Saturday, October 31, 2009

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.

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

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

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The board in front of the boat house.

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

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Here’s the bay filled with boats.

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The boathouse

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The dock leading out to the 2 cats

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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.

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

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So here are the 2 cats

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and then we left the dock, looking back

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yours truly

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a cloudy sky

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hoisting the sails.

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

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the anchor

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the above photo’s dont need any commentary…

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beer was served :)

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looks like a bowl filled with clouds

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the bankers…

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what we came to see…

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and its starting to set…

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the clouds were highlighted

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sliding down the horizon

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

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going…

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going…

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gone…

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more evidence of the bowl full of clouds

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food was served

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our intrepid crew

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really gone

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the running lights on top of the mast

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only a sliver of red light left

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heading into the bay

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

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

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

Next are some photographs of the road…

Thursday, October 29, 2009

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.

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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A beautiful red headed sparrow
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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?

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

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

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


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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. 

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

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The beach bar

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This is the pool. Very nice.

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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. 

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The jagged volcanic mountains in the distance

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

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