It's recorded that Marco Polo was the first official visitor to the beautiful Andaman and Nicobar islands, a tropical archipelago of 572 islands.
Isolated in the Indian Ocean and little known in the western world, these islands, a territory of India, are covered by tropical rain forests and only a handful of them are inhabited.
Historically, farming and fishing were (and are) the main revenue sources here, however, increased tourism (especially from scuba divers and beach lovers) are providing another source of much-needed income.
Note that travel to the Nicobar Islands is restricted, and only Indian nationals engaged in research may visit. Some exceptions are made for tourists with special permits.
When we think of the Indian Ocean, we think of the Maldives, Mauritius, the Seychelles. It's where we go (if we can afford it) for a bit of luxury island fun. But trace your finger a couple of inches further east on the map and you will find an archipelago that you've probably never heard of. The Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, are politically part of India but geographically and ethnically closer to Burma (they lie 1,250 km south of Calcutta but are less than 200 km from Burma). The group is made up of around 550 islands, islets and rocks, only 26 of which are inhabited, some exclusively by the four indigenous negrito tribes.
Few had heard of the Andamans until the 2004 tsunami struck, devastating the more southerly coast, much of which remains under water. Indeed, in his 1990 film about the Andamans, Jacques Cousteau described them as the "invisible islands". But then they had hardly had a great press. Ptolemy, who mapped the area as early as the 2nd century, referred to them as "the Cannibal Isles". Twelve hundred years later, Marco Polo, picked up the baton to write of fearsome "dog-faced cannibals". By the time the British arrived in the 19th century and created an infamous penal colony for Undesirables from the Raj, the Andaman Islands had fully earned their reputation for horror, gaining the nickname of Black Waters.
The Andamans are being touted as the great new holiday discovery. When airline Jet Airways surveyed 1,000 Indians about tourism, the islands came top of the list of places they thought British tourists should visit. The physical reminders of the British presence may make for an interesting trip - the old saw-mill on Chatham Island, the creepy Cellular Jail that still dominates Port Blair, the ghostly remains of the settlement on Ross Island - but it is the beauty and isolation of the islands that exerts the most powerful pull. The Andamans are a paradise of translucent waters, white beaches and coral islands thick with virgin forest.
Havelock Island already has a sprinkling of resorts and camps catering for divers, backpackers and celebrities in search of anonymity. The only nod to the higher end of the market is the Barefoot eco-resort on Radhanagar beach, voted best beach in Asia by Time magazine in 2004. Brimming with charm, character and hospitality, Barefoot is a collection of 17 huts and cottages hidden in a forest on the remote west coast of the island, where parakeets, emerald doves and fairy bluebirds compete for airspace.
The east coast tends to shallow waters scattered with dead coral - which makes offshore swimming tricky - but Radhanagar has fabulous snorkeling amid 4,000 types of coral teeming with marine life; diving is punctuated by barbecue lunches on blissfully deserted islands.
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