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Exploring Port Louis

The day looked not very beachy so we decided to go and explore the capital city - Port Louis.
We caught a bus into Grande Baie which is pretty much the main touristy town in the north of the Island and then took an express bus to Port Louis.
Port Louis is surrounded by a ring of quite magnificient jagged moutains. You drive through tall crops of sugar cane and catch glimpses of these mountains as you near the capital.

Port Louis is only a little city but round the market there is quite a cool vibe. Mauricienne music pumps from a music shop, there are Indian shops sellling clothes and spices, fruit and vegetable stalls, Chinese traders. It is weird being in a predominately Hindi country off the coast of Africa where everyone speaks French! Shops have names like "Patisserie - Ismael et Fils", "Quincallerie Sahweg", "Magasin du Ille de France", "Isabella Coiffure", "Roti Chaud - Chez Neeta". It is all pretty cool and confusing. The few small blocks in the centre of town is where you can see all the races and cultures of the island on display - Hindi, Chinese, French, African and Moslem.

In some ways it reminds me of Thailand, and in basically no ways does it remind me of either France or Africa which were the only two points of reference I had on the place before arrival.  It is not as busy and hectic as a Thai city but it does have that cheap, almost communist concrete cinder block architecture bleeding tropical moulds. It is quite laid back, the traffic is nowhere near as dangerous or crazed as they warn - especially given its heritage of French and Indian driving stock. And people are friendly, even if they speak French.
The place and people seem neither rich nor poor, even though it is a luxurious european holiday destination at the same time as having little in the way to export or any trading friends and having to import almost everything other than beer and sugar.

Even though the town is almost 200 years old - there is not much in the way of old buildings, it is mostly the stained and sweating concrete of a 20th century tropical town with plenty of air conditionners and small Asian motorbikes. Some of the old 'colonial' style building which survive in the commercial district still used and have had no restorative attention and are badly deteroriating.
We climbed the hill above the city to Fort Adelaide. Which the Brits put up in the beginning of the 1800's after they thrashed the frogs in naval warfare.

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