Archive for category Vacation
Botanical Garden
This garden was very very green with big big trees all around. We found 4 guides (who were looking like Indians). We asked one of them to be our guide. But they denied to come. They prefer to be guides for white people only. We did not like this attitude. These people still live in those old age where white people were considered to have money and dark people to be slaves. Well, these guides were also old people. But still, we did not like it. We just continued exploring the garden ourselves.
At Berlin, we live at a place which is just 2 kms away from Berlin’s Botanical Garden and we have never visited it so far. Berlin Botanical Garden is also very big like this one and has very rare flowers and plants. During summer, there would also be musical events performed at Berlin Botanical Garden. We decided to visit Berlin Botanical Garden after we go back to Berlin.
Mauritius Aquarium
This aquarium was opened in 2005. I have never seen a aquarium so clean and tidy which is free from stinking water smell. They have almost all the rare fishes found in their sea, giant tortoises, small whales too. Worth the visit. Our driver told us that he brings his son frequently here and they feel happy to sit and watch these under water species.
Super U Shopping Center
A big shopping center with open parking space like in U.S. There are similar shopping center also in India, but with underground parking of course. Super U has a big super market. This is like Walmart at U.S. Chennai would also need one like this in the future..
Mauritius – Day 5 – South West Tour (Alexandra falls, Black River Gorges, Chamarel(7 coloured earth)
Jul 14
Our daughter does not want to come with us anymore. She only wants to spend her time in the Mini club which has lot of activities for the children.
Today we did south west tour, planned as a full day tour but since we did not go into Casela Park, we came back to the hotel early at around 2:30 PM.
Alexandra Falls:
A huge falls very far away from the viewpoint. From this viewpoint, we could also see 23 colored earth.
Black River Gorges:
It is called Black River becoz the sand is black. Volcanic eruptions had changed the color of sand permanently to black.
Chamarel:
This is the highlight of the day. 7 colored earth. Very beautiful. Everyone should definitely visit this place. Much like 23 colored earth actually. There are different views available and you can also get panorama view of the south here.
We then went to Casela Park.. but the next safari drive was at 3:30 PM. Since our daughter was at Mini Club and that she had to be picked up at 5:00, we had to leave Casela Park. Here you have walking with lions (addl charge) and watching animals closer than ever. By walk you could see the birds, monkeys, turtles etc. Since we already had a similar experience in another park day before yesterday, we didn’t want to do that.
On the way back, we stopped at a local shop selling tender coconut and we took one for each. We have also brought 2 back to hotel to take it tomorrow. The coconut is so much tender that she cut it with normal knife.
Photos will be posted after we are back in Berlin.
In the morning, we visited Goodlands Market which was arranged by the hotel for all guests. But the van was already full, so we went in a taxi. That’s why we could also visit few other places on the way.
Goodlands Market:
This market is like the local road-side market in India. For ex, like Koyambedu market, but they don’t sell vegetables here, instead clothes, ornaments, shoes, pooja items etc. There is a bus stand nearby, so even for local people, it would be a easy place to reach. This market did not surprise us becoz all the items sold were also available in India. So we really did not buy lots here. We just bought a painting of Gods with some handmade chumki works. We also bought a set of bangles and a handmade beautiful kumkum box.
Historic Marine
This was a fantastic industry. Every ship model was handmade. A personnel took us to the factory & explained us how a ship model is being done. Completely handmade. Was wonderful to see & know the art.
South Indian Temple
We already visited 2 temples (biggest at Mauritius). But they are all north-indian style temples. We saw a south Indian Temple on the way back and stopped to visit there. It was a small temple but I had a good feeling here.
Local Salon
Ilango wanted to traditional Mauritius shaving.. meaning at a local barber shop. He had been asking all the taxi drivers we used since the day we are here. Today, we saw one on the way and our taxi driver stopped nearby and Ilango had a traditional Mauritius shave. A shave and eye brow alignment costed 100 Mauritian Rupees. This salon had 2 sections: for Men & Women. Ilango was not that much satisfied. According to him, Indian shavers are much better than these people.
Rest of the day:
Rest of the day was at hotel. I played with our daughter in the banyan pool. Spent about 1 hr in the pool. Then papa went back to the kids club and we took a 30 mins drive in a manual boat.
We had our lunch at la carte restaurant (in the hotel). Today we took italian food. It was very tasty.
We spent our afternoon in the beach. Just laying and sleeping. Later we spent about 20 mins in steam bath with our daughter. Today’s evening was fully dedicated to Indian tradition. There was a Mehndi session between 7-8PM. I had mehndi on my right hand and my daughter did a small one in here right feet. We listened to Indian Fusion Music between 7-9.. meanwhile also had Indian dinner with Tandoori Naan, Paneer Ticket, Jalferzi kurma, Tandoori chicken, Marinated Fish and so on. The menu was quite big and very tasty. I took dinner in 2 rounds.
The day ended with a traditional Indian dance at 9:00 PM. Music from different movies (all AR Rahman songs) and also a devotional song. They performed bharathanatiyam, mix dance, dhandiya etc. All children were sitting on the floor and watching it. It was a very nice to see their performance.
Today was a very relaxing day and tomorrow is a full-day tour.. Need to have a good sleep to be prepared for a full-day entertainment tomorrow.
no images were found
We are celebrating our 6th marriage anniversary today. Our plan is to visit Temple in the morning and then spend the rest of the day at hotel. My daughter liked Kids Club very much. So we have left her at Kids Club (Mini Club) to enjoy.
We spent our day at hotel. Were in the beach for sometime. I wanted to go for swimming, but unfortunately there was rain for more than 30 mins and then it was cold. So I was sitting in the restaurant.. watching rain.. and eating Pommes with Mayo.
Then we had 60 feet massage. Wow super massage. Very relaxing. Both of us slept for sometime.
Finally, ended the day with candle light dinner in the balcony of our room. Beautiful arrangement from the hotel. We had ordered giant lobster and giant prawns for our main course. We also had a very tasty soup and dessert.
On the whole, today will be a memorable day in my life. This is the first marriage anniversary which was spent fully for us and just relaxation and enjoyment.
Breakfast at kitchen restaurant
Today we did a south full-day trip. We are staying in North. So to travel from North to South, it took 1 hr in the morning and 2+ hrs in evening due to traffic at Port Louis. We visited Grand bassin, Vallee des 23 couleur Mont blanc (Nature Park), Rochester falls, Gris Gris (Beach) and crocodile Park.
Grand Bassin:
Before reaching this temple, we saw a very big statue of Lord Shiva. Grand Bassin is considered as holy water (like Ganges in India). There is a shiva temple right in front of it. I also saw navagraha temple where all the navagrahas had different idols instead of human idols like in South India. The god names were written in English for everyone to understand. We could directly do the aarthi for god and the poojari would only say manthra.
Vallee des 23 couleur Mont blanc (Nature Park):
I would say, Nature Park was today’s highlight. Super landscape, super views. The 5 falls were superb. People are also allowed to swim here. Due to cold weather today, nobody was swimming. They have 4 types of trips. You can go by walk and explore yourself (which could take 1 day) or you can take a bike (with 4 wheels) or you can do zip lines or you can go in a jeep (1 or 2 hrs trip). We opted jeep trip since we were with our little princess. We also saw 23 colored stone which was shaped like Mauritius map. Before we started the trip, the guide showed us a museum where they had all 23 color sand, how this was created, history etc… This was a very useful information to collate later with the trip. Anybody visiting Mauritius should not miss Nature Park. There are no animals here.. only Deers which are set free. When you enter the park, you can also see 80-130 yrs old Turtles. Otherwise.. it is just about nature. It’s green, green and green everywhere.
Rochester falls:
A small fall but worth to visit. It is deep in the forest. We had to go thru a sugarcane field to reach here. In case of flood, you may not be able to reach Rochester falls.
Gris Gris (Beach):
Beautiful Beach. We were told that people are not allowed to go down the beach. But we already saw some tourists near the seashore.
Crocodile Park:
Except the sleeping giant crocodiles and turtles (which you can touch, feed and sit on), there is nothing great here to watch. The turtles are 80+ yrs old, some more than 120yrs. There were lot of turtles found here.
LUX Grand Gaube Photos
Jul 11
http://luxislandresorts.com/en/mauritius/lux-grand-gaube/welcome.aspx
5* Hotel with 3 restaurants and lot of other features. We have booked all-inklusive. So can enjoy almost everything with no additional cost.
How I reached Mauritius???
Jul 10
I prepared package list 1 week before, packed all suitcases 2 days before, but still I had to face challenges during our journey to Mauritius.
First Shock: I checkin at Berlin-Tegel airport & BA personnel asked me “Do you have a transit visa for UK since you need to change airports?” Oh man.. Do I need a visa? I am an Indian yes.. but I am EU-Spouse and have permanent residence at Germany. She called her boss and he said that my permanent residence is good enough for me to get into UK. We were cleared at Tegel and boarded finally to Heathrow Airport
Second Shock: You could have guessed already. Yes. It was at Heathrow Airport. I previously had work permit at UK and it was never ended in their system. But I left to Germany in 2006 itself. I was detained. I waited for about 15 mins to get the clearance. Every second was like 1 hr. Ilango was so angry that I did not take care of it before. Wipro (my employer for whom I worked in UK) already informed that my work permit should be ended. This was at least recorded in their system. Since I have a permanent residence visa for Germany, I was given 1 day transit visa.
Third Shock: I booked transfer taxi between Heathrow to Gatwick. The journey would take min 1 hr to max 4 hrs depending upon traffic. The time was 6:00 PM and we had the next flight at Gatwick at 9:05PM. The driver went missing. I called emergency call centre and they told me that the driver should be there anytime. We were waiting until 6:40 PM for the driver to finally reach us. Again fighting with Ilango that I did not take proper care. How do I predict such a thing!!! This is the first time I booked transfer taxi. Ok. Now the driver has come. The next question is will he bring us to Gatwick in proper time??? Ilango was so angry with the driver. But he couldn’t express his emotions. The driver was casually talking to Ilango. But we were not in the mood to listen to him. I was all the time looking at navi (which shows approx reaching time) and Ilango had his hands tied and just kept quiet. Only answered to driver’s questions. I don’t understand something with these drivers.. If they know that we are from Germany.. they ask so many questions to us.. they are so much interested to know about Germany. That’s nice.. but do they also do the same for other countries too !!!
Ok. Now back to the point. Yes. This driver brought us to Gatwick airport at 8:00 PM. We had enough time to checkin and finally boarded successfully to Mauritius. 11 hrs journey. Very tiring. My daughter kept her head on me, legs on her dad and slept peacefully for 9 hrs. We both were struggling a lot to get some sleep. Finally we landed at Mauritius. Food was ok with BA.
From Mauritius SSR Airport, we had to travel 1hr in taxi to reach the hotel. The hotel is worth this travel. We are so happy that we booked here.. Now enjoying a fruit cocktail at Beach restaurant in the hotel.
Photos will follow this post.