On the road in Mauritius

This set of photographs relate to some sights I saw while I was out and about in Mauritius.

Houses:

 

Sometimes I really thought that the islanders were colour blind. That pink colour should only be on Barbie girls!, not on a house!

 

This was an abandoned house. Starting to fall down. Turns out this is an old police building.

 

Can you see the yellow police tape? Now its a parking lot, reserved for the police.

Farms:

 

What a great view, long rolling fields with young sugarcane plants slowly merging into the sea. Here is another view when I look back. I wouldn't mind being a farmer in this area, eh?

 

Here’s another farm with a lovely mountain backdrop.

 

 

A farmer preparing the field on the left. There were quite a lot of farms which were small but many were big, using mechanised tooling to till. The one on the right is obviously been tilled by a tractor. The use of sprinkler systems was good. Obviously in an island which is water stressed, they have to be careful with water. This kind of irrigation was quite commonly observed in the larger farms. In one, I even saw a motorised sprinkler system.

 

Other Buildings

Believe it or not, but this is supposed to be a government office. Bit ramshackle if you ask me :)

And if you think that its all bucolic and what not, then this wireless transmission tower would disabuse you.

Other roadside sights

 

A roadside stall selling few vegetables under a mango tree. Lovely colour of the leaves, very bright and vibrant.

And here’s a lovely strong old banyan tree. Very beautiful.

The bus stands are also very colourful. Very nice. They stand out in the flat landscape for miles out. Pretty nice.

An advertisement for a golf course. Hmmmm, lol. Pretty good looking poster but slightly ruined by the rather dirty ditch and the manky wall in front.

Churches and Temples:

 

I came across an extraordinary number of churches in Mauritius. This one was quite old, dating back about 200 years. See the solid stone construction.

And as I mentioned above, the choice of colours is extraordinary. Check out the colours of the gravestones. Pretty lively lot they would be, eh?  

This was a graveyard cum grotto. Nice colour scheme.

The eye-catching colour combination syndrome does not just afflict the Christians, its the Hindu’s also who get it :), rather cute temple, eh?

And I might be wrong, but this was a Muslim graveyard. Lovely peaceful place.

Shops:

 

Cane furniture shop

 

Indians have been in the island almost as long as the colonial masters. But looking at the name, Tulsidas Style made me smile. Tulsidas is considered to be one of the master authors of Hindu epics, his most famous being Ramcharitmanas. But to consider him to be a stylistic guru is a bit of a stretch :)

 

But here’s a typical Indian shop. Bata is the Marks and Spenser of footwear in India. Standard shoes, good build, favourite of the middle classes. But strangely enough, Bata is originally Czech but there you go. Reminds one of Mother Teresa, the other famous Eastern European import to India.

 

Ok, this was new to me…

Chung Fat. Miss as well. I would have avoided it.

 

The construction of this house/flat looked quite unique to me, but had definite colonial overtones.

A bit strange if you ask me, but this is supposed to be a fancy upscale shop. See what I meant about the colours. And I had no idea what the damn statues were supposed to signify.

Office Buildings:

  

We were taken to the IT centre. Pretty impressive building, eh? nice.



 

In one of the offices, this full sized mannequin was propped up in the corner. And it had a visitor badge on it. And was holding a paper ladies bag. Which said, “I am Sonia, the customer”. Very weird, if you ask me. 

The sea shore

Sorry about the blurred picture. This is a sea salt factory.

Kids on a boat having fun. Presumably the sea side kids would be part fish themselves.

This series of pictures was taken in an islet.

A tired boat pulled up over the high tide mark, listing slightly, waiting for its owner I guess.

 
Looks like this boat was forgotten by its owner. Looked very sad indeed. That’s not going anywhere without some serious digging.

 
Lots of sea moss.

And the diesel pump for the boats.

The full resolution slideshow is here.

Sights and Signs in Mumbai

We went for a walk around my sister’s flat in Mumbai.

The first was the strange one. Do not Spit and Drive slow? eh? what? i can spit if i drive fast? I guess this is an example of misplaced punctuation. heh. They dont want you to spit. And they want you to drive slow. The idea of having an ampersand in the middle really made me chuckle.

Then this bewildered me. Presumably the Lake Home Management people dont want areas to be congested with parked cars. So if you do park your car, they will deflate the tyres? And so? the car will still be parked there!, how about towing it away? silly buggers.

Ma is busy trying to get the coconut malai out of the “daab” :) it was really nice.

Here’s Baba and I with my little cute sister Guria.

It was Diwali and fireworks are a must.

we could see the detritus of the fireworks on the pavement.

Some lights on the balcony, looked very nice and soothing.

Mauritius Photo Essay #3 Dolphin Bay Sunset Cruise

So we were taken out for a sunset cruise to the aptly named Dolphin Bay. Here are some of the photographs for that trip.

 

Here’s our vehicle. Dolphin watching full day cruise and catamarans, what fun :)
 

That itself is just so brilliant, lol, sea urchin diving center.

The board in front of the boat house.

I wasn't very clear what this meant. What stickers?

 

Here’s the bay filled with boats.

The boathouse

The dock leading out to the 2 cats

The dock was decidedly painful to walk on, despite me wearing dockers. And then they asked us to remove them before climbing into the cat.

Look left and look right, bit of a strange beach this…

So here are the 2 cats

and then we left the dock, looking back

yours truly

a cloudy sky

hoisting the sails.

 

whoops, we seem to have left some people back at the dock…dammit

the anchor





 

the above photo’s dont need any commentary…

beer was served :)

looks like a bowl filled with clouds

the bankers…

what we came to see…

 

and its starting to set…

the clouds were highlighted

sliding down the horizon

the clouds were highlighted very nicely, looked like there were magma pools there…

going…

going…

gone…

more evidence of the bowl full of clouds

food was served

our intrepid crew

really gone

the running lights on top of the mast

only a sliver of red light left

heading into the bay



  sat on the back watching the water. A peek under the cat on the right


 

Photo of the boat house and check out what I caught Ma…

 

That’s the moon on top and the running lights on the cat. Full slideshow here.

Next are some photographs of the road…

Mauritius Photo Essay #2 – the Hotel

Stayed at the Hilton Resort and Spa place. Lovely place called as Flic en Flac. The name itself sounds risqué and just great :). This part of the essay talks about the hotel and its environs. The conference was also held in the hotel. Obviously I dont have any photographs of the conference itself.

  

The room was nice, they had got the word welcome written in leaves on the bedspread. With rhododendron orange flowers in the bathroom basin. Nice place. Had sandstone flagstone flooring which was nice and cool, Very nice

 

This is the view from the balcony, had a nice cuppa coffee while sitting and sipping it.

 

Whenever a guest comes in, they hit this damn gong. Scared the crap out of me when I came in the previous evening

Lovely portico, small pool with carp, vibrant green shrubs. Very nice indeed.

 
   

Went around the beach on the first day and took a 180 degrees broken panoramic view :) nice, eh?

 

Lovely trees, date palms and manicured lawns even with a mini golf course, lol.  

 
A beautiful red headed sparrow
 

And a banyan tree :) not very impressive compared to some of the big buggers i have seen in India but still they look grizzled and impressive no?

The Thai restaurant. I didn't get a chance to eat here but its supposed to be pretty good I understand.

 

There is a small gazebo in front of the Thai restaurant which is simply lovely, surrounded with pools and shrubs, overlooking the swimming pool.

 
Here’s the pool, cool, eh? looks so nice and peaceful.

   

The flora in the gardens were lovely, look at the waxy beautiful flowers. See the full slide show given below to get the full impact of the flowers. 

 

Guests come and leave behind books. Quite an interesting selection there, from all kinds of topics to all kinds of languages, I noted 10 different languages. And you sit and read and see this view in front. Good or what? what a great place to sit and read. The ceiling fans were the bestest, amazing flower shaped fans. Now why dont we have more of this in India?
  

  
A lovely place on top of the breakfast restaurant to also do some more of the reading :)

The beach bar

  

This is the pool. Very nice.

 

The hotel has a jetty / dock out into the sea where you can sit and paddle your feet. Sitting on the dock all day? what a life. 

The jagged volcanic mountains in the distance

 

Heh, the mobile phone mast disguised as a palm tree. Very nice. 

 
And they had rolled out the red carpet for us :D

 

Spending some time on the beach :D

I also managed to get hold of a book of essays written by various luminaries such as Samuel Clements in the early colonial times. Will put in a separate essay on that. Next one is the sunset cruise set of photographs.

Here is the full slide show.

Mauritius Photo Essay – The journey in

I was invited by the Government of Mauritius to participate in a conference. It was just a 4 day trip and in hindsight, I would have refused this honour, because the journey itself was too long. Still, anyway, its done.

The immigration landing card shows a dodo, heh. Nice one. Although I am not so sure what it signifies, that I will be extinct if I land? heh.

 

The forward looking camera on the plan shows the runway on the in-flight entertainment screen.

 

It was evening when I landed and the view outside was brilliant. Scudding clouds, with misty green mountains in the distance with crystal clear air in the middle with that lovely tropical green.  

As the sign says, Welcome to Paradise :)



While waiting for my car to turn up, I snapped these pictures. Lovely little airport.

The car turns up.

Sugarcane fields all over the place

the vista was very nice, very peaceful and calm. Had to drive almost across the island to get to the hotel from the airport. Took almost an hour and this was in the middle of the rush hour.

Rush out in paradise :) very nice infrastructure.

Apparently quite a lot of Indians were sent to this island as exiles, either for political or criminal reasons. Almost 60-70% of the populace is Hindu Indian, rest being Muslim and Christian. 

The last 2 digits of the car’s number plate signifies the year it was registered. Given that everything is imported in this country, cars and everything else is bloody expensive!

The sunset. The red glow reminded me of the sunsets in Hawaii which i saw many moons ago, but at that time, it was because of lava flows, lol. Thankfully this time it was just the sun.

The final glimmer of the sun.

I really had problems here. Damn Marmite and Cuisine does NOT go together and I definitely dont want Marmite anywhere near my pastries. Damn French.

And Zorro is no longer in Mexico, he is in Mauritius running a shop with his sons :)

By the time I checked into the hotel, it was already dark.



Very dark and I was bushed, I wanted to hit the bed, but that’s for the next post.

Prohibited items in Hong Kong

Pretty graphic evidence on what you can and cannot import in Hong Kong.

Dried Crocodile Meat

Wild American Ginseng Root

 

Seahorses

Why would caviar be banned? And if its banned, then how come this caviar store is opening up not 100 meters away from this display?

Tiger Bone Chinese Medicine. Here’s evidence about where the tigers of the world are vanishing off to,into the stomach’s of Chinese men wanting to perk up their peckers.

Bile powder,frequently from bears livers

Margave Skin

Orchids

Stony Coral Skeleton, Indian Roofed Turtle Plastron.

Monitor Lizard Skin

Ivory

Some kind of skin.

Turtles. He looks so sad? Well, so would you be if you were stuffed and mounted on a shelf, with your skin and bones being used for boxes and purses.

Prohibited and controlled items… Felt quite queasy reading this. This is what we humans are doing to our planet and its animals……

Protests at Standard Chartered Bank

While walking back from one office to another via the elevated pathways, heard some very disciplined shouting.

people wearing masks (not to hide themselves, but protect themselves from swine flu)

more people on the right,under one of the grand poo bah’s who founded Standard Chartered Bank.

And you had some people who were helping raise the protests. I could only take these 3 pictures before two policemen came up to me and politely shooed me off.