First the details of where we stayed, how we were accommodated, and what we paid ... roughly.
Dive resort: Dive India
Dive India gets a rating of 10 out of 10. These guys didn't just hire some locals to get stuff done. The owner, Vinnie, hired people who care about the patrons. Each detail was carefully tended too. The intervals and post dive ride back home were met with samosas, chai, snacks, bananas, and filtered water. I never had to lift a tank. My gear was set to fit me at the beginning, then stored after each dive and set out for me the next morning. Dive India even accommodated my gas needs ... wonderfully. If you know me and know how I tend to dive, PM me and I'll explain it.
Price:
$500 for a 6 day 12 dive plan, with additional night dives available as an option at around $20 a pop. We used the deluxe tent lodging offered at 1400rps ($28) a day from Dive India so that we could rest where we going to dive from. That made it easy to just walk out of our comfy tent and take a few steps over to the dive shop.
We also used the meet and great for about $50 that covered all transportation for us from Port Blair to the dive resort and back hassle free. Dive India arranged our pick up from the Port Blair airport to our ferry ride (including both our ferry tickets coming and going), and our ride to the resort from the landing and back. They also made our guest house reservations (we paid for the room) on the return trip, and arranged our ride to the airport the next morning.
All that said, in truth our biggest deciding factor in choosing Dive India was that they have the 15ltr tanks that no other dive operation has on the island. I'm a gas hog and my girl is a gas sipper. These guys worked with me to get past that.
Minutia:
Food was easy to find, adult beverages were abundant, and a scooter was an easy $4 a day to get. Meals were a bit higher priced than they would be in other places around India, but it was some of the best. The locals not involved at all with the dive resort seemed almost bored with the tourists, but never rude or troublesome. The main roads were all newly paved and easy to navigate.
Havelock was a tremendous introduction to the Indo Pacific dive world for me. Actually it was like an introduction to crack. I just didn't want to stop. I caught myself trying to rationalize away my extended surface intervals with all the attendant responsibilities that go along with them like generating an income or making sure the ex-wife gets her monthly bit. Instead, I found myself fighting off what felt like an epiphany that really ... leaving the crack house/dive resort was something I just didn't seem to need to do. I was absolutely certain that I could just sell all that useless stuff like cars and HD TV's that I own if I needed more money to dive with, right? Buuuuut ... my girl has a dissertation to write, a conference to attend, and mainly the dive resort was already booked up and wouldn't let me stay. SO I paid my tab and left with almost 1000 images on my laptop, taken mostly by my girl (she actually has the buoyancy to hover and take tremendous shots ... imagine that), still trying to figure out why selling all I own and moving to this Island paradise was a bad idea.
I'm still working on that last part, but here are the images. Most were taken by my better half, but a few were taken by a another diver who was there while we were. She allowed that I could post her stuff ... thanks Sylvia. Instead of posting a bunch of images here I'll post a few and include the link to my Picasa Havelock web album where the better of them are all stored online. My limited bandwidth prevents me from uploading all 1000ish so we have to make do.
Here's me in my frankenrig, followed by some other stuff. I cannot wait to get back there.
Thanks for looking, and if you have any thoughts or comments feel free to post them as you wish.
Dive resort: Dive India
Dive India gets a rating of 10 out of 10. These guys didn't just hire some locals to get stuff done. The owner, Vinnie, hired people who care about the patrons. Each detail was carefully tended too. The intervals and post dive ride back home were met with samosas, chai, snacks, bananas, and filtered water. I never had to lift a tank. My gear was set to fit me at the beginning, then stored after each dive and set out for me the next morning. Dive India even accommodated my gas needs ... wonderfully. If you know me and know how I tend to dive, PM me and I'll explain it.
Price:
$500 for a 6 day 12 dive plan, with additional night dives available as an option at around $20 a pop. We used the deluxe tent lodging offered at 1400rps ($28) a day from Dive India so that we could rest where we going to dive from. That made it easy to just walk out of our comfy tent and take a few steps over to the dive shop.
We also used the meet and great for about $50 that covered all transportation for us from Port Blair to the dive resort and back hassle free. Dive India arranged our pick up from the Port Blair airport to our ferry ride (including both our ferry tickets coming and going), and our ride to the resort from the landing and back. They also made our guest house reservations (we paid for the room) on the return trip, and arranged our ride to the airport the next morning.
All that said, in truth our biggest deciding factor in choosing Dive India was that they have the 15ltr tanks that no other dive operation has on the island. I'm a gas hog and my girl is a gas sipper. These guys worked with me to get past that.
Minutia:
Food was easy to find, adult beverages were abundant, and a scooter was an easy $4 a day to get. Meals were a bit higher priced than they would be in other places around India, but it was some of the best. The locals not involved at all with the dive resort seemed almost bored with the tourists, but never rude or troublesome. The main roads were all newly paved and easy to navigate.
Havelock was a tremendous introduction to the Indo Pacific dive world for me. Actually it was like an introduction to crack. I just didn't want to stop. I caught myself trying to rationalize away my extended surface intervals with all the attendant responsibilities that go along with them like generating an income or making sure the ex-wife gets her monthly bit. Instead, I found myself fighting off what felt like an epiphany that really ... leaving the crack house/dive resort was something I just didn't seem to need to do. I was absolutely certain that I could just sell all that useless stuff like cars and HD TV's that I own if I needed more money to dive with, right? Buuuuut ... my girl has a dissertation to write, a conference to attend, and mainly the dive resort was already booked up and wouldn't let me stay. SO I paid my tab and left with almost 1000 images on my laptop, taken mostly by my girl (she actually has the buoyancy to hover and take tremendous shots ... imagine that), still trying to figure out why selling all I own and moving to this Island paradise was a bad idea.
I'm still working on that last part, but here are the images. Most were taken by my better half, but a few were taken by a another diver who was there while we were. She allowed that I could post her stuff ... thanks Sylvia. Instead of posting a bunch of images here I'll post a few and include the link to my Picasa Havelock web album where the better of them are all stored online. My limited bandwidth prevents me from uploading all 1000ish so we have to make do.
Here's me in my frankenrig, followed by some other stuff. I cannot wait to get back there.
Thanks for looking, and if you have any thoughts or comments feel free to post them as you wish.
