vicious ambitious capricious mauritius

to be given a day off on my birthday, and then sent to the beautifully sunny island of mauritius the very next day, did feel very charmed indeed.

mauritius is pretty much a textbook version of island paradise. it's got everything that comes to mind when one thinks of a sun-drenched beach holiday: palm trees, snow white sands and that impossibly clear blue water.

admittedly, when i think of my dream getaway, it doesn't necessarily include laying out on a beach for hours on end. usually, it's gotta offer more: old friends, making new friends, incredible sights, experiencing a culture unlike the one i grew up with, some time spent outside of my comfort zone, a "wow" moment or two, a motorbike ride perhaps. so while mauritius seems to be for the faint-hearted, the honeymooners, the ones looking for a "relaxing oasis away from the stress of everyday life", i was still incredibly happy and grateful to be there.

these photos are a compilation of two visits to mauritius, it seemed like a waste of your energy and mine posting them separately, the two trips were mostly identical.

my adventures in mauritius² :
after flying all night to get there, consider crashing out in bed for some much needed sleep, before realising you can get much needed sleep while getting a much needed tan . after a while, decide that sleep/tan are going to have to take a backseat to the hunger that has started growling in your stomach -- ahh, perfect, the lunch buffet has opened . after lunch, rent a bike from the hotel reception, and go exploring around the island for an hour or so, looking for the supermarket (never found it), a nearby beach (think i found it), and a neighbouring village to meet the locals (still looking for it) . back at the resort, feel like i should try and take one out the mini-sailboats out for a exploration on the water, but really, i think i lack the co-ordination and the skill necessary to handle one of them -- admittedly, there were thirteen-year olds navigating these sailboats around the waters, but i didn't want to sail out into the middle of the lagoon only to discover i couldn't sail it back into shore . that afternoon, meet up with the colleagues and pile into a speedboat to go on a waterfalls tour -- and get proper ripped off with the price when we discover that what we paid covers the cost of the boat-ride, but doesn't cover the cost of the guide on the waterfalls telling us where to jump off from...but i mean, i've accepted that getting ripped off is all part of travelling these days -- really, even if you've jumped on a plane and travelled for days, and you haven't yet been taken for a fool, have you even left your home town?! . have the guide take you to starfish beach, where it's snapshotapallooza, after all, everyone needs a snapshot of themselves holding a starfish! (i promise that it's been scientifically-proven that starfish actually enjoy being thrown through the air like a ninja star, really i was just giving them what they wanted) . before you know it, it's dinner time again -- shall we to the buffet? yes, let's! and considering the food is all-inclusive, it would seem foolish to leave the all-you-can-eat buffet without actually having eaten all you can . next day starts off rainy, but that doesn't stop us laying out by the pool and playing frisbee in the rain . food is all-inclusive, but alcohol isn't, so a few crafty colleagues have brought their own, and we spend the day funneling the contents of our "water bottles" into our soft drinks as we sit by the pool and watch the clouds part and the sun come shining gloriously through . pile back into a boat for a tour of the surrounding reefs, and to see the awesome coral through our glass-bottomed boat . move to the beach, and continue our frisbee game -- be somewhat overly enthusiastic, and send the frisbee soaring in a direction where no one is standing...spend the next hour looking for my mate's frisbee as it has sentimental value and i feel terribly about having lost it on her...even if she tells me she doesn't really mind -- i do mind...thankfully, one of our mates stumbles across it after we'd been searching in completely the wrong area for way too long . be somewhat disappointed that there were no pigeons to kick, but let's focus on the upside: no pigeons!

here are the photos:


stay tuned, next week: TUNIS!!!


let the good times roll!!

Cape Town, i'm drowning in your beauty

i'd been excited about visiting South Africa for a while now, but had always heard varying reports about Johannesburg.
Some say it's awesome and a lot of fun, others would say it's boring and dangerous (but danger doesn't sound so boring to me...)

but the reports about Cape Town were unanimously positive:
"pretty", "friendly", "great food", and my favourite: "you'll get killed in jo'burg, but only mugged in Cape Town"

so when i was given a Cape Town trip, i was proper pumped. i was ready to experience the great food, and we all love a bit of prettiness now and then, and Cape Town certainly didn't disappoint. the great food was everywhere, and the prettiness even more so.

i'd done my research about Cape Town and had a vague idea about the things i wanted to see and do, but 24 hours is a remarkably short amount of time and some sacrifices had to be made. That trip to Robben Island to see where Nelson Mandela spent his incarceration would have to wait until i was in Cape Town for a longer period of time, but the cable car ride up to the top of Table Mountain was very achievable.
Starting out bright and early, we made our way to the base of Table Mountain and bought our tickets for the cable car, with the ticket-box lady advising us that visibility up there was quite poor. Not one to be discouraged easily, I still bought my ticket, and my colleagues and i bundled into the cable car.

"Poor" was an understatement when referring to the visibility on the top of Table Mountain that morning, but we can't say we weren't warned. At times, i couldn't see my hand when i held it out in front of my face.
But still, there was something really beautiful/eerie about the atmosphere up there, even if we couldn't see a whole lot. And when we finished touring the top of the mountain and eating some breakfast, the view was amazing as we passed back down through the clouds in our cable car, greeted with the massive panorama of Cape Town in front of us.

When we reached the base again, the ticket-box had closed temporarily, with a sign saying that due to visibility, the cable cars has stopped, so i felt real fortunate that we'd at least been given a chance to get up there and take a look around.

here are the (few) photos:


stay tuned, next week: MAURITIUS!!!


let the good times roll!!