Jan 20, 2003 05:37 PM
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(Updated Jan 20, 2003 05:37 PM)
Mauritius is a beautiful sun and sand country. It is off the shores of Africa, an Island, infact a cluster of Islands. As such distance from the Main Continent to the island is 2520 Kms and from Mumbai, India it is 5040 Kms.
The flight was direct, no halts and took us six hours. We flew Air Mauritius and landed at their only International Airport - Sir Seewoosagar Ramgoolam Air Terminal, Plaisance(Code: MRU) is approximately 3 kms from Mahebourg, 48kms from Port Louis, 80kms from Grand Baie, 55kms from Flic en Flac and 50kms from Belle Mare. Facilities include duty-free shops both on arrival and departure, bars, banks, and Post Office.
We visited in Month of May, and that is when they have their winters. We liked the climate as it was very pleasant but the water was very cold and hence we spent most of the time on the beach out of the waters. While on the water, its the Indian Ocean and the water here is very truly Blue. The sea is quite shallow and you can see the bottom, as the water is very clean.
The main island is where we stayed, in Grand Baie. Grand Baie is a small town on the northern tip of the country. Tip to tip the Main Island is approx 90 Kms long. But the roads are circuitous hence distance between places would increase.
We went there on our honeymoon, me and my wife and my elder brother and his wife. We were part of a small group who had, like us, signed up for a package of 6 nights 7 days from Raj tours and travels Mumbai. We had struck an amazing deal and he sold us this package at Rs 60000 per coupleincluding a lot of sight seeing covering most of the tourist spots, Plus Five star accommodation, Plus ALL MEALS. I'll stop talking of the package here and now only talk about the place.
When we landed and after checking in at the hotel, we rested a bit (ya ya we were on honeymoon so we needed to ''rest'' a bit in the rooms right!) and then we went for a walk. We found the place to be quite like India. Similar buildings similar topography. The similarity is bound to come as the majority of the population are Indians.
10 minutes from where we were put up we found a beach. Sat there and enjoyed our first sunset of Mauritius. Then headed back for dinner.
The places that we saw during the course of the next few days were as per the itinerary published by the tour operator. This included the Botanical gardens (Pamplemousses), the land of seven colors, the Port Louis City, Grand Bassin and various other sites which you can find out about from the tour operators and various web sites. What I want to write about is what we did on our free days when we were free to go where we wanted to go and not just be taken to the most popular sites. We had two such free days.
DAY 1
We woke up early and caught a bus from Grand Baie to Port Louis Bus station. There we inquired about how to reach Domaine Les Pailles and reached there by mid morning.
The official description of Domaine les pailles is as below:
At a stone's throw from Port-Louis lies the Domaine Les Pailles, a natural park spreading over 3,000 acres at the foot of a mountain range. Here visitors discover old ways of living in an enchanting environment. Domaine Les Pailles also offers a wide range of facilities: a gastronomic restaurant, ''Le Clos St Louis'' a reception hall ''La Canelle Rouge'', an Indian restaurant ''Indra'', exclusive Chinese at ''Fu Xiao'', a pizzaeria
First of all this place is a bit expensive. The activities include, a train ride, a Chariot ride and a tour of a spice garden plus a brewery where they show you how rum was made in the olden days. They also let you taste some rum. On the other hand they had a Jungle trail on the mountains where they take you in a four wheel drive vehicle. At some instances you are going up on an almost vertical incline. Adventurous, risky and fun. We left in the afternoon, as all the restaurants seemed overpriced. Came back to port Louis and had some truly fantastic Fish Burgers. Then took the return bus for Grand Baie after wondering around the capital city. Was quite late when we returned back.
Day 2
In the morning we took two Hero Honda 100CC bikes and went on driving south of Port Louis. Our plan was to reach the southern end of the Island but by afternoon we had only reached mid way to the city of Rose Belle and decided to look around in the city itself and then return back. We shopped a bit here but since most of the products are imported from china, India or Africa, everything was expensive as compared to what you would pay in India. While returning we stopped at a KFC outlet and had some snacks. We really enjoyed the drive and the scenery and wind in your face, I definitely recommend all tourists who visit Mauritius to rent a bike for touring the country.
On the whole, we really enjoyed ourselves and liked the tour as well as the country. The people are all very friendly and mostly Indians or Chinese. The language most popular is French. Some other activities that we did during our stay include, riding a speed boat, taking a ride in the Australian made Half boat half submarine and Kayaking to our hearts content. Other activities recommended are under water walk and Parasailing, which we unfortunately missed. But I think that is also a good thing, if you have missed doing certain activities or missed some good spots then you will definitely be thinking of going back again.
Happy Holidays. Bon Voyage.
