Andaman And Nicobar Islands
- Thread starter Thai Manatee
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Just returned from diving off havelock Island, Jan. 2007. Thought I'd post some info. As I had a hard time finding out much info. before I went. Getting there: there are now direct fights from Delhi to Port Blair on Air Sahara though when I'd tried their website, nothing would come up. They do exist though. Otherwise you have to fly out of Kolkata or Chennai on Indian Airline, Jet or Air Deccan. I flew on Deccan. they are the cheapest but if they have to cancel your flight due to fog or something, they dont automatically rebook you, which is a bit of a risk during fog season.
If you arrive in the morning, there is currently a 2 o'clock ferry for 150 INR to havelock Island. From what we have heard, ferry tickets can be hard to get and people have been stuck in lovely Port Blair for a day or more. We booked with Dive India which offered a deal where they got your tickets for you and airport transfers for 1000 INR, roundtrip.
We stayed at Vinnie's where Dive India is located. They have nice tents set up, each has a tiled floor bathroom and hot shower, though our hot water didnt really work. We paid about $30 US, included breakfast. More expensive then some other places on the islands but i couldnt figure out how to book other places in advance. Food there was some of the best we had in our 3 weeks in India.
Now for the diving. We did 7 dives over 3 days. Expect tons of small fish with a smattering of eel, barracuda, trevaly schools and tons of beautiful corrals. We didnt see much of the big stuff other than a turtle and Napolean Wrasse. We dove at South Button island, The Wall and Dixon's Pinnacle. Visibility was OK 12-20 M. Dixon's was the best site, named after our dive master who found the site just a few months ago. The others were very good though as well. The dive boats are small, 20 foot skiffs, similar to the longtails in Thailand. They are slow, its 2 hours to the outer dive sites. the close ones are about 30 min. Dixon is a native andaman islander of Karen descent with 5 years experience. he was great as was all the staff at Dive India.
Hope this helps.
If you arrive in the morning, there is currently a 2 o'clock ferry for 150 INR to havelock Island. From what we have heard, ferry tickets can be hard to get and people have been stuck in lovely Port Blair for a day or more. We booked with Dive India which offered a deal where they got your tickets for you and airport transfers for 1000 INR, roundtrip.
We stayed at Vinnie's where Dive India is located. They have nice tents set up, each has a tiled floor bathroom and hot shower, though our hot water didnt really work. We paid about $30 US, included breakfast. More expensive then some other places on the islands but i couldnt figure out how to book other places in advance. Food there was some of the best we had in our 3 weeks in India.
Now for the diving. We did 7 dives over 3 days. Expect tons of small fish with a smattering of eel, barracuda, trevaly schools and tons of beautiful corrals. We didnt see much of the big stuff other than a turtle and Napolean Wrasse. We dove at South Button island, The Wall and Dixon's Pinnacle. Visibility was OK 12-20 M. Dixon's was the best site, named after our dive master who found the site just a few months ago. The others were very good though as well. The dive boats are small, 20 foot skiffs, similar to the longtails in Thailand. They are slow, its 2 hours to the outer dive sites. the close ones are about 30 min. Dixon is a native andaman islander of Karen descent with 5 years experience. he was great as was all the staff at Dive India.
Hope this helps.
Luko
Contributor
Interesting experience sctclimbs, i'm also considering a week stay in Havelock in feb. and have found Vinnie's : but as I am also traveling with my wife and daughter who do not dive. Hence they need quite comfortable accoms and a nice startch of beach. Would you still recommend Vinnies or others like Wild Orchid down south on beach #5 (I've tried Barefoot resort but they are fully booked at the period)?
Have you seen the other dive centres and do you know if there's another one which would provide a bigger boat?
Thanks for your replies.
Luko
Have you seen the other dive centres and do you know if there's another one which would provide a bigger boat?
Thanks for your replies.
Luko
DontLieToMe
Contributor
- Messages
- 211
- Reaction score
- 0
Ocean Rover - based in Phuket - is doing three trips in the Andamans in February-ish - this year, 2008, and 2009. The first trip starts in a couple of days. I am on the second trip and will post some notes - it should be interesting. For Ocean Rover - www.ocean-rover.com.
DISCLAIMER - I run Diveindia, one of the dive centers mentioned in this thread. Just so that is out in the open.
Sctclimbs - glad to know you liked diving and staying with us! Not sure if I had met you or not as you didnt sign your name and I have been away for the past 3 weeks but appreciate the kind words regardless. We do have big stuff (sharks, mantas), but not on the same scale as real "big fish" destinations. The main thing about the diving here is the variety.
Luko - just to let you know, one of our big boats is ready again. We just put in a new engine, merely 11 months behind schedule (the other boat should be ready within a few weeks as well, but that is 25 months behind schedule, so I am not holding my breath). Barefoot, the other professional dive center in the island, also has the same sort of big boat as us.
As for which resort will be good - well, Wild Orchid is quite nice. We were based there for 3 years before moving to our own resort. We are quite nice as well, if I may say so myself. In terms of amenities, etc., we both offer pretty much the same stuff. Our cottages and restaurant are closer to the beach, but their rooms are a bit bigger. I dont think you can go wrong with either.
Dont Lie To Me - I might be on one of the Ocean Rover trips as well, as I have some free time and am kinda keen on the idea of letting someone else do the running around while I dive
. Am speaking to Jeroen, their managing director, about finding a berth for me at this late a stage, so look me up if we end up on the same boat. I'll probably be the only person with BP/wings anyway.
Cheers,
Vandit (aka Vinnie)
Sctclimbs - glad to know you liked diving and staying with us! Not sure if I had met you or not as you didnt sign your name and I have been away for the past 3 weeks but appreciate the kind words regardless. We do have big stuff (sharks, mantas), but not on the same scale as real "big fish" destinations. The main thing about the diving here is the variety.
Luko - just to let you know, one of our big boats is ready again. We just put in a new engine, merely 11 months behind schedule (the other boat should be ready within a few weeks as well, but that is 25 months behind schedule, so I am not holding my breath). Barefoot, the other professional dive center in the island, also has the same sort of big boat as us.
As for which resort will be good - well, Wild Orchid is quite nice. We were based there for 3 years before moving to our own resort. We are quite nice as well, if I may say so myself. In terms of amenities, etc., we both offer pretty much the same stuff. Our cottages and restaurant are closer to the beach, but their rooms are a bit bigger. I dont think you can go wrong with either.
Dont Lie To Me - I might be on one of the Ocean Rover trips as well, as I have some free time and am kinda keen on the idea of letting someone else do the running around while I dive
. Am speaking to Jeroen, their managing director, about finding a berth for me at this late a stage, so look me up if we end up on the same boat. I'll probably be the only person with BP/wings anyway.Cheers,
Vandit (aka Vinnie)
SCUBAJENNIFER
Contributor
The Hamburger:
I had heard that they wouldn't allow people in the Nicobars
MartianBeerPig
Contributor
They restrict access to the Nicobars. If you're not an Indian national, it's pretty difficult.
DontLieToMe
Contributor
- Messages
- 211
- Reaction score
- 0
I just came back from ten days on a liveaboard in the Andamans. I was a little surprised at the diving. I am very fond of creatures and found invertebrate life to be pretty limited - to include soft corals. Most sites were almost entirely hard corals. Sometimes there would be good fish action - such at a submerged pinnacle on the east side of Narcondam. At some sites there we encountered Mantas. There were a few sharks now and then but in general the creatures were pretty shy.
Similar threads
