O pen up…

On day 3, we were left alone to adventure around the island. We had taken the wonderful decision to hire a scooter (scooty, kinetic honda kind) on that day. We did not even have a map with us and we set towards North and with the help of the sign boards, we reached Port Louis and spent the afternoon at the Waterfront again. While coming back south, we decided not to turn west and proceeded southwards. After a while, we reached a nice restaurant on the south-west coast and stopped there for tea. It was a nice feeling to have a good tea after a day long trip from the west to the north west, back to the south-west of the island. While we were riding, we were caressed by the breeze from the sugarcane farms, the winds from the hills we drove past and the nice sea breeze that welcomed us in the evening as we drove west towards our restaurant.

The next day, we were taken to the east coast, from where we were going to be taken to a small island. We did amazing adventures like – the undersea walk (yep we walked under the ocean), double tuber (where the tube on which we both sat was tied to a motor boat which while speeding made us jump up and down, left and right on the water) and parasailing (that was amazzzing, we were up above in the sky above the ocean for about 4 minutes and guess what – I made a perfect landing). Overall, it was a fun-filled day and we got to know two more couples honeymooning in Mauritius. That evening, we had a nice chat with one of those couples who were staying at our resort.

The next day we hired a scooter again and set off to Port Louis again. This time we explored a little bit of North Central part of the island. While returning, we explored the west coast (I managed to find a musical ice cream van where Deepthi so badly wanted the “tring tring” musical ice cream they sold). Then we chanced upon another honeymooning couple we had made friends with and spent the evening chatting.

The next day, we were to return back to India, but we had some 3 1/2 hours left with us and decided to enjoy the ride on the scooter through the time. I took Deepthi to the Center of Mauritius to the volcanic crater where Deepthi wanted to taste the ice cream they sold. From the centre, we asked directions back to the west coast. Everyone was suggesting to us to take the same road we came by and to not hit the road that takes us to the forest area and to the mountains. The kind of adventure couple we were, we took the forest road. Through the curves along the lush green forests we drove and as we came more towards the South, we had to climb some hills. We managed to find another great valley area with wonderful view of the South coast and nice waterfalls adorning the hills. And through the hills we drove, passed by the Shiva statue and finally hit the South coast, drove along the South-west coast and back to the west coast.

It was ammmmmmmmmmmmaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing………..

The first day, we were taken on a car on the South tour. We were lucky to be taken in a car for the pennies we paid – the other honeymooning couples had to settle for a bus, some of them not even having the pleasure of sitting side by side. Apart from the fact that we were taken to more shopping places than we wanted to go to, we enjoyed the trip. The roads, the people became more familiar to us (believe me Mauritians are not the best hospitable people – but they are very interesting with their French accent). We got to see the huge volcanic crater, Troux Aux Cerf, from which the island had formed ages ago. The huge Shiva statue (yes most of them were hindus – they were more religiously celebrating some Murugan festival than probably we do in Chennai), some waterfalls, seven coloured earth and the amazing South-west coast.

The next day we were taken on the North tour and were taken to Port Louis, the capital city of Mauritius. The Caudan Waterfront, a huge shopping mall just beside the bay, was an amazing place to hang out. We had our lunch there in an Indian restaurant ‘Namaste’.

Hi,

So I returned from US on 20th Jan and set off to Mauritius the next day – our first anniversary, with Deepthi. I was in a true holiday mood  and felt very emotional when we were in the Air Mauritius flight. Beleive me, even Air India would feel good after you fly Lufthansa (had a real bad experience in Lufthansa while flying in and out of US). Deepthi and I exchanged some nice words to each other as we set ourselves on the journey. After 6 hours of flight, the first glimpse of Mauritius enthralled us. Amidst the lush green hills and the sugarcane farms we landed and it was very hot outside , some 37 degrees celsius. Just 2 days earlier, I had experienced -2, so Mauritius felt like heaven to me. Most of the people we met were of Indian origin, of course it had been 4 generations since they had left India. We were given our itinerary which did not look promising, but I had all the hopes for a great holiday. The drive on the island was very nice, we introduced ourselves to the 2 couples travelling with us in our coach. They had come on honeymoon, which made us the senior citizens there !

The resort where we were put up wasn’t that great – but we felt that was value for money. And since we were not on our honeymoon, we did not need such niceties. The hotel was on the west coast (yep we had a beach beside our hotel). The beaches in Mauritius are amazing and are very interesting. They are surrounded by a coral line which is some 30-50 feet away from the coast. The tides stop there and their impact almost becomes zero by the time they reach the coast (This coral line had actually helped Mauritius survive during Tsunami). The water with its aqua marine blue colour can fill the hearts of any romantic.

The next day we set off to Mystery spot, a nice mysterious place located near Santa Cruz. It was a 1 hour drive through hilly winding roads with nice picturesque sceneries and amazing roads – all of which I had captured on the cam. Mystery spot is a hilly area where gravity laws are defied – no perfect scientifc explanation has been given so far. A person taller than me appeared shorter than me and I could walk slantingly etc etc. It was a nice experience, I did take the photos and the video. When we returned, I was all tired and sis took me to a nice mexican restaurant – Chipotle’s. Nice tacos stuffed with Black beans, Guacomela sauce (again the spelling!!) and also some rice item with corn, sauce, beans etc filled my tummy – my GOD that was a meal! I have to take Deepthi to such restaurant some day – she will enjoy it a lot.

I had a nice dinner and set back on the return journey, only to learn at the Oakland airport that the pilot had not turned up!!! After listening to my complaint that my first ever trip within US was being ruined, the United guy offered me a direct flight trip from San Francisco till Philly the next day morning along with accommodation in a nice hotel called Westin. The hotel was good, but the experience was unwanted. I had to take time off on monday and probably will have to compensate by working on a saturday. Neways, that was about the journey. It was great and I am all tired. I returned to my hotel to find my Dell Lappy delivered ! I love it!

We set off to San Francisco on train. I captured the train journey on the handycam. Nice journey with a 15 minute travel over the pacific bay. we got onto a tram in San Francisco – looks like the trams are a trademark of the city. I captured even that on my cam. Then we reached the ‘Fishermen’s wharf’ from where we set on a Bay cruise that took us through the bay area of the pacific ocean around the golden gate bridge – that is a historical bridge which had opened up trade in San Francisco some centuries ago. The boat then took us through the Alcatraz – which is an island in the ocean. Alcatraz is a prison where dangerous criminals are jailed. It is next to impossible to escape from the prison because of the security there and also because noone can swim 1.5 miles through the cold water to reach the city. Only 2 tried to escape long time ago, one of whom died and the other only survived bcos he was captured by the coast guards.

Then, we spent the entire day walking through the streets of San Francisco – we visited Madame Tussaud’s museum over there. The wax idols there were not exact replicas – not the quality ones they have in London and Los Angeles – but they were good all the same. Srikanth took a picture of mine with Julia Roberts, Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman, Salma Hayek, Marilyn Monroe and Angelina Jolie. We bought some ghirardeli’s chocolates (did I spell it right?!) and set back to Fremont. It was a tiresome night and I had a good night’s sleep. Ankith was in a good mood and sang danced for several rhymes he has been learning nowadays.

Hi,

I had been to California over the weekend. It was a long journey – a 6 hour long flight and another 1 hour long flight. United was the airlines I flew by. the operations were bad, I had to run for the connecting flight in Los Angeles with a transit time of 15 minutes only to learn that it has been delayed. And the gate number had been changed 3 times, before they finally flew us through a small flight where even the cockpit was visible to the passengers. The good thing was I met a Japanese guy there who started talking about India. I was wearing a kurta that time and he said it was looking good. He asked me for all the info about India – where do you find the people with turbans, where do you find those guys in mela doing all the tricks with fire, ropes etc. I had to tell him that the cities do not have such population. He was even interested in meeting fakirs. I was amazed at the knowledge he has on the Indian culture, but had to correct him several times of the perception he has. He was so afraid of catching flu over there, etc etc.

The air hostess in the first flight was a 50+ year old lady , but she had nice sense of humour which made the travel enjoyable. I got down at Oakland airport to find Srikanth, my brother in law waiting for me. I cannot tell you how happy I felt that time. Here I am in an alien country and for more than a month have not met a relative in person. It was really a great moment to see him and we headed straight to fremont. Fremont was a nice city with a fine weather and wonderful residential localities. I found my sister’s residence beautiful. Ankith, my nephew was sleeping and my sis gave me some nice home made chapatis to satiate my hunger. I had a nice sleep. I woke up in the morning and had nice andhra food cooked my sis – rice, donda kaaya curry and mamidikaaya pappu. It was gr8!!!