Having taken 3 different solo vacations for 3 consecutive years, I want to provide tips on how to navigate travelling all by yourself, if you're ever so brave to take that step. Quite honestly, my decision to do these solo trips happened as a result of friends or cousins not wanting to take that trip or not having the time to. If there's one lesson I've learned living this very lovely life is that either you can wait for experiences to happen to you or create them yourself. When riddled with a choice, always pick the latter. So, I chose to do it all by myself and looking back, I have zero regrets.
My all-time favourite movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobaara released when I was 16 years old, and like many other teenagers, I was also bitten by the bug to attempt scuba diving. But it did take a whole decade for that vision to come to life. I was 3 months away from turning 27, and woke up one morning to the thought, how cool would it be if I learnt how to scuba dive on a solo trip this birthday? When you live with your parents, the bridge between idea and execution of a potentially life-threatening adventure is a long one. If you are in such a situation, here's Tip Number 1 -
Choose a travel destination where someone you know resides. This gives your loved ones a slight assurance of your safety. Thankfully for me, a friend's brother was a scuba diving instructor in Andaman, which acted as a safety net, and I got a thumbs up from mom and dad for this 5-day long trip.
Before I dive in to my itinerary, I'd like to share information about the scuba diving certification or as some call it, the diving license. It essentially acts as a driver's license except it is for underwater. I got mine through PADI, which is a professional association for divers, and my certification is good across the world. There are prerequisites to attaining the certification -
Number one, you need to be able to swim. Before even starting the course, your instructor assesses if you can swim a minimum of 200 meters and if you can stay afloat for 10 minutes. Second requirement, you do need to dedicate a minimum of five days to learn how to scuba dive.
There are two different beginner certifications, scuba diver and open water diver. They differ in the skills that you learn and the depth you are allowed to dive. I'll divulge more details as I speak about each of my days at Andaman.
Day 1 and it is 3 am. I'm waiting on my pre-booked Uber to pick me up and the red-eye flight does not hamper how excited I am for this upcoming adventure. And then reality hits.
When the Uber pulls up to my apartment, I notice two men sitting in the car. Now ideally there should be only one person in there, the driver. I ask why there's another man in my Uber, and I'm told he's a friend who is just accompanying the driver so he doesn't fall asleep.
Sus? Definitely sus. I took a minute to think through what my alternatives were, and being able to get an Uber ride to the airport at an ungodly hour was going to be difficult. So I sat inside and immediately placed a call to my mother, indicating to the men that someone out there is aware of my whereabouts. This brings me to Tip Number 2 -
Share your phone location with your loved ones. If you have an iPhone, go to the Find My App -> People section and start sharing location with contacts of your choice. This obviously works only if the other person has an iPhone too. If they don't, which was the case for me point in time, share location on WhatsApp. Hit the + button on your chat with them. Click location and begin sharing live.
Back to my not so fun cab ride. For anyone who has lived in Bangalore, you would know that you have to pass a toll booth to get to the airport. Post 2020, the government made it mandatory for vehicles to have a fast pass. Essentially for the toll fee to get auto debited and better time management so that not every vehicle stops at the toll booth to pay the fee. We are about 100m away from said toll booth and this Uber driver without a heads up takes another route into a tiny bylane.
"Why are you going this way?" I ask him in Kannada, the local language spoken in Bangalore.
"The toll booth is straight ahead!" Mind you, my tone and pitch is at a 120% at this point because my fight response has been inactivated.
"Oh, I don't have the fast pass to get through the toll booth. This is a shortcut" he says.
It is pitch dark. We are in a street with no soul around and I am stuck in this car with two stranger men. It does not take Holmes to deduce I am in danger less than an hour into this solo trip. Wait, solo trip? This could potentially be my last trip if I did nothing!
"It's 2022 and you still don't have a fast pass? Go to the main road, pay the toll with cash. I don't care. I don't feel safe. My mother on the phone call will dial the cops right now if you don't turn around. She's been listening to us this whole time!", I scream at him. He turns around while insistently asking me to calm down. And now it's time for Tip Number 3 -
Especially for solo women travellers, be loud and make a scene if you have to. Your safety comes first and you have to trust your instincts whenever you are in potential danger. Maybe these men were never going to harm me, but did I want to stay mum and find out?
Five minutes later, I was at the airport departure gates. Having read safely, the incident that transpired not too long ago had made me nervous at the start of this journey. That nervousness did convert to joy by 5am, when I was at the new airport lounge, dining on an early breakfast consisting of veggie omelette, cookies, idli and potato wedges. At some point through my twenties, I self-taught myself this amazing skill of letting go and focusing on little joys of life. Because if you think about it, that's how we were as kids. If we were upset over an incident, we wouldn't let our whole day, week or month determine how we felt. Likewise, it took a free meal for me to get past the Uber incident. Why let that ruin the start of something good?
A couple hours later, I was on the flight to Port Blair, which is the capital city of the Andaman Islands. Andaman is a popular destination for newly married Indian couples, so my choice to do a solo trip may not have been the best. I was seated next to a couple on an aisle seat. The seats across the aisle were a couple. Behind me and in front of me were seated some more couples. You may feel a wave of self-pity while on a solo trip, but that will soon die when you hear these couples bickering. So don't let your emotions sway you from this brave adventure you're on.
It was 9am and I had reached the Port Blair airport. By May of 2022, at least 60% of Indians were vaccinated, and travel regulations required you to carry proof of being fully vaccinated, even while flying domestically. To evidence that the proof checked out, the airport security put a stamp in bold letters that read VACCINATED on my hand. There is no Uber or Ola or any other cab service in the Andaman Islands, including in Port Blair, or at least 3 years ago when I visited there weren't any. From the Veer Savarkar International Airport, I was to head to Haro Jetty for my ferry to Havelock Islands, also locally known as Swarajdweep. Thankfully, outside the airport, you will find enough auto drivers to take you to your destination. Tip Number 4 -
Always keep enough cash in hand. The lack of network means Google Pay, Apple Pay or any other phone and network enabled payment method will be down.
The ferry departs at very limited times throughout the day and the one I was to get on was going to leave at 12:30 pm, so I had nearly 3 hours to kill. During this time, I made some phone calls, made new friends and stared at cute sparrows that are in abundance in Port Blair.
The ferry to the Havelock Islands is a pretty long journey. It takes anywhere between 1.5 to 2 hours to reach. My diving instructor, Arvin Monteiro, was to pick me up from the jetty to take me to my hotel. We had no means of communication because the network at the islands is not the best. I was using Vi (Vodafone) at the time, so you may want to try another network provider. Thanks to WhatsApp display pictures, we identified each other and head to Radhakrishna Resort. It's a 3-star hotel and I stayed in the Deluxe cottage, which has a cozy little balcony. The staff at this hotel is super helpful and the complimentary breakfast includes aloo paratha and poha.
Day 1 of the scuba diving course was pretty relaxed. I had finished my theory lessons before arriving in Andaman, so I had a debrief session with my instructor and was provided with my scuba gear that consists of the wetsuit, mask and snorkel. Divers are to steer clear of alcohol, so this was a no drink vacation for me. I later dined at the Bonova Cafe and Pub, which has an amazing vibe with live music and delicious food.
Day 2 was an early start because we were heading to the waters for my swim trials. Although I learned how to swim at the age of 4 and had taken a few lessons again a month prior, I didn't have any experience swimming in the sea. And seawater is salty. I didn't have my snorkel mask on so all of that salty water did enter my mouth when I began to swim and that was not a fun experience! It definitely was a struggle initially and then I reminded myself that if I don't get past this first step, there will be no dive training. I did finally complete my swim and float test and after a little bit of rest, we started off with the lessons. You are taught the importance of all parts of your gear:
First and foremost, the suit. I had a half sleeve suit on and from experience I can tell - opt for a full sleeve because it gets pretty cold down there.
2 - Dive watch. This obviously is waterproof and provides information like the depth we are at and it has a timer. This is important because you log all your dives so the dive watch gives you all the details you need to be adding to the dive log.
3 - Weights. To be able to explore the deep blue waters, you need to be able to submerge into the deep. So there is a standard set of weight that you put on as a belt. This of course is difficult to walk on the shore with, but once you are in the water, you don't even realize it's on.
4 - The buoyancy control device, regulator, pressure gauge and oxygen tank are all connected together. These are critical for the dive and essentially keep you breathing under water. One of the preliminary skills taught is how to breathe through the regulator.
5 - Mask and snorkel. Important to protect your eyes under water and for easy breathing when you are swimming on the surface.
And lastly, fins. You put these on last because, well, try walking on land with those on!
After I put my gear on, I had to learn buoyancy control. This is definitely tricky in the first few tries and almost seems like magic when you get it right. You use the BCD and breathing techniques to stay afloat just the accurate amount to not touch the dive surface but also deep enough to be able to view the fishes so you are basically hovering over. I was absolutely deflated by the end of the sessions on day 2 and it was 2pm by the time we wrapped up so I was starving. Heads up, diving will include washing your hair every single day after a dive. Unless you are a fan of salty, dried out, brittle hair which I'm sure no one is.
For lunch I went to a cafe called Something Different and my experience there was truly something different. The food here was on the spicier end but I also did order seafood so that may be why. This cafe has a board out front that said free drop-offs to your hotel. Now my hotel was walking distance but 4-6 hours underwater can tire you out for the day so I enquired about it with my over-friendly waiter. He said he will check on it and return to my table as I finished paying for the meal.
"Actually the driver isn't available right now but I can drop you off."
My mind quickly calculated how to react to this situation. He had previously asked if I was a solo traveller to which I had lied and said my friends were doing their dives and I was just dining solo. No matter how nice of a person or professional you are, why would you leave your day job (waiting on tables) and take on the role of a driver to drop off a customer which is anyways an add-on service? However well-placed his intentions were, my instinct voiced a loud no.
After 10 seconds of a pause, I responded, "Actually change of plans. My instructor wants to see me. His office is right across the street, so I don't need a drop anymore."
Did I lie? Yes. Was my instructor's office across the street? Well, no, but on my way to the cafe, I had seen a scuba school. And what does the waiter know with scuba instructor I go to?
Tip number 5 -
Listen to your instincts. Better safe than sorry. I walked swiftly back to my hotel and took a nap for 30 minutes. Woke up around 4 p.m. to the realization that I had not really begun exploring the islands. The hotel opposite mine, Seashell Havelock, was renting out cycles and cycling around the island seemed like a fun thing to do. Except the cycle seat was too high for me, and as I began to ride, I fell.
There's this movie called A Series of Unfortunate Events that I had watched as a child, and that day was seeming a lot like that in reality.
Day three and the weather was horrid. I reached my instructor's office at 7 a.m. and there were heavy showers. We waited for about an hour and then had to go over to Nagar Beach, our usual spot, but it was also windy, so my instructor was concerned about doing the rest of the skills in the choppy waters. He communicated with some other instructors and heard that divers were going in at the Nemo Beach, so we made our way there. I was still hesitant to get into the water, although it was only drizzling at this point. So my instructor went over to do some dives, and I waited around for about two hours, hoping the sun would come out. During this wait, I made a new friend. I had found myself in a no-network zone and needed to have some sort of a connection to be able to communicate with my instructor. I was sitting in one of the shacks and spot this girl walking about like she worked at the business, so I asked her if I could connect to a WiFi. The password she gave me didn't work, but she was kind enough to share her personal hotspot with me. We started to talk, and I happened to tell her about my cycling incident from the previous day to which she sweetly offered to show me around the islands on her bike.
My instructor later returned to check in on me, and although it was slightly drizzling, I chose to go into the waters. It was supposed to be my first dive after all! This was a shore dive, which means you enter the water from the shore. It is less dramatic than jumping off a boat. You have your fins on, so you walk backwards while entering the waters, and it's almost like reversing a car because you have so much gear on that you aren't as agile as you'd be without any of this equipment on you. Plus Nemo Beach is crowded because non scuba divers, you know, the ones who aren't trained, also shore dive from this beach. After sifting through all the people, I was finally 8 meter underwater. Here I witnessed the butterfly fish, spotted sweet lips, jelly fish, and most importantly, absolute silence. All I could hear were the bubbles from breathing underwater.
I've never been a place that quiet, where you don't even listen to your own thoughts, and it's because you aren't having any. You're really just living in the moment.
Every now and then, in any dive, you are to keep a check on your gauge, to see exactly how much oxygen you have left in the tank. We were underwater for 20 minutes at this point, and I began to feel insanely cold. I needed to get out of the water ASAP. But you can't surface back to the top immediately. You have to swim upward at a very slow pace. Oh, and you also have to communicate with your dive buddy your every move. I didn't know if there was a hand signal for time please, so I started with every alternate move I knew, which turned out to be quite a comedy of errors.
First, I signaled to go up, to which my instructor signaled - No, we still have time. Then I signaled hand against neck, back and forth trying to show him that I couldn't do it anymore. But that was in fact a signal of I'm out of air, to which my instructor looked at my gauge and signaled, All okay because, well, I wasn't really out of air. I finally did the shiver signal, which really means I'm cold, which he understood, and we started to surface upward. When we reached the surface, he removed his mouthpiece and asked, were you trying to tell me you were cold and wanted to end the dive? Yes, I yelled and we swam back to the shore.
After the mandatory afternoon nap, I began scouting for which restaurant to go to for dinner. I didn't have to look very far because right opposite my hotel was located the White Lotus restaurant with the most delicious fish amritsari!
Day 4 and it was time to put all my practical skills to test. First up, dive equipment assembly. Until day 4, my instructor would assemble all of my equipment like the BCD and SPG to the oxygen tank and hand it over to me. But it was test time today, so I had to do it all by myself while he watched. Next was the 30 second mask removal and replacement that honestly just feels like eternity underwater. We did another shore dive on day 4 because it is necessary to have completed at least two dives to be certified. This dive mostly just included skill check, so another skill that was tested towards the end of the dive was tired diver tow. Now, no matter how skilled of a diver you are, nowhere in the world will you be allowed to dive solo. You always have to have a buddy with you. Most of the skills you learn as part of certification are for survival, both yours and your buddies. In a situation where your buddy may be tired or worse injured, you may have to help them to the shore. This was by far the most physically straining skill for me, especially because I'm a 44 kg/97 pound gal and I had to tow my instructor who is taller and definitely more than 44 kgs in weight. The distance is 25 meter from the shore and what do you know, I actually did it!
I was back to the hotel room after the exhausting first half of a day I had, having wrapped up my skills test, I wore a proud smile as I tucked myself into bed to go into a satisfactory nap. It had barely been a few minutes when the landline telephone in the room rang, the first time it ever did. The receptionist said my friend was waiting for me. Huh? What friend? I walked over to the reception as confused as ever, trying to piece who this friend could be. It was Priya, my sweet, hotspot sharing new friend who did keep up to her promise and had turned up with her bike. I'd never in reality seen a woman ride a man bike. It was so cool. Priya was raised on the islands and on our way to Radhanagar Beach, she shared stories of how it was growing up away from city life. Media consumption was far lesser than it is today, but her growing concern were the tourists. It was really saddening to hear from a local's perspective how tourism can be a double-edged sword. They bring in revenue, sure, but some don't even have the basic decency to not litter. So here's a PSA to everyone reading, traveling anywhere in the world. Find a trashcan and if you can't, wait until you do, but don't throw plastic all about the place. The insightful bike ride led me to the pristine turquoise waters of Radhanagar. I had the added benefit of being there with a local. She took me away from the crowds and I'm willing to share the secret sauce with my readers. There's a luscious forest in the backdrop of the beach. We walked through the forest to get to the far end of the beach, but the walk itself was a unique experience with the sound of the water hitting the shore to keep us company. The white sand beach, apart from being absolutely gorgeous, also has little crab home formations which is like nature's art.
Day 5 and it was my 27th birthday. Only a major nerd like me can schedule her final exam on a birthday, but in my defense, I wanted my PADI card to have a special certification date. By 9am, I had passed and officially qualified to dive up to 40 feet underwater! Little did I know, my instructor had a special surprise for me up his sleeve. As a birthday, plus becoming a diver celebration, we were cutting my cake on a tree house at Kala Pathar Beach. I think I dressed very appropriately that day when I wore a t-shirt that read 'Main Character Energy'.
Chatting with my instructor by the waters, I asked, "You took a big risk 9 years ago by quitting your job at JP Morgan Chase to become a diving instructor. Why?"
He responded, "Well, Shraavya, somebody once told me that life is a risk. If you're not living, then you take the risk of surviving or merely existing, which is even more riskier than taking a risk and living. That changed my whole perspective of life!"
My time at the Havelock Islands was nearing its close for the time being as I was headed to Port Blair and we had a little reunion with Priya joining us to see me off at the Havelock Jetty. Three hours later, I was at the Island Cliff Hotel at Port Blair. I was flying out on day 6 afternoon, but obviously not without my favourite meal of the day. Breakfast is included at the Island Cliff Stay and they deliver omelettes and idlis with the most yummy chutney straight to your room.
My last stop at Andaman was the Cellular Jail. Heads up, this isn't a very happy place, so choose to go here on a day when you're ready to digest heavy facts. This is also a museum where having cash in various denominations is necessary. Although the museum opens at 9am, the ticket-man did not have change on him since I was the first customer of the day. It was definitely annoying going to various establishments asking if they had change. So much to a point where I almost decided not to visit. I finally had the exact cash I needed to enter, so I did, an hour later. The Cellular Jail was built in the early 1900s by the Britishers, and was reserved for those they wanted to give the harshest punishments to, especially because there was no easy escape. On a guided tour, we were taken up to the tower where the guards stood watch, and it had a 360-degree view of the water all around, so if any prisoner even tried to escape through a swim route, they'd be caught. Freedom seemed much sweeter after having visited this historic standing, with a deep sense of gratitude for those that sacrificed so much for it.
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