Mauritius/Dubai 9D8N - Day 2

18/05/2024

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Destination: Mauritius and Dubai

Duration: 9D8N

Dates: 17 - 22 May (6 days in Mauritius), 22 -25 May (4 days in Dubai)

Mode: Free & Easy with a few local tours from KLOOK and Get Your Guide in Mauritius

Travel Buddies: Hubby and baby sister (but she won't join us in Dubai)

Time Difference: both Mauritius and Dubai are 4hrs behind us, eg. they 1pm, Singapore 5pm

Weather: Mauritius about 25 degrees, Dubai about 36 degrees

Currency: no problem with UAE dirham but Mauritian rupee only a few money changer in Singapore has it, so we had some US dollars then change at Dubai airport.

Flights: Emirates, about S$1400/pax

Accommodations: 

Mauritius - Blue Pearl Resort (3pax 3 nights S$698.53), LUX Le Morne (2pax 2 nights with half board S$1,312)

Dubai - Premier Inn Dubai (2pax 1 night S$43.56), Burj Al Nujoom Residences (2pax 2 nights S$286.56)

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Morning, with a stick insect on the door.

Breakfast was home cooked and served by the pool.  We stayed at the second floor and could see a bit of Le Morne Mountain.

Very home cooked lolxx...

Breakfast view.

Here's our precious chauffeur with his little red car that made noises cos the bumper behind was damaged.

On our way to Casela Nature Park, saw a sharp peek like Matterhorn.

Here we were after 30mins drive.

I had bought the tix online, entrance fee including truck and coaster ride MUR1300 (about S$38).

Over the counter I was disappointed that the "Walk with the lions" was sold out.  I couldn't risk to get it online cos I was 147cm tall, they had a minimum requirement of 150cm.  In case they measure me, reject my entrance and not refunding me S$100++, haiz...

So we went on the truck, not fantastic but at least we didn't have to walk.

Nothing exciting.

The zebras came really close.  2 disgusting ang mo men took one thousand photos with the zebras, nobody else in the truck had a chance.  My fierce baby sis asked them to get lost and I had only this pic, they pretended not to understand English (you probably could guess where they were from).

They later spoke to the driver in English to ask if they could get down the bus.  Plain disgusting but the whole world made them very prestige.

Are zebras stripes black or white?

We dropped off at a point to walk a bit.

Nice wood carving.

Another pic of the park's truck.

Saw 2 lonely giraffes, didn't really get to see them close enough.

Spotting lonely toroise out of nowhere.

Sleepy lions.

Mauritius have beautiful little mountains as backdrop everywhere.

Saw the cutest beverage vending machine (about S$3 per drink, same as Singapore Zoo lolxx...)

The entrance tix included what they called the Tulawaka Gold Coaster.

It was like the one we had in Chiang Mai.

It was a nice ride, my baby sis was scared.

Caught a mini rainbow.

After that we went for lunch.

My sis and hubby are like blood siblings.

The peacock and it's hen were roaming about in the quiet restaurant.

We loved having them and fed them with some rice.

Almost had the whole place to ourselves.

The tranquil scenery was what made Mauritius charming I supposed.

Sibei swee in reality.

Oh, I had a pic of both of them heehee...

I was trying to take a pic of this vanilla milk, scared the hell out of me when the hen dashed towards it.

Couldn't believe we were in Mauritius.

It's so beautiful here!

Mauritius had this curry prawns + chicken.  It's a weird combination but it's on the menu of almost every restaurant.

As fierce as it might looked, it's not spicy at all and couldn't taste coconut milk in it.  Best partner with rice.

Beansprouts with tails were gross, being raw X100 the gross-ness.

Thankfully the heap was easily scoped aside, the fried noodles was filled with wok hei and aroma of black pepper.  A bit too dry but we were all amazed and surprised by the taste!

After lunch, the guys had an anyhow chess game.

God knew how contended I was watching them, what more I could ask for in life...

Went to see a noisy cage with bats.

Strange looking bird in the most stunning shade of sapphire blue.

Continued strolling along, we came to a pool of koi fish.  Nothing extra ordinary but we had lots of fun here lolxx...

There were also ducks of all kinds here.

Bought fish food which doubled as duck food too.

I later found out pink web duckies were called Egyptian Goose.

Heehee... so blur and silly looking.

Waaahaahaa... funny.

Free cool aircon in souvenir shop.  Super soft bat plushie caught my eyes, didn't bring it home.

We spend about 4hrs in Casela Nature Park including lunch.

It was too early to end the day, went to Cascavelle shopping mall to get our SIM card.

Most shopping malls here was a big horizontal stretch of shops with a supermarket on the ground floor.

We made it to Emtel before they closed.

RS750, about S$22, no other cheaper option.

Baby sis dying for coffee fix.  Darren brought us to his favourite Artisan Coffee.

Coffee feast.

Darren said Winners supermarket was smaller than Super U, but we were quite happy with it, bought local beer that we didn't have a chance to drink and some extra food for next day's breakfast.

The coffee in noon made us too full, we had peanuts and champagne for dinner lolxx...

Next day was very lax visiting Ganga Talao Temple and a tea leave restaurant.  For new readers, thanks for discovering this blog, for oldies thanks for popping in again. This series of Mauritius travel is worth your time since it's not a popular destination, even if you may not be going there, it's good to at least know something about this little African island.