Mauritius
Trip Start
Feb 07, 2007
1
30
50
Trip End
May 15, 2007
Port Louis,
Mauritius
Saturday, March 17, 2007
A view from the top
. Why is that, that as I'm pulling away from Mauritius I feel that way? I'd think it makes more sense to feel something like that when you get into port in the morning, that there's the world right in front of your very eyes, rather than when you're pulling away from it. I probably won't feel it leaving Hawaii because I'll be returning to the world I know, but leaving every other port means that there's more world out there to see. I'm sailing away from somewhere, and I can't be upset about it because there's somewhere new to go. Unless I'm leaving South Africa, that is. Pulling out of Cape Town didn't evoke the same excitement for the next port because I really didn't want to leave. Mauritius was an adventure, and an experience, but I didn't get emotionally attached to it. If I never make it back, I won't be disappointed. So I suppose in that regard it's easier to anticipate the world ahead of me when I don't mind so much leaving the old one. I enjoyed myself here, had a pleasant time. But it didn't evoke anything new in me, fill me with joy or intrigue me. It just simply was. And that's all it needed to be, just an island out in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and a little bit more world for me to see. To be honest, I think it would have taken a lot for it to make me truly happy because this port was originally supposed to dock in Kenya. Well, they took Kenya away from me so unless it was another African country or somewhere in the Middle East, it already had that fact working against it. Not the best attitude, I know. I did appreciate it, and of course appreciate having opportunity to visit it. I'm just saying I'm not as impressed with it as I have been with some of the other ports, and that's okay isn't it? I can like some places less than others. And this is probably the only time I'm going to do this, but I'm going to combine the second and third days of the trip into one entry. Perhaps my mind just needed a break and I just didn't want to examine this pretty little third-world island as closely as I have other places. Yesterday I went on a Rainbow Culture and Religion tour, sponsored by Semester at Sea. I ate my yogurt in the bus with the lid that I turned into a trifold to use as a spoon as we drove through some more rough areas of Port Louis to get to a Hindu temple situated on a plot of land in the middle of a residential area. The temple was beautiful, tall and covered in brightly-colored faces. Everything about the place was clean and immaculately kept. We had to take our shoes off at the entrance to the temple, so even the ground was clean. I was completely shocked when, after walking around for half an hour on concrete, that my feet were not at all black. The only bit of trash was a random Shell bin lying sideways in a patch of tall grass out front. Other than that, the grounds were spotless. We walked through the area but couldn't go inside the temple itself but we could look in. I felt bad because towards the end a group of children came out from one of the buildings for their prayers and of course, we SASers all flock to children to take pictures of them. So as they were standing in front of the shrine they didn't pay attention at all to the words their teacher was speaking but instead fixed their eyes on us and smiled for our cameras. The looks on the teachers' faces, we knew they weren't happy with us. But that didn't stop most of us from following them up to the entrance of the temple and take pictures of them while they were continuing their rituals inside. That was my favorite part, listening to them recite their prayers so loudly that it echoed. They were adorable, always trying to be louder than their friends, even inside of a holy temple. After the Hindu temple we made a quick visit to a Roman Catholic cathedral. I found it interesting that the window above the entrance, which is normally stained glass, wasn't. It was just a regular window that was actually covered. I thought perhaps because it was Mauritius and Port Louis isn't overly wealthy that it simply didn't have stained glass, but the windows inside were stained glass. We got to sit and listen to the French service for about ten minutes before visiting the Islamic Cultural Center. I'd wanted to stay longer at the cathedral, but I think it was because that Christianity isn't as prevalent in Mauritius so we needed more time to visit the Hindu and Islamic sites. We had half an hour to putter around the cultural center, which was absolutely beautiful and brand new. A white building set on top of a hill that when looking out the window on the third or fourth floor you could see the entire city up to the mountains or out to the ocean, depending on which window you were looking out of. We read about Indian immigrants to the island before we watched a video about the center. Then we had time to explore the library on the top floor, or the beginnings of a library because it wasn't very full yet. But the place has only been open for two years so they've still got time to fill all the shelves. Next was a visit to a Chinese pagoda across from the largest race track in the Southern Hemisphere, followed by lunch on the grounds of a house that has 109 doors. Apparently they keep doors open to keep the air circulating so the house was built with 109 to really cool it down. I'm not sure what it had to do with the religious aspect of the day, but it was cool to see. We ate curry for lunch and went to take pictures down by the stream right outside before taking a quick tour through the house. Our final stop was the Mahatma Gandhi center, where we were rushed through the folk museum with more on Indian immigration and early ways of life in Mauritius, before going to watch some of the Performing Arts students at the school there dance for us. It wasn't a real show, but a demonstration, so the teachers explained all aspects to us before each dance, and sometimes go and perform with the students. It was very informal and kind of cool. This is the second time on this trip, the first with the township choir on the ship the last night in South Africa, and then this time, where performances weren't strict. Music stopped and restarted, dancers walked off stage during the middle to take off bracelets, and dancers sometimes looked around in confusion at one another until getting an explanation from their teachers, who stood off to the side with a microphone and sang. I liked it, and would have even more if it wouldn't have been so darn hot. After the first dancer, I was ready to get out of there so after four more sets, I was quite uncomfortable. And of course, the SAS professors leading the trip had tons of questions to ask, which delayed us even longer. I just needed to get out of the heat, and as it always goes when you're in a hurry there are always delays. Once they freed us from the confines of the oven, they served us refreshments (coffee and tea, very refreshing after sitting in a hot auditorium for an hour...I'm just evil sometimes, so ungrateful) before we went back to the ship. I met up with everyone and we went out to dinner on the waterfront, at a place called Shooters. It was the coolest sports bar I've ever been at, with tennis balls and golf balls and big screen TVs under the Plexiglas floor, but no sports on the TV. So we sat and ate junk food, drank banana daiquiris, and watched music videos before going out to the Keg and Marlin, a traditional English pub, and watch the Rebels beach Georgia Tech. I must say, I was the only one in the bar rooting for the Rebels. And it was quite fun standing alone, especially when we won. It was just such an interesting experience, watching a UNLV basketball game while sitting at a bar in oh, Mauritius. Even from halfway around the world, I was able to watch the Runnin' Rebels. I don't even really follow them at home, so cheering them on (all by myself) in a foreign place was pretty cool. I'd even considered calling my Dad so he could gloat with me. We hung out there for awhile, a big group of us, before heading back to the ship for the night. When I woke up I was in Katie's bed, and I have no recollection of how I got there. And it had absolutely nothing to do with the daiquiri at dinner or the glass of beer at the pub. I came home and showered, and got into my own bed, but woke up facing pictures of Katie's kitten. I've slept-walked once in my life, when I was about twelve years old after I watched "As Good As It Gets". Jack Nicholson at one point flips the lights on and off a couple of times, and I woke up in the next bedroom over turning the light switch on and off. I think I remember getting up, but I'm not sure if I'm just telling myself to remember. Katie was sleeping in Victor's room, so I guess I just missed her and decided to sleep in her bed in the middle of the night. I woke up and got dressed to spend the day eating food and shopping. Katie, Victor, and I stopped at an Italian restaurant to have brunch (have never had grilled cheese at 10:45 in the morning before, which was interesting and left me feeling gross the rest of the day) before going grocery shopping. The trip to get there was crazy, because it was Saturday so everyone was out. The street vendors were all there, selling their same random items, but a lot more customers were out today than the first day. The store itself was a nightmare, jam packed with people in narrow little aisles, and the three of us who had no idea where anything was. And these people didn't say excuse me, or let you know they're coming. And there was nowhere to go to get out of the way so even though, so for twenty minutes we were just in the way of everyone. I don't know if I've ever said "excuse me" or "I'm sorry" so many times in such a short period of time. It didn't get better once we got outside, either. The streets were filled with people, and after the shopping extravaganza (the checker gave us two boxes to carry all of our food in instead of plastic bags) it was even more difficult to make our way through the streets. Victor and I were wide loads with our boxes. And Katie and I just didn't learn our lesson that grocery shopping comes last. I'd tried to tell her we should wait, but Victor didn't realize that we wanted to do more souvenir shopping after grocery shopping, so he insisted we get it out of the way. He wasn't too pleased when he realized he'd have to carry that big old box of food around with us, but he was a good sport. We wandered the market for a little while before heading back to the waterfront area for a few final things. We finished up and brought our bags and boxes back to the ship, and I ran back (well, okay, didn't run but water-taxi-ed) to the waterfront to use the internet café and grab some coffee (which was incredibly tasty- iced coffee with a scoop of vanilla ice cream...delicious). We all met up again on the ship and went to grab a quick bite to eat in a food court back at the waterfront before standing in line for an hour and a half to make phone calls and hauling ass to make it back on the ship before 9pm dock time. We made it at 8:55. I felt really bad having to hang up so quickly on my parents after it was finally my turn to use the phone (we all waited until the last minute to call because apparently none of us 700 SASers can plan ahead) but I really didn't want to have to wait two extra hours to get off the ship in India because I was late getting on. After boarding, I showered and cleaned up my room before watching Mauritius fade in the distance. It was fun. Simple, some learning experiences about the rainbow of cultures that make up Mauritius, and some fun nights with friends. And the next time I see land, it'll be Asia. Four continents in five weeks. How crazy is my life these days? 
