So we were sitting after dinner when we suddenly felt the insult of the driver from the morning. We bitched a lot about him and called our travel guide and asked for another driver on the next day. As I was going through the DSLR photos, I found out that most of my memory card was almost full. The HD quality photos ate so much space. 'Don't worry, I will transfer them into laptop.', I reminded myself. I went into the room and put the SD card into my laptop. Nothing happened for a minute or two. Annoyed, I restarted the laptop and checked SD card, but it was not detected. Then the realization stuck me that I have always used office laptop's card reader to transfer photos. In short, here I was, sitting with laptop with bad card reader. My wife blamed me for my carelessness. Frenziedly I called a couple friend to check whether he had brough any such device. But he was smart, he had brought extra sd card. I went to reception to check whether they have any such device but that was in vain. I can feel the sweat on my temples, I have to find some way. I asked receptionist that whether there is any electronics shop nearby but he told that we were near beaches and all shops are far away. I would not get any time next day until evening. So one day sight-seeing without dSLR, I shivered in terror by that thought. So I came back to the room indecisively. From my porch, I could see a french middle aged man sitting outside in his porch with his laptop. I had seen him everyday, evening onwards, he used to work a lot on laptop. I had an impression that he must be a writer, finding a tranquil environment to do some creative thinking. I gathered courage and approached him. He knew a lot lesser English than what I had anticipated. But he was very welcoming. I explained him my problem and he was ready to help. He gave me the control of his laptop. I was relieved. It has windows vista installed on it. I inserted my sd card and opened 'My Computer'. Wait!, there was something wrong with his computer. At first I was not able to understand what but I felt it quite unfriendly. Suddenly I realized that his language was set to french. I did right-click and asked him which text belonged to copy. Somehow I transferred that data to pen drive. We chatted with him for some time. He was actually into some financial firm and every now and then he would check the share prices on his laptop. This was his 4th or 5th trip to Mauritius. I bet we would not find any Indian like that. I mean, I myself would never go to Mauritius, I would think to visiting some other place, but here was this old man planning to come to this place again and again. Anyways, I thanked him wholeheartedly and warned that I may come back again.
Next day we were the only 3 couples in the van and there was another more friendly driver. We felt special. (see how perception is so deceiving thing, after an insult, a minivan exclusively for us felt like a special thing.) Anyways, the day was supposed to be spend on South Island. So again we had to cross the whole country. On our way, driver stopped at some mall for us to do some shopping, we went just for the sake of it and came out of mall within minutes. Moreover that day was Mauritian Holiday so many shops on the way were closed. The next day was Chinese New Year day and this new driver told us that most of the things will be closed. I hadn't seen that big number of chinese people in mauritius for having a holiday for their new year. We cursed our travel agency for these tourist-unfriendly dates which they planned their tour with. So, finally the driver took us to a place where small miniature boats are created. They showed us the factory briefly and took us inside the factory outlet. There were thousands of mini ships, boats, speed-boats in the showcases.
The art of manufacturing was so clean and exquisite. But they were quite expensive as well. I mean, few prices were quite debatable to be compared with actual boats. There was also a section of pearls where pearls were available in different kinds of ornaments. We took some souvenirs from that shop and took photos of all the 'photography prohibited' art-works. Our next destination was Trou Aux Cerfs.
These french words are completely different when pronounced. It was a crater surrounding the extinct volcano. We took a lot of photos there. Suddenly, it started raining. We ran in the rain. Waited in shelter. Just like in India, we shared our shelter with stray dogs. Ate an ice-cream in rain. It was such a nice time. After doing so much of physical exercise, we started to the next spot, a Shiva temple near a lake called Grand Basin. In Mauritius, the Hindu culture is quite populated. There were lots of temples around. On the way, driver took us to the hotel for lunch. It was the hotel of a south-indian lady. She was looting people like nothing. We shared a thali of food and payed almost 1400 INR for it. Food in mauritius was ridiculously expensive. But we were helpless, in a foreign country and rain was pouring heavily outside. We felt sad. The rain made camera as useless accessory. As we reached the temple, we found a big statue of Lord Shiva. We prayed to him, to stop the rain so that our day does not get wasted. The temple was on the hill and we had to climb couple of hundred stairs to reach to the top. In the rain, we climbed the stairs. The chilling air had numbed my ears. When we reached top, there was a ShivaLing and Hanuman statue. We prayed to god and looked around. We were told that the top view was breath-taking, but all we could see was fog. We ran back to the lake and took some photos. Completely drenched in rain, we started for the last spot of the day, the seven colored earth and charamel. We saw coffee plantations in rain. Looked at a waterfall from a distance and took our photos with it in background.
Finally when we reached at the Seven colored earth, the rain has almost stopped. Due to some volcanic action, the sand had 7 different shades. I could distinguish 5 out of them. Some claimed to find all 7, but I blamed rain for creating mud in the sand. There was a big tortoise with whom we took some photos. There were lots of chinese people at this spot. I found a chinese family, so independent, the father took out his tripod stand, put the camera on it and took the family photo in timer mode. We asked some other chinese man to take our group photo. I thought that for him, handling a Nikon DSLR would be like दायें हाथ का खेल , but he fumbled to take a photo and I had to teach him. We have so many stereotypes, don't we? Me expecting a chinese (now I even think of him only as a chinese, he could even be japanese, korean etc) guy to be gazette friendly is like he expecting me to be Indian Spices expert. Finally, there was a coffee shop where we drank a deliciously tasty coffee and started back our journey. On our way back, there was a viewpoint where sky and ocean meets. No one can spot the horizon.
The spot showed us such a beautiful wonder. The sky was as blue as water and we could not distinguish where water stops and sky starts. I tried to capture that brilliance of color fusion through camera, but the actual scenery was much beyond what was captured. In the evening at 5.30, the driver dropped us back to the resort.
Now being back at resort so early was annoying. We still had lot of enthusiasm in us. So me and my wife freshened up and decided to explore the area. She wanted to try out some seafood and hence we roamed across another beach near our resort. The beach was named as Mont Choisy Beach. It was a semicircular long beach and it had lots of vendor vehicles, but surprisingly many of them were closing. Somehow, we found out that one was still open but it was an ice-cream shop. There were lot of families around who were doing their cooking, but nothing was on sale. So, finally we came back into the residential area. There were all big banglows, deserted though. We walked through many lanes until we reached a small restaurant. It was a typical french restaurant with small chairs and tables, but not a single customer. When we entered the premises, the owner welcomed us. He was looking like a Mauritian origin but had a thick french accent. He 'Bonjour'ed us and we replied back. The table was decorated with a small candle like light and fresh flowers. He gave us the menu cards and waited politely at the corner. As we started going through the menu, there were lots of sea-food varieties. I don't eat sea-food so I had least options. Moreover I was looking at the right column on the menu before reading its name. My wife said that she is not hungry enough to eat any sea-food item alone on her own. We called him and asked him few more questions like which one is more spicy? He started loosing his patience. He asked us which wine we would like? I realized that it would be customary to order wine with any dish. Our uncertainty grew more faster. Finally we ended up ordering a fish salad which we asked him to parcel up. (This was done to avoid the wine expenses.) He lost interest in us and we lost that french touch in his hospitality. Eventually, as evening grew darker, we came back to our resort. I jumped into the swimming pool and was enjoying the resort feel while my wife ate her fish salad, which was nothing but baked fish. Suddenly there was some commotion on the other side of the pool. Some guy has lost his room keys into the pool. He was getting quite a good scolding from his wife. Within few minutes, I felt some metal touched my feet and when I lifted it with a feet, there it was a key. I took it out and went towards that other group. I announced in a cool dude style (this was all in my head) that I heard them talking about a key and showed them I found it out. They thanked me from heart again and again. I swam back to my wife and friends and exclaimed, 'How can that guy loose his key?' and we laughed. But he heard me laughing, not that guy but उपरवाला. Next day I did the same mistake. Ok, I will describe it later. Lets go by the timeline. After an hour or so, we assembled back at the dinner table. There was one big problem with his resort, all the lights at every corner of that estate, were yellow. There was not a single white light. It annoyed few of us so much. The first two days of dinner were quite un-eventful. There were all indian cuisines, so food was not the issue. But when we reached there, we found out that there was a live band playing for all of us. There were two singers accompanied by some pianist and guitarist. It lifted our mood. The singers sang lot of African-mauritain songs. There were such a melodious songs, though we didn't understand a word in it, we felt happy listening to it. There was an african family...a big family in the hall. Few amongst them started tapping their legs to the music beats and within minutes, many of them were on the dance floor. Their dance steps were very simple and reflected their joyful hearts, I had an awesome time enjoying the music and encouraging the dancers, while eating Indian food and tropical breeze soothing us. With stomach full of food and heart full on joy, we returned back to our shelters.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Next day we were the only 3 couples in the van and there was another more friendly driver. We felt special. (see how perception is so deceiving thing, after an insult, a minivan exclusively for us felt like a special thing.) Anyways, the day was supposed to be spend on South Island. So again we had to cross the whole country. On our way, driver stopped at some mall for us to do some shopping, we went just for the sake of it and came out of mall within minutes. Moreover that day was Mauritian Holiday so many shops on the way were closed. The next day was Chinese New Year day and this new driver told us that most of the things will be closed. I hadn't seen that big number of chinese people in mauritius for having a holiday for their new year. We cursed our travel agency for these tourist-unfriendly dates which they planned their tour with. So, finally the driver took us to a place where small miniature boats are created. They showed us the factory briefly and took us inside the factory outlet. There were thousands of mini ships, boats, speed-boats in the showcases.
The art of manufacturing was so clean and exquisite. But they were quite expensive as well. I mean, few prices were quite debatable to be compared with actual boats. There was also a section of pearls where pearls were available in different kinds of ornaments. We took some souvenirs from that shop and took photos of all the 'photography prohibited' art-works. Our next destination was Trou Aux Cerfs.
These french words are completely different when pronounced. It was a crater surrounding the extinct volcano. We took a lot of photos there. Suddenly, it started raining. We ran in the rain. Waited in shelter. Just like in India, we shared our shelter with stray dogs. Ate an ice-cream in rain. It was such a nice time. After doing so much of physical exercise, we started to the next spot, a Shiva temple near a lake called Grand Basin. In Mauritius, the Hindu culture is quite populated. There were lots of temples around. On the way, driver took us to the hotel for lunch. It was the hotel of a south-indian lady. She was looting people like nothing. We shared a thali of food and payed almost 1400 INR for it. Food in mauritius was ridiculously expensive. But we were helpless, in a foreign country and rain was pouring heavily outside. We felt sad. The rain made camera as useless accessory. As we reached the temple, we found a big statue of Lord Shiva. We prayed to him, to stop the rain so that our day does not get wasted. The temple was on the hill and we had to climb couple of hundred stairs to reach to the top. In the rain, we climbed the stairs. The chilling air had numbed my ears. When we reached top, there was a ShivaLing and Hanuman statue. We prayed to god and looked around. We were told that the top view was breath-taking, but all we could see was fog. We ran back to the lake and took some photos. Completely drenched in rain, we started for the last spot of the day, the seven colored earth and charamel. We saw coffee plantations in rain. Looked at a waterfall from a distance and took our photos with it in background.
Finally when we reached at the Seven colored earth, the rain has almost stopped. Due to some volcanic action, the sand had 7 different shades. I could distinguish 5 out of them. Some claimed to find all 7, but I blamed rain for creating mud in the sand. There was a big tortoise with whom we took some photos. There were lots of chinese people at this spot. I found a chinese family, so independent, the father took out his tripod stand, put the camera on it and took the family photo in timer mode. We asked some other chinese man to take our group photo. I thought that for him, handling a Nikon DSLR would be like दायें हाथ का खेल , but he fumbled to take a photo and I had to teach him. We have so many stereotypes, don't we? Me expecting a chinese (now I even think of him only as a chinese, he could even be japanese, korean etc) guy to be gazette friendly is like he expecting me to be Indian Spices expert. Finally, there was a coffee shop where we drank a deliciously tasty coffee and started back our journey. On our way back, there was a viewpoint where sky and ocean meets. No one can spot the horizon.
The spot showed us such a beautiful wonder. The sky was as blue as water and we could not distinguish where water stops and sky starts. I tried to capture that brilliance of color fusion through camera, but the actual scenery was much beyond what was captured. In the evening at 5.30, the driver dropped us back to the resort.
Now being back at resort so early was annoying. We still had lot of enthusiasm in us. So me and my wife freshened up and decided to explore the area. She wanted to try out some seafood and hence we roamed across another beach near our resort. The beach was named as Mont Choisy Beach. It was a semicircular long beach and it had lots of vendor vehicles, but surprisingly many of them were closing. Somehow, we found out that one was still open but it was an ice-cream shop. There were lot of families around who were doing their cooking, but nothing was on sale. So, finally we came back into the residential area. There were all big banglows, deserted though. We walked through many lanes until we reached a small restaurant. It was a typical french restaurant with small chairs and tables, but not a single customer. When we entered the premises, the owner welcomed us. He was looking like a Mauritian origin but had a thick french accent. He 'Bonjour'ed us and we replied back. The table was decorated with a small candle like light and fresh flowers. He gave us the menu cards and waited politely at the corner. As we started going through the menu, there were lots of sea-food varieties. I don't eat sea-food so I had least options. Moreover I was looking at the right column on the menu before reading its name. My wife said that she is not hungry enough to eat any sea-food item alone on her own. We called him and asked him few more questions like which one is more spicy? He started loosing his patience. He asked us which wine we would like? I realized that it would be customary to order wine with any dish. Our uncertainty grew more faster. Finally we ended up ordering a fish salad which we asked him to parcel up. (This was done to avoid the wine expenses.) He lost interest in us and we lost that french touch in his hospitality. Eventually, as evening grew darker, we came back to our resort. I jumped into the swimming pool and was enjoying the resort feel while my wife ate her fish salad, which was nothing but baked fish. Suddenly there was some commotion on the other side of the pool. Some guy has lost his room keys into the pool. He was getting quite a good scolding from his wife. Within few minutes, I felt some metal touched my feet and when I lifted it with a feet, there it was a key. I took it out and went towards that other group. I announced in a cool dude style (this was all in my head) that I heard them talking about a key and showed them I found it out. They thanked me from heart again and again. I swam back to my wife and friends and exclaimed, 'How can that guy loose his key?' and we laughed. But he heard me laughing, not that guy but उपरवाला. Next day I did the same mistake. Ok, I will describe it later. Lets go by the timeline. After an hour or so, we assembled back at the dinner table. There was one big problem with his resort, all the lights at every corner of that estate, were yellow. There was not a single white light. It annoyed few of us so much. The first two days of dinner were quite un-eventful. There were all indian cuisines, so food was not the issue. But when we reached there, we found out that there was a live band playing for all of us. There were two singers accompanied by some pianist and guitarist. It lifted our mood. The singers sang lot of African-mauritain songs. There were such a melodious songs, though we didn't understand a word in it, we felt happy listening to it. There was an african family...a big family in the hall. Few amongst them started tapping their legs to the music beats and within minutes, many of them were on the dance floor. Their dance steps were very simple and reflected their joyful hearts, I had an awesome time enjoying the music and encouraging the dancers, while eating Indian food and tropical breeze soothing us. With stomach full of food and heart full on joy, we returned back to our shelters.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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