Assorted Ravings of the Slightly-Weird

Mauritius!

The trip was a great getaway and I came back really relaxed and slightly tanned. If you're looking to dive/snorkel, then this time of year the water is a bit too cold (but you get used to it after a few minutes). But it's a great time for tanning because there's plenty of sun and yet a nice cool breeze prevents you from overheating. Also, there's less cyclones lurking on the horizon than in summer.

We stayed at the Beau Rivage, which is a really nice hotel on the eastern coast. Every room has a sea view, and the food is great. Just one word of caution though, if your accomodation is on a half-board (i.e. breakfast and dinner) basis then be sure to pack some nicer clothes for dinner! Most of the hotel guests were European and they dress up for dinner. We were conspicuous enough as the only Asians in the hotel, but we also stood out as the table that wore the same thing to dinner every night, because we had only packed one set of 'nice' clothes. On our last night, it was "Gala Dinner" and I had visions of being sent to eat in the kitchen because we weren't appropriately dressed. Luckily that didn't happen :)

Most of the seasports are provided FOC at the hotel, like snorkelling, windsurfing, kayaking and water-skiing. Mauritius has a coral reef around it, and the waves break about 200m from the shore. So, we decided to paddle all the way out to the edge of the reef because we saw a fisherman standing in the water and we wanted to see how shallow the water was. By the time we got close to the edge, my oar was scraping the top of the coral, and I felt a bit like Reepicheep (ref: The Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis if you have no idea what I'm talking about) paddling to the Edge of the World. Then, the hotel coast guard came out to get us (hehe) but instead of getting a scolding the guy just said that we should keep away from the edge because if anything were to happen to us, the water was too shallow for the speed boat to help us.

On our last day, we took an excursion to Ile des Deux Cocos - sounds really nice in French but it basically means "Island with two coconut trees". It's a small island (you can walk around it in 20 minutes or less) just off the south coast of Mauritius, with a Moroccan villa, a beach, and snorkelling nearby. If you've got spare cash to burn you can rent the villa (sleeps 4) for 100,000 Mauritian rupees a night. That's about 3500 USD or about 6250 SGD. For that sum, you get the villa (which, admittedly, is very picturesque) and the whole island to yourself, plus food and drinks. The snorkelling is supposed to be one of the better spots around as well. Our excursion included a buffet bbq lunch and free flow of drinks, including champagne and various liquors. Very relaxing.
Oh, and by now there's about 600 coconut trees on the island so maybe it should be renamed as Ile des Six Cents Cocos...

Sadly, we didn't go very far afield from the hotel, so no comments on Port Louis etc. The local people we encountered were all extremely friendly and they parlez anglaise! So it's easy to get around.

The only things I have to add are
a) the roads in Mauritius definitely need improving, and;
b) once you've passed the immigration checkpoint when departing Mauritius, there's no currency exchange booth, which means that if you have leftover rupees and you want to change them, you'll have to buy something at the duty-free shop and get your change back in USD or Euros.

My photos are developed but not scanned yet (NAT! We have to go get me a scanner!) but here are some photos from the digicam. Enjoy!

Posted by scrabbyfoo at June 7, 2004 10:32 AM