Our Tropical Honeymoon Paradise
April 28th, 2022 – May 4th 2022
Table of Contents
- Arrival
- Left Turn to Left Lane?
- Shanti Maurice Resort
- Island Adventure
- Rum Time
- A Taste of Mauritius
- Island Time
- National Park
- Hindu Temple
- Let’s Hike the Tallest Mountain in Mauritius
- National Dish
- One Craft Brewery on the Island
- Goodbyes
Mauritius holds a special place in our hearts. A once in a lifetime destination. The home of our Honeymoon.
When deciding on our honeymoon destination, we wanted to meet a couple criteria. We wanted it to be tropical, unique, less traveled, and as exotic as possible. Mauritius checked every box. We wanted it to be ‘our’ island. Years later, when hearing Mauritius, it had to feel special.
Arrival
Just before, we had spent almost 10 hours exploring Dubai in its hot, dry air.
We were exausted and sat quietly in our terminal, waiting for the Emirates plane to arrive. There weren’t many people on the plane. It ended up being be a nice, relaxing flight with lots of rest…..for Emily. If you read about our trip to Iceland, you’d know that if I have a long night flight with a car rental at the end of it, I’m not sleeping. So, as Emily slept, I stayed up and approached hour 27 of being awake.
Emirates has a great feature on their planes. A camera placed right on the tail that you can look at whenever. As the sun rose and we got closer to the island, something magical happened. We emerged from the clouds to unveil our first view of the tropical paradise that awaited. We were in Africa. More importantly, we were in Mauritius. Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport awaited us. What a hell of a name.
Left Turn to Left Lane?
I grew up in England, but learned to drive in America. I had never driven on the left side in my life. That would change in Mauritius. As they used to be a British colony, Mauritius is 1 of about 11 African countries that drive on the left side.
The process was easy. We got off the flight, went through immigration, and went straight to the car rental right outside the airport. We were given a nice, little Kia Picante. I asked for a GPS, which they didn’t have, so the owner of the place gave me his personal one. “Please bro, bring it back to me, I need it.” That GPS didn’t work once.
Sleep deprived, exhausted, and in a new country with no previous experience on the left side of the road, I had to now drive 45 minutes to the resort. Nothing could go wrong, right?
We drove through multiple villages and many miles of Mauritian countryside. At one point we drove through a massive field of, what looked like, corn. It certainly was a culture shock, we’d never seen anything like this before. It was amazing.
Shanti Maurice Resort
Shanti Maurice. What a place.
It didn’t feel real being here, we’d never experienced such luxury.
The first step was to get our COVID test done. A lady took us into a backroom, swabbed our noses, waited for 15 seconds, and told us we were negative. Easiest test ever.
We were then led into the bar area. A wooden room with giant glass walls on all sides. We sat facing the infinity pool and ocean while our room was checked. It really hit both of us at this point. What a view. This is where we would be staying for the next week.
The lady came back and told us because we were on our honeymoon, we would be upgraded to a special level for free, meaning we now had access to free beer, wine, and food in this bar area. We were then given two specialty Mauritian cocktails while we waited for our room to be ready. Could this get any better?
As we were waiting, two of the bartenders came over: Anil and Mica. We would become very friendly with them throughout the trip. I asked for a local Mauritian beer and was told I had to start with a Phoenix Lager. A great metaphor for how I wanted to feel. I was feeling terrible from the layover and long flights, I needed to rise from the ashes.
Island Adventure
What a strange feeling to wake up, open your curtains, and be a couple steps from the Indian Ocean. I got to witness this at 6am in the morning, fully awake. My body wasn’t ready yet, it was 10pm in the states. I sat outside our condo, watching the sun rise over the ocean. Nobody else was outside, the only noise being the crashing of waves.
After Emily woke up, we held hands and walked down the beach past palm trees and thatch umbrellas to a wooden restaurant. It was time for breakfast, and boy did we eat breakfast. We entered the room into a large open floor with everything you could ever want from a breakfast buffet: eggs, fancy meats, fruits, yogurt, Mauritian fritters, smoked marlin, salad. There was more, I just genuinely can’t remember everything. We were stuffed.
It was time to hop into the trusty Kia Picante for our first trip of the honeymoon. Todays plan was to explore around the town of Chamarel. It was a short 30 minute drive down the coastline and up into the mountains. I had Emily as my trusty copilot reminding me constantly, ‘Left to Left’.
And she was my trusty copilot for about 10 minutes, until we reached the first major city, Chemin Grenier. The majority of the area around our resort was very rural, so we had yet to experience the urban side of Mauritius. The country road we were on quickly transitioned into a main road, filled with hundreds of people crowding and desperately trying to to cross the street. We were bumper to bumper with people so close to the car I could smell their breathe. It was in this moment, my trusty copilot sent me down the wrong road, leading us down single lane backroads. Even the GPS didn’t know where we were at. It was as if we were in a back alley behind rows and rows of destroyed buildings. Over the next 15 minutes of frantic driving, there must have been 10 cars that came toward us in this single lane. Each time, I was lucky enough to pull in to a small hole to let them pass. This was a trial by fire.
Somehow, we escaped the city and once the roads got narrower, steeper, and less kept, I knew we were almost at our first destination: Chamarel Waterfall, the largest waterfall in Mauritius at 272ft tall.
Close by was the Chamarel 7 Colored Earth, which is essentially an area with 7 different colors of soil which all happened to settle in the same place due to volcanic rock cooling down at different temperatures.
Rum Time
Another short drive away was our next, and most anticipated, stop. We pulled off the main road onto a smaller street which was surrounded by miles and miles of sugar cane. Tropical trees, mountains, sunshine, sugar cane, yeah it was island time. We came up to the sign ‘Rhumerie de Chamarel‘ and passed through the large iron gate into the parking lot. Fancy.
We walked down a slate pathway, surrounded by iron lanterns, flowers, and, you guessed it, more tropical trees. A large rectangular pond surrounded by flowers led up to a tall, stone chimney. The Mauritians knew how to build atmosphere for their rum.
The tour consisted of an explanation of how their rum is made and a tasting. It was interesting seeing how the rum was made. It was essentially all done in a large garage. Sugar cane is brought from the fields and placed on a conveyer belt which twisted and turned through all types of old, industrial machinery before being strained, aged, and whatever else happens to rum.
It was now time for the moment we had been waiting for: the rum. We’d be tasting 7 different types of rum, all made here at the distillery. We’d be trying Classic, Vanilla, Exotic Spices, Vanilla Liqueur, Mandarin Liqueur, Coconut Liqueur, and Coffee Liqueur. Our guide did not hold back o the tastings, each of these was a full shot, so we were feeling pretty loose towards the end. They were real tasty. Not too strong, with a great hint of the sweetness which came from the sugar cane. Emily had to give up towards the end which meant I got double shots.
We started chatting with a lovely Dutch family next to us. A Dutchman, Erik Ten Hag, had recently been announced Man Utd manager, joining from Ajax Amsterdam. The father was an Ajax fan, “You are getting a great manager, but more importantly, an amazing man.” Maybe it was just the rum, but I was getting giddy.
We bought a bottle of the Vanilla Spiced Rum. We’ll open it on our 10th anniversary.
A Taste of Mauritius
Lunch today was the first thing we planned when coming to Mauritius: Le Chamarel Restaurant. A specialty Mauritian restaurant with a breathtaking, panoramic view of the valley and west coast of Mauritius. Words do no justice, this was stunning.
Lunch was a special ‘Flavors of Mauritius’ tasting menu. There were about 11 different small dishes, each of which represented Mauritian cuisine. Many different types of curries with different meats, samosas, calamari, some spiced vegetables. All these different flavors and textures were playing games with our tastebuds. Being Indian food connoisseurs, we could already start seeing some of the personality of Mauritian curries. Each curry, while different, had an underlying spice which was consistent throughout them all. It was earthier than Indian curries. This was a great little introduction to Mauritius and its food.
Oh, and you best believe I took the opportunity to have another Mauritian beer. This time it was the Manawa Mauritius IPA from Phoenix Brewing. Delicious, deep, full, not too hoppy. Exactly what you want from an IPA.
On our drive back, we drove through the nice, little coastal town of Bel Ombre. We really liked it here. A small road separated ocean from civilization. Small restaurants dotted the side of the road. We got out for a quick walk by the ocean. It was sunny and the ocean breeze kept our bodies feeling cool. Palm trees were everywhere. Fishing boats lay still out in the ocean. I’ll be back in 40 years to retire here.
There were a couple of restaurants on the premises of Shanti Maurice, but none caught our eyes like La Kaze Mama. This was the proclaimed ‘Authentic Mauritian Experience’. Of course it being a resort, it could only be so authentic as they still need to cater to their clientele.
We walked on a dirt path to a small hut housing a couple of dishes. Kaze Mama, the brains behind the food, was standing watch and welcomed us. She walked us through each of the dishes explaining the flavor profiles of them all.
I got a little bit of everything. It was great.
Island Time
This was our honeymoon, so we wanted to make sure to relax and Shanti Maurice was perfect for that. We played it out like this, one day adventure and one day relax.
National Park
Black Gorges National Park is one of three National Parks in Mauritius and is dedicated to protecting the Mauritian rainforest. We drove north through our favorite city (Chemin Grenier) and into the hills. The road twisted and turned. People stood at either side of the street with linen bags and seemed to be picking fruit from the trees which lined the road. We asked Mica later in the day and he said it was Goyave de Chine (Chinese Guava) which they make into jam. Wish we knew that before!
The park was pretty full. It seemed to be the place to take your family for a picnic.
Hindu Temple
Almost 50% of Mauritius is Hindu. We immediately noticed it’s prevalence when driving around, small Hindu temples are scattered all over.
The largest and most sacred of these is the Grand Bassin Temple located at Ganga Talao. We parked our car and walked down a road lined with flags. Two enormous, golden statues of Hindu Gods, Durga and Shiva, dominated the sky in front of us.
Pilgrims, barefoot and donned in colorful garbs walked up to shrines to pray. Some lit incense as they walked around praying. Many people disrobed and cleaned themselves in the holy water of the lake.
We were getting some stares, which was normal. We were the only white people here. But it was at this point we came to a realization, something that we hadn’t thought of. This was a sacred, holy site. All of the women here were covered, which made sense. Except Emily was wearing shorts and a crop top. Terrified that we were being disrespectful, we quickly left.
Let’s Hike the Tallest Mountain in Mauritius
Le Morne. For Emily and I, this is now a two word horror story.
Our goal for today was to hike to the top of the tallest mountain in Mauritius, Le Morne Brabant. Standing at 1824ft tall, it wasn’t hard to spot and we’d seen it many times already on our trip.
As we drove down the southern coastline we caught our first glimpse of the monster. There it stood, menacingly. We turned onto a dirt road and zig zagged our way to a parking lot where we packed our backpack full of water and headed out.
About 2 miles out and then 2 miles back. Should be easy right? The first hour was actually pretty easy going. A slow, gradual heigh increase made for a somewhat pleasant walk. We were also shaded by tree’s. Occasionally we were teased with openings in the thick forest which revealed already beautiful views of the ocean and valleys below .
We were then met with a bright yellow sign. “Beyond this point. Dangerous climbing. Only experienced hikers allowed”. We accepted that it probably wouldn’t be safe, took our photos, and headed back down the mountain.
Except that’s the exact opposite of what we really did, we’d come this far and wouldn’t be stopped now. We pushed on through a narrow pathway surrounded by overgrown tree’s and out into the sun. There would be no more shade from here. Soon after came a twisted metal gate which we squeezed through to signal the beginning of the tough part.
It was at this point we hit the unbelievable. What lay ahead was an almost 90 degree climb up the side of the mountain. Each foot had to be meticulously placed into dents caved into the mountain. Metal hoops hammered into the side suggested at one point there may have been a rope to assist in this, but that was nowhere near to be found. The rock was also red hot from hours and hours of sun beating down on it, meaning you only had a short time at each stop before being forced to move again. Other hikers stopped to lend a hand in pulling each other up. Talk about an adrenaline rush, it took almost half an hour of constant 90 degree climbing to get through this.
Eventually we made our way above more trees revealing more of the beautiful Mauritian scenery. We were so close to the top.
What stood at the top was, in every sense of the word, magical.
We both agreed that this was one of the hardest things we’d ever done, yet we had accomplished it together. We had pushed and supported each other, both physically and mentally, to the summit. As we sat together at the summit, looking over the Mauritius it came to me that this was a perfect metaphor for how marriage is supposed to be. Supporting and helping each other over everything and anything, if we could do this, nothing would be able to stop us.
National Dish
We stumbled into the Shanti Maurice bar and sat down exhausted. Excitedly, Mica came over. We’d been asking him about Dholl Puri‘s the entire time we’d been here. “I have Dholl Puri’s for you” We immediately lit up. “My girlfriends Grandmother made them”. Holy shit, so this was as real Dholl Puri as you could get. We thanked him profusely and ran to get changed.
As we came back Mica had put them on a plate for us, “Enjoy and let me know how it is”. What a kind thing for him to do.
In Mauritius, Dholl Puri’s are held with such high esteem. It’s simply a flat bread filled with yellow split peas and different curry spices. They’re quick and easy to make and typically cost less than 50 cents to buy. As Mica told us, “They are sold in Chemin Grenier really early in the morning. People pick them up from side of street on way to work”.
We took bites from these Mauritian tortillas. You could tell they were freshly made. The bread was soft and easily broke away. Inside was a little dry, but the curry spices were tasty when you got bites of them. It’s a nice, humble snack that serves its purpose, and for less than 50 cents, you can’t say no.
One Craft Brewery on the Island
There is but one craft brewery in Mauritius, located in the northern part of the island in the capital, Port Louis. Surprisingly, it was only an hour drive away even through it was the complete opposite side of the country. Mauritius really is tiny.
I remember being about 10 minutes away when it hit just how different the Northside was to the South. Driving over a hill revealed in the distance, to my surprise, a modern western city. We had spent our entire time in the rural Southern part of the island, that seeing big interstates, modern buildings, and no forest was like whiplash.
We took a quick walk around the Bagatelle Mall Of Mauritius before heading to the promised land. The one craft brewery in Mauritius: Flying Dodo Brewing Company.
It was quite large inside and we were met with large industrial pipes and two ginormous vats of beer. A sign sat on the wall, ‘Welcome to Mauritius first and only craft brewery. We brew beers with our hands, heart, and sincere passion’. It definitely passed the vibe check.
We ended up trying a couple of different brews. There’s a bit of a ways to go in terms of quality, but there’s definitely something there. I think my favorite was the New England IPA. As always, my Untappd ratings out of 5.
New England IPA: 3.5
Flying Dodo IPA: 3.0
Old Style Belgian Wit: 3.25
Session IPA: 2.0
Experiment’Ale IPA: 3.5
There was also a little kitten perusing the grounds and begging for pets which made the whole experience even better.
For the past couple months I had been playing Football Manager as a team in Curepipe called Cercle de Joachim. Earlier in the week Mica and I had been chatting about football when he passed along that his local team was Cercle de Joachim. He was shocked as I opened up my game and showed all players he knew. He went and showed Anil who revealed he used to play for Savanne SC. He pointed to a player in my team, Adrien Francois, “He is fast. Very fast”.
Anyway on our drive back from Port Louis, we stopped by Curepipe and the Cercle de Joachim stadium, Stade George V. It was a cool little experience.
The Hungry Voyagers 