July 24th, 2010
Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometres east of Madagascar. The island was ruled by the Dutch, the French and later by the British and became independent in 1968. The population of 1.3 million people consists mainly of people of Indian or African descent.
We’ve been to Mauritius in July 2010 for 2 days and stayed in the 4* La Plantation Resort and Spa in Balaclava (north-west of the island). The hotel is nicely located at a beautiful beach in a calm bay where we could do water sports, relax and enjoy a beautiful sunset. We went for a walk at the beach, mild 25 degrees, sunny and a soft rain shower. The Maritime Hotel is located next to the La Plantation Resort and a small path leads to ruins of a castle with a waterwheel and a small waterfall behind, worth a visit, its just 10 minutes walk. Next morning we took a Pedallo to paddle around in the bay and enjoy the view of the palm trees at shore (30 mins rent are included in room fare).
The beautiful lobby of the La Plantation Resort and the tropical welcome drinks with cold towels were a great start. The room was little far away, but modern and spacious with a big balcony. Unfortunately the service here does not deserve a 4 star rating. The pillow cover was dirty, the trays were not cleared when placing outside after in-room dining and the waiters in the restaurant were not attentive. The food was all-inclusive and not bad, but not really good either (tasted like made in a big canteen). We had to call house-keeping three times until they finally brought the iron to get Nayan’s uniform prepared for the return flight. Anyway considering that I only had to pay 47 EUR for a one-night all inclusive stay, it was still good value for money.
So nothing could spoil my mood as I just enjoyed fleeing from Dubai’s summer heat and to spend some leisure time with my husband. It was a 1.5 hours drive from and to the airport, so I could see a bit of the island, the vegetation and sugar cane plantations as well as a mix of colonial and modern architecture. It’s a beautiful island and worth a visit. As it takes 6 hours flying time from Dubai and about 11:30 hours direct flight from Germany, one should schedule more than 2 days to explore this tropical island and it’s vivid history.
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March 4th, 2010
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February 20th, 2010
I’ve found a convenient location in Business Bay and an 1 bedroom apartment for an affordable price in Executive Towers with stunning view of the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world) and the Fountains, but that was all and then the disaster began…
- Move-in date was 1 week after signing the contract and I was promised that the last finishing touches and repairs are done within 2 days… for the first two weeks we had to use our guest toilet until they finally fixed the toilet in the en-suite bathroom. We had no water in the kitchen, no shower head in the bath tub, power plugs were not working in the living room and several other small fixes (damaged walls and scratched doors).
- The leaking kitchen sink and unfinished bathroom I fixed myself with some silicone after all. And also for curtain installation I rather rented a drilling machine for 24 hours than calling a technician and waiting for days.
- One month after we moved in, the telecommunication services were up and running. It took only 85 minutes queuing up at the DU office to apply for landline, internet and TV. The application took 30 minutes, though we just ticked which internet speed and TV channels we want. Maybe they also the a Manager to improve their business processes?
Three days later the installation guy came, it took whole day but finally we were connected. He told us our current router from Siemens wouldn’t work for wireless and we should buy a linksys one. Well I guess he has no lue about networks, but I managed to configure our wireless LAN via WAN input, as our internet is not a dial-up but wide-area-network connection.
The German TV channels (ARD, ZDF, RTL2 & DW-TV) as well as the Russion channels were missing, but after a mail to customer service that was fixed as well. We still have no TV connection in bedroom, need to apply for additional sockets and a 2nd decoder or buy a splitter and pull a cable, well… or just leave it as is.
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January 21st, 2010
I took Thursday off from work to go to Abu Dhabi, get some formalities done and take the chance to visit the World Future Energy Summit. Parking at ADNEC was convenient, entrance for visitors was free and the registration process quick and easy. It was the closing day and not really as full as I expected it to be. The first thing that caught my eye was the display of Masdar’s PRT vehicle. It was presented on last years summit as well, but at that time I was still in Germany. Now after working for so many months on the PRT simulation, I was very excited to see it in real and sit inside.
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Then I visited my colleagues from Masdar Institute and asked how their studies and projects are progressing. We also met our friend Aminu from Dubai. It was the last day of the summit and we went to the closing ceremony. Speeches were given by Prince Albert from Monaco and the President of Iceland, but nothing much exciting.But at least I’ve seen the PRT vehicle and spoke to my friends, so worth the visit in Abu Dhabi.
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January 7th, 2010
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January 4th, 2010
Wow, just back from the Burj Dubai Tower Inauguration watching the breathtaking light show and fireworks.
828 meters as revealed today and its got a new name as well suddenly… instead of “Burj Dubai” it’s now called “Burj Khalifa” … so we now know what the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi wanted in return for the billions of dollars he was lending Dubai recently when it was about to file bankrupcy. Smart deal. Anyway… the building is looking beautiful glittering white in the daylight and turning red during sunset. On special occasions like National Day they switch on the sparkling lights on the facade of the building, so the tower twinkles among the stars…
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November 23rd, 2009
We are currently planning our wedding and were checking the beach hotels in Dubai for their menues, prices and services. As we will do the ceremony in the Sri Lankan Consulate in Abu Dhabi, we decided it would be too far to drive all the way to a Resort in Fujeirah, as this would probably waste 4 hours of our wedding day.
Though the hotels in Dubai are not really doing well, but their prices are still quiet high. I think with round about 50 guests, my wedding reception is far too small compared to Indian and Arabic weddings with several hundred of guests. One hotel even asked for a minimum spend of 45,000 Dhs. (=9,000 EUR)! A good friend of mine works in a hotel and offered me a really competetive price for a wedding party on their roof top terrace. I know I can have a beach wedding in Sri Lanka as well, but this is our special day and I don’t want to be stingy, I just want it to be really special and enjoyable!
As usual I just needed a little bit of luck. Nayan was abroad at my birthday, so I decided to join some friends in Ras al Kheimah for a desert barbecue. There I met a lovely girl, who is a Sales Coordinator for The Cove Rotana, a newly opened beach resort with that very special touch of nubian style bungalows along a man-made cove with stunning beach.
Nayan and me visited her one day and she took us around everywhere showing us several rooms and villas from inside as well as their Spa. She invited us for lunch to try their delicious buffet and enjoy the view and fresh air. Of course a wedding here is not the cheapest option, but compared to what other hotels offered for that price, we get a much better deal here. They’ve set up a special BBQ menu and added some German delicacies and a huge variety of salads and desserts. They will put the buffet next to the beach, with the dining tables and dancefloor right into the sand. So we can dance without the uncomfortable wedding shoes.
The most important thing though is that our familys and my best friends from Germany, Sri Lanka and Dubai are attending our wedding. We really look forward to a great beach party with great people making this one of the happiest days of our life. The lucky couple gets a complimentary villa and massage, too, so now we only need to negotiate the rates for friends and family.
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November 19th, 2009
November is my favourite month in the UAE, the weather is just perfect, sunny and not too hot and the sea has a pleasant temperature of 27°C. We only live 3 minutes drive away from the beach and so we decided to go there from 4:30 – 6 pm to have a swim and enjoy the beautiful sunset and mild breeze. I enjoyed so much these precious moments with Nayan, where time and busy live doesn’t matter and one can just sit and relax and be truly happy and thankful for what we have.
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November 15th, 2009
It somehow take ages to receive letters in the UAE and I especially do not like to receive personal mail through my company’s post box. For instance I applied for voting by post for the election of the European parliament in June and I received the forms several weeks after the election date and was therefore not able to participate.
I registered for a post box online at emiratespost, but the credit card payment didn’t work and the registration is only valid for 2 days to go there in person and pay it cash. Because I was in Abu Dhabi the whole week I had to repeat the whole registration process before returning to Dubai. They ask for so many personal data, like education level etc. For what? I am just renting a post box! Anyway, I just filled in the required fields (still they want passport number and so on).
I arrived saturday evening 8:30 pm, just before they close. Though I brought the registration form printed out, they still asked me to fill everything AGAIN in a paper form. Then as usual a problem with the computer system… to make a long story short… it took 20 minutes to pay and get my keys. Finding the PO box took also 10 minutes, because the order & numbering does not follow a straight forward system and my box was still filled with bills and personal mail of the previous owner. I returned it to the counter as these items could contain quite some confidential information.
My lovely mom sent me a postcard for my birthday and it arrived within 5 days. That’s great and I am now awaiting my certificates from my University in Germany and hope the originals don’t get lost on the way!
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