Wesley Cousteau

Today I saw a chicken standing on top of a cow, and I realized that anything is possible. Sab kuch milega. I don’t usually gain such rapid insight from animals, but they were special! Again, the chicken was standing on top of the cow. I’m not kidding. REALLY. I tried to take a picture for you, but he jumped down too soon. So you’ll just have to trust me, and believe me when I say that it was a defining moment, one that I’ll cherish for years to come. When I think of things that I want to achieve, I’ll always think back to the little chicken that could. I wonder if they sort of talked first, or if he just saw the opportunity and went for it… either way, pure magic. I could have sold that picture for millions, if it existed. But it doesn’t. Just in my head. And hopefully now in yours. I start with that story because well, it’s probably the most exciting thing that’s happened in the last month.

The Andaman Islands are stunningly beautiful, low key, and full of laid back friendly people. They are part of India, but actually closer to Burma, in the middle of the Andaman Sea. The earthquake that caused the tsunami in 2004 was close to here, and parts of the islands were damaged, taking around 3500 lives. But most of the touristed places seem back to normal. The islands have only been open to foreigners for less than 10 years, and even still are highly restricted. You must have a separate 30 day permit from your Indian visa, and only have access to a small handful of the nearly 600 islands, while the Nicobar Islands are off limits to tourists all together. They’re also an important military base for India, and a not-so-believable local rumor has it that the earthquake was triggered by the testing of bombs somewhere in the highly guarded Nicobars.

Aside from the main island accommodation is mostly only available on 2 other islands, Havelock and Neil. There are a few others you can visit if you plan to camp and bring lot’s of supplies, and all of this had me thinking that few people would be there, but not so fast… Air Deccan started cheap flights last month, and now it costs about a quarter of the previous price to get here… and I wasn’t the only one to take advantage of that. About half of Israel was there as well, strumming guitars, smoking chillums, eating shak-shuka and making jewelry out of coconuts, and if the cheap flights continue I think it will remain firmly on the Tel Aviv trail. Despite there being more people than expected it’s an amazing place. Absolutely none of the hassle you find on mainland India, and stunning scenery and underwater life.

I arrived to Havelock on the day of the Holi Festival, one of the largest celebrations in India. This mainly involves a lot of drunkenness and drinking of bhang lassis (basically a potent marijuana milkshake), but more importantly, the throwing of colored powder dyes. Somehow I had forgotten all about it, even though I had been looking forward to it for a while. Luckily the inhabitants of Havelock were keen to remind me. I came straight off the ferry and jumped into a rickshaw to my hotel, noticing people already covered in dye, hoping that I would be safe from it crouching in the back. But the temptation to be the first to hit someone who is clean was too much, and the kids all along the road were throwing handfuls of red, green, blue, etc at us as we sped along.

Finally at the resort (far from a resort, but I don’t know what else to call it) I decided along with a few others that I would hide out there for the day and avoid the mess. But by late afternoon we decided we shouldn’t be missing out on all of the action, even if it meant ruining a pair of clothes and having multicolored skin for a few days. Unfortunately we didn’t get the memo that the island had decided on a 3pm cut-off for the throwing of dyes. The first rickshaw that sped by had three freshly showered and immaculately dressed Indians in it, and my dear friend Lauren decided to throw a big handful of red dye in as it flew by… and then came to a screeching halt followed by angry men brushing themselves off on the roadside. We thought they were just being uptight, but by the time we reached the village we noticed that pretty much everyone there was freshly showered and wearing new clothes. Oops! So on the way back we powdered the dogs and the cows instead. There were some stunning white ones that were screaming out for some orange and red.

At this time the only diving operators are located on Havelock Island, and being that that was my main focus and that I wasn’t into camping I ended up spending the entire month there. It wasn’t hard. I would think about going somewhere else, but a week later I would still be sitting in front of my hut staring at the sea. The diving here is still relatively undiscovered. The dive shops have mapped out a few of their favorites that are within reasonable distance, but you definitely get the sense that there is a lot out there to be found. India makes it nearly impossible for them to employ foreign dive instructors, and finding good Indian ones is proving difficult as well. Aside from that they can only use old fishing boats (dunghis) with slow and nasty diesel engines until a decent gas station opens on Havelock that sells fuel pure enough to run nicer and faster boats.

I did 18 dives here, far more than I expected (I’m pretending to be rich apparently!) but it’s just so beautiful and there isn’t much else to do! I greatly enjoyed what I experienced now, but I think to come back in about 3-5 years will be even more rewarding, as by then the shops will have also opened on North Andaman and other areas giving access to plenty of ship wrecks and some massive coral banks off the west coast. Even now they’re out in their spare time searching for new sites… they hire local fishermen to go out exploring with them and show where they tend to catch a lot of reef fish or pull up coral. I inquired about going on one of these expeditions but they were too busy at the time. I hope that many of you get to experience scuba diving some day, what a beautiful thing! People are learning in record numbers, half the people on Havelock were doing courses. I’ve now got my Advanced Open Water diving license, and even more of a thirst for diving! Have been hearing talk of the Philippines…

I also got to watch an excellent documentary on the oceans!
The Blue Planet http://imdb.com/title/tt0296310/

When not diving I spent the days lazing around and pondering the velocity of falling coconuts, which, rumor has it, kill thousands of people every year. I came very close a couple of times, as did a few others. They’re huge and getting hit by one would at the very least cause serious injury from that height. Luckily I survived, and just drank a lot of them instead.

Anyhow, the profile of the islands is rising fast… Peter Weir just shot part of ‘Shantaram’ here (I’m about to the read the book, it’s dauntingly huge), and some magazines are billing #7 beach on Havelock as the best beach in Asia or even the world. That may be a bit much, but there’s no doubt that it’s an awesome place to spend some time! The water is blindingly turquoise on a sunny day, there are sandy patches for swimming and huge coral reefs to snorkel around with a lot of fish life. And the best part is that it doesn’t feel spoiled, and the people aren’t jaded and difficult to the travelers. The unfortunate news is that there are plans to open up flights from Thailand, which I think could quickly change the situation here. There were already protests while I was here about the new Air Deccan flights bringing such an influx of tourists, and opening it up from Thailand will no doubt send the number of visitors through the roof as the Thailand tourists ever in search of the perfect beach expand there quests. We shall see… but I think it’s a terrible move, they should develop them slowly and carefully… don’t turn them into another tacky resort holiday destination!

Well, that’s about it… I fly back to the mainland tomorrow and head to Kerala to meet Kim again and start school there… Keralan cooking and Tabla drums! I managed to sunburn my face on the ferry back to Port Blair, so instead of leaving the islands with a glorious even tan I look more ridiculous than when I arrived. C’est la vie!

Wes


Interesting…

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/08/opinion/08pagels.html?th&emc=th

http://www.cousteau.org

http://www.diveindia.com


No pictures this time, not sure when I can get new ones up, will probably be a while!