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Mahebourg & Grand Baie, Mauritius

1/16/2014

4 Comments

 
PictureTerrace view from Le Bamboo
I awake to the sounds of the river and the pigeons outside my window rearranging their nest. Here I am in Mauritius, ready to start again. My first home was Le Bamboo guesthouse in Mahebourg, a colorful working class town with lots of character. Mauritius has a population of roughly 1.2 million people. It is multicultural and religiously diverse, with people of Indian descent (Indo-Mauritian), Franco-Mauritians, Creoles, and Sino-Mauritians. It made for a great environment and diverse dining options!

On the terrace of the guest house I met a South African couple that offered to take me around the town – the man was going out anyway. Off we went – me to get my bearings (and a SIM card), him to buy some cake. The sun is blaring, so my gracious guide offers his umbrella for some shade. The first thing I notice along the streets are all of the snacks. I love snacks. Noodles, samosa, pineapple popsicles, pickled fruits, dumplings.... Yum! After our errands, we walked down to check out the waterfront. There were vendors, small shops, a temple, and people sitting and enjoying the gorgeous view of the mountains and the stunning blue water. 

There were a couple of other solo travelers, and one was a South African guy just off an oil rig stopping over on his way home. I mentioned I was going to rent a scooter, so he joined me in the quest. We found a local guy that just happened to have 2 left for 500 rupees a day (a bit high we came to find out). I stayed 5 nights in Le Bamboo (900R/night including breakfast), and got to know a great family. Each day I had breakfast on the terrace with other guests, and during the day I took my rented scooter out to explore the area. Dinners were also spent on the terrace, enjoying delicious Mauritian recipes out of Reshma's kitchen. I explored Blue Bay, went snorkeling in the Marine Park from a glass bottom boat, drove through fields of sugar cane, snuck into a few fancy resorts just to have a look, and drove around searching for the perfect samosa :) 

After a few days it was time to explore so I packed and took the scooter to the north. The South African joined, and off we went along the coastal road to the north. It is a beautiful drive up the east coast of Mauritius, and after stopping for snacks, swims, and photo opportunities it took us 4 hours to get to Grand Baie. We started looking for accomodation, and the first place we came across was a nice guest house run by a Canadian. They had no clean rooms, so they made a call and sent us on to the Auberge Miko where Vivek and Lena were waiting. It couldn't have worked out better. For 800 R per night I had my own studio apartment with a small kitchen, dining table, queen bed and balcony. I decided to stay 4 nights. 

Grand Baie is much more commercial and touristy, which meant more bars, restaurants, water sports, and traffic, but it was a welcome change after Mahebourg. The first night was spent at The Beach House, where they had a band and windows that opened up to the beach. A nice welcome to Grand Baie! The next day I discovered the stunning beaches, with turquoise water and white sand. Mon Choisy & La Cuvette became my 2 favorites. Noodles on the beach in Mon Choisy, and swimming in the cove at La Cuvette. There is a South African owned bar, the Patch and Parrot, so it's not surprising I ended up there with the South African. We made new friends, but it was time to drive back south. The South African was returning home to his family, and I wanted to witness the festival of Cavadee down in Mahebourg. Back down the coastal road, this time fully confident in our navigation. Although I had a feeling I'd be seeing the north one more time...

4 Comments
Volle P.
3/9/2014 06:38:16 am

Hi Maggie and very nice & Interesting to read of your experiences travelling independently around island of Mauritius! :) Specially so as I´m myself going to make a "solo" 1 week´s travelling trip there after 1 month, around Easter-time...

Which brings me this to my main reason to write to you here: Do you still have contact-info (specially e-mail address IF he has!!) of that local person who rented scooter(s) to you in Mahebourg?! This is very interesting and important info for me as my flight from Germany is landing to M.´s int. airport on the early morning and I have already reserved a place to stay on the West side of the island. And I sure would like to travel there alone myself with scooter already - specially so as I could then use that same scooter on my final full-day at Mauritius as my last night I´m going to stay at Mahebourg near airport (as my flight back leaves on the early morning too).

So sure it would be much more convenient, cheaper and heh a bit adventurous too to drive by myself to there and back + plus could use that same scooter on the last day on the island too (so I guess quite clear and logical why I would like to rent scooter already on the first day, but can´t do it via my guest house at M-g as I will Not have there one before on the last day/night - actually I already contacted them on this if they could help me out, but no answer yet in already two weeks...:( ).

What I have looked in internet so far quite extensively, I have not been able to find any rental company (or specially even smaller rental "place") located near Mahebourg/Airport which rents also scooters (cars yes quite a few, but I prefer much more scooter specially when it´s left hand side traffic at M.). Best would be to get that scooter "waiting me" already at the airport, but sure very good would be to know at least address of a (smaller) rental place, so I could go there directly in the morning of my arrival with bus or taxi (if having e-mail address or at least phone number - which you could send me to my e-mail address: [email protected] - I could make an enquiry beforehand etc much better).

THANKS a LOT if you do contact me, or at least post here short comment in style of "sorry, but I do not have anymore their contact-info" if that´s unfortunately the case (even name of the place/person who rented scooter for you would help me quite much and I´m sure he/they would not mind you sending me that Privately or even telling here openly others to know too :)).

Yours sincerely,

VoP
Tampere, Finland

Reply
Maggie Maps
3/20/2014 04:45:17 pm

I used Colony Scooter - in Mahebourg. I will look for the email but there are also a few good places around town you can contact. I do not know about the airport options, but you could always get a taxi into town then pick up the scooter - Mahebourg is minutes from the airport :) Be careful on the roads - it is a big hectic and people love to drive fast! I would not travel at night. Particularly look out for taxis & local buses... I hope this helps - and enjoy your time in Mauritius - it is a beautiful country!!

Reply
VoP
3/24/2014 11:55:25 am

Thanks a lot MM for your answer (even it taking few days from you to.., but I´m still here in F-land, going to Mauritius in 3 weeks from now:)), that name of C.S. is already very good info for me to know - specially if and when your rental-experience with them was a positive one..

It would be Really nice if you could find and post here (or privately to me, same-same to me) their e-mail address, as it would be Really nice if I could contact them already beforehand...mainly because my flight to M.´s airport should land already at 5:30 am and as I´m heading first directly to the western side of M., I would like to start leaving there right away after customs (without ned to wait (rental)shops open in M-g around 10am or so). I mean IF they could and would be ready to bring that scooter already let´s say at 6am to the airport, I would sure be ready to pay them some extra for that (at least same 10$ or so I have to pay to get to M-g to look their or other rental-shop:)).

Or if you would remember their address or at least "so-so location" in M-g, then it would sure be easier for me already (and specially to my taxi´s driver) to locate them than just with their name only (even M-g isn´t That big megalopolis, I guess, so almost everyone knows each other there etc right-right).

Btw, did you have to leave your passport for that CS company as their "security bail" against their scooter (that you aren´t taking it with you when leave the island...:)) or maybe some relatively large amount of (local) cash or how was that side of rental-contract handled?? And if you had to leave your pp there during your week´s long driving around M. with their scooter, was it OK to check-in into those various guest houses showing them only a photocopy of your pp?

Y.S., VoP

Pst, Thanks for the security tips etc, it´s always good to know how traffic and driving conditions in general are in one´s travelling destination (specially so when They are doing it on the Wrong side of the road! :)). But I suppose I will handle it OK, and will sure be (heh almost) all the time careful enough (also because I do not want my dear son become fatherless yet!:)). I have driven scooter so far for example at Highway 1 in Central Vietnam during Heavy raining in the evening after sunset midst of Really Crazy truck and bus drivings etc. And am here still writing about it, so... ;)

Peter
7/31/2016 06:53:10 am

Oh scooters are so great idea, maybe next time I will choose them... This time we just got a pre.ordered transfer and after we were using taxis around! But still it was a great experience, maybe you could ask a transfer to a rent place and from them using the scooters... maybe http://transfers2airports.com/mauritius-airport

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