The Pearl Hunting

The winter before last we visited the Andaman Islands. We bought our air tickets early followed by booking for our accommodation in a government run hotel called Andaman Teal house. Incidentally this hotel did have a web page but no online booking facilities, making us to use postal and fax services. The price was too good to be true for the location, view and our expectations. We were once again reminded that if something seems to be too good to be true, it's probably not true.

Early next morning we moved to another hotel nearby as a stop gap arrangement since the Teal house did not offer the type of accommodation we got used to. We also learnt that the diversity of India also transpires to the functionality of its tourism industry and if you are visiting Andaman, you better coordinate with a travel agency.

We spent the day visiting the other islands and relocated to a place called The Park hotel early next morning. Though it was not the brand that we all know, it finally brought the much needed relief and joy. This hotel was similar to old boarding houses with an open corridor serving the series of guest rooms. The corridor had a distant view of the ocean along with a view of the landscaped garden below that was equally refreshing. Our daughter was by then enjoying the trip with uncle and the grandparents from both sides pampering her.

The beach, which was 10 minutes walk didn't have a name to go by but generally identified as the beach near Rose Valley Resort. It was pristine and almost untouched. The hotel owner assigned a lady accompany us and show around for the first time. My daughter even adopted a puppy on the way who accompanied us to the beach.

After reaching the beach we were all got scattered and a sudden excitement brought us back together. The lady had found a pearl within a sea shell and so did my father-in-law. That was another too good to be true incident.

For the next few days whenever we had time to spare we were at the beach looking for pearls with vengeance driven by the desire to have this unique experience. We found everything from live Molluscs, snail, conch shells, cat eye shells but no pearls. I ended up having serious sunburnt on my arms, legs and feet.

The morning we were leaving the hotel, we met another family who checked in last evening and they excitedly narrated their experience in the beach this morning. The lady of the hotel took them to the beach in the morning where she found a pearl and luckily they too found one on the beach.

Deja Vu!