What IS a Guyana?

Thanks for sharing all that you have shared. Have you been underwater? Do you know what the underwater in Havelock looks like? I had adored the corals at Jolly Buoy and the multitude varieties of fish that I had seen there. Do they still have the same richness in underwater life? I know coral hunting is banned. But that still did not stop people from running with pieces of coral in the aircraft.

Yup I had been, did snorkeling but not scuba. You must do scuba at Havelock. The corals are protected by Govt. of India. There is a stringent chak at Port blair airport for corals. A heavy fine followed by a prison of 1 year (or more) for convicted.

@SP: Did you take any underwater gear with you? Would've absolutely LOVED to see some pictures of those corals..I know I can search on Google and have a look and stuff, but still..

P.S: Underwater photography, I guess is a different world altogether.

An early morning wake up next day as well. I am fortunate to get such a wife who is always supportive for my photography activity (no matter how much awkward poise I may take for certain subjects) .. A bribe of few good portraits using Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 helps here ..
So we rushed to our beach again to not-to-miss privileged view of sunrise.



While we were stuffing in the complimentary breakfast , a guy in shorts came to us asking to get ready for snorkeling trip. Hearing this I started stuffing heavy quantity of pooris into my half sized mouth, and with very great difficulty mesticated it..

In the excitement I forgot to carry the sony P32 camera to take under-water shots. A recall of that mistake makes me nearly cry even now also as I couldn't take any fotos underwater.

So, we were made to board a small boat powered by a kirloskar diesel engine, sound of which shaked my inner,outer,upper,lower,hidden,exposed parts of my body !..

We were accompanied by another HM couple and it seemed like an arranged marriage due to their cosmopolitan,firangi,cosy type behaviors.. They might have got confused in this open air boat with their open air bath-room.
Anyways, so find the pics while we were on the way to so called as 'Elephant Beach'.
Ok before the photos, please note that Elephant Beach is the place which was featured in Kingfisher Calendar a year back which endorsed the brand under cover of women undergarments.Thanks to Mr.Malya again !.









This is the boat used for the purpose of scuba and snorkeling!




45 minutes of veryyyyy interesting boating, and we reached elephant beach. Honestly, I felt like I am watching a TV, shot using 180 degree wide angle raynox.
It really felt like some natural special effect.
Find the pics...











One guide assisted us for snorkeling, we were made to take a learners ring, put on the salty snorkeling mask, hold the hands of the guide, and get pushed into the deep side of sea.
For first few minutes i thought my hard earned per-diem has gone for a waste, but hey ! the moment we entered the deep side, it was , WOW !.. A real, natural aquarium, with multicoloured corals and fishes. I was in a completey different world altogether.. Far better than what I have seen in NatGeo and Discovery.
The view was so much incredible that I forgot that I was uncomfortable with the mask I had, everything was forgotten for some time, no pain, no hassle, no need to breathe also!.
I was mesmerized, delighted, and top of everything-addicted. So I am going back again and do Scuba each day. An underwater photography kit is added into my must buy list!



Next day we had our cruise back to Port Blair. I was getting ready to negotiate the sea sickness and Havelock Sickness as I was going to miss this place badly.
In port blair I had enough buffer time to visit the cellular jail.
Visit this place and the feeling of patriotism will take a toll over your romanticism. It was one hour after we left the place , I got my senses back.

... to be cont with cellular jail photos

Guyana lizard are big sized lizards also called as commodos. They look like this-



a 100mm macro lens with large aperture will be a gem for underwater shots. M planning for one before my next trip to havelock.

I was carrying my Sony P32 and planned to wrap it in a clean,transparent plastic to take some shots. I was ready to sacrifice that camera if something goes wrong. but I forgot to carry it to the beach.

Nikonos are meant for underwater but is expensive. So I have plans to purchase the underwater gears.

@aryan The second shot of transparent green water is something polarizers are meant for !

Mesmerizing pics....The colour reproduction of the camera has gripped me immensely!! Looking forward for more pics.

I can sense one more trip to this place is for sure from you in the coming years!!

Not only one, m gonna make it multiple times..
2 years back I came to know about my boss taking leave for his scuba activities. I thought wat a fool he is, as he use to go to bahamas,Bali,phuket,lakshwadeep,andmanas for scuba. I guessed it was his overflowing money making him do so !..

But now I realise how much sports he is ..

Thanks for the info. And thanks also for sharing the part about the underwater aquarium. I am glad that that life has not receded unlike the other parts of the world. Now this has really pervaded my thinking.

@pujari: great pics and logs there! this is the first travelogue of andaman in xBhp rite?
man, you confuse me more and more. i was in for buying a cam and i am pretty amateur in photography. so dropped D40 and decided for S5IS. now looking at your pics, i wanna turn back to D40 again! damn you ... :P

Yup dude.. And believe it or not , all the pics are taken using 18-55mm D40 kit lens .. no VR !.. The fusion of tripod,polarizer,remote did an amazing work (I must thank bprags for this combo advice) .. I was kinda frustrated with the gear I had, but things turned out to be fine !..

Imagine what a Nikkor 10-20mm and Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 with a D300 will do there?

I am going again next year with a bag full of gears (possibly a new cam as well) and dedicate myself to nothing but scuba and photography![/QUOTE]

Woow! thats solid then. Be it any lens, its the framing that matters. I would love to join you mate next year, i had never thought the Andamans could be so enchanting.

Heyy Rohit !!

Congratulations on the marriage... or shud i say a wonderful HM !!! i hope you enjoyed a lot with the wives ( camera included )

as usual amazing stuff bro ... one pic is already my desktop background ... this has replaced the one taken by you in nandi hills !! with a key and bikes in background ...

i was blown away with the pics and amazing write up !!! nice thread

SP: For dslrs, a company called Dicapac which makes excellent underwater body kits. Have seen some of those, they look like this. You can take em down upto 5m/ 16 ft. Need to check if Nikon makes such things too.

Go for DSLRs anytime if u are serious about photography.

Hey krishna, thanks buddy !..

yup this is wat m planning to purchase . One of my colleague in US has one with his D200. Nikon does not have any accessories like this, they have nikonos instead !

Congrats man on ur marraige.. !!!!!! and dude wat a place u have been.. simply awesome !!!!!!!!!! definitely in my travel plans now !!!!!!!!!!

congrats for your marraige.
great pics there sp.atleast i have gone though this thread for ten times now from the day you started this.next year jan i am also thinking of visiting Andaman and after reading your log it is confirmed now.