November 11, 12 and 13 – Flying to the Andaman Islands, Corbyn Cove Beach and colds (Cough. Cough. Hack.), Truncated Port Blair City Tour

November 11
We were up at an ungodly hour to catch our ride to the airport for our flight to the Andaman Islands.  The line to get into the airport was horrendous but moved fairly efficiently.  No one is allowed into the airport without flight reservations, so everyone was required to show their ID and reservation before they were allowed into the terminal. 

View of the Ganges delta from the air.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are an island archipelago in the Bay of Bengal near Thailand, but they are a part of India.  They are the home of seven indigenous tribes that are tightly protected from outside exposure by the Indian government.  However, large portions are open for non-tribal people and from what we see the islands are popular tourist destinations for the Indian people. 

View of the Andaman Island from the air.

We had some down time that then were picked up and dropped off at Corbyn Cover Beach.  It was a pretty little beach with minimal wave action.  

A tiny crab in the doorway to its home.

There was a long dock made of floats and it was fun to watch it ripple as a wave passed under it.  People needed to hang onto the rails or risk being tipped over when the waves passed.

We wandered to the end of the beach and back and also wandered along some of the stalls that fronted the beach. 

We had a bit more badly needed rest time at the hotel.  We are both still fighting very bad coughs and are sick as dogs with what turned out to be bronchitis (didn't get that confirmed until we were back in Delhi on the 21st). 

After dinner we were driven to the Cellular Jail for a sound and light show.  The jail was built in the late 1800’s as a prison for Indian Revolutionary fighters.  From the information in the show the conditions and treatment of the prisoners was truly appalling.  The show itself was very good but unfortunately background music and sounds were often so loud that they drowned out the narration…made it really hard to follow the story.

We were back in the hotel and in bed by about 10:00.  We are beat.

November 12
Thank heavens we have nothing on today.  We are both so sick with bad coughs.  The cold part seems pretty minor…only a moderate amount of sneezing and blowing.  But oh, the coughing.  We basically spent most of the day in bed napping and coughing.  We had breakfast but slept through lunch and didn’t leave the room again until dinner.

View from our hotel room.

November 13

We were schedule for a full day tour today – 4 museums, a sawmill plus several other sights.  Because of our colds we decided to narrow the tour down to two museums and the sawmill. 

The Anthropology museum was very good.  It provided a great deal of information, photos and artifacts about the tribes of the Andamans and Nicobars.  No pictures allowed though.

Next stop was back at the Cellular Jail.  We spent only a small amount of time there...

when Mary began to feel much sicker.  Partially the cold but a lot due to the high heat and heavy humidity.  So, we contacted the driver and were back at the hotel after only an hour and a half or so of sightseeing.  We both took to bed again.  What a way to visit a tropical island.  Argh!