Day 7: Koh Phayam Surfing Adventures and Beachside Breakfast

Our morning on Koh Phayam started with a mouth-watering falafel plate at the beachfront. The sight of perfect waves was too tempting to pass up, so I (Wild) decided to try surfing for the first time. Renting a board for 150 Baht per hour, I managed to catch some waves and even stood up a few times. It was thrilling!

Bungalow Quest Along the Beach

In the afternoon, our stroll along the beach turned into a quest for our next stay. We explored various resorts, finding options ranging from budget-friendly to luxury. The search was as much fun as it was challenging.

A Refreshing Pause at the Reggae Bar

Needing a break, we stopped by the Reggae Bar for some incredible smoothies. The mango and pineapple concoctions were just what we needed to recharge before continuing our exploration.

Evening Delight at JJ

Dinner was a beachside treat at JJ, where we enjoyed a scrumptious red snapper. The sound of the waves complemented our meal perfectly, creating a memorable dining experience under the stars.

Day 8: An Amazing Breakfast – The Perfect Start

The next day started with an amazing breakfast at “Bilbo’s”. They have self baked cinamon rolls, great fruit bowls and the best coffee we drank so far on the island (we have to mention, that we didn’t drink much coffee yet ).
So this cafe is definitely worth a visit…

Motorbike Ride to Buffalo Bay

This day brought a new adventure as we rented a motorbike to check out Buffalo Bay. The beach there had a different vibe, less inviting than our current spot but still worth the visit. Our hunt for accommodation led us to a solidly built bungalow at Buffalo Bay Vacation Club, a significant upgrade from our previous stay, especially the toilet!

Google Maps Link to Buffalo Bay Vacation Club: Buffalo Bay Vacation Club

Dinner and Work at Gypsy Bar

Our evening unfolded at the Gypsy Bar, where we combined dinner with a productive work session. The atmosphere was just right for both relaxation and getting things done – a rare find on Koh Phayam.

Summary

Days 7 & 8 were a perfect blend of adventure and relaxation on Koh Phayam. From my first surfing experience to finding the ideal bungalow, every moment added to the charm of this tropical haven. As we continue to explore and uncover the secrets of this island, we’re reminded of the beauty of discovering lesser-known paradises. Join us for more tales and tips as Dana & Wild keep unraveling the wonders of this hidden gem!

#KohPhayamSurfing #HiddenParadise #IslandAdventures

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Duration: 2 hours

Cost: around 60 Euro (march 2014)

Options: for a small additional fee you can also make a longer trip to “Ile aux aigrettes” – we just passed the island by and didn’t go on the island.

Voilà, this is “Captain Nemo” and his speed boat:

So what does he do? He and his mate “Christophe Columbus” try their best to give you a special experience by offering some tours and special arrangements. And as far as we can say, they’re doing a good job!

Christophe is responsible for tickets & sales. So if you’d like to book a tour, he’s the man you should get in contact with. See below for his contact details.

Christophe is located in the Preskil Beach Resort, but if you contact him directly, he arranges to take you from nearly anywhere in the south-east of Mauritius.

We booked a tour from the hotel Preskil Beach Resort to Ile aux aigrettes, Ilot des deux cocos and a snorkeling experience in Blue Bay.

Ilot des deux cocos

This island was owned by a doctor. After his death the hotel company “Lux” rented the island and began to restore and maintain the buldings and the island in general (which is pretty small).
There are some guest houses on the island you can rent and if you’re a guest of a Lux hotel, you can go to the island. If you’re not, you’re only allowed to walk on the beach. We were no guests of Lux, but we were allowed to enter the island for taking some pictures for you:

(Click here to view “Ilot des deux cocos” on Google maps)

Blue bay

Blue Bay is directly located near “Ilot des deux cocos”. Captain Nemo told us that we are going to snorkel here. “Christophe Columbus” told us it will be beautiful there and he gave us his underwater camera (for free!). I asked him if he would lend his camera to every client and he said yes.
So if you don’t have an underwater camera, he will borrow you his. Very good service!
IMPORTANT: take an SD card with you to save pictures and films and you’re done.

Then we put on our fins and diving masks, went into the water and took the following pictures (we call the left one “Dana with fishes”):

WOW! Crystal clear water and an amazing sea life.

It’s an awesome feeling to be surrounded by so many fishes. This is definitely a place where you have to got to. Btw: on the 2nd picture you see an info table that’s located under water. It tells you something about the corals there. Also a very funny experience if you go down and there’s a table on the ground. I think water depth there is around 3 meters.

(Click here to view “Blue Bay” on Google maps)

Ile aux aigrettes

This little island is a natural reserve and we have not been on the island, we just passed it by. So we can’t tell you how beautiful it is on the island. We just heard that you have to pay an entry fee to get on the island which is around 1000 MUR (24 EUR) per person. Just ask “Christophe Columbus” if you’d like to enter the island, he will make a special package for you (including some pirate outfit if you like so ).

And much more…

Christophe Columbus knows a lot of people in the south-east region of Mauritius. So if you’d like to book a house on the beach there, he’s also the right man for you.

CONTACT AND BOOKING

Here are the contact details of Christophe Columbus, if you’d like to book your personal package with him or if you need an accomodation in the southern part of the island.
Feel free to get in contact with him:

Dream Time Ltd. – Le Blason

Christophe Columbus

Ave. Les Aigrettes

Blue Bay – Mauritius

Tel.: +230 771 7917 / 631 1699

e-mail: cjdreamtime@gmail.com

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Duration: Although the tour operator presents this sailing tour for 4 days/3 nights, it was just 2 ½ full days! The reason: we started our first day at 1pm and finished it on the fourth day at 8am.

Cost: 700 EUR in total per person (incl. all fees), fullboard. Drinks included only during meals.

Yesterday it was our last day at Lataniers Bleus. It rained the whole day! We’have been afraid, that this weather continues and we will get wet on our katamaran trip.

We had luck…

1st day – Port Louis, Pereybere

Today in the morning we went with our taxi driver to Port Louis – Caudal Waterfront, where the catamaran “Chaka” and it’s crew Janik & Christoph were waiting for us.
Another couple from Germany was also on board, so we have been 4 people in total (there is a maximum of 8 people possible on board beside the skippers). The manager of the agency welcomed us and gave us a small briefing for the trip. The journey will lead us to the northern part of Mauritius.

At 2pm we departed to our first goal Pereybere. For me it seems like a sleeping tiny village,  like the dogs kuddling on the beach  you can see on the picture.

After we had enjoyed swimming in the bay of Pereybere we went to the supermarket there.
TIP: this supermarket is big and has good prices.
We bought some cocos liqueur to make some cocktails on our journey. Just mix the “Chamarel cocos liqueur” with some pineapple juice and ice – voilà.
See also our tips for shopping.

In the evening we had a delicious dinner. Homemade and served by our two skippers. EXCELLENT!
Janik and Christoph are not only good skippers but also excellent cooks. The food is very delicious and one of the best during our stay on Mauritius so far.
We are talking into the night with our new friends from Germany while the sea is calm,  we watch the stars and have some of our self made cocktails.

2nd day – Cap Malheureux, Ilot Gabriel

I got up at 8am this morning. I didn’t sleep so well because of the loud noise of the boat engine. Everybody was waking up at a different time and we were curious how the breakfast will be. Again: it was delicious: fresh fruits, jam, toasted bread, eggs – whatever you need. Mmmmmh…
And here it was…the SUN, yeah! No rain any more. We had really luck to have this weather now after the rainy day before.

Then we moved on to our next destination: Cap Malheureux, famous for its beautiful church. I jumped in the sea and swam to the beach, while Wildcafe was working on our Mauritius song.

Next stop: Ilot Gabriel.
Although the waves were really rough there, our two skippers succeeded to get into the bay of Ilot Gabriel late in the afternoon after we’ve been sailing around 2 hours. They told us they’re going in later, because there are many tourists on the island during the day. So we had the island and the beach for us alone.

I was really curious about this island, because it should be one of the nicest spots here on Mauritius.. It’s awesome here, nice beach with nearly white sand and clear water as you can see on the pictures below.

We also went sknorkeling – but there weren’t so many fishes, it was somehow boring.

This was another beautiful day. It was amazing – outside of the bay the rough sea, and our ship wiggling in front of Ilot Gabriel. And the only people there: our sailing group –  it was calm and very relaxed. After we had a delicious dinner (again) and excellent wine we fell asleep very soon.

3rd day – Coin de Mire, Mont Choisy, Grand Baie

Today we went to Coin the Mire, were we did some snorkeling in the cristal clear water. There was a strong current and we had to be careful not to come very near to the cliffs. We stayed there about 1 ½ hours. You can see nothing special here. Wildcafe was diving on 9m depth and he found a big sea shell.

After that we went to Mont Choisy. The turquoise sea here was spectacular and we had really fun with our paddel boat. We also booked a speed ride.

WOW that was really great ride! We booked a second session, because it was so much fun. The price is 600 MUR (14 Euro) per person for the small round and if you would make it twice as long (what we did), it costs you 800 MUR (19 Euro) per person.

In the evening we went to our final destination Grand Baie.

You can read in travel guides, that Grand Baie is one of the the most lively spots of Mauritius. We expected discos, nightlife and much more…
Hmmm, now here is the truth – well there are some shops, a big entertainment- and shopping-center. The shops close at 6.30 and then it’s really quiet.
We stayed there overnight with a delicious dinner (did I mention that?) on board. On the next day we got up very early at 8am to hence to our next accomodation on Mauritius.

Here some final impressions of Grand Baie and our sailing crew:

The catamaran trip is really worth it. Although we have to mention that the offer is not clear enough, telling you that you get 4 days while it’s in total just 2 ½ full days! The trip starts in the mid of the first day and stops early in the morning of the last day. Although the delicious food and the nice crew compensated that a little bit.

A great service by the way: our next stay was the Merville Beach Resort. Our skippers just dropped us there directly on the hotel’s beach with our lugagge.  Can you imagine. This is really funny. The hotel crew was completely stunned, that we arrived directly on the beach.

Read more about this story in our article about the Mervile Beach Resort…

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White sand, turquoise-blue sea that’s what we  wanted. The agency told us – go to Maurice.

So we decided spontaneously to to the  “dream island”!
Starting on 16th of march we went on a 3 week journey to several hotels and accomodations on Mauritius and several days in Dubai.

We went by Emirates.  We really can recommend this airline. It has good food, good entertainment program with new movies. Wildcafe also got power to work with his laptop.

See below for some updates!

[UPDATE 2014-03-25]

We didn’t finish the blog entries for our stay here but we’ve just finished the song! It’s called “Dana & Wild – Schweinsgalopp On Mauritius”.

It’s very inspiring here, although it’s not as looking as we expected it to.
Currently our song “Dana & Wild – Schweinsgalopp On Mauritius” is in promotion through www.kingsofspins.com and we will post it here soon.
The video is also in the making and it will be very funny: we ask people here to jump for us. I think the video will be really funny.

Here’s the song, there will be also a club mix and a mix without the mc vocals!

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And it has been a very very good decision to do our Austrian tour at this particular time.
Read yourself why, maybe you’ll find some inspiration for your trip:

1st day: Restaurant Gasthof Bürglhöh

As we told you before, we’ve seen our first hotel on TV. We were  really curious if our expectations could be fullfilled.
We successfully arrived at “Restaurant Gasthof Hotel Bürglhöh”. This hotel is owned and runned by the renowned and awarded chef Siegfried Leitgeb and his family.
They received us cordially with sparkling wine. Gasthof Bürglhöh is very clean, familiar and nice – with (only) 3 modern rooms.
If there’s snow (normally it is, but this winter was crazy in terms of snow), you can go directly to the hotel by ski / snowboard.
The weather was (too) beautiful for this. We had one of the sunniest and warmest days in this year so far. Travelling under this conditions is so much fun! Wow!
We couldn’t wait to see our room and if it matches the pictures and videos we’ve seen so far. In short words: our expectations where completely fullfilled.

We arrived at 4pm and the meal was prepared for 6pm, so we checked out our room and went to have dinner at 6pm.
Here was the next “Wow”: 4 courses, finest ingredients with regional origin only, everything cooked fresh. We know now why Siegfried was chosen one of the best chefs in Salzburg.

We had some good glasses of regional wine and at 11pm we were falling asleep with filled stomaches and smiling faces…
What a great start! But what’s missing?
That depends: there’s no spa, if you need that. And the breakfast is no buffet, it will be served. And the size of the meal is maybe not as big as you expect it to be. But the food quality and the great service compensates that.

On monday the restaurant is closed, so in the evening you have to find a different location to get dinner at.
See below, where we found our “food station” for this day.

2nd day: ski ressort Hochkönig

We went up early in the morning. Before that we enjoyed a good breakfast with homemade eggs, tea and jam. We’re still happy with everything here.
If there’s snow (which is not at the moment) you can go directly to the hotel by ski/snowboard.
If there’s no snow, you can go for trekking, biking or just relaxing. Or (and that’s what we did) you go by car to one of the ski ressorts in the surrounding.
We chose “Hochkönig”, which is 15 min. away by car.
At 9:30am we were sitting on the ski-lift.
And again, we had a perfect sunny, non-cloudy day. Here are some of the pictures we made at Hochkönig:

We can tell you, it’s really worth it skiing here: nice slopes, modern ski-lifts and the ski ressort ist big enough so that you don’t have to go a slope twice on one day. There are two ressorts connected: Hochkönig and Maria Alm. Maria Alm is more sunny, but if the weather is too sunny, the slopes there get muddy very fast.

If you catch the same sunny weather as we did, we can recommend you visiting the “Tiergartenalm”.
We just show you pictures instead of words:

Find your food!

On monday there’s no dinner at Bürglhöh, so we had to find another place to get some food. We went down to Bischofshofen (15 minutes by car). What a little tiny, nice city. A lot of stores are there and some restaurants.

When we were walking around we came across the “Bar – Cafe – Restaurant Public”. Their website is not very informative, but they offer nice ambience, good food and good prices.
We had steak on a hot stone with a potatoe and salad – mmmmmh…

3rd day: just deepen your experience

We went to Hochkönig again, enjoying the great weather and the last day of our stay here.
We finished skiing in the afternoon, went back to the hotel to enjoy the last evening there. Again, the dinner there was delicious  and we talked to the owners until 11 pm and had a lot of wine and Schnaps

Conclusion

If you go in the area of Bischofhofen, just go to Bürglhöh, if you like nice people, a familiar place and great food!
Either you go for mountainbiking or trekking right from Bürglhöh or you need to go by car to some other places (Bischofshofen city, mountains, ski ressorts etc.).
It’s good to have a car there, because everything is located 10-15 min. away from Bürglhöh.
We also liked the surrounding a lot, there are some ski ressorts in the area that are nice to explore and that offer great skiing possibilities.

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In the TV-series “Die Urlaubstester” by Austrian broadcaster Puls4 we saw a really nice hotel with delicious food and very nice rooms. It’s name: Restaurant Gasthaus Bürglhöh.
We were overwhelmed by the owners, the food and the pictures we saw, so we booked a room immediately for a really really nice price (we will post more on this later).

In addition a friend of mine is working in Lech currently. So this will be our next station and we’ll give him a visit. As we’ve never been to Vorarlberg before, we decided to extend our stay there. Schruns (skiing region Silvretta / Montafon) was our choice for this.

We titled the tour “Dana & Wild go crazy in Austria” and we will be starting on 23rd of februar.

We will keep you in the loop, so check back soon!

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