Well...I have officially survived the first 2 and a half days toute seule in the Southern Hemisphere, at the beginning of my Year Abroad adventure! I flew to Mauritius over night on the 14th: 12hours next to a smug married couple! Sunrise from the plane the next morning was absolutely stunning – a full horizontal rainbow effect which seemed to follow the horizon around the world and back again. I now understand why Mauritius is so well known for its beaches; I have never seen such bright blue water, totally picture perfect, friendly people and endless photo opportunities...it all sounds great, apart from the French creep who wore socks and flips flops, baseball caps and wanted to take me to dinner at KFC. I just knew we weren’t going to hit it off when he pointed to the white grin of the KFC Colonel when there were endless Creole, French, seafood, Chinese and Mauritian restaurants down the road.
I was staying in Le Bamboo Guest House, Mahebourg. Only 7 km from the airport, so just what I needed really for my one night stopover on ‘Paradise Island’. I expected beautiful beaches, but other than that, I had no idea what Mauritian life would be like. From what I saw it was a big mixture of everything – religions, wealth, cultures, scenery and languages. After strolling along the coast and ogling at the 5 star resorts on the beach, I returned to the slightly shabby but very friendly 'Le Bamboo' and got chatting to a lovely lady who worked at my Guest House. She told me about how she couldn’t afford private medical treatment for her baby daughter and that the treatment the baby was getting was making her very upset and not making her any better. We sat over a beautiful cake that said ‘bonne anniversaire’ (thanks to mum and dad!) and chatted about girly stuff...She explained about how she starts work early at 7am so she can go home at 3 to look after her sick baby. I was quite surprised at the beginning to hear that she was married; I thought she could have been 16 years old! But she was 23, married and had a one year old baby daughter. She explained to me that there are many Muslim women in Mauritius who get married at the age of 13 or 14...I wondered how many of the tourists that come to stay in the beach resorts would know that.
This morning, I was told by my friend who worked at the hotel that I hadn’t seen enough of Mauritius and I wasn’t allowed to leave unless I went on a boat trip to Blue Bay! So I did! Glass bottomed boat, crystal clear waters, fish, coral and a guide that spoke in French and then translated the bits I didn’t understand into Anglais, made for a pretty perfect morning...that was until I got off the boat to find Monsieur Flip Flops et Chausettes standing on the jetty!
The bus journey between Mahebourg and Blue Bay reminded me more of a Nepalese bus ride...Spiderman appeared to have been painted along the outside of the bus and the inside was decorated with various little shrines...the African influence definitely appeared when we set off with the loud music that attempted to drown out the sound of a dodgy, over exhausted-exhaust!
Pictures and more stories to come...
For now, over and out,
EB xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment