Throwback: Half-day Tour Southern Mauritius

Me and my colleague engaged a local tour service to bring us around the non-touristry part of the island.

We went south to....

get closer to the nature

yes, at the Black River Gorges National Park!

It was a nice weather to tour around, coz it wasn't sunny and the air is soothingly cool

we went up the hill to enjoy the panoramic view of the sea...

Not much people even on a Saturday noon.

At the parking lot, there was a food/snack truck selling all sorts of junks....definitely my type of junks! But i didn't buy coz I did not bring enuff small notes to buy snacks.

here's the mountainous view of the national park..

and the waterfall where most tourist took photo with it.

We then adjourned to Chamarel to visit the giant tortoise

to enjoy seeing the weird soil

and the Seven Coloured Earth...

It is one of the tourist attraction and my visit to Mauritius is not complete without visiting the Seven Coloured Earth.

Unfortunately it was too cloudy to capture the wonderful colours...all I see is different shades of brown.

After then, the tour guide took us for lunch in this Indian restaurant

I had the vegetarian set...

Can't remember the name of the dishes, but it was good!

Then, it rained :-(

But we continued our journey.

We were drove to the Maconde Point to see the Indian ocean

I need to climb the stairs to the top to enjoy the view

it was a scenic view along the coast, despite the cloudy weather

crystal clear water below

nice blue ocean water

Then we passed by Le Morne and have a look of the local houses

and the jetty.

The sea looks calm, but it shows a 'danger' signboard

some fishing boats

More empty boats

It was relaxing by just looking at the quiet sea....

The beach was so clean that not a single rubbish in sight...

Next we went to the Martello Tower Museum.

We paid a small sum to get into the tower

It displays some colonials artifacts and history of Mauritius

Below: the costume worn by marine defence during the colonial days

there is even a real cannon! (*but not in used)

and the real cannonball....

I tried lifting up the cannonball and it was so HEAVY!

it was still drizzling after we got down from the tower museum

Next, we proceed to another 'tower'....and we passed by KFC (that's where I want to be!)

before arriving at the Albion light house....

*it is still a 'tower' ma....

we did not get in...but just lingered outside to enjoy the sea breeze

it was a windy evening after the rain

not far from the lighthouse, there's rock formation due to many years of erosion process

the lucky number '8' (ok, jst kidding!)

it was surrounded by dead plants and grass - dun ask me why~~

After awhile, time to get back to the hotel...buh bye!

and back to 'reality' on the following Monday..... 

*ah, those wire cords!

Well, that's all for my Mauritius worktrip… Glad that I got the opportunity to explore the country and its culture.

Overall it was a nice experience...beautiful country with very civilised people (much better than us Malaysians)...It is a multiracial country and yet they respect each other's religion and race, without bringing up issues or politicise it.

One thing I noticed about them is that the people are:

• environmentally cautious, as they don't waste water and electricity. Office staffs would switch off lights when they noticed no one is using any room/toilet within the office.
• streets and public area are clean and well maintained.
• people are warm, polite and hospitable.
• plastic bags are used minimally in shopping malls/supermarts...Shoppers usually bring their own shopping bag.
• they dun shop extravagantly. Over here in KL, u'll often see people with full cart of items.
• they dun waste food. Seldom u see leftovers on the plates.

the air is even fresher there....