The Wedding Chronicles : the honeymoon
Chapter 4/4: Mauritius, all inclusive for the Olgiatis
Bye bye
After months of emotional rollercoaster, Lindsey and I finally got married. We decided to not go on our honeymoon straight away, but instead to wait 2 more days to say goodbye to all the guests that traveled so far to be with us.
Some of them stayed at our house few days after we left, but mostly they all left that weekend.
It was sad to see them all going. Yes, we would see them again in the summer, for our scheduled European Tour (England, Poland and Italy in three weeks!) but what after that? For the first time in maybe all my life I will not spend Christmas surrounded by my family, due to the one-year-here-one-year-there policy that seemed like the only decent option to share our future Christmas with our families.
But, as I said many times, this is a new life, and it's not always that easy to say goodbye to certain habits.
So, with dozens of wedding gifts freshly unwrapped, and a Nintendo Wii Diamond edition still in the box, we packed our bags ready to go to Mauritius . Ok, I stop here, you probably read "Nintendo Wii Diamond edition" and maybe you are thinking what that is. Well, basically some days before the wedding Lindsey and I decided to give each other something to wear at the wedding.
While she was shopping with her father to buy me a nice watch, I was looking for something to give to her. Unfortunately the sentence "something to wear at the wedding" in my mind became "something", and so I bought a Nintendo Wii, something that she hinted she wanted.
You can imagine the surprise. I got a watch, and Lindsey a console. She tried to pretend that was ok, but soon we had to go to the jeweler to buy my future wife some very nice diamond earrings to wear at the ceremony.
I'm sure there is some lesson for all you men hidden somewhere in my story, but I'm leaving it to you to discover.
Anyway, Lindsey and I decided to book the honey moon, in true Olafmeister style, on internet. The local agencies couldn't offer us anything nice at a decent price, so I went on Expedia and booked a place to stay in 5 minutes, after extensive consulting with my wife. I checked the reviews on internet (tripadvisor is probably the best place on earth to find these things) and here we go, Silver Beach Hotel (three stars) we are coming.
I didn't really know what to expect, neither from the hotel nor from the island. I usually travel around the world for work reason, to run a marathon (well, at least this was one the reasons some months ago!) or to visit friends and family. I never sleep in nice hotels, I always sleep in the cheapest, or at some friend's house. And so does Lindsey. Plus, what would happen if the weather was terrible and would get stuck in the hotel?
We boarded on a South African Airline plane and we landed 4 hours later in the only airport in the South East of the island, outside Mahebourg. As soon as we landed I realized how it was going to be. Coming out of the airport warm air hit me like a punch in the face, and within three seconds I was sweating. Luckily we booked our bus (organized by a company called Connections, which I recommend a lot!) in advance, and 5 minutes later we were on our way to the north east, to get to our hotel.
It was quite a long drive, especially because the view from our bus was always the same: sugar canes. You see, if you check a map of Mauritius you will see that they have like three main roads (and one motorway long maybe 40km), and to get to a point, due to the curious features of the island (mountains in some places, flooded roads in some other), the safest way to travel is to pick one of those main roads, and then get off somewhere in proximity of the destination. Everything else is covered in sugard canes.
We arrived at the hotel only in the late afternoon, tired but quite happy to see that we had a private beach and the ocean was only 100 meters away from our room. The room was simple, nothing too fancy, but thanks to the magic of the "all inclusive" package we could eat and drink whatever was on the menu or in the mini bar without being charged.
Going to Mauritius? Get on the all inclusive package. This will save you a lot of money. You see, food and drinks are expensive. The island overall is like a giant tourist trap if you want to get some souvenirs or eat in a restaurant. Most of the big fashion brands have some big shop on the island, trying to off-load the original (manufactured in Mauritius, sold in Europe) shirts or jeans. You won't get a special price. Actually, you will, since paying 100 pounds for a pair of jeans on an island where most of the people leave with 5 Euro a day is quite a lot.
Lindsey and I would soon discover the two faces of the island: whoever is involved in tourism manages to get enough decent money to live a decent lifestyle, but if you are part of the wrong race or not involved at all with the tourism you will struggle.
Well, we'll get to it later. After all, we left the happy couple at the hotel, and we skip the details of the first night to go straight on the activities and tours we did on the island...
Visiting Mauritius: the hotel and the South West
The best way to visit the island is probably to go on the organized tours, with small groups of people (8-10). They will cost less and you'll be able to see as much as possible in a short period of time, so you can go back to the hotel to relax and have some drinks by the pool or the sea.
This is exactly what Lindsey and I did. The first day a lady from the same company we used for the airport transportation got in touch with us showing some tours we could do. We decided to take the Wild Southwest excursion on Tuesday and he Tropical Cruise on Friday. We didn't want to do too much, and we left the visit to the capital, Port Louis, to the last day before our departure, in order to avoid spending money on souvenirs earlier.
But first we decided to explore the surrounding of the little town we were staying. The whole coast was owned by hotels, some very expensive (Le Coco Beach) and some less. The coral was everywhere, but wasn't to annoying. Thanks to the perfect weather we jumped on bicycles to visit the town (Trou d'Eau Douce), but we couldn't find anything interesting.
Luckily the food, the drink and the night activities at the hotel were great. I'm not a big breakfast person, but I enjoyed the breakfast buffet so much that usually I was full until the evening.
Drinks were good too. Ok, the ice was so thin and melting so quickly that it was difficult to enjoy a very cold drink, but the rum-based cocktail helped get slightly more than tipsy (i.e. almost drunk) on different occasion. I couldn't say no to a drink at 10 in the morning, but soon I learned to stay away from alcohol when the sun was so damn strong.
The night activities usually revolved around this strange Franco Mauritian guy who would work on a boat during the day and become a crooner during the night. Name a style, and he would sing it. Pop, opera, Indian songs, rock, blues. He was quite an entertainer. Usually he closed the night after the evening show (dances from around the world).
The first activity we did was the undersea walk, not too far away from our hotel, and it was great. Basically they take you on a boat to get to a floating station, on the reef barrier. Then you get equipped with weights, light plastic shoes and a giant fish bowl on your head, connected to an oxygen pump through a long pipe, and they tell you to go underwater. Thanks to the weights you don't have to swim, you can just walk. The whole area is surrounded by hundreds of fish coming to get the food from your hand.
Once you're down, and all you can hear is the oxygen pump and some bubbling when you try to laugh, you see a completely different world. Calm, slow and populated by creatures that you don't really recognize, unless they are on your plate.
It was a short (10 minutes) but incredible experience. They took some pictures and a video under water, and then they gave us a DVD with all the multimedia stuff on it.
On Tuesday it was time to visit the Wild Southwest. The tour guide explained us the problems of Mauritius and the fact that probably 80% of the island wealth is in the hand of the 2% franco-mauritians. Only the Indo-Mauritians manage to live on a decent standard, while the Creole struggle to survive and find jobs, due to the very low literacy level (but they can't go to school because they need to help the family survive, creating a vicious cycle of poverty). If you stay at the hotel, you would probably not see the poverty in the island. But it is enough to drive on those main roads to see the situation elsewhere.
The tour itself was very interesting. We met another South African couple and we spent some time with them in order to get some nice pictures and to talk with someone. We visited Tamarin Bay before arriving at the Case Noyale and see how the locals (three women) make coffee. We bought some of it and we tasted only a month later, on our espresso machine. It was delicious.
Then we moved to Chamarel to see the 90m falls and the 7-coloured earth, a strange rock formation that shows 7 different colors. So they said, I'm colorblind and I could see only 3-4 of them, but Lindsey guaranteed me that there were in fact 7.
Lunch was server at the Domain Saint Denis, a private estate with outstanding view over the south and south-west.
After a very good lunch we visited the Back River Peak, the highest point of the island, before going to see the volcanic crater called Trou aux Cerfs.
We even managed to visit a glass museum where they were blowing recycled hot glass (just like in Murano, Venice) to make everything that was possible.
The final destination of our long tour was at the Domain Les Pailles, a reconstructed Sugar Estate, where we had tea, biscuits and fresh rum!
And then it was evening, and night again, and we were too tired to do anything the next day.
The tropical cruise, Port Louis and final goodbyes
After spending two lazy days at the hotel, it was time to go on the second booked tour, the tropical cruise to Ile aux Cerf.
If the excursion to the South West was great, this was fantastic.
I didn't know what to expect, and since I was never a big fan of boats I just hoped that they would provide us food or drink on the way to the island.
We visited the Waterfalls at the Grande Riviere before embarking the catamaran. The day was ideal, hot but not boiling and with a lazy breeze. We stopped to snorkel, and for someone like me, who never did if before, it was quite an experience. I never realized how the fish strangely looks at you while you're invading gently its territory!
Again we met the same South African couple and while the ladies were talking, the boys were drinking the local beer.
Food was served on the boat, and there was plenty to choose from the BBQ they provided.
We arrived on the crowded Ile aux Cerfs Island, a notorious destination for tourists staying on the east cost due to the perfect beaches (coral-free) and even warmer sea, for our 2-3 hours stay. We decided to do some para sailing, available on the beach, and again, it was another new experience for me. The take off was painful like hell (I hurt my neck!) but once we were up, everything changed. If some days ago we were exploring the submarine world, this time we were invading the birds' realm.
After the short "flight" we were back at the beach to relax before returning to our hotel with the same catamaran.
The whole day was really cool, and the amount of pictures taken is there to prove it!
We visited the capital, Port Louis, only the last day. After a bad experience with taxi some days earlier (they left us at a fashion store where they tried to force us to buy some 150 pounds worth of clothing in not a very polite way), we decided to go straight there without stopping to shops on the way.
Once in Port Louis, we used the Lonely Planet map to visit the town in as little time as possible, just to say that we actually went there. The city wasn't really impressive, the waterfront was nice but the more we walked the more we tried to visit it quicker since we soon realize it was a dud. Yes, some buildings are nice, but if you're not into architecture you would just take a quick picture for the sake of it.
The most important feature of the town was the market.
So far I didn't really talk about how to buy stuff from Mauritian. They expect you to try to get the lower price, and they are ready to drop it to a certain amount. As a rule of thumb, as soon as they tell you a price you should slice it at least by 30%. They will moan but they will know they can still make a profit. Then you just bargain until you get to a price that you think is fine (usually 60% less of the asking price, whatever it is). They will moan and cry but eventually, if they can still make a profit, they will even follow you in the market to give you the shirt/souvenir/item at the price you wanted.
The Central Market was just more and more of this madness, in an enclosed place, with so many different smells in the air. No wonder we stayed only 20 minutes before escaping in search of fresh air.
We had better luck at the National Pamplemousses Gardens. There were so many different kinds of strange plants, including giant Victoria Amazonian water lilies, nice on the surface but quite scary under the water (kind of the plant in the Little Shop of Horrors). It was our final occasion to relax, take some pictures and be surrounded by typical Mauritian plants, without having to interact with the local people.
Then, it was time to go. Yes, it was sad, since we knew that after this short break (8 nights) our life, with all the joys and problems would start. But I guess this is the whole point of the honeymoon, to be able to have one final break before moving on. Just like school summer holidays.
Hello Lindsey, my lovely wife, let's start our life together now
Posted by Olaf Olgiati the 3 June 2008
While she was shopping with her father to buy me a nice watch, I was looking for something to give to her. Unfortunately the sentence "something to wear at the wedding" in my mind became "something", and so I bought a Nintendo Wii, something that she hinted she wanted.
Anyway, Lindsey and I decided to book the honey moon, in true Olafmeister style, on internet. The local agencies couldn't offer us anything nice at a decent price, so I went on Expedia and booked a place to stay in 5 minutes, after extensive consulting with my wife. I checked the reviews on internet (tripadvisor is probably the best place on earth to find these things) and here we go, Silver Beach Hotel (three stars) we are coming. 
It was quite a long drive, especially because the view from our bus was always the same: sugar canes. You see, if you check a map of Mauritius you will see that they have like three main roads (and one motorway long maybe 40km), and to get to a point, due to the curious features of the island (mountains in some places, flooded roads in some other), the safest way to travel is to pick one of those main roads, and then get off somewhere in proximity of the destination. Everything else is covered in sugard canes.
Going to Mauritius? Get on the all inclusive package. This will save you a lot of money. You see, food and drinks are expensive. The island overall is like a giant tourist trap if you want to get some souvenirs or eat in a restaurant. Most of the big fashion brands have some big shop on the island, trying to off-load the original (manufactured in Mauritius, sold in Europe) shirts or jeans. You won't get a special price. Actually, you will, since paying 100 pounds for a pair of jeans on an island where most of the people leave with 5 Euro a day is quite a lot.
The best way to visit the island is probably to go on the organized tours, with small groups of people (8-10). They will cost less and you'll be able to see as much as possible in a short period of time, so you can go back to the hotel to relax and have some drinks by the pool or the sea.
But first we decided to explore the surrounding of the little town we were staying. The whole coast was owned by hotels, some very expensive (Le Coco Beach) and some less. The coral was everywhere, but wasn't to annoying. Thanks to the perfect weather we jumped on bicycles to visit the town (Trou d'Eau Douce), but we couldn't find anything interesting.
The night activities usually revolved around this strange Franco Mauritian guy who would work on a boat during the day and become a crooner during the night. Name a style, and he would sing it. Pop, opera, Indian songs, rock, blues. He was quite an entertainer. Usually he closed the night after the evening show (dances from around the world).
Once you're down, and all you can hear is the oxygen pump and some bubbling when you try to laugh, you see a completely different world. Calm, slow and populated by creatures that you don't really recognize, unless they are on your plate.
After spending two lazy days at the hotel, it was time to go on the second booked tour, the tropical cruise to Ile aux Cerf.
We arrived on the crowded Ile aux Cerfs Island, a notorious destination for tourists staying on the east cost due to the perfect beaches (coral-free) and even warmer sea, for our 2-3 hours stay. We decided to do some para sailing, available on the beach, and again, it was another new experience for me. The take off was painful like hell (I hurt my neck!) but once we were up, everything changed. If some days ago we were exploring the submarine world, this time we were invading the birds' realm.
