

Kalash Tours & Travels

“Your Travel Time Machine”

107, 2^nd Floor, Block – A, Surya Rao Apartments,

Above Hotel Blue Sea, Middle Point, Port Blair – 744101.

Andaman & Nicobar Islands (India).

 

Email: andamankalash@gmail.com

Mobile No.: +91 9474265055

INDIA OF OUR DREAMS

What is India?

 

A nation where pizza reaches home faster than ambulance and police...

 

 

Where you get car loan @5% but education loan @12%...

 

 

Where rice is Rs. 40 but Sim card is free...

 

 

Where people standing at tea stalls, reading articles about child labour in newspapers, condemn vociferously and say, "Yaar! Bachchon se kaam karwaane waalon ko to faansi per chadha dena chahiye" and then they shout, "Oye, Chhotu! Do chaai la..!"

 

 

This is our India!

Incredible India!!!

 

As I always say, if we don’t see even a glimpse of the great India that was in the India that we see today, it clearly means that we are not working up to our actually enviable potential; and that if we do, we could once again be an ever shining and inspiring country setting a bright path for the rest of the world to follow.

 

Dear friends, if you agree with what I’ve said, please help spread this message across to our Indian brethren and make them realize their mistakes and vow to work towards building the India of our dreams…

 

JAI HIND!!!

THE NAGGING WATER CRISIS IN ANDAMAN

In Water…Without Water

 

‘Water, water everywhere /nor any drop to drink…’ these lines from The ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge define our Indian Islands. Wondering why? Read on…

 

The Indian islands comprise of the historic Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea. In spite of being surrounded by water, water has been a major problem in these Union Territories. Let’s take a trip of the taxing water crisis in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

 

The Dhanikhari Dam in South Andaman

(Picture courtesy: atcrossroads)

 

Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a group of 572 north-south running islands. The Andaman group covers 6,346 sq km, and the Nicobar group covers 1,953 sq km. This beautiful archipelago gets an average annual rainfall of 3,000mm. But, most of the rain water is lost as surface runoff due to the islands’ rugged physiography (physical features).

 

 

The soil cannot retain water, as it is composed of clay and sand. The soil has to be rich in sand and gravel to provide high permeability, which is necessary for constructing groundwater-harvesting structures like dug-wells.

 

For ages, the aboriginal tribes in the different islands here followed different methods of harvesting rain and groundwater. Here are a few examples:

 

Water storage system of the Shompen and the Jarawa Tribes

 

The Shompen and the Jarawa tribes use bamboo to direct water to shallow pits called Jack-wells, built in increasing order of sizes. In the lower southern part of India’s last and the largest, the Great Nicobar Island, the Shompen tribal-folk make bunds using logs of hard bullet wood. For irrigating crops, they direct the flow of rains to the fields situated at lower elevations by digging channels.

 

The Shompens and the Jarawas cut a full length of bamboo longitudinally and place it along a gentle slope with the lower end leading into a shallow pit called Jack-well. A series of increasingly bigger Jack-wells is built, connected by split bamboos so that the overflows from one lead to the other.

 

A jar or pitcher is often placed under a coconut tree during a shower of rain. A conducting spout made from stem or a branch is inserted into the mouth of the jar to fill it up with freshwater.

 

Among the Onges of the Little Andaman Island, buckets made of logs and giant bamboo are often found suspended from the roofs of the huts along with nets and baskets to trap rainwater.

 

 

Unfortunately, most of the traditional water harvesting systems have been neglected and are in a bad state. For instance, the Dilthaman Tank, built by the British to provide water during the construction of the infamous Cellular Jail, is languishing due to excess silt that has reduced its storage capacity. Though the Andaman & Nicobar Administration tried to revive the traditional water harvesting systems in the late 1980s, it is now promoting drilled bore-wells in the new colonies.

 

The Dilthaman Tank at Gandhi Park, Port Blair

 

In 2007, the Port Blair town faced unprecedented water crisis due to failure of north-east monsoon in the end of 2006 & delay in setting of South West monsoon in 2007. As a result, distribution of water to general public was being made once in 4-5 days. This necessitated A & N Administration to initiate a number of schemes as well as to cope up with situations which arose in 2007.

 

The situation is worsening by every passing year as there has been a drastic reduction in the amount of rainfall that the remote islands now receive, in addition to the severe damage that has already been done to the environment because of the tremendously relentless series of earthquakes after the disastrous Tsunami of 26^th December, 2004.

 

But unlike the Tsunami, this is a man-made disaster. Over the past 54 years, the population on the islands has soared, rising from just 30,000 in 1951 to a staggering 480,000 now. Three summers ago, water supplies ran so low that the local administration, the largest employer by far in this Union Territory, took the unprecedented step of granting mass leave to its staff, hoping they would return to the mainland during the summer vacations of the children’s schools in the two months of May & June, leaving more water for those who stayed back.

 

And a sudden rise in tourism after the unforgettable fiasco has increased the requirement of fresh water manifold as the consumption has increased to almost an unmanageable extent now. The Administration is found helpless to cope up with the increasing crisis despite the multifarious ongoing projects like building of small dams to collect rain water in and around the hills and the valleys and setting up salt water treatment plants for desalination of sea water, to boot.

 

The status quo is unpromising with the Administration cutting down domestic water supply to once a week, now, to make matter worse for the questioning islanders, who have been left in the lurch by their so-called ‘care-takers’ at the receiving end for ages…