A very hot and humid place

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Geo: -20.1605, 57.4977

It is always a sad time at the end of a cruise, when we say goodbye to all the people we have befriended and to all the staff who have looked after us so well especially Max the Macedonian sommelier who took particularly good care of us!

The ship was docked at Post Louis on the isle of Mauritius. First views were of a luscious green island with volcanic mountains in the background. It is very hot and very humid. After the inevitable delay in finding our taxi driver we were whisked off to the Meridien Hotel in the North West of the island. This is a large resort hotel looking out over the sea. All the main public areas are open sided which means the only cool areas are the air conditioned bedrooms. It was nice to have a larger bathroom than we had on the ship and generally a larger suite but the service as we expected was not that of Silversea. The staff are friendly enough and some are well trained and some are not. Srefan had to explain to one waiter not to uncork the wine straight through the foil ,leaving jaggedy edges round the top to pour through. This is something he moans incessantly at me doing!

For the young and fit there are water sports included but not much for the older clientele apart from sitting on the beach and wandering back and forth to the pool bar, which I must confess we are experts at..

Breakfast is in a huge dining room and is a large buffet reflecting the multi-cultural nature of the guests., a large proportion of whom seem to be Indian families. There is a smattering of English, South Africans and more French. Lunch can be had round the pool but this is only burger and chips and sandwiches. There is a buffet in the Shells restaurant for lunch and this is waiter service in the evening, which we tried and was good. The buffet was not too exciting but apparently it changes every day. We discovered a restaurant at the far end of the resort which was more elegant and waiter service for lunch. We tried the Indian Cumin restaurant for dinner but unfortunately this is also a buffet and I did not find anything really to my liking there. At least we are all inclusive so can sit in the bar and have their rather nice cocktails while a singer and band "entertains". We have also surprisingly found they have some decent wines.

Whether we shall get off our bottoms and explore we shall see but it is so hot and humid it really saps the energy. I fear that lifting a glass is all the exercise we shall get!

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