The Indian government's Society for Promotion of Nature Tourism and Sports (SPORTS) organizes a visit to three islands of Lakshadweep via ship. This is the Samudram package, which does not require you to obtain a permit or police clearance certificate, because you'll be spending your nights on the ship.
When preparing for the trip, many questions come to mind, which aren't really answered properly anywhere, so this blog post hopes to clarify the points.
Booking the trip
You can visit this page, and if you see dates of travel and available seats displayed, you can create an account on the website and do the booking yourself. I've been told that once the booking is done, there's no separate email or SMS confirmation. If that page does not show any info, or if there are no general seats available, contact the authorised travel agents. If there are any unused seats in the emergency category, they'd be able to get you a seat. You can request the travel agent to notify you when there's an availability too. They don't charge any extra commission. I contacted Gol Travels. The advantage being that their office is close to the Lakshadweep wharf, so their representative was physically present on the date of travel, to help us. Once I paid the amount to their bank account (they sent me a payment receipt), shared a copy of my mAadhaar (it's safer to share mAadhaar instead of the actual Aadhaar) and stated my food preference (veg/non-veg), it took many days until I was emailed a 13 character long tourist passenger id which confirmed my booking. I did find it odd that there's no immediate PNR number generation or email/SMS confirmation like a railway or airline ticket.
Cancellation
10% cancellation charge will be deducted if the booking is cancelled 30 days before departure. 25% cancellation charge will be deducted if the booking is cancelled between 29th to 7th days before departure. No refund if cancelled within 7 days before the departure. The refund will be directly paid to the customers bank account through which the customer booked the ticket online, within 7 days cancellation of the booking. However, the transaction charges levied by the bank/payment gateway will not be refunded.
Documents to carry
To get your boarding pass, you need to carry a black and white printout of your id card and either the passenger id you were emailed or the travel agency's payment receipt. I was told that a soft-copy would also suffice, but whatever id card you carry, needs to be in original.
Travel insurance
I contacted many companies, but none of them covered travel insurance for ship travel. So if a family member gets hospitalized and you need to cancel the trip, I guess you end up losing the money.
Arrival and departure flight/train
Once your ship booking is confirmed, you can book your flight or train, but make sure you book tickets that can be rescheduled or canceled. A person I know, had to reschedule his ticket because the ship which was set to sail on the 11th, got rescheduled to sail on the 10th, and one island visit was canceled and 1/3rd of the money was refunded. Although rare, there can be worker strikes, engine repair, changes in weather, etc. which can alter plans. The airport is far from the port, and there could be a significant amount of traffic, so plan accordingly. You always have the option of staying in Kochi for a night. When searching for rooms, make sure you look at the Google reviews of the hotel or homestay, and sort the reviews by ones with the lowest ratings. Avoid places where they mention the owner/staff is arrogant or there are pests or a lack of cleanliness.Order of island visit
The reason the Samudram brochure mentions only the island names and not the order of visiting them, is because the ship has different schedules for visiting the islands. It's available here. After the ship drops you off at an island, there's a good chance it'll sail off to another island to pick/drop the local passengers, and then return by evening to pick you up.
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| Sample of an old schedule with inaccurate timings. Click to see it bigger. |
Weather
The true beauty of the islands shows itself when there's sunny weather. The following websites offered a reasonably good prediction: https://www.meteoblue.com, https://www.meteoconsult.co.uk/, https://weather.com, https://www.weatheravenue.com/en/, https://www.weathercrave.com, https://www.bbc.com/weather.
These websites predicted rain on my travel dates, but it didn't rain: https://www.weathertab.com/en/, https://www.timeanddate.com/.
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| The incorrect predictions from weathertab and timeanddate |
There are also websites like https://www.tide-forecast.com/ for estimating the tides and https://windy.app/ which graphically depicts wind directions and intensity on a map. There are also websites like https://www.earthcam.com/ which show you live camera views of places, which will give you an estimate of the weather (not available for Lakshadweep yet).
Luggage safety
In the ship
When traveling alone, it does help keep one's luggage under lock and key, for peace of mind. For this, a piece of metal has been engineered into the cupboard door. A lock will not be provided for free. You need to either bring your own padlock or buy one from a little shop in the ship, opposite cabin 415. I'd suggest bringing your own number-combination padlock.
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| The mechanism available to lock the cupboard door |
You won't be provided keys to lock your cabin door from the outside. However, you can lock the door from the inside. When you go onto the island, a crew member will lock all cabin doors. When you return, the crew member will unlock all cabin doors.
After you get your boarding pass, you'll be transported to the port by bus. Before that, your luggage will be loaded onto a truck. If you have a small piece of luggage, you can carry it on the bus. Once you reach the ship, the luggage will be unloaded from the truck and will be taken to your cabin. I believe it'll be left at the corridor in front of your cabin door. You also have the option of carrying the luggage to your cabin yourself. When disembarking, if you aren't in a hurry, you can leave your luggage at the corridor, and it'll be taken down. Again, you have the option of carrying it down yourself.
At the islands
You'll be advised to take only a small bag or satchel containing your swim-wear or anything else you need. You'll also have to take along the yellow life-jacket provided in your cabin. At the resort, there will be multiple tables and chairs, where you can keep your mini-luggage. You'll be promised that nobody will steal your luggage. No lockers will be provided there. During my trip although this arrangement seemed trustworthy, if you can't trust your luggage simply being left on a table while you swim or go for the village visit etc, you can carry a small bag which has some kind of a combination lock.
Clothes washing and drying
As of April 2024, there's no laundry service for the passengers. There's no dryer either, and there's no place on the ship exclusively meant for hanging the clothes for drying. A suggestion was put forward for making a dryer available. Until then, you can hang wet clothes on the fixtures provided in the bathrooms. The air-conditioner circulates air in the bathroom too, so there's some chance of the clothes drying there. There's no bucket or mug in the bathroom, so don't bother bringing washing powder to wash clothes. At each island resort, there will be ropes provided to hang your swimwear to dry. Clothes clips will also be provided, but I recommend bringing your own clips, in-case the existing clips aren't sufficient. If the swimwear isn't dry by evening, you'll need a plastic cover to carry your damp clothes back to the ship.
Food
At 6am, tea, coffee and biscuits are served at the canteen. There's sugar-free tea and coffee too. At 7am breakfast is served. There's a good variety. Cornflakes with milk and sugar, bread with butter and jam, omlette, boiled egg, and some unique breakfast like upma or idli with sambar and chutney. It could also be noodles. Except for the first day, where lunch is served on the ship, you'll be having your lunch and evening snacks at the island resorts. There's a great variety of north Indian and south Indian curries available. You'll also be served a dessert like paysam. During dinner, you need to wait. To avoid overcrowding, sometimes the passengers of the 5th deck are called first to dine. Sometimes the passengers of the 3rd and 4th deck are called. Bunk-class passengers have a separate canteen.
In the non-veg section, it's primarily chicken, egg and fish that's the non-veg portion. I asked if food could be cooked separately for anyone who has a special dietary requirement, but the answer was a polite "no", since they have limited staff.
Medical treatment
Medical treatment is free of charge. There's a doctor onboard, and even after hospital timings, a male nurse will be present to help. If nobody is at the hospital or ward when you go there, simply go to the information desk, and they'll make an announcement for the nurse.
What's provided
A towel and soap will be provided in your cabin. You don't have to take it along to the resort. At the resort, towels, soap, shampoo and sometimes a conditioner will be provided. You'll be given a complimentary shirt (you can specify the size at the time of collecting your boarding pass). The cap that used to be given earlier, is no longer there.
Drinking water
Twelve bottles of drinking water will be kept in your cabin on the first day. If you need more, you can ask at the canteen. There is also a water dispenser available at some corridors.
ATM/UPI at the islands
UPI worked fine at Kavaratti, for people who made payments for their scuba dive. There are ATM's at all three islands, and I believe it works fine.
Network at the islands
BSNL seemed to work fine. Airtel was available only at Kavaratti, and when I measured it, the download speed was 8Mbps, but the upload speed was just 0.5Mbps.
SCUBA
For discover scuba dive (DSD) of upto a depth of three meters, I didn't have to show any doctor's certificate. However, I was required to answer a standard medical questionnaire. We didn't even have to wear any special scuba suit. Our normal swimwear was enough. If you are myopic, it's recommended that you learn how to use contact lenses and carry disposable contact lenses. It's necessary to see clearly to truly appreciate the beauty of what you see underwater. At Rs.2950, it was among the most cost-effective dives in India. Just make sure you practice breathing through your mouth. You don't even need to know how to swim. Also, take your camera along, since although we were told we'd be given a video of the dive, we were given only 1 minute's worth of footage. The whole dive was around 10 minutes or more, of exquisite beauty, which we now only have as a memory in our mind.
Ship's return to Kochi
Normally, the ship reaches by 10am. I'm told the maximum delay may be upto 2pm, but it never goes beyond that. If you are in a hurry to catch a flight or other transport, you will be allowed via a special line, to leave early.
Precautions
Top bed ladder placement
If the ladder is placed at the topmost position, it'll be very unstable when climbing, and can injure your hand too. The right way is to place it as shown in the image below. This also ensures it rests properly on the floor.
