We were all awake by 4:00 AM and were pretty excited to be leaving the islands. As promised, John sent a pickup truck that took us to the harbor. We could see a big ship, The Swaraj Deep, anchored there. After an hour or so, we were taken on a speed boat to the ship but it was a total circus trying to get up the gangplank to board the ship. We had bought first class cabin tickets and we were anxious to go and relax. After getting on board, we found our cabins and got settled in.

We were all awake by 4:00 AM and were pretty excited to be leaving the islands. As promised, John sent a pickup truck that took us to the harbor. We could see a big ship, The Swaraj Deep, anchored there. After an hour or so, we were taken on a speed boat to the ship but it was a total circus trying to get up the gangplank to board the ship. We had bought first class cabin tickets and we were anxious to go and relax. After getting on board, we found our cabins and got settled in.

The day was spent reminiscing about our adventures on the islands and it wasn’t until the evening that we finally left the comfort our cabin and took a tour of this big beautiful ship. It had a restaurant, a cafeteria, an entertainment hall and even a library – but what we missed was an internet center. The next day, Port Blair was in sight and we reached the harbor at around 10.00 clock in the morning. Our stay here would be for only three days. Those three days were fortunately quiet and uneventful as we were all basically in recovery mode. We had thought of going to the Havelock Islands, but our tight budget put a stop to that. There was so much hype about Havelock islands and it’s beaches (it is even regarded as one of the top 10 beaches in the world), but we knew that we had just come back from a place which was definitely as far more beautiful and appealing.

And certainly, this thought of – “We were there so we know how good it was – where were you?” – entered our minds. After recuperating in our hotel room for three days, we did our last final packing. We were ready to leave on the 18th morning from Port Blair to Bangalore via Chennai. In a blink of an eye, we were already flying back home the next day with tons of stories, experiences, photos, video footage, and even some shells and coral (which officially you not supposed to take off the islands…)We had survived Nicobar!

 

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