Mauritian Moments

Quatre Bornes Sunday Market


Baie Du Cap


Shallow Beaches


Trou Aux Cerfs


Black River Gorge Viewpoint


Rochester Falls

I love the way a waterfall sounds. This one was noisy and beautiful. There were lots of people swimming and diving and one local fellow wanted me to pay him to watch him dive! Fat chance! :P

Dholl Puri, Gateau Piment and Alouda

I loved Mauritiuas for its blend of influences, the strongest of which are French and Indian. The fresh baguettes tasted wonderful. One of our frequent meals in Mauritius was a baguette with a stuffing of our choice; the one you see here has chicken curry cooked in a chinese style. Another treat was the rare flavors of ice-cream, my favourite being Coconut and Tamarind!

One afternoon, we took the bus from Cybercity to Rose Hill at noon (cost us Rs.6). Rose Hill is one of the nearby areas (the other being Quatre Bornes where I was staying). Rose Hill reminds me of Jayanagar 4th block in Bangalore - it has a main market and is always busy and bustling with life. It's also noisy and there is plenty of traffic.

We got off at the bus station and walked through little streets to make our way into the market. Here there are little stalls (much like the Gola/Pav Bhaji stalls you can see on Juhu beach in Bombay) lined up one next to the other, with customers patiently waiting for what they ordered. I was really eager to try some local cuisine - things I've been hearing about for months now from my Mauritian colleagues. A lot of these specialties have an Indian influence and you will soon see what I mean. (Read more about Indo-Mauritians here).

The first thing we tried was "Dholl Puri". Dholl Puri is basically a kind of bread (Poori) which is stuffed with crushed pulses (dal) before it is cooked. The result is a sort of double-layered-non-sweet-Obbattu-Poori which is soft and filled with sprinklings of dal inside. When you order it and specify how spicy you want it, it is filled with this amazing red sauce which is spicy and tangy and the Dholl Puri is given to you folded in half. The right way to eat it, is to fold it further in one more half and hold it with your finger tips on one corner and eat it from the other end, so that none of the sauce spills out. Now, my dholl puri was steaming hot(which is how it should be eaten, I was told) and I had a hard time holding it like that and eating it. So I dug into it in full masala-dosa style and had a ball getting my fingers all dirty while the locals "tsk-tsk"ed at me. :)

I also tried a "Gateau Piment" which literally translates to "Chilli Cake". What is it? Ever tried a "Paruppu Vada"? I was most amused to eat a little Vada with SUCH an exotic name. It was deep fried and tasted extremely good!

After a nice round of Dholl Puri (which cost all of Rs.5 by the way) and Gateau Piment (Rs.1 each), it was time for some "Alouda". What is Alouda? Well, Alouda, is more or less, Falooda! So for Rs.10 you can get a tall glass of Alouda - which is made with cold milk, jelly, some other ingredients that I could not recognise and the glass is topped with a few delicious spoonfuls of ice cream (which was the same colour as the Alouda). Now this Alouda, is really very, very tasty. After his first sip, my colleague Debjoy's eyes opened really wide and a big smile covered his face! To wash the spicy Dholl Puri down with a giant glass of cold Alouda is a total treat - and such a delicious meal - all for Rs.16!! Fantastic lunch, I thought.

After this, we walked around in Rose Hill for quite a while trying to find something vegetarian to take back for our boss. This is no easy task, I tell you. If you are non-vegetarian, you are bound to have a good time here and if not, you are bound to be hunting for your meals (no pun intended!! :P).

Finally, we managed to find a place that would stuff a baguette with Potato and Long Beans curry and we walked back to the Bus Station. On the way, I saw two Dholl Puri vendors who were in an argument and I stopped to take a picture of the huge pile of Dholl Puri. They stopped arguing, looked at me like I was from outer space and said "errr....mademoiselle???".... I grinned and ran off to catch up with the others. I dozed through most of the afternoon.

Windows XP

A large part of the Mauritius looks like the Windows XP Screensaver. Green grass (sugarcane fields) and clear blue skies. From Wiki: Sugarcane is grown on about 90% of the cultivated land area and accounts for 25% of export earnings.

Port Louis

Taxis are extremely expensive in Mauritius and so, I took the bus as much as possible. One weekend, I went to Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius.

If you take the motorway, the ride is simply breathtaking. After a few miles of road, all of a sudden you will see the sea in the distance and it looks marvelous! Also, in the frame from the car, you will see the road below (heading downhill) and the water looming above it and this really makes it special.

This is the Caudan Waterfront at Port Louis. There are lots of restaurants at the waterfront and my friends Swaroopa and Unish took me to "Tandoori Express" for lunch. Before they arrived, I watched Akshay Kumar and John Abraham (famous Indian Movie Stars) dancing away at Caudan with a bunch of hot European women dressed in sailor suits. Same dance step, 4 million takes. *Yawn*. :P. But gosh, you need patience to make a movie. Mauritius is one of Bollywood's favourite destinations, especially for romance sequences.

After lunch, I dragged Swaroopa and Unish to the Klassic theatre to watch the "L'enfant au Grelot", which was, by the way, one of the most lovely animated movies I've ever watched. It's such a treat to watch a French movie in the theatre - how could I not make use of the opportunity? I enjoyed myself completely and was quite thrilled that my friends enjoyed it too!

At about 4.30 in the evening, at Port Louis, I went on a harbor cruise with Swaroopa and Unish. The cruise lasted about 45 minutes and the sun decided to disappear behind the clouds during that time. The cruise takes you around the harbor and then goes out into the ocean for a little while. It was extremely windy out there and that made it all the more enjoyable. The ride costed Rs.40 - too little for that much excitement, if you ask me! When the ride started, we turned around to look at the Caudan Waterfront and Swaroopa noticed two of our friends Raju and Sathish (they live in Mauritius and work for the Mauritius Radio Telescope) standing at the entrance to the Klassic theatres. I started waving wildly to get their attention and I was quite kicked when they spotted me and waved back. Raju called me on my cell and said "YenRee? Full Enjoy Maadtha Iddiraaa??"(Roughly translated from Kannada: "What?! Having a ball, huh?"). I certainly was!

Pamplemousses

In the district of Pamplemousses, which is in the north of the island, there is a beautiful botanical garden. It is peaceful and serene and provides a welcome overdose of fresh green!

Here is some info I found: "Famous to naturalists for its 500 species of indigenous and exotic plants of which 80 are palms, this garden is located in the proximity of Port-Louis and spreads over 60 acres.

Among the plants growing there, there are the giant Victorial Regia water lilies and the talipot palm, said to flower once every sixty years and then die. The garden was created by Pierre Poivre in 1767 in the Estate of the French Governor Mahé de Labourdonnais. The latter's Chateau de Mon Plaisir, built in 1735, is found there."

Grand Baie

The first beach I went to in Mauritus was in the Northern region of the island - Grand Baie. This place is a definite must-go for any tourist. The area is filled with delightful stores (all of them look like they were picked out of five star hotels and laid out neatly). Definitely the kind of place you can shop at if you've got bank accounts in Dollars and Euros.

Just behind these pretty stores, I caught sight of the blue-green waters and it gave me such a high! I sprinted all the way to the beach and pulled out my camera and clicked away!

The sand on the beaches is white and SO soft, I cannot describe it! It almost felt like talcum powder! And it felt SO good under my feet, I kept running to and fro between two trees just to feel the sand under my feet and I'm pretty sure I scared a couple of kids with this behaviour.

And the water! Gosh, how can this be sea water? It is so soft and smooth and (somebody please throw me a thesaurus here). It feels like the whole ocean is a giant swimming pool. There aren't any waves - the sea is extremly calm and relaxed - probably where the Mauritians get their laid-back and relaxed attitude from!

It's heavenly to sit on the benches under the trees and look at the beautiful, calm waters - I could've stayed there for hours!

At Grand Baie, I really wanted to go on a Glass Bottom Boat ride. Quite self-explanatory, but anyway, a glass bottom boat is a regular boat with a large portion of the bottom made of glass. Initially, this doesn't matter of course, but a few miles into the sea and you start to see all sorts of exotic marine life. Beautiful, large corals - some as big as cars, I tell you! And in such brilliant colours, shapes and patterns. I couldn't stop ooh-ing and aah-ing. And then the fish start appearing. Nasser, who owned this boat, pointed out all sorts of wonderful fish. The ride lasted about an hour and on the way out into the ocean, we passed by several five start resort beaches, where we saw cartloads of foreigners bathing in the sun and the water. Lots of people were enjoying different kinds of water sports also.

Midway through the ride, Nasser stopped the boat and gave us pieces of bread to throw into the ocean. All of a sudden there were hundreds of fish everywhere, hungry for bread, crowding around our boat. It was so exciting. I held pieces of bread a little under the surface of water and got a total high from feeling the little fellows nibble at my fingers. While feeding the fish, it was a treat to look through the glass and get a clear view of all the fish.

Blue-Green happens to be my favourite colour combination. To get such an overdose of it was simply overwhelming! Miles and miles of calm, blue-green waters with the sun dancing all over in little gold patterns. Sheer bliss!

Gris-Gris

One weekend, we decided to explore the Southern part of the island. So we rented a Toyota Corolla and off we went. All along the Southern Coast you will see large boards that read "Bain Dangereux, Dangerous Bathing". At first this made me grin a whole lot (following the mental image of a sexy vamp in an action flick soaking in a bath tub).

After the calm seas of the North, I met the angry seas of the south. There are lots of rocks and high cliffs along the coastline and the waves crash upon them with all their fury. The first spot we went to is called "Gris-Gris" which is Kreol for Black Magic. It is believed that at some point, Black Magic was practised here (which is probably why my hair was flying all over the place and I felt like a Golliwog-Voodoo doll). :P

Papillons

One Saturday in April 2005, we spent the entire morning at La Vanille Crocodile Park. The park is well maintained and much of it is like a nature walk. We saw plenty of crocodiles, some interesting fruit bats, lots of geckos, monkeys, and mongooses.

They have here an amazing insectarium where thousands of insects are beautifully displayed. An entomologist who lives in Africa worked on these exhibits for 30 years. All of are neatly labelled in his beautiful handwriting. There were bugs and creepy-crawlies of all sorts. The butterflies were beautiful and the spiders scary!

Casela Bird Park

In May 2005, I visited the Casela Bird and Nature Park. Casela is a mini-zoo with a fantastic collection of birds (and plenty of other animals including tigers, zebras, javan deer, etc.). The aviaries are well maintained and have many exotic birds including some of my favourites - the Toucan, the Makaw and the Bleeding Heart Pigeon. If you come to Mauritius, you must meet the famous "Pink Pigeon". Luckily, they've saved this one from extinction (and a lot of the hard work was done by Gerald Durrel and his team). I saw many amazing photo opportunities but the I had a really hard time taking pictures because of the cages! :(

The Casela Park entrance ticket costs Rs.150 but they have a superb safari ride through the mountains for just Rs.30. I spotted these beauties while we were heading towards the mountains.

At Casela, I had the privilege of meeting Lori, the cockatoo. She is 30 years old. She can talk, dance and whistle a variety of tunes. She loves meeting new people. I had read about her and was eager to meet her.

At the petting zoo Lori was in her cage and as soon as I saw her I said "Hello" at least 10 times and she wouldn't reply. I kept wondering why until the sweet lady who takes care of her (and who took this picture) said "Oh, Lori speaks only French"!! She responded to my first "Bonjour" and happily climbed onto my arm to have a nice conversation with me and whistle some tunes for me. She was fascinated with my camera. I took a picture of her and showed it to her and she was amazed with it - she kept touching it with her beak. She also liked my bag and had a nice time walking all over it. So adorable!

Inch'allah

Our colleagues in Mauritius were extremely hospitable and helped us truly enjoy and experience the island. Among other things, they made many recommendations, taught us Creole phrases and shared music with us. I was particularly interested in the French numbers and this one is by far my favourite one they shared with me:



MC Solaar is the stage name of Claude M'Barali (born March 5, 1969), a francophone hip hop and rap artist. Claude M'Barali was born in Dakar, Senegal to parents of Chadian origin. When he was six months old his parents immigrated to France. He is famous for his wordplay... his official website is called SolaarSystem!!

Inch'allah is one of the catchiest songs I've ever heard and I love the frequent reference to the Maghreban robe, the Djellaba.

Le Morne Beach

Gangatalao

People are very religious in Mauritius. There are plenty of churches, mosques and temples. In the temples, you will find that most deities are brought from India and are made in Marble. I think the Gods and Goddesses look very different and very charming, indeed.

In Grand Bassin, you have a large temple at Ganga Talao. Apparently, many years ago, a priest had a recurring dream about a temple by a lake and he walked to this lake at Grand Bassin and built the temple here. There is a small island in this lake and the temple priests are said to have spotted fairies dancing on this island at night. At some point, water from the River Ganges was brought from India and mixed with the lake water and hence the name, Ganga Talao [from Talab]. By the way, did you know the 13th Jyothirlingam is in Mauritius? And please sit down before you read this, the 13th Jyothirlingam is called "Mauritiuseshwar".

Chamarel

The closest I’ve been to mainland Africa, is to the beautiful island of Mauritius. I crossed the equator for the first time and spent two months there in the summer of 2005. I had a great time there and hope to go back someday. My next few posts will be my journal entries from 2005.

In the South-West of Mauritius is the lovely village of Chamarel - where one can see the gorgeous natural 7 coloured earth. The 7 coloured earth is basically layers of lava that cooled at different temperatures (which explains the different colours). Also, the colours come from the high metallic content in the earth. Rain or shine, one patch of coloured earth never mixes with another (If you mix the colured earth together - it will eventually settle into separate coloured layers! Weird, huh?) and apparently, there have been several failed attempts to flatten the earth here.

SADC

The South African Development Community (official website here), is headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana and consists of 15 African member nations in Southern Africa.

Previously, the SADCC (Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference, SADCC), SADC works towards improvements in several broad economic and social sectors, namely, Energy, Tourism, Environment and Land Management, Water, Mining, Employment and Labour, Culture, Information and Sport and Transport and Communications. Other sectors are Finance and Investment, Human Resource Development, Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Legal Affairs and Health.

From Wiki: SADC's 15 member states are:

• Angola
• Botswana
• Lesotho
• Malawi
• Mozambique
• Swaziland
• Tanzania
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe
• Namibia - since 31 March 1990 (since independence)
• South Africa - since 30 August 1994
• Mauritius - since 28 August 1995
• Democratic Republic of the Congo - since 8 September 1997
• Seychelles had also previously been a member of SADC from 8 September 1997 until 1 July 2004 than joined again in 2008.

Suspended

• Madagascar