Lakshadweep (Bangaram Island)

With relief, we arrived at Bangaram Island for 5 days / 4 nights of fun in the sun. Officially Bangaram Island is a uninhabited island -- except for the resort staff. Unofficially, when we were walking around the island, I'm pretty sure that we saw some huts belonging to non-staff people.

It is a beautiful island of coconut trees and sand -- small island, takes about 45 minutes to walk around the entire island. The resort is also small -- 30 huts plus several more buildings for reception, dining, etc. The resort was full the entire time we were there -- but for the most part we felt like we were the only people on the island.

The rooms were pretty basic -- but comfortable -- no a/c, just a ceiling fan -- fortunately the nights are cool on the island, so not a problem at all. On the other hand, the water was kind of funky -- no hot water (supposedly for eco-reason -- but they could use solar power) and it's very sulphuric -- so smells bad (I learned to take showers only breathing through my mouth). The water smell does disappear once the water has been exposed to air for about 5 minutes -- but that doesn't help much when taking a shower.

The food was very good -- buffets for all meals with lots of variety. Breakfast and lunch were served in the dining hut -- while dinner was served out on the beach. Lots and lots of fresh seafood (I don't think I've ever eaten so much in one week). The bar was a bit odd --- pretty much everyone working on the island is Muslim -- including the bartender -- so all non-drinkers. The bartender made the listed drinks well, but you couldn't ask for anything not on the list --- which was a bit limiting (probably fortunate for us though since the alcoholic drinks were very expensive).

The snorkeling was fabulous. There are coral reefs surrounding the island --- so you can just walk right into the water and there are coral & fish all around. The best snorkeling though is a short boat ride out into the lagoon --- we went out for a 3-hour snorkeling trip on our 2nd day -- and it's the best I've every experienced --- so many different tropical fish, just wonderful! (although I have seen pretty coral in the Caribbean).

Star-gazing was an unexpected wonder on the island. There is no air pollution or light pollution -- so the stars were just brilliant --- and we could actually see the Milky Way. We were also lucky in that the moon was just a crescent and set very early. We spent hours on the beach the first 3 nights staring at the stars and working out the various constellations. I downloaded an app onto my iPhone to help us out (Stargazer 3D -- excellent app!) -- because we were so close to the equator, the stars are in a different position than what we are used to seeing in the USA (for example, the big dipper is very close to the horizon), so definitely needed some help in figuring out what we were looking at.

Another cool thing we saw at night on the beach was ocean "phosphorescence". Every time a wave broke on the beach, the whole shore line would light up -- it took us awhile to figure out what we were seeing. According to a source on the web:

“Ocean “phosphorescence”, commonly seen at night when the water is disturbed, is largely due to the dinoflagellates; they occur ubiquitously in the oceans as planktonic forms, responding to mechanical stimulation when the water is disturbed by emitting brief bright light

Click here to see all of my pictures from Bangaram Island.