A Resort Almost to Ourselves.
In November 2022, I took a ferry from Port Blair to Neil Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. I had already booked a stay at Silver Pearl Beach Resort, so once the ferry arrived, I hired a bike and headed straight there.
There was no dramatic plan for the trip. No long list of places to visit, no packed itinerary and no particular adventure waiting for me. I simply wanted to spend a few days on the island.
The ride from the ferry terminal to the resort was enough to make the place feel different. Neil Island was small, quiet and unhurried. Before long, I reached the resort — and almost immediately realised just how quiet my stay was going to be.
Silver Pearl Beach Resort was not a large or highly developed property. In fact, it felt almost deserted. As far as I remember, apart from perhaps one other foreign guest, I seemed to have the place almost to myself.
Next to the accommodation was a large open area that served as the restaurant. With so few people around, even that space felt unusually spacious and still.
But the real attraction was outside.
From where I was staying, the view opened directly towards the sea. Trees and mangroves stood between the shore and the water, and beyond them stretched the blue of the Andaman Sea. Depending on the tide, large areas of the rocky seabed became exposed before disappearing again beneath the water.
It was the kind of view that did not demand attention, yet somehow kept drawing it.
For three days, that became part of the routine.
There was a bike whenever I wanted to go somewhere, but Neil Island was small enough that it did not take long to realise there was no endless list of things waiting to be explored. After a while, I began wondering what exactly I was supposed to do with the rest of my time.
And perhaps that was the point.
Most holidays are built around activity. We travel somewhere and immediately start filling the days — places to see, photographs to take, restaurants to try, schedules to follow. Even relaxation sometimes becomes another item on the itinerary.
Neil Island was different.
There simply was not enough happening to keep chasing the next thing.
So the days became slower.
A ride on the bike. A walk around. Time by the sea. Looking at the changing sky. Watching the tide move in and out. Returning to the resort and finding it just as quiet as when I had left.
Nothing particularly remarkable happened during those three days.
And yet, more than three years later, I still remember the place.
I remember the almost-empty resort. I remember the open restaurant area. I remember having so much space around me. And most of all, I remember the view from where I stayed — the trees, the exposed shoreline and the sea beyond.
Perhaps some places stay with us not because of everything that happened there, but because so little did.
Neil Island was, in many ways, the island where there was nothing to do.
Looking back, that may have been exactly what made it worth remembering.