British GQ - 04.2020

Are the Andaman

Islands the

NEW Maldives?

L

et’s get one thing straight:

you don’t go to the Andaman

Islands, you get to them.

For the uninitiated, this

starts with a 12-hour BA flight to

Chennai, requiring an overnight stop.

Helpfully, this is greatly improved

by the recent refurbishment of the

Taj Connemara, a stopover since

British colonial times and, in keeping

with its central role in the age of

empire, gently restored to its former

Claridge’s-style glory. From here, it’s

a two-hour internal flight across the

Bay Of Bengal to India’s farthest-flung

territory, followed by a brief layover

in its main point of entry, Port Blair.

(If desired, this can be spent on a

mercifully brief tour of its forbidding

former prison, once home to the

country’s freedom fighters, exiled

here before independence in 1947.)

Next up: a 90-minute ferry crossing

to Havelock Island (and for those in

search of comfort there’s really only

Havelock worth considering) that

ends with your luggage being

dumped unceremoniously on the

quayside ahead of an immigration

line overseen by a pair of civil

servants charged with taking down

visitors’ details longhand.

At which point, you may well ask,

why bother? Well, for those who

haven’t guessed, the Andamans are

Long guarded for their ecological – and

ethnological – importance, after the opening

of its first five-star eco-resort, India’s best-

kept secret won’t stay that way for long

Story by Bill Prince

off the beaten track yet uniquely

equipped to deliver on the tropical

highlights politely tamped down in

other destinations at this latitude –

thanks largely to the area being

cordoned off by the Indian

government due to its strategic

and scientific importance.

Beyond hosting military exercises,

the aim thus far has been to protect

its indigenous peoples, whose very

remoteness has been serially

undermined by overzealous

anthropologists and the odd

misguided tourist (the body

of the last outsider to consider

venturing ashore remains on

North Sentinel Island, bringing

even more unwanted attention

to its inhabitants). But things are

changing as prime minister Narendra

Modi, no doubt eyeing the income

that floods into the Maldives, espies

a new opportunity for the sprawling

archipelago: upscale tourism.

Thus far, only the intrepid few have

made it here in significant numbers:

more often than not off-grid divers

in search of the marine mother lode.

Wary of overdeveloping this end of

the market, access to the best dive

spots is currently under review. At

the same time, Havelock now plays

host to the region’s first luxury

property, Taj Exotica Resort & Spa,

Andamans: the inaugural “eco-

resort” from India’s premier

hospitality group, which sits on the

crescent-shaped Radhanagar Beach.

To confer “drop and flop” status

on the property, however, is to do the

Taj Andamans a huge disservice. >>

To confer ‘drop and

flop’ status on the

Taj Andamans is to

do it a disservice

Story by Bill Prince

Taj Exotica is the Andamans’

first luxury resort; (above)

white snapper carpaccio from

grill restaurant Turtle House

GQ TR AV EL

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