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Passing time in paradise

Keep this in mind: “ You must gather that Mauritius was made first, and then heaven, and that heaven was copied after Mauritius”. – Mark Twain I woke up today to what I have always pictured as paradise. I can’t believe I am here right now! When I looked out my port hole, all I saw in front of me was the ocean made up of a spectrum of blues, white sandy beaches, and tall palm trees. It was like my dorm room came to life! All those pictures I had hanging up in my room were now within reach. GORGEOUS!!! So sad we got in to this port late. We were supposed to be getting in around 6 am but due to the crazy waves we encountered on the way over here, we didn’t get off the boat until 2:30. So the trip I had planned for the day, doing a service visit to a domestic violence shelter, was cancelled. One thing I have learned so far about traveling, gotta be flexible. Mauritius is such an interesting place culturally. The majority of people that live here are Indian with the main religion being Hinduism. However, everyone speaks French even though the official language is English. It has been really cool to be able to understand the language here. I never thought French would come in handy on this trip but I have had to read everyone the menus at meals! That is one thing I do remember in French: the food vocabulary section! Got that down for sure. People, especially the taxi drivers, get really excited if you are able to speak with them in French. It gets you better deals too! So for you history people this is how all these random people ended up on this beautiful island: The French took over this island from Dutch settlers around 1715. ( Btw, the Dutch are the ones that ate the Dodo birds down to the very last one, sad day. Ryan, remember that report you had to do on the Dodo bird, haha! Or should I say mom do you remember it…) Anyway, the French brought over slaves from Africa to work in the sugar cane plantations. The British also became very interested in this island in the early eighteenth century because it provided the perfect transit for ships in route to India. The British eventually won the island over from the French in 1810. British rule was essentially administrative and the French colonists were allowed to stay. Things didn’t change much for the poor African slaves until the colonists emancipated them in the early 1830s because of abolitionist pressure. The only problem: this created a labor shortage, so what else to do but bring over more slaves right. Really they were indentured laborers from India. But within a few decades, people of Indian decent were a majority on the island but still speaking French. Today Mauritius is considered a multi-cultural melting pot with stats showing 8 denominations on the island. This was one port I was really not prepared for. I just got off the boat and turned to my friends asking them, okay where do we want to start. We had no idea what to do, where to go, or what we were getting ourselves into. We overheard some people talking about some sweet temples that were located in the city so we decided to start there and see where we would end up. The exciting part: we had to take a water taxi from the wharf to the waterfront. It was kinda cool the first 2 times maybe, but the after about 20 and paying each time, not so fun anymore. So we get across and head towards what we think is the main town. Really we were heading for the heart of China Town, haha I love how every city has a China Town in it. While we were walking around I noticed some of the stuff the street vendors were selling: shots of worms, mashed up sketch beef in a cone, and snow cones! All at the same booth, yummy! So about an hour later after walking around the streets of an unknown city in the humid heat ( I kept thinking of dad with his line of I am sweating in place I didn’t even know I could sweat) a couple people and I decided to give up and go find the beach. So I flagged over a taxi expecting to have to bargain for about 5 minutes to get a decent deal like in the other countries but I was pleasantly surprised! He told me it was going to be 400 Rupees so I busted out my mini calculator, did the math and for a 30 minute cab ride, it was going to cost the 4 of us $3 each! Exchange rate rocks!!!! 32-1, liking Mauritius already. So we get into the car, a red Lola btw, and start off towards Flic en Flac Beach. Our cab driver was sooo nice, maybe a little too nice towards me. He offered me to stay in his rental apartment at the beach but when Blake started asking him questions about it, he made it clear the offer was only for me as he gave me a creepy smile. Soooo that became a definite no. Other than that, he was very helpful. Within a few minutes, I planned out the different places that I wanted to visit during my stay in Mauritius just from the talk we had, in French might I add. While stopped at a light, he bought a newspaper from a man on the side of the road and gave it to me. The entire thing was in French but I was able to comprehend enough to realize that all the news on the front page was related to the US. Between politics and gossip, it was all there. There was plenty of American influence to be seen throughout the country. A lot of food they would advertise would somehow be related to the US. For example, a bus with pictures of Oreos was titled, ‘Americas finest snack’. So basically the advertisement was trying to sell the product by promoting it was American. This was seen all over the place. One thing you can rely on seeing in every single country EVERYWHERE you go is Coca-Cola. That company scares me, they have a hand in everything you can imagine. It’s funny because a lot of places I have gone to just assume you want coke because you are an American. They will automatically bring it out to you along with bottled water of course. I miss Root Beer. So as we drove along we were passing some beautiful scenery and I decided to get my camera out to snap a few photos. However, every time I would put the camera to my eye, the cab driver would slam on the brakes, in the middle of the highway might I add, so that I could take ‘nice photo’. I tired to explain to him that it was okay, he could keep driving while I was taking pictures but he continued to stop every time. After almost getting rear ended by a truck, I decided to just put the camera away and my seat belt on. So we arrive at le plage de Flic en Flac, a long stretch of white sand with the turquoise water of the Indian Ocean. I was sooo excited to go swim in the Indian Ocean! So far I have been in Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, Indian, going to be in the Bay of Bengal, South China Sea, East China Sea, Sea of Japan, and hopefully will have a few minutes in the Yellow Sea. Oh and I guess the Gulf of Mexico if we want to count that. New goal in life: swim in every sea of the world. It was a gorgeous beach but covered with SASers. I was so sick of being around them! Most people rented villas on the beach all next to each other for the weekend but thank god I didn’t go along with that. What better way of secluding yourself from meeting the locals and actual experiencing Mauritius then renting a villa, getting trashed with a bunch of college students, and then sleeping the entire day away hung over. You can do that at home any given weekend at a house party. Sad thing is, that is what a handful of people do in every port. The first night I heard, and later saw pictures, that it was a total shit show. They trashed the courtyards, broke most of the lights etc. in the villas, were incredibly disrespectful to the workers and honeymooners that were staying there, threw up everywhere, o and don’t forget the couples having sex in the pool all night. Yay, way to represent the US, let alone SAS. Total embarrassment. Sad part is that a girl from our voyage was raped that night in the midst of all the chaos and a few had to be taken to the hospital because of over consumption of alcohol. Before we went for a swim we stopped at this adorable little French café for some food and of course a group of CU frat boys were in there. Being belligerently drunk already, guess what they were doing: a burping contest/food fighting, no joke. They also made a scene once they got the bill because they insisted that they were charged one extra beer then what they bought. The beers were 20 Rupees ( $0.60). Anyways, they didn’t end up paying but the café started turning groups of SASers away after that incident. Too bad, that place had some amazing sandwiches and crepes! As soon as we were done eating I ran straight to the ocean and got in! Ah I love the Indian Ocean soooo warm but really salty. But within the first few minutes I sliced my foot open on some dead coral and Elisa stepped on a sea urchin! Ewww the spines got soo deep into her foot. But its all good cause I had my first aid kit in my backpack, haha! Good thing I picked it up at Walmart before I left. The entire island is surrounded by a reef which made me want to get dive certified so bad. I would love to scuba somewhere else rather than the plunge cleaning the pool. We enjoyed the beach for a bit and even met a man, with the cutest dog ever, from PV! Anyone know a Gary Thompson? Time came to get back and meet up with everyone else so the same cab driver picked us up. He even brought me a present! He went out and bought postcards to show me his favorite places around the island. I thought that was really thoughtful, I like island people. Everyone is so friendly and just laid back. Except some can get kind of creepy: Once we got back I was on a mission to find a calling card to call you Ryan for your birthday. Only problem was most shops closed by 6 because it was Thursday except for one… I get into this little souvenir store and the owner starts hitting on us like crazy. Poured us rum and cokes kept saying we were beautiful American women, bla bla bla. It was really funny at first then I was over it and tried to leave but he kept grabbing my hand and taking me back into the store. He put on me this pair of sunglasses then touched my face and said in a whisper, so beautiful I want to take you on candlelight dinner. CREEPSTER! I agreed to buy the sunglasses, cause I really did like them, and then got out of there ASAP. All I wanted to do was get a card to call home! The night did get better when we found the best restaurant in the world, well so far the best. I had the finest cut of meat, so juicy it just melted in your mouth!!! Ahhhh sooooo amazing! The greatest part, it was all of $7 for a huge chunk of meat, baked potato, and veggies that weren’t soggy. Then the drink they gave me was this tropical fruity drink with a scoop of ice cream in it. Yum Yum. The atmosphere of this restaurant was, interesting. They had this classical Indian music playing and all the waiters were nicely dressed but then they had MTV music videos playing on big screens everywhere, I got to see that new Timberlake video and a little Akon along with it. When the bill came, it was a little unsettling to see that it came out to 6,833. But with the exchange and it being 13 people, not too bad. We stayed on the wharf for awhile doing our thing and then headed back because we thought we had a big day of hiking ahead of us. While walking we passed this movie theatre and noticed the new movies that were playing. Most were Bollywood films but one stood out to me. It was entitled Just Married and when I read the review, it is exactly like Ashton’s Just Married film a few years ago but with an Indian couple instead. Being a Bollywood film it probably had a huge musical production somewhere in it but other than that they were very similar. On the water taxi back I sat next to Kenton, my cabin steward! He had gone out for the night with his lady friend who works the 7th deck bar. They were really cute, he took her to dinner! Only downer of the night was when cockroaches attacked me in the dark during my walk to the ship. We had to walk around this giant crate where it was dark and then I saw it, the cockroach was running towards me. I jumped over it but landed right on another one and heard it get squashed. Then I noticed they were everywhere running in all directions. I just started running and hurdling over them left and right. I was so grossed out and I felt like they were all over me even when I was out of there. YUCK! The next morning was a good one considering they were serving Captain Crunch for breakfast! Our plan for the day was to get to Black River Gorge National Park to do some hiking and see some more of the island rather than the beaches. So after getting 12 of us organized in taxis we were off, sort of. The drivers are paid by stores to bring customers by, so we got stuck in one of those cabs. We stopped by a few places but then they realized we were poor college students and gave up. One thing I did notice was how patriotic people of Mauritius are. Even if it was just a little shack in the field, there was a flag flying high above it. The countryside is covered with sugar cane fields, which is basically their entire economy other than tourism. O and I gathered that this country is OBSESSED with Christina Aguilera, she is in every single advertisement and the kids blast her music. The ads here are very very sexual. Even the KFC billboards have half naked women putting drumsticks in their mouth in a provocative way. We arrive to the National Park and find out we are not allowed to hike around unless we hire a guide. Only problem, it was the weekend so all the guides were off duty. It failed to mention that in the Lonely Planet book. So we made the best of it and were able to drive to the different lookout points that were still breathtaking. Waterfalls, the blue ocean, and green forests in every direction! Reminded me of the island in LOST actually. There was even black smoke coming out of one area in the distance and I couldn’t help thinking it was the others. The Black River Gorge lookout was where we had out encounter with Spike. Spike was this cute monkey that came out of the forest looking very innocent. He jumped up on the rail and was basically posing for our pictures. Then Amanda goes to take a few pics and says hey guys we should call him Spike. ( Inside joke) As soon as she said that he opened his mouth, exposing these GIANT yellow fangs, crouched up, and pounced towards Amanda. She barely got away, soooo scary but soooo funny! All of us went screaming with this tiny little monkey running after us. Hahahaha, o good times. So then Spike calmed down, well we thought he calmed down, and walked back over. Bad timing, we then witnessed a monkey masturbating. That was our cue to leave. We had our guys take us to the next stop, les terres des sept couleurs. These are gorgeous natural sand dunes that are made up of seven different types of sand ranging in color from purple, peach, and burgundy. What is so cool about these dunes is they have every type of sand from the island in them. Not sure how that happened because its natural and there weren’t any plaques but I will be sure to find out. Along with the sand dunes were these random giant tortoises roaming around. They were HUGE! Elisa really wanted to ride one but we talked her out of it after Carina was attacked… Again, while taking pictures, Carina said hey guys we should call him Spike. Bad call. The tortoise came out of his shell, stretched up his neck and started to hiss and move towards Carina. Now we were running away from turtles, wow. We had this amazing lunch which included honey chicken, French fries, and of course a little ice cream. I think I have tried French fries and ice cream in every port I have been to. Just gives me more room for comparison. Not sure if that will stay true once I get to India in a few days, O god what am I going to eat! Especially during my homestay. Can someone find a way to send me more Saltine crackers, those were long gone a while ago. To end our adventure for the day we got ourselves to a beach, Tamarin, which I later found out is known for surfing. The local elementary school that is located right next to the beach and was just getting out so all the kids were hanging out around the area. I had the chance to speak with a teacher of the school and she was giving me a brief overview of how their system works on the island. They find education extremely important so it is all government funded, even up through college. For the last 10 years, every kid on the island has the opportunity for a college education. I walked over to check out the school and they have fairly decent learning conditions and small class sizes from what I can tell. O and every student has a uniform they are required to wear everyday until they reach the college level. When I was over there I ran into a girl who is in 3rd grade. She was telling me how much she loves school and plays jump rope all the time with her friends during lunch. I asked her about the Dodo bird and she was soo excited to tell me because they just did something on it in class and she had drawn a picture. This girl was so pretty, she was a mix between Indian and African with these amazing green eyes. We stayed at the beach a while longer trying to fight the crazy current in the water. Our cab driver mentioned to us that Father Tutu was going to be giving a service but we decided it would be rude to go considering we had on wet bikinis and were covered in sand. So I thought, O this is going to be perfect I can call people back home. Ya no. I was the loser of the group again because 5 of us went to payphones and I was the only one that couldn’t get a hold of anyone accept Heather! She loves me, haha. Worked out for the best because I got the chance to talk with the interport student that was hanging out. She told me about a few places to go that night by Grand Baie which is where we wanted to go the next day. So later we all got in a cab decided to stay the night up in Grand Baie. The driver took us to this sketch bungalow but it was cheap and we had Blake to protect us so we paid $20 to stay the night. This place had a fun nightlife. We first stopped by the Banana Club that had a concert going on and I somehow ended up talking to the owner. His daughter went to USD 5 years ago and he lived in San Luis Obispo until he retired. Such a small world. He was so nice and good thing I made friends with him because later we got lost and couldn’t find our bungalow. No one had ever heard of it so the Banana man gave us his driver and told him to drive around until we found it and to make sure we get home safely. Before all of that happened we were able to celebrate St. Pattys Day at this bubble club place. We were the only ones wearing green and drinking Guinness but it was all good. The music they play is very original. The songs are to American beats with an Indian flare, but all the words are in French. When we did get back to our bungalow that night, I had another cockroach encounter. Not sure how I was able to sleep that night with so many bugs crawling around but somehow we all got about 2 hours in before Kristen, cheery bunny, woke us up to start the day. We soon found out that what we originally were going to do that day, go to a deserted island, wasn’t going to happen because the island was on the east side and we were on the west. So we had breakfast (crepes!) and got on the public bus to see where it would take us. So glad we did that! We ended up at Trou aux Biches and had the whole place to ourselves. It was just what I needed, a relaxing day on the beach under my own little Cabana. I even got to wonder around the little town by myself which was nice. It gets exhausting being around people constantly. I think this was the first time since leaving home that I have been alone for more than 30 minutes. Later when we got back on the bus, I felt like I was in that Harry Potter scene where he takes the Night Express or whatever it is called. This bus was CRAZY, I thought I was going to die. He was weaving, going into oncoming traffic, speeding along at maybe 70mph on these little streets. This guy was insane. You had to brace yourself every time he put on the brakes or you would go flying. It all part of the experience. We got back with enough time for me to attempt an internet café but I think every other student had the same idea. Sooo many people were trying to get on the internet that it was even slower than the ships. I thought I uploaded about 30 pics but I guess only one shows. Bummer. Well that is my story from Mauritius and now I am on my way to India. From here on it is going to get pretty intense. All the ports so far haven’t been too foreign/hard to handle but I get the feeling that is going to change very soon.

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