NDBT

I arrived in Mauritius, and after being searched by customs (my banter with the guard kept him from finding my non-declared vanilla – haha!). I was greeted by a taxi driver arranged by the hotel (its so nice to see your name on a card when arriving in a foreign place). I’m staying at the Coco Villa in Mahebourg, which is a fairly small fishing town. It’s a bit dingy around the edges, but otherwise charming, and the guy who runs it is soo concerned about my having a good time. When I first got in, he brought me tea and suggested lots of things to do around the island. I walked around the center of Mahebourg after that. Despite everything being closed (May 1 – public holiday), I found the town to be very lovely. I passed by a mosque (I think – I’ve never been in a mosque, come to think of it – lots of cathedrals and synagogues and temples, but no mosques). The population here is very diverse – you’re as likely to pass a roadside shrine to Ganesh as to the virgin Mary, and everyone seems to get along very well – very live and let live (there’s a lesson here…). I’ve even heard the colors of the flag represent the major different religions; Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, and Tamil (I don’t even know what that one is…) I wandered down to the waterfront, which is quite quaint, and the site of Napoleon’s only naval victory. There was a fair type thing going on, much like the shopping tents at the Marin County fair, but everyone was selling Saris and Dupatis and the like instead of temporary tattoos. There was also an ice cream truck out front blaring jingle bells, in 85 degree weather. Saw a guy ride by with a monkey on the handle bars – just hanging out. You don’t see that every day.

  

Had dinner at the Vielle Rouge, where the owner made me fresh pineapple juice and drove me home – super nice! Back at the hotel, I chatted with the owner, read a bollywood gossip mag (Aishwaria Rai got married! And has a movie with Naveen Andrews – does anyone else find it odd that there are lots of American-style movies coming out of Bollywood recently? Including quite a few shot in New York…), and watched bollywood music videos (the only nighttime channels are French and Hindi).

  

The next day was super gorgeous. I went to ile aux Agrittes in the morning, and actually met the head manager of the island as I was waiting for the boat. The island is an amazing conservation project – over 90% restored to what it would have been like 400 years ago. I saw some giant tortoises! (They were importrd – the local ones being one of Mauritius’ many extinct species) and the rare pink pigeon, once the rarest bird in the world (down to 10 birds). They keep feeders for them, so that they’ll stay on the island where they are safe. Saw some other great birds, too. Oh! And the boat ride over – the water is so astoundingly clear, you can see the coral 6-10 feet down on the bottom. Very gorgeous.

  

Walked back to the hotel, past a model boat workshop (for some reason, model boats are a big thing on Mauritius) and got some bread, cheese, yogurt, and OREOS for lunch. I don’t even eat oreos much at home, but the longer you are away, the more exciting real American products become (I found peanut m&ms the other day and became irrationally excited. I don’t even like the peanut kind – I like plain). The walk was very lovely – the place is very lovely, but feels sort of undiscovered (I wonder if property values would reflect that, though).

  

Everyone is very very friendly here – its kind of disarming. After lunch I went into town to run errands, and one guy insisted on escorting me to the bank and buying tape for me to wrap up my packages. My New Yorker sensibilities kept thinking that he was going to scam me or something – but no. He was just being nice. Then he ran back to his place and brought me a DVD of 50 Hrithik Roshan music videos. I was stunned. BTW – I sent a postcard to the Colbert report, so if anyone is watching the show in a week, and against all odds it happens to make it on air – could someone tape it? Found some magazines and a copy of HP6 at the grocery store, which I fell upon – I haven’t had anything to read in 3 weeks (aside from borrowing Patrick’s books when he wasn’t around) and I’m fairly desperate. Sort of like how I am to see movies. MUST SEE MOVIE SOON!). That’s pretty much the day.

  

This morning I woke up feeling not my best, so I decided not to head to the national park (where the rare Mauritiun Kestrel is found and the fruit bat that is the only endemic mammal on the island). I have done a little shopping though, scoped out the market, and am having fun catching up on the internet. I think the hotel owner is bringing a movie to watch – either V for Vendetta, Blood diamond, or Dhoom (shah rukh khan, apparently…). Yay movies! Tomorrow I fly to Perth. Which I don’t have my guidebook about. Should be fun!

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 1:23 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.