Ross Island ,Andamans

There is no worse time to plan for travel in India than the cold December -January months and there is no better to time to travel than these. The summer months are best , either go to the mountains or sit before your AC comfortably at home.But come winter and the weather is just right for travelling ,either in and around the plains of North India or to the South to escape the cold. But the fog plays havoc with your travel plans,as it did for us. The flight to Chennai on which we had booked our tickets in September ,inexplicably, told us at the very last of minutes ,in the queue to get the boarding card , flight was fully  booked and we would have to change our plans. However they had already given 3 people of the family boarding passes and failed to board the rest. After much running around,nail biting, arguing  and almost watching our well planned tour going to waste ,we did get to board the next flight at 8.30 pm ,to reach Chennai at midnight.Our plane to Port Blair was at 5.50 next morning ,which we caught comfortably  and after 2 hours we were in a warm sunny island .
After the Delhi chill it was lovely . No dilly dallying, after a lunch at the circuit house in Haddo we set off on exploring a place which got progressively greener and greener.  The nearest place to visit is the Ross Island which one can see from the Aberdeen Jetty . We were aboard a ferry at around 1 pm and in 10 minutes arrived at this former headquarter of the Andamans. To be greeted by a Japanese bunker ,albeit repainted , built during WW II ,   immediately tells you that history lessons are going to begin. The Indian Navy has taken over the island and charged us Rs 20 for entering its INS Jarawa . Once inside it was all forests and ruins of a once bustling town. The ruins of the magnificent Protestant church stood high ,up a flight of steps  but the Chief commissioners bungalow is now only walls held together by Banyan roots which have embraced all the ruins .

FERAR BEACH

We wandered through the ruins of the island passing through a power house,water distillation plant, bakery ,press,swimming pool and a small photo and memorabilia gallery in a building called the   Farzand Ali store .The Navy has set up a small museum which was closed that day . There is a small cemetery near the church with some headstones still intact telling tales of those who died there . As we went behind the church a flight of steps invitingly took us to the beach below. Ferar Beach is just a seashore with periliously overhanging tree trunks and a quiet hidden away ambience to it. The steps ended   and we slithered  down to reach the beach . The sea was calm but it must be deceptive because a notice pinned to a tree forbade us from swimming ! A photo session and some antics on the tree trunk later it was time to head back to Port Blair. As you walk around the place ,you see herds of  deer wandering around. They are shy and will keep their distance,looking at you with curiosity and running away if you take a step forward. But when we reached the park near the place where we had alighted,some people were offering biscuits and they came and ate them off the hand .

Waiting for the return ferry  at Ross Island Jetty

Since we had started a little late in the afternoon ,we had only an hour and a half to enjoy the place .But the ruins,the forests and the history demands more time than that . Maybe next time I can wander around ,getting to know the ghosts who haunt the forests ,the tortured  spirits of the convicts of the penal settlement who were forced to construct the beautiful island town, once even called the Paris of the East .

The start of a new journey

How does one start a new blog on travel.Its the start of a new journey , to share my tales ,the  travails ,the trails of travels with more people. I have had to undergo a lot of jouneys mainly because I have stayed alone for the major part of my life and would frequently go to my headquarters,my parents place,searching for warmth ,companionship ,conversation,joys of caring and giving. But travels have been few , though  not non existent. I already have a blog where I have written on various things in no particular order. Blogging is nothing new but travel blog, is a new path I tread,gingerly at first,hoping to mature and become surefooted later on. It took some time for me to  get a name for my blog.the ones that came to my mind readily were all taken by people who have come this way before me ...itchy feet,one step at a time,  ...and the rest.

Journey to the grave and other places ....inspired by the death card of Tarot which does not necessarily denote death but a breaking from the past , a renewal a transformation  passage, change.  I think of each journey as a learning experience ,The Death card indicates this transition from lower to higher to highest. This is a card of humility.

On an E trip to find a name for my blog I came across several places with some great  quotes about travel.Here a sprinkler ... some ae my favourites,some require second thought to be put in the category of favorites but all of thm are on target.

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  “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain

•  “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

• “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
• . “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac
•   “People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” – Dagobert D. Runes
•  “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John Steinbeck
• . “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang 
•  “Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

•  “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber
•  “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux 
•  “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• . “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by.” – Robert Frost (and now I AM LOST )
•  “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

•   “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu

•   “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener

•   “The journey not the arrival matters.” – T. S. Eliot

•  “Not all those who wander are lost.” – J. R. R. Tolkien

•  “Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” – Benjamin Disraeli

•   “When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Clifton Fadiman