Port Blair, Andaman Islands, India (May 9)

Note: Port Blair was a last minute substitute when the visit to Myanmar was cancelled due to unrest there.

Port Blair is the largest city and capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an Indian protectorate in the Bay of Bengal composed of over 572 islands of which only 38 are permanently inhabited. Prior to India’s independence from Britain in 1947, Port Blair’s cellular jail housed thousands of freedom fighters in horrible conditions. The jail, completed in 1906, was built so that no prisoner could see another. The islands played an important role in World War II, were captured by the Japanese, and after the war were returned to British control. As with mainland India, Hindu and Buddhist temples dot the cityscape, as we noted on our tour by “tuk tuk” (3-wheeled taxicab).