Once I finished filling out my visa application form (adding that I would be staying with my grandparents on Katrine…their 40ft Cataraman) I guess someone at the office recognized the boat name and thought they were doing me a big favour by calling the taxi driver (Ravi) that my grandparents usually get to collect people meeting up with them for a charter. This was really nice of them, but unfortunately I was not informed of this plan…so Lee and I left the airport in search of a taxi to take us to a hotel. The plan was to meet up with my grandparents the next day, so we had time to kill.
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Port Blair |
We found a driver who told us he knew where we had to go, drove us down to the habour and told us to get a ticket and go to Havelock 7, because that’s where all the tourist go to. Not knowing what else to do we got into line in a very hot stuffy room packed in with people. While standing in line we saw two familiar looking faces…our Israeli friends! We agreed to take turn standing in line in the unventilated overly humid room. Lee and I were standing outside having our breathing break, when this man walked over to me and said “Don and Jeanne?” You have to understand why this confused me and it took me a minute to respond, those are my grandparents names…After the initial shock I responded and spoke to this guy (who happened to be Ravi, who happened to know my grandparents very well!) He had gotten the phone call from the airport visa office and had come straight to look for us, when he realized we and left he knew we would go to the habour…and that’s how he ended up there, I asked him how he knew who I was and he said I look like my grandparents…how awesome is that?!
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Port Blair Habour early in the morning |
So safely in the back of Ravi’s taxi we were taken to a clean, nice “hotel” and told to take a shower and have a nap and then he would be back to take us out to a beautiful restaurant for dinner. I probably sound ridiculous when I say this…but that was one of the best showers of my life. In Goa we showered in cold water…EVERY night! So finally having warm water flowing over my body was a wonderful feeling!
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Ghandi Park |
Ravi took Lee and I to a wonderful place, the tables were outdoors and the view was stunning. We each ordered our entrée, which Ravi ordered another two or three dishes *Lee and I exchange confused looks* when the food arrived we learnt all about eating Indian style. The best way to do this is to put all the dishes in the middle of the table, and pick and chose as you want…there is no yours or mines just ours. It was a great way to eat as you eat slowly and conversation flows.
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Beautiful Port Blair |
The next day, before we meet up with my grandparents we did a mini tour of Port Blair. This included a trip to a museum of the history of Port Blair which was interesting to see and a trip to an “aquarium” I emphasize the word because what we saw was NO aquarium! First of all you had to pay extra for each camera that would be using a flash, otherwise you had to turn off the flash. Secondly, all the fish in the aquarium were DEAD! Yeah dead fish in bottles…that’s all we got to see!
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Mosaic on the History museum's wall |
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