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| Havelock's play of colours |
Have you ever wondered about the different blues of an ocean? Felt the absolute silence before the next wave hit the shore? Felt the fine sand slipping through your fingers almost as if time was slipping off? Wondered how beautifully blue, green and cream colour merge? Well I didn’t. Till I found myself in Havelock.
The journey to Havelock started off on an inauspicious note.
We had a bit of a communication problem with the guy who was to pick us up from
the hotel. It delayed our departure to the jetty which was well…five minutes away. So without feeling too bad, we sat back and
chatted up Shiva, our driver, who seemed
to have perfected the cool look with his slipping-off-the-butt jeans, earrings,
goatee and sunglasses. He seemed to know Telugu along with Hindi, as was the
case with many other cab drivers here. He shyly disclosed in Telugu that ‘tourists liked
hearing Hindi’.
From the Phoenix Jetty we took our fast catamaran, the
beautiful Makruzz, to Havelock. This private ferry takes only an hour and
quarter to reach the island from PB, as against the Government ferries which
take about 3 hours and more and don’t generally have A/c or proper seating.
Here the seats were numbered much to our delight and we got the ones near the
window. The hostesses (I don’t know what else to call them) in the ferry
explained the safety drill much like in the airplanes and then we set off over
shimmering, rolling water. I felt as if we were driving down a smooth road - it
was that smooth and fast.
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| Makruzz awaits its passengers |
Another thing that S and I noticed were the newly-wed, twenty something girls, with mehendi on their feet and hands and silver and red bangles up to their elbows. Some girls looked shy but brazened it out in skimpy western outfits, while some were happy in their glittering salwaars which rivaled the shimmering sea. Their better halves looked pretty smug and smitten. There was whispering and giggling galore as they got on with the ritual of getting to know the ones they have married. Havelock definitely is a honeymoon destination. No doubts about that.
People watching completed, we dutifully whipped out our cameras to capture the…what? I didn’t know. But I had to. The pressure, I must tell you, was tremendous. Around me cameras were pulled out and pictures were taken of the seemingly endless expanse of water. But I was impatient to see the Havelock that people had raved about online. So we quickly walked out of the jetty and met up with our Barefoot Scuba resort driver. We waited for another couple to join us and then we were off.
I wish I had taken a snap of the passing scenery. The place looked charmingly decrepit (may be to my eyes). Let me describe what I saw. The road (a single one that pierces the island from one end to the other) is lined with lots of dusty shrubs and plantain trees, there were used cars with their innards out as if waiting to be operated upon, one dusty petrol bunk with a Sintex tank for storing the petrol (I kid you not), cows grazing lazily, tiny hastily put up eateries selling fresh fish fry and continental delicacies, foreigners in printed wrap around skirts/ cotton shorts and white tee smoking and sitting on plastic stools waiting for their food to arrive...I could go on. I loved all of it. I felt as if in another second Micheal Douglas would saunter out with Kathleen Turner arguing about a precious stone or perhaps there'd be a mafia gunfire because some bloke ran off with their marijuana. You get my drift. Add to this the tiny fact that petrol is sold in black here, and you'll be able to relate to my idea of Havelock as a place in Cuba or some part of Africa.
Anyway, I was one happy girl when I reached Barefoot Scuba Resort. S and I, had booked a sea facing cottage. This, my friends, was the view.
Lovely isn't it? Imagine seeing this all the time that we were there. Pure bliss. On hindsight I'd have been happy spending all my time in Havelock, like S had wanted, but we had to make do with 3 days of seeing this scenery.
We had a kayak trip booked for that afternoon. I realized then that there was a seriousness...a kind of respect these people had for the ocean. Among the resorts that dot the shoreline, almost all of them advertise water activities like scuba diving, snorkeling, fishing and kayaking. It's as if you are expected to try out some or all of the activities here. In return, they seemed to endeavor to give you a safe and memorable time. There are a few boards, including the one at Barefoot Scuba Resort (BSR), that announce that they have PADI certified instructors. The people manning the water activities desk in BSR looked competent and serious. I was looking forward to my first kayak trip under such capable hands.
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