Continued from yesterday”¦ When the British first arrived in the Andamans, they put the prison on Viper Island, established personnel housing on Ross Island, and put the hospital on Chatham Island in the middle of the two. The islands can all be seen from one another. Ross eventually had a population of 500 and was a very nice town with many amenities. There was a large Anglican church, a bakery, general store, post office, water making plant, tennis courts, swimming pools, library, flour making plant, and more. It was once considered to be the Paris of east. Shortly before World War II, there was an earthquake that scared some of the people off Ross. When the Japanese captured the islands, they lived in the housing on Ross and built bunkers using materials taken from the existing buildings. After WWII, the British never went back to Ross and instead moved across the way to Port Blair. Anything salvageable from the buildings on Ross was reused in Port Blair and the shells of the buildings were left to deteriorate. The British also built a new jail in Port Blair. The tsunami in 2004 did even further damage to the already partly destroyed buildings on the windward side of the island.

At first glance, the area near the ferry terminal looks like a park, with scattered brick red buildings and lots of neatly maintained grass. On closer inspection, though, you realize there are a lot of decrepit old buildings set farther back in and amongst the cheerful red buildings. It looks like a few selected buildings have been restored, but most are in the process of being reclaimed by mother nature. We walked down the neatly landscaped dirt path towards the ruins. There was a small herd of deer just hanging out on the grass. They stared at us as we passed. How cool!

We were kind of amazed by the dilapidated buildings. There are ficus trees growing on them. Not through them, ON them. The base of the tree trunk starts at the roofline, and the roots of the tree climb their way down the walls into the ground. You can actually see the root system embedded into the wall. What is really bizarre is that since the roots are attached to the walls, the doors and windows are intact. The roots actually split and grow around the openings. We wonder what will happen to the trees when the walls finally crumble. They will probably all fall over without their roots anchored in anything.

We followed the trail past some more ruins to a Japanese WWII bunker. The bunker was little more than a tunnel about 60 feet long (20 meters). At one point in the tunnel we noticed a foul smell, and realized there were bats residing in that spot. They were awake and flew away to hide from us when Eric shined a light on them. There were a couple other small bunkers on the island, too.

Ross island is quite narrow. There are a lot of ruins on the bay side, but there are far less on the ocean side. This side is not cared for nearly as well. There are many, many fallen trees, probably from the tsunami. The coastline is jagged, rocky and steep, with lots of palm trees. It is quite picturesque. We noticed some large chunks of brick walls here and there in the water, and we are guessing that the tsunami had taken most of the ruins into the ocean with it. We saw some squirrels and peacocks, as well as lots more deer.

We think we had circled about 4/5 of the island when it was time to head back to the ferry landing. It was too bad we couldn’t finish seeing the whole island. We arrived at the ferry landing at 1355 (1:55 pm), only to find out that our ferry had left early. Next one would be at 1530 (3:30 pm). Oh no!

We decided to wait and see if the ferry came back. Christi was dubious about it. Eric was desperately hoping. Mike was glad for a rest. Since the island is hilly, there are a lot of stairs on the path, which his damaged knees do not like.

Much to our delight, the ferry did return. Yippe! It was 1425 when we pulled out, and we knew we were going to make it to the harbor master on time. Yes! Our excitement died at 1426 when the captain stopped the boat and leaped into the engine room below the passenger seating area. There was a transmission problem. Oy vey. Guess we aren’t going to make it, after all. After several minutes of watching the entire crew standing over the hatch to the engine room, shouting at each other in what we presume was Hindi (14 languages are spoken in India, so it could have been another one), another ferry, quite similar to ours pulled up alongside us. We loaded in and were on our way. Our cab driver was waiting for us at the pier and we made it to the harbor master right on time.

The harbor master’s office is a series of cubicles. No one seemed to want to help us. Each person directed us to another person, and we wandered from cubicle to cubicle. We were finally led into a private office where a gentleman reviewed our paperwork, and then he directed us to another person at a cubicle who had previously passed us off. The second guy reviewed our paperwork and said he needed a copy of our freshly issued immigration, customs and coast guard clearance. We only had the originals, not realizing we needed copies. The guy sent Mike down the road to have copies made and escorted Eric and Christi upstairs to the harbor master.

The harbor master’s private office is huge, with a big desk and bookshelf, and a living room area with a couch, a couple arm chairs and a coffee table. He had us sit on the couch and chatted with us until Mike returned with the copies. He is a very nice guy. Once Mike arrived with the copies, he said we were all set and sent us on our way.

We stopped by an internet café, and then headed to dinner at a restaurant Lonely Planet recommended called Annapurna. It is a plain, rectangular room with no décor and utilitarian chairs and tables. The food was good, though. We tried mushroom butter masala, and the masala sauce was slightly sweet and not very spicy. We also got Nicobar aloo (potato) masala, which was made with a heavier cream, had a strong cinnamon taste, and a much hotter (spicier) sauce than the mushroom masala. We got a masala dosa, which is a big Swedish pancake with boiled potatoes about the texture of potato salad in the middle. The masala dosa is pictured below. It didn’t seem to be spiced at all, so who knows why it is named masala. We got a bowl of tomato soup, which tastes like Aussie tomato sauce. Americans, tomato sauce is not pasta sauce, but ketchup without the vinegar. We got stuffed paratha bread, one with veggies and one with paneer cheese. Annapurna’s paratha bread is like a tortilla, and the paneer cheese is like cottage cheese, so just imagine a whole wheat quesadilla with cottage cheese. The veggie one was a whole wheat quesadilla with ground up carrots, green onion and regular onion in the center.

We found a nearby bakery and got dessert. One is a puff pastry that is plain inside, and the outside is coated with cake frosting and coconut shavings. The second turned out to be a plain cake with plain frosting. And the small squares are sweet and have a crumbly texture, almost a cross between a non-chocolate fudge and a partially cooked bar cookie.

When we were done, the taxi took us back to the pier. The taxi driver had told us 100 rupees an hour or 600 for the day. If you go from the time Eric had first hailed the taxi until he dropped us off, it was 9 hours. However, he took off and did his own thing for three hours after he dropped us off at The New Lighthouse. Likewise, he took off for an hour while we were in the internet café. When it was time to pay, he wanted 1000 rupees. The difference between 600 and 1000 is about $10 USD. Eric didn’t argue and paid it.

The boat boys hopped in their little hand paddle boat and went out to where the dinghies were floating. They tried to untie Kosmospolitan, but apparently, she was caught up on something and they couldn’t get her unstuck. One of the boys took off his shirt and jumped in the water, going under several times in an effort to get Kosmopolitan free. We are so sorry for that boy for having to get into that disgusting water filled with diesel. Once he got Kosmopolitan free, he swam her over to the pier and we got in. We gave him a tip.