Port Blair

Port Blair is a very hilly little town and quite busting, but in a laid back island kind of way. Because of all the hills I’m not quite sure, as of yet, how much of the town I’ve actually seen. While zooming around on the back of a motorcycle each summit gifts you with yet another pocket of the city tucked down in a valley. The same goes for the ocean, every time you think you are quiet a ways inland another bend in the road revels a another glimpse of the deep blue, with the obligatory palm trees, and possibly a boat or two.

There must be 50 small shops within a few hundred meters of my room but the contents of each shop varies only slightly from the shop beside it. So if you can’t find what you want, the shop owner always points very confidently across the street and adamantly tells you that they have what you are looking for… even if you just came from that very shop on the suggestion of the previous proprietor.

During the Asian equivalent of the siesta hours all but a very few shops close their garage doors which shut in the open-air dukan. This completely changes the landscape and can be quite disorienting if you have been using the shops as landmarks. However, the evening is a completely different scene when the temperature drops below 90 degrees. Not only do the shops all open but the street venders with there carts equipped with gas, burners, deep fryers, skillets, and all the accoutrements required for making quite an array of fried food.

Then there are always the tea stands which give you a show along with your tea for only 10 cents. The show involves throwing/pouring the tea out of one mug and catching it in another mug before in splashes to the ground. This makes the tea quite frothy and wonderful. The better the tea wala the farther the tea is “pulled.” I would not recommend trying this at home.

On to my living situation:
When I first took up residence on the Andaman islands I was staying in the EHA's (remember that who I am working with) Guest House. It was quite a nice place, very breezy, had a balcony and conveniently the food "mess" that I am a part of was served in the same apartment.

Pretty in pink, EHA Guest house, Port Blair

The balcony of the EHA Guest House, Port Blair.

I then moved to a semi more permanent location...The "Hollyday Inn." However it isn't only the spelling that makes me suspect it isn't part of the chain. But it quite adequate, has a pilar in the center of the room (interesting architectural design, I'm sure placed there for it's aesthetic qualities) and it is right across the street from the office.

My second residence, The Hollyday Inn, Port Blair

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View out my window, Hollyday Inn, Port Blair.

This posting is dedicated to Joe S. who reads my blog.