Hello Titus,
and first of all, welcome to the Forums here. Thanks a lot, you have provided us here some real great insights of back packing in la Reunion and shared some great peaces of information. Are you from Reunion or living there since a long time ?
I went to la Reunion in 1995 or 1996. We stayed at Saint Gilles Les Bains, we were a group of scholars at that time and we stayed in some cheap bungalows which were OK with a Pool and pieds dans l'eau. In that region there were a lot of night clubs. I think one club was called "Funky Pussy" and another one something like "La Bastille" not sure... well, its quite a while so maybe those clubs have changed names.
For me the great difference in the clubs I noticed compared to Mauritius is that the crowd really enjoyed Island Music like bands like Kassav whereby in Mauritius at that time, clubs and crowds would usually go for pop music.
Else at that time Reunion has a lot of big supermarkets. Now Mauritius has them to. And the places we visited was Cilaos, La Fournaise, and a place that has some kind of German name, it was on the mountains to and there you could fish in a bassin and then you pay for those fishes that you can take with you. We ate a lot of them
I don't know if Saint Gilles and Saint Gilles les Bains are close but I saw people surfing there, but it didn't look like an easy spot to surf, quite rocky... Some people there were telling me that there are often deaths of surfers...
We did some sight seeing in Saint Denis, but I don't remember anything particular, its more the differences of Mauritius / Reunion that I took note of. For example the roads, highways and buses, its really like in Europe. On the mountains, amidst the fog and trees it really reminded me of european forests.
Also, in Saint Gilles les Bains, it was very hot, and we were there in Winter time, compared to Mauritius, Mauritius it was cold...
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The Mauritius Pride and Mauritius Trochetia (both are of the same company) are the only passenger vessels between the islands- prices are almost the same as for an air ticket.
Should be reserved long time in advance... they are mostly booked out a few months before departure, mainly at school holidays.
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In this case it might be better to opt for a flight. Our duration time was 45mins with the ATR. It was very noisy though to fly with the propeller plane. I just sat next the propeller
Other impressions I had at that time where the amount of BIG motor bikes and also lots of scooters and they drove really fast on the highway. The highways in Reunion are also longer than here and more straight.
Overall Reunion gave me the impression of a well structred, and orderly place with lots of smiling people. But I cannot say much about the people there as I was there really for a short time. The population is mixed and has a beautiful blend.
Do you surf from time to time there Titus ?