Introduction
I spent a day in Port Blair in Feb. Lets start with some geography and some brief history about Port Blair first; Port Blair is located in the Andamans and Nicobar islands between Thailand and Mainland India. The British were the first to formerly surveyed the place and during WWII the Japanese took over the Island and use it as a forward observation base. When India declared independence in 1947, the island was merged with the Indian mainland. For a more historical information u can look at here.

Transport
There are buses, taxis and small taxis that are like Thailand's TUK TUK. I mainly took the Tuk tuk around the city. They are relatively cheaper usually costing not more that 20-30rps. Although there is a meter in the Tuk Tuk but so far i have not seen it working, therefore u need to work out the cost of the ride before going off.

Celluar Jail
The Celluar Jail was built as a prison to house political prisioner during the British rule of India. It was called "Celluar" because each prisoner has their own cell , and thus were housed seperately. The design of the jail was spread out from the center with 7 "wings" outwards like a star with 7 points. Out of the original 7 wings only 3 remains to this day.

The entry fee is 5rps and add another 10rps if u want to shoot pictures. This pricing system where there is a seperate fee for shooting pictures in the facility is common in India (I encounter this at the submarine museum in Vizag, see my later post on Visakapatnam).

The best time probably is to go sometime in the evening around6-7pm as there is a sound and light show at around 7pm describing the story of the Celluar jail. However the rest of the jail exhibits is quite bare. The are probably only 3 exhibits hall (One at the entrance, one near the stage and one at the 2nd storey of the main building) which describes the history and some pictures.

List of people incarcerated in the Celluar Jail.

New Lighthouse Restaurant
Just outside the Celluar Jail is a restaurant that looks like a tiny lighthouse; all I can say is that is probably the best Indian restaurant that I have eaten in Port Blair. The food is good but be expected to wait up to 20-40mins for your meal to come. Prices for Tandoori Chicken depends on the size of the chicken, for a whole chicken expect to pay up to 300rps. They also offer a limited western and chinese menu.

Devastation of the tsunami
Next to the restaurant, remanants of a amusement park ravaged by the tsunami can be seen. The stone seats are broken, the ferris wheel is in a state of disrepair and the ticket booth seems trapped in time as it displays a calendar dated "2004 Dec". The Year and the month of the tsunami.

Well that concludes the short time i had in Port Blair.....

For more photos of my trip u can visit my website at www.geocities.com/stephenleephoto