Kathe’s Blog

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.

After all the stress with the formalities and getting settled in Abu Dhabi, Nayan and me wanted to escape for one day and relax in beautiful Fujairah at the Indian Ocean. As Emirates Crew gets discounts with some hotels, we booked a one-night stay at 5 star Rotana Resort & Spa at Al Aqah Beach. We took my car to drive through Hajar mountains (well, I admid, I took Hatta road by mistake so we had to drive almost 4 hours, which usually only takes 90 minutes). We checked-in at 4 pm and had a lovely room with balcony. We went for a beach walk away from the hotel and the other tourists. We were sitting at the beach, watching the waves and the sunset and what shall I say, it was peaceful and truly stress-reliefing. Later we had a romantic delicious dinner in our room.

Next morning we went for some water sports and took a paddle boat and captain Nayan was about to conquer the sea. I went for a swim in the ocean and later we enjoyed some fruit cocktail at the poolside bar.

The hotel was really nice, but the mood of the personnel was not, though we are always friendly and respectful towards hotel staff. At least a waiter apologised personally to us after realising that we were not happy with the service and was very friendly and attentive afterwards. On the other hand I can understand that they are fed-up with the tourists as well, some were very snobbish, arrogant and complaining.

Once again I felt that a 5 star hotel is not the place to be, next time we should rather take a tent, do camping in the mountains and take some food to roast over open fire while watching the sparkling stars…

We’ve celebrated New Year 2009 in Milano. The first night we went to the city center. The Piazza del Duomo looked beautiful at night with the cathedral and the big Christmas tree. The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is a large, covered arcade linking the Duomo’s piazza with the Teatro alla Scala and is known as the world’s oldest shopping mall. They decorated the arcade inside with a beautiful net of blue lights twinkeling like stars. Then we had dinner at a small Pizzeria and enjoyed some Italian red wine.

New Year’s Eve I went to the city center, where the crowds of young guys threw firecrackers everywhere. I walked from the Piazza del Duomo towards the Piazza Castello, where the municipality arranged public fireworks at the Castello Sforzesco. It just started snowing in the evening and by midnight everything was covered in a slight layer of snow.

On the next day I took the old tram again to the city center and went for a walk to take some pictures of the beautiful old buildings and the snow covered Parco Sempione. In the afternoon I took the Malpensa Express train to the airport and flew back to Germany.

It was a beautiful short trip, though I guess during the warm and green summer the city would be much more beautiful and lively. I added some pictures to my photo gallery: http://pics.kathe13.de/

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