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Swim with sharks

In between the various events at the Art Deco festival, I had some spare time. So I decided to go swim with sharks in the National Aquarium. I checked out the pricing and it wasn’t too bad compared to just a walk-in visitor. I was led up to the backroom where I donned a thick […]

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Bliss

Kek Lok Si (or Temple of Supreme Bliss) has been Penang’s big attraction for decades.  The Chinese-Buddhist temple complex at Ayer Hitam is massive … there are many shrines in addition to the old main pagoda built in an eclectic style … Chinese, Thai etc all put together.  More recently there is a ginormous statue of […]

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Hubbing through Penang again

Today I said goodbye to family and flew to Penang again, leaving at 1220. It is my third time there this trip, using the island as a hub.  It has turned out to be a good plan as I love the food and the character. It’s like an authentic version of Singapore … Singapore with […]

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Coming to celebrate the rabbit

It was another early morning start for me, to catch the 0810 AirAsia flight from Chennai to Kuala Lumpur.  Less than four hours later, I was in KL, landing at 1430. It was a much nicer time to fly the route compared to the traditional schedule of the full service airlines, leaving at night and […]

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White and whiter

Check-out from my Port Blair hotel, Andaman Residency, is rather early at 0800.  This is typical for this town as incoming flights are in the morning. Flying back to Chennai 1245 on Kingfisher, they have an inflight magazine like no other.  It is purely about the glitz and glamour of Indian filmstars.  Flicking through the […]

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Angkor and Alcatraz of the Andamans

Today I explored Port Blair’s sights … it was set up as a penal colony by the British to incarcerate political prisoners, ie. freedom fighters for the independence movement. Ross Island:  Angkor of the Andamans I took a boat across the harbour to Ross Island which was the headquarters for the British in the area.  […]

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Leaving paradise with the nicest high-brows

Leaving my island paradise Check-out was at 0930 today but my ferry from Havelock Island back to Port Blair isn’t till 1630.  Despite previous information, there was no earlier ferry.  I easily killed the day with a long breakfast, a long lunch and an Ayurvedic massage in between. I’m not a big fan of Ayurvedic […]

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Ticketing frustrations

Naughty Ticketing Tricks After a leisurely breakfast I teamed up with Merja from Finland who was my dive buddy yesterday.  We thought we’d go to Radha Nagar beach near Village No 7, which is supposedly the best beach around. I opted for a detour into town to buy my ferry ticket back to Port Blair one […]

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Havelock Island

Above:  It is possible to scuba dive with an elephant. In the Andaman they have one of the last swimming elephants.  You can snorkel or dive with the elephant … if you pay … it is about INR10,000 (NZD300) for one snorkel or dive.  That’s like 3x the going rate for two normal dives.  I couldn’t […]

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Diving Havelock Island

Above:  It is possible to scuba dive with an elephant. In the Andaman they have one of the last swimming elephants.  You can snorkel or dive with the elephant … if you pay … it is about INR10,000 (NZD300) for one snorkel or dive.  That’s like 3x the going rate for two normal dives.  I couldn’t […]

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