30 Dec. 12
Its been a long time since I typed my blog but a lot has happened so I
guess I’d better start. Nothing seemed to be happening on the job market probably
because it was December and everyone was closed so we decided to give it a rest
until next year. Lola’s sister, Kim works for MSC and has offered Lola trips on
one of their cruise ships every now and then when she has a special offer. Up
till now I have always stubbornly refused to go. I am not really sure why I
never wanted to go but I think it had something to do with shopping malls.
Those big cruise ships remind me of giant shopping malls on the water. Anyway
her sister had another special offer and Lola had finally worn me down so we
accepted the offer and found ourselves in a giant shopping mall on our way to Mauritius . We
set sail on the 18th December and passed the southern tip of Madagascar
about two days later. The coastline was clearly visible but from our vantage
point on the MSC Sinfonia about five miles from the coastline we couldn’t see
much, just a couple of sand dunes. It was about one in the morning of the next
day when we passed by Reunion island and this
provided a better view with all the lights from the island twinkling away at us
like small stars just above the water. Reunion
island is obviously well developed considering all the lights we could see but
that was all we could see in the dark. We docked in Port Louis , Mauritius
On our first day we caught a water taxi into town and walked around the
water front shops trying to find something different. The city of Port Louis has an
interesting mixture of architectures with many modern sky scrapers. A large
number of the buildings have a definite Indian influence but most are just like
all modern cities.
The heat was stifling and we negotiated our way through the overcrowded
streets and into Macdonald’s for an ice cream. We noticed that all the local
shops found in SA are also in Mauritius .
KFC, Macdonald’s, Steers and even the Keg were all near the waterfront. The
city centre itself was like all city centres, overcrowded and slightly run
down. The only difference to Johannesburg
city centre was the large number of scooters. Everywhere you looked people were
racing around on scooters. Crossing any of the roads was a life altering
experience with a thousand scooters racing towards you at top speed. None of
them made any attempt to slow down but instead just lay on the hooter as they
came bearing down on anyone that tried to cross in front of them. At one point
I had to grab Rauen’s arm and swing him onto the sidewalk to get him out of the
way of one of these lunatic riders. A short while later Lola had to scream out
a warning to me as I was nearly run over by a different lunatic.
After a while we had enough of town and sat down at one of the many
small restaurants. We studied the menu for a while and decided that the food
was to expensive and not anything different or special so ordered a couple of
cokes instead. When our cokes were done we did a quick calculation and counted
out the money we would need including a ten percent tip for the waitress. The
waitress had lost interest in us and I considered just placing the money on the
table and leaving but I eventually managed to get her attention and asked her
for a bill. When the bill arrived I was surprised to find that we were short by
another fifteen percent. The amount on the menu didn’t include tax of fifteen
percent which is added afterwards. So we dug out the wallet and added the
amount with the newly calculated tip.
We decided to save some money and walk back to the boat. It was quite a
long walk in the heat and we nearly got run over a few more times, this time by
the many cars but we managed to find our way back. In SA pedestrians have the
right of way, but in Mauritius
it is obviously different.
We had a booked tour set up for our second day and we were collected at
seven in the morning by a small tour bus. The bus ride was exciting through the
mountains on the small winding roads and our tour guide was very informative.
He told us all about the history of the country and pointed out the different
plants and animals. We stopped at a large impressive statue of one of the
Indian gods and a few other touristy spots on the island. Our last stop before
returning to the boat was at one of the many beautiful beeches. The beech was
surrounded by a reef and the water was perfect clear and blue. The scene was
idyllic with the Indian Ocean crashing on the
reef in the distance and the flat calm crystal clear water lying calmly waiting
on the beech. The only things that spoilt the setting was the many power boats
and hundreds of people everywhere. We managed to find a small bit of shade in
amongst the crowds and set our towels on the beech sand. Perhaps it is the
South African in us, but we then took turns watching our bags and swimming
making sure someone was always on watch at the bags. The ride back on the bus
was quite boring as we travelled along the coast line and between the various
towns. If you are from SA and have been to Actonville in Benoni you will know
what the towns look like. The land is divided into extremely small plots.
Perhaps about two or three hundred square metres each. Some of the plots have
big houses in comparison to the size of the plot. Others have corrugated steel
shacks. None have gardens. This makes the area look overcrowded, run down, and
poor.
Due to our limited budget we decided to stay on the boat on our last day
and we spent the day getting grey hairs worrying about Amy and Dean. They were
also on the cruise and had decided to go to the aquarium on the last day. In
typical Amy style they left the boat quite late in the morning with little time
to spare and arrived back late. In the meantime we were running around on the
boat panicking that they wouldn’t be back on time and I already discussed the
option of leaving Lola on the boat and waiting for them on land if they didn’t
make it.
The trip back was pretty much the same as the trip there. How did I
enjoy the trip? Well, I did enjoy spending time sitting watching the ocean go
by, looking out towards the horizon and dreaming about what lays on the other
side of that horizon. I enjoyed spending time with Amy and Lola and
occasionally Dean would join us. Kyle and Rauen disappeared on the first day
and we hardly seen them for the entire trip. This would be an ideal holiday if
you needed a break from your kids.
What I didn’t enjoy was the multitude of people everywhere and standing
in long queues for everything. Some of the queues were pointless and I even asked
one of the guys in one of the queues what the queue was for. He told me he
wasn’t sure but just stood there in the line anyway. I decided that it must be
human nature to form a queue whenever you are not sure what you should be
doing.
Would I go on a cruise ship again? The first time I typed this my answer
was, no,.. I don’t think so,.. now, a few weeks later my answer is, maybe,
perhaps.
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