Blogging Around the World Mauritius

7/30/2019 Blogging Around the World Mauritius

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Blogging AroundThe World


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Chapter One

Prologue

Before I get into the holiday itself, I should say that the reason I ended up going toMauritius is that I bought five raffle tickets at work, where the first prize was twofree Virgin long haul tickets to fly to a place of the winners destination. I neverwin ANYTHING and so didnt believe it when I was told I had won first prize.

It is ironic as flying is my LEAST favourite thing, but here I was trying to decidewhich exotic location to go to. I chose Mauritius as it was glamorous, but not Toofar to fly...

26th September 2008

It was a strange day, as not only was I going on a trip of a lifetime, but

it was also my last day of work at Transworld. After the embarrassing

speech and attention, I left the office for the last time at 2pm, jumped

in Jons car and headed to his parents house. After last minute panics,we were in Vinkas car, speeding down the motorway towards

Heathrow.

The journey started pretty much as any other where Jon is concerned.

He managed to break a tooth in the car on the way to the airport. No-

one was surprised. Once at the airport, we bought some superglue and

sealant for him and headed to the bar and shared a bottle of wine.

Long haul flights terrify me, so after the bottle of wine, I thought

sleeping tablets would be a good idea. I took two, a diazepam andhad another glass of wine for extra measure. I still felt terrified. It wasnt

until we had taken off and I woke up lying in a puddle of vomit on

Jons lap that I realised I may have gone a little OTT. Other than that,

the 12 hour flight was (still horrific) but smooth.


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27th September 2008

On arrival, it was cloudy and raining,

but still gorgeous. It was at this point,

that we realised we had left our guide

book on the plane. Little did we

realise how much of a problem this

would be, but luckily Jon had pre

arranged a taxi for us. Salem our

driver talked nonstop during the 1.5

hour drive through five main villages

to reach Flic en Flac, where we had

pre-booked a studio apartment. I had fallen in love with Mauritius by

this point; the scenery was amazing. Lush green fields, mountains,

picture perfect sea. It is exactly what you see on postcards.

On arrival at the place we didnt have an address for (we had to ring

the owner and put him on the phone to the driver and direct him), I

took out money to pay for the taxi and realised I had been given

Malaysian currency. I was so disappointed at M&S. Mental Note:

compensation.

Our studio was arranged through a

friend of ours and so we got a great

deal; 250 for 17 nights. To give you

an idea of how cheap that is, thehotel complex next door to us

charged 500 per person, per night.

That is average here. Oh how smug

we were. The apartment was very

basic and run down and we shared it

with all kinds of wildlife, but it was saving us thousands of pounds.

After dumping our luggage, we went for a

walk to get our bearings and buy a guide

book. The town consisted of two clothesshops and an array of surf/diving shops.

But I suppose when youre in paradise,

what else do you need?

28th September 2008

After doing a bit of googling in a cyber cafe to get our bearings, we

went for a walk, during which we were introduced to a tropical

rainstorm. It rained like it meant it.


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The heavy rain gave us the perfect excuse to take cover in a

restaurant and eat (more).

In the afternoon, we walked in the other direction, (away from town)

and came across the most amazing resort. Although I am not usually a

fan of fancy, exclusive resorts, this one blended in to the scenery

perfectly. We were pros at acting like we belonged there and

managed to spend a few hours enjoying the amenities, before

heading back to the apartment to shower...which is when war broke

out. It was us verses the largest swarm of flying ants I had ever seen. We

spent a good hour and a half trying to get rid of them from our clothes,

bed, shower...they literally got everywhere.

And then the geckos came out. I actually think geckos are sweet and

harmless, but we had about 8 at any one time above our heads, under

our bed and climbing on the ceiling. They often fell off the ceilingwhich was unnerving when we were trying to get to sleep.

Chapter Two

29th

September 2008

The next morning we were woken by a farmyard of animals. Cockerels,

horses, geckos, crickets and goats made sure we were awake at 6am,

ready for the arrival of Robby (the mysterious man who was renting us

this apartment) who had come to collect the rent. We had been

charged 2000 Mauritian dollars to stay here for 17 nights (which is 38!).

After paying up, we headed to find a bus to take us to Port Louis (the

capital of Mauritius), as we thought that was the most likely place to

pick up a guidebook. The bus cost 26 rupees (or 50p) for an hours

journey through rough scrubland.

Port Louis is a bustling, polluted town,

where you are constantly hounded

by locals to buy their

food/jewellery/DVDs. Drivers beep

their horns constantly and the traffic

is in constant gridlock. I felt really

uncomfortable.

We walked down every street to find


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a bookshop, but the only one we did find only sold French books. We

asked in every shop but gave up after two hours and went down to the

sea front to have some lunch. After a salad on the pier, we started to

head back for a bus home, which is when I spotted a poster of Harry

Potter and got ridiculously excited to find a huge Waterstones style

bookshop. We eventually found a BRADT guide to Mauritius and

headed to the bus station, feeling smug.

We stopped off at a local supermarket to get supplies for meals for the

next few days and Jon had a nap while I sat in a hammock reading

the guidebook and munching on pistachios.

We went to The Gold Beach Hotel for

(what turned out to be) a very expensive

four course meal. The service was great

but the food wasnt.

We have both been mauled by

mosquitoes.

30th September 2008

Jon had a bad stomach today but as we had both run out of money,

we needed to make the trip into town to get money to buy medicine

for him. We flagged a bus to take us the mile and a half journey to the

town, picked up supplies and went and sat on the beach, reading togive Jon time to recover.

That evening, we went ate at Blacksteer Restaurant, (which was highly

rated in our guidebook). It was a steak restaurant, but we were not

impressed. The meat tasted cheap and bland.


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We went back to the apartment and took our cameras up on the roof

where Jon got some of the most beautiful night shots I have ever seen.

The sky was stunning.

Chapter Three

1st October 2008

We were getting a bus to the North

of the island today to Grand Baie.

This is the touristy part of Mauritius,

which we werent that interested in,

but the guidebooks say it has some

of the most beautiful coastline in

Mauritius.

We guessed where to get off the

bus and went to try and find

somewhere to stay. The place we

had found in our guidebook didnt seem to exist and we stumbled

across a guest house called Latenier, where we bartered the cost of

our room down to 1000 rupees (10) for the night. It is normal to barter

like this which is bizarre to me.

We dumped our stuff and wet for a wander. I was soon tempted by the

sounds coming from The Banana Beach Club, which was an open air

restaurant/bar on the beach. We ended up staying in there and

listening to DJ Sensation for about four hours.

After about 6 glasses of wine, I stumbled back to the apartment.

2nd October 2008

Woke with a hangover, but had to check out and find some full length

trousers for me. I had only bought a pair of shorts to wear, but over

night, my mosquito bites had quadrupled in size and were angry and

weeping.

There were no trousers to be found in Grand Baie, so we decided to

move on to Flacq (on the East Coast of Mauritius). We went to a tourist

looking hut to find out how to get there, but the guy ended up

persuading us the East Coast is boring and that we should head to Troll

deau douce, where he had a friend who could rent us a bungalow for800 rupees for the night. The drive would take about an hour and a half


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and the driver would take us first to Bella Move (which is meant to be

the most beautiful beach in Mauritius) and then on to the bungalow.

This would cost us 28.

We spent about an hour on the deserted beach, before moving on to

Trou deau douce. It is a tiny fishing village , which is half slum, half

Hollywood in appearance.

We paid for our room, (6 each) in the bungalow and went to look at

the cost of hiring a car. The quote came to about 50 each for two

days, so we decided we would hire one the next day from Flacq.

3rd October 2008

We caught a bus to Flacq at 10am it was dirty and a slightly less

stressful version of Port Louis. We spent hours trying to find the car rentalplace from our guidebook, but didnt seem to exist. A kind cab driver

gave us a lift to the place where he thought it was, but it had been

closed for the past two years. Dejected, we trudged back to the bus

station and got a bus back to Port Louis and then on to Flic en Flaq. To

give you an idea of how small Mauritius is, it took us five hours to travel

from the East to West coast.

We were hit by another rainstorm that evening so watched a film on

the trusty laptop in the apartment.

4th October 2008

We went in search of a car hire place, in order to book a car for

Monday. This hire shop was very informal and we didnt have to show

any ID to hire the car, which was a bit unnerving, but we paid our 20

and arranged to collect it early Monday morning.

The rain and thunderstorms started in the early afternoon and went on

all night.

Chapter Four

5th October 2008

Spent the day at the La Pirogue resort.


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That evening, we headed to a piano bar we had spotted previously,

down the road from our apartment for some drinks. We were chatting

to the barman, who told us we were about to see a Sega show (the

traditional Mauritian dance). The ladies tried to pull me up on stage,

but I needed more alcohol to do that.

6th October 2008

We got up at 8am and got the bus to the car hire place. By 8.45am,

we were in our Nissan Micra, heading in the wrong direction (thanks to

my appalling navigating) and ended up at Black River National Park.

This had been on our wish list of places to see, but we werent meant to

get to it until late afternoon. We started a hike to find the gorges,

(which make this park famous), but were attacked by so many

mosquitoes that we had to turn back, as we had lots of bare skin and

no repellent.

We drove on to find Chamarel;

a village in southwest Mauritius

that is home to two natural

wonders - the Chamarel Falls

and the colored earths of

Chamarel. It was

underwhelming to be honest,

but pretty and natural.

We then drove onto La Vanille

Reserve des Mascareigues

(Reptile Park), where we held a

baby croc and fed huge tortoises. It was amazing to be so close to

these massive creaturesit was just a shame that were too slow to take

cover as another tropical rain storm struck. There was 10 minutes of

hard rain, followed by baking heat again.

We got lost after leaving the park.

We were heading for Valee desColeurs (which was a lesser known

but supposedly more impressive

version of the Chamarel coloured

sands, but ended up at Rochester

Falls. We followed the signs to the

falls up a rocky, steep path and

were stopped by a local, who

offered to take us down to the falls

and the volcanic pool at the

bottom. We headed down a steep, mountain path to reach thebottom of the falls, which were picturesque. We admired the falls for a


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while and then followed the guide back up to the main road, where

we paid him 300 rupees (6) for his efforts.

Next, we went to the Valee des Coleurs, which cost 3 each to get in.

The sight was more impressive (as much as a pile of coloured sand can

be) and we walked up and down the mountainside to reach the

viewpoint and see the sands from a distance.

We got back in the car and went to find

Grand Bassin (a religious lake for the Hindu

community here). We got lost however

and Jon started driving like a maniac

around the mountain roads to make it

back to Flic en Flac before it got dark.

We stopped off for dinner at a placecalled Havelis, which was hidden within a

cluster of restaurants and bars in the Oasis

complex. Our entire meal (with drinks)

came to 20 and I thought that was

amazing value, seeing as it was the best

meal of my life.

We were both tired after dinner so head back to our apartment to start

our nightly routine of checking the room for geckos, doing a sweep for

mosquitoes, lighting the repellent incense coil (that we keep hoping willwork), cover ourselves in DEET, get the small bedside fan into a position

where we both get a little comfort from it. It is 90% humidity here at this

time of year at night and there is no air con in this apartment. I have

grown fond of the apartment and the wildlife (apart from the mossies)

and still cant believe how much we have saved on this holiday by

staying here.

7th October 2008

Went to the beach and snorkelled today. I wanted to go out in theevening, so we went to Shotz Bar for a cocktail , had dinner at

Shooters, but left feeling really bloated and lethargic, so put our party

plans on hold.


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Chapter Five

8th October 2008

Woke at 6.40am but managed to leave Jon alone until 9am even

then he was reluctant to wake up. After breakfast we went down the

road to see the Sugar Beach Resort, which is one of the most exclusive

in Mauritius we used our tactic from La Pirogue and walked straight

past Security and Reception to the pool area, but had to leave when it

started pouring with rain.

It kept raining all day, so we spent the afternoon catching up with

news from back home.

That evening, we decided to cook in the apartment. As I opened the

door to the kitchen, something hit me on the head. It was a gecko.

The plight of this little gecko worried meas it seemed to be paralysed

after falling off the door and onto the concrete floor. I felt really guilty.

We left the apartment to have some drinks and returned a couple of

hours later to find the gecko (unmoved) where we left it, except now it

was being mauled by ants. Nature is cruel, (as are doors).

9th October 2008

We went to buy souvenirs today and then

went to the beach for a bit, but it was grey

and rainy.

10th October 2008

Pretty much the same story as yesterday,except we have no water in the apartment

and I got chased by two angry dogs.

In the evening, my writing got messier as I

drank carafes of wine in a piano bar. And then

the karaoke started. I sang about five numbers, one with a really short

Mauritian guy and some solos, culminating in Whitney Houston. It was a

really fun night. I fell asleep in my toast.


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Chapter Six

11th October 2008

Hungover and awake early. Grrr. I sneaked out of the apartment to get

some supplies and then headed to the beach to read. Jon joined me

about an hour later and just as he did, a local guy approached us. We

were sceptical as locals approach you all the time on the beach

trying to sell you stuff, but Jack was just a really friendly and

entertaining guy who liked meeting new people. He told us about his 5

week holiday in England and how much he loved the place.

He moved on to another couple after about an hour and a half, by

which time it had clouded over again.

Jon insisted we went to Havelis again that evening and I didnt mind

one bit. The Murgh Karahi is the most amazing dish. We insisted on

complimenting the Chef after the meal and he gave us the recipe,

(which I have since tried and failed at).

12th October 2008

Started packing and went to get a quote for a cab to the airport for

tomorrow. We were quoted 1600 rupees (35) but bartered down to

1300 rupees. We didnt realise how good we had it with the cab driver

on the way here, (Salem), who charged us 1000 rupees, which we

thought was expensive at the time.

The weather was amazing today so we

spent it in the sea and pool. After

watching our last amazing Mauritian

sunset we went for our last dinnerat...Havelis! We had a cocktail at the

Golden Beach restaurant on the way

back to the apartment and the owner

said they were opening a Golden Beach

Hotel in December, which would cost

30pppn, which is the most reasonable accommodation I have heard

of in Flic en Flac.


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13th October 2008

Sad day. We had a last walk down to the beach obviously the

weather was stunning, but we had to leave at 10am for the airport, so

couldnt enjoy it.

While sitting in as hammock contemplating my

holiday, I was struck by how sad I was to be

leaving. Mauritius is beautiful the scenery is

stunning mountainous, green and lush on the

North coast, a series of sugar cane fields in the

mid region and gorgeous, sandy beaches on

the West coast. The fact that the flights were

free and the accommodation was dirt cheap

was a huge bonus. A fantastic holiday.

Blogging Around the World Mauritius

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