Monday, April 25, 2011

Mauritius Continued

Continuing from my previous post, some more of Mauritius. I indulged in two adventures there. The first one is under-sea walking. You have a solar-powered oxygen kit that you wear like an helmet and tie heavy belts accentuated with heavy stones and get under the sea. The heavy belt is to help you stay put under water and the oxygen kit helmet is to help you breathe. The water was chill in the beginning but then you get one with the sea. The instructors get good care and monitor your comfort-ability regularly. Its quite an experience to have your feet buried deep in the sad while water overhead tries to push you away. Those colorful and beautiful fishes around you swim effortlessly and you marvel at their agility. As we held out our hands to feed them, they nibble tiny bits of food and swim away. An instructor grabbed a tiny sea snail and handed it over to me. I held that tiny thing for sometime and later don't know when I dropped it.

If this was once-in-a-lifetime experience, para sailing was another level of fun. Though I wouldn't call it adventurous; my husband did scream and shout. He was chiding me for being calm and laughing; and was wondering why I was not scared! Looking at the turquoise water and the deep blue sea forming a natural boundary and those pearly white sands was ecstatic. Para sailing did not give me an adrenaline rush! I am waiting for sky diving to happen! Hopefully soon!!

Another queer but amusing thing I noticed was how Indian names were Mauritian-ized. "Manju" spelt as "Manjoo", "Gokul" as "Gocool" and so on. We could go up to the door of the Prime Minister's office and take a snap! How cool is that. The landscape is volcanic; the hills surrounding have a spiky edges to them and not having seen such hills and mountains earlier; they did look a bit artificial.

One thing I marveled about the place was public toilets - well maintained and clean. Whenever I used public toilets I was scared of being nagged for money as it happens here. But none of that kind happened. 

Few pictures.

A lady at work helping keep the place clean at Grand Bay.


The oily noodles I mentioned in my last post. Could not eat 1 spoon of it. I felt bad when I had to leave the food when the lady who prepared it asked if I didnt like it. I lied that I was feeling sick. she believed me and told me to take care :-(


This one gave us company and I was glad that I didnt have to throw away the noodles. She ate it all.



A lovely dog. Was loitering around in this park.


Streets of Port Louis - the capital. 


This is what I was talking about. :)


A traffic policeman manning the traffic in front of the PM's office. The roads are narrow.



Again here is the Mauritian version of "Ranganathan Srinivasan"


Corridor of Prime Minister's office. He was out of town; else maybe I would have had an audience with him :-P


A church on the hill top. I forgot its name. French is difficult than Spanish. But I heard that this church has been pictured in lotta Bollywood movies. It was past 5 PM and the church was shut! I came to know that people dont work/loiter beyond 5 and everything shuts down!!


Port Louis as seen from the church


The next day, it was 9:30 AM and we did not have beach wear. So forced this chap to open his shop so that we could buy some beach wears. Got some awesome stuff  - sarongs with fishes printed on them. 


Catamaran! Do you remember the song "Churake Dil Mera" - Akshay Kumar and Shilpa Shetty? Yeah the song was filmed in this island on some catamaran. Not this one; but the island is Ile Aux Cerfs


People live here. The island is so gorgeous and heaven. Our guide for the day Kishan told he stays here. 


Kishan

 

I dont know its name. It had a long tail and was cute.


Waterfall adjacent to the sea. 


The stage for Para sailing. At Ile Aux Cerf, after visiting the waterfall,  came back for Para sailing.


These guys have to try hard to control the parachute and that the guests are not hurt and land safely. They do this every 5 minutes. 

 

Thats me!!


After para sailing, a leisurely drink, playing in the sand and the turquoise water . People were relaxed, sun bathing in nude forgetting all the worries of the world :)



Rest area. 


The sea, translucent and transparent, so clean and tidy.


 Paradise? Probably...maybe...sure! I had not seen earlier such a clear blue sky, sun shine just right, clear blue water and white sands. I do not remember how long I played, but I did play in the waters for a long long time.


Lot of star fishes hit the shore. As big as one's palm, pinkish.


And some sea urchin's shell - in colors of black and purple.


After playing, a BBQ buffet. As I do not eat meat, my options were limited but I did not mind it. This view was more than sufficient.


Can you see them? Now thats romantic!


Secluded, calm and pristine. 


All for yourself....


23 comments:

  1. That waterfall looks so delicious!! The smile on the face of the dog was worth it all.
    That bird! Lovely foto! I will check my books and find out its name.

    Do any of the people talk in their mother ( grandmother) tongue, say, like Tamil or something?

    No photo of yours underwater and feeding the fish? :-( That must have been a great experience! I would like to do that someday!

    Thanks, B, for a grand tour of Mauritius.Wasn't Dodo a native of Mauritius? Got to check it.

    Am i the first?

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  2. and Dodo ( dead as a Dodo)was a native of Mauritius!!! Did you go a natural history museum?

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  3. nice nice! loved the pictures! sky diving is something I have seen a friend do, but I don't know whether i wil lbe able to do it or not!

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  4. You will see some thing...related your pics shortly..on my page.

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  5. Lovely pics!! A perfect holiday destination. Renganaden Seeneevassen is cool!! :D

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  6. Thanks for writing about your parasailing experience.

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  7. Insignia @ the pics are awesome and looks as though straight out of a post card :) you must have had a great time.. cheers to more of that to follow :)

    just an afterthought after seeing your post and my recent road trip through the ghat roads of kerala and tamil nadu.. is it worth cashing on tourism, forgetting the cardamom and pepper in your backyard and turning your home to a 'home stay' instead??

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  8. under sea walk!! the descriptions are so tempting that I feel like going for one...
    beautiful captures :D, loved the sea and the starfish one :D
    you sure had a whale of time :D

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  9. beautiful pics
    under sea walk
    must have felt like James bond movie

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  10. The waterfall and the beaches look quite tranquil.
    Can see that you ve been to a paradise.

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  11. OMG Insignia u r really adventurous. How come u didn't fear during para sailing, for me i would have surly asked whether you can have a company while para sailing ;). the under sea experience would have been really great . Looking at the pictures i can see that you had an awsome trip !

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  12. thoroughly enjoyed the pics! wondersful..speciallyof the falls, then para sailing and that bird.

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  13. Balan,

    You seem to be excited :)

    Yeah the waterfall was amazing. Thank you for pointing out the bird's name. Kishan couldnt name it. He is just a boatman who ferries tourists. I didnt take interest to search about it as well.

    Yes they do speak in their native tongue. Almost everyone spoke Hindi. People speak Bhojpuri, Tamil and others. But lingua franca is Creole. So even though two people have a common language apart from Creole, they still converse in Creole.

    Indian languages are taught in schools as second language.

    I am glad you liked the picture of dog. I got reminded of you when clicking those pictures. I have only video of my undersea walking and feeding the fish. No photo :(

    It was an awesome experience, worth it. Do try if you find a chance. Yes Dodo was a native of Mauritius. I saw it being mentioned everywhere but not a trace of it. Could only read some history.

    Neha,

    Thanks, Two of my close friends have already done sky diving. I want to do too but not in India. I dont trust the safety measures here. Let me see someday :-D

    Makk,

    Yeah please

    Shilpa,

    Thank you. Yes it is! Hahaha

    SG,

    Thank you.

    ousu,

    Thank you, glad you liked them. Yeah i did have fun but not as much as I had in Costa rica. I assume you must be an adventurous sorts after reading about your road trip. If you are and love nature; I suggest you check out my Costa Rica posts. you will love them :)

    Home stays? Why not? There are so many such home stays in Coorg! But I would anytime prefer cardamom and pepper/peace and tranquility for company than human beings/cash :-P I am scared of people; they are wicked!

    Rajlakshmi,

    You should! Yup1 had a great time :)

    sm,

    Thank you. Haha James Bond movie? yes sort of. We didnt know any direction. Just kept walking.

    anil,

    Yup! :)

    Chowla sir,

    Thank you sir, the place was such

    neha,

    Yes I am :) Para sailing was really nothing :) I am waiting to do sky diving. Thank you

    Renu,

    thank you. Glad you liked them

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  14. I am so jealous of you, Next time Take me WITH YOU please...

    and para sailing OMG .. you did it, oh man its been a decade now since i last did it attached to a Jeep at pinjore aviation club during my NCC days .. .

    Next time mujhe bhi I promise to do what you say .. and keep my mouth shut all the time :)


    beautiful pics

    Bikram's

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  15. Read your Mauritius Part 1 also .Beautiful pics. I was wondering how you drank the vanilla laced tea:)

    The under sea walk must have been an experience of a life time. But I am not adventurous type. I appreciate you for that.

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  16. hahah bikram bhai...u r in queue...hum ko bei lekhar jana..haha...hey loved this post n the snaps...

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  17. You are absolutely lucky to get opportunities to go through such various miraculous beautiful areas of the world..

    The pictures were wonderful..thanks fr posting it..

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  18. Bik,

    Hahaha stop being jealous and pack your bags and go!
    Yeah when I visit Europe, you can tag along :P

    Para sailing yeah but I wanted it some more!

    :)

    chitra,

    Thanks a lot. Vanilla tea? dont ask me. I hate vanilla since then.

    Under sea walking was out of the world. I am glad I did it :)

    Ramesh,

    :-P Thank you.

    Tomz,

    Yeah I am privileged I must say. :) I love traveling and I am passionate about this.
    thats why I keep looking for chances

    Thank you.

    Thommy,

    Thanks. I hope you are aware what the Kerala government did at Kovalam beach. They spent crores of money to setup artificial reef to woo tourists.
    Thereby endangering the marine life and the environment. I dont know if Mauritius did something like that to woo tourists. hope they didnt.

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  19. What an adventure it was! I'm pretty much dying to visit mauritius. It's been on my Go-to list for AGES!

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  20. It's really a beautiful place. Blessed are those who get to live there.

    I wanna go to Mauritius now.

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I'd love to know what you thought :-) Please shoot!