Leaving Mauritius at the end of the hour

Well it is 19:09 pm and it the lights of Port Louis can be seen from the ship. Just left the garden lounge after eating dinner and sitting 'round talking with Ali, Karen, Nick and some others folks. We were mostly people watching and trying to guess people's blood alcohol content since Mauritius has had the reputation among SAS'ers as the party place. Actually in the past SAS used to stay a lot longer in Mauritius but due to the inappropriateness of students and their abuse of alcohol, we are no longer welcomed on the island. It is rumored that we are the last voyage to port there...and we've only been here for a day so that was even a blessing. In the future they said the ship will continue to stop in Mauritius because it is also the refueling period for the ship. We simply won't be allowed to get off the ship and future voyages will proceed to their destination. So that is one way to go about it.

Met up with Diane, Stephen, Karen and Ali in tymitz square. Most folks doing independent travel were going straight to the beach. Our previous groups of people didn't work out so we decided to walk and see where it took us. If we ended up at the beach, that was cool. If we didn't, that was also cool. The main agenda for 95% of the shipboard community was to get drunk. This was a known fact. Now that we are back on the ship and have seen people staggering, falling over, slurring words, hugging and smooching... it is all too clear. There was also a number of names that was repeated over the intercom because we had to make sure everyone was on the ship and so they most definitely got dock time. Heard of one person getting 9 hours, another getting 24 hours. They also randomly drug tested some people--one of which was our very sober friends Max. He was pissed and he is generally laid back by nature, but he had a point about some of the very obvious cases of drunk folks. But then again, it wouldn't be considered random if they targeted them... not to mention drunk folks went through the normal questioning from the stewards and some probably got dock time.

But back to our day, headed to the 2nd deck since that's where we were getting off. The line was ridiculous and found out that the computer system was being changed. Perfect timing! We didn't get off the ship until close to 10ish am. On ship time was 6 pm, but because of computer problems and the promised traffic of the city, we knew that we would have to beat the whole 4-6 pm line. This greatly cancelled out our time... we got to walking, running into Jack, Courtney, the other Stephen, Maria and Hannah.  It was funny because on one side it looked very country-like with green meadows and hills. There were mountains with odd irregular shaped peaks. Whereas on the other side it was the city skyline, tons of cargo and fishing boats. Anyhow, started walking up the pebbled dirt roads towards what we presumed was the city. The minute we walked out, taxi drivers went nuts trying to sell us their services. We kept telling them no thanks but we would walk and they was almost surprised like wait no beach? And we're like nope. We continue walking down the street and several either followed on foot or in their cars. Finally they let up and we walked. It began drizzling but overall we were excited to see what was ahead. We didn't pass anything significant. Around us was something that referred to sugar cane distribution. We followed a sign that mentioned a waterfront mall and boutiques. Got there and was happy to see some stores were open but most weren't since it was Sunday.

There was an intersection with more stores. We also noticed a McDonald's and folks were hungry so we walked down the stairs of this underpass to the other side. There was a billboard as you walked downstairs and what was that billboard of? KFC. lol. Anyhow, we get out on the other side and head into McDonald's. This one looked much like the ones in the USA. I still contend that the McDonald's in Capetown, South Africa was amazing. lol. The biggest difference was their menu. They had Chicken BigMacs, McSaver, McRoyals and McDeluxe. The fries were also not very salted. We sat eating for about an hour. Jack had his iphone and was able to take advantage of the wifi and Skype folks. We left, following the road to what we discovered was the marketplace. It wasn't as extensive as the one in Manaus and it wasn't as aggressive as the one in Takoradi, but it was enough mayhem. Marketplaces are always overwhelming. Ali, Karen and I didn't have Mauritian rupees so didn't get to shop there. Courtney kept getting suckered in by the locals. haha. Then in the midst of the marketplace, we found an alleyway into another marketplace where there were fruit and stuff sold. It didn't smell too great. Another tidbit, Mauritius is referred to as the "Light India." Having gone, I can see why. It was difficult to remember that we weren't in India yet.

Walked back towards the McDonald's to get water and Ali and I wanted to check out the ATM nearby. Courtney and Jack decided to walk back to the ships to get their laptops and use the wifi at McDonald's. The rest of us headed back to the original mall and got to shopping. The guys- Stephan and Stephen went and grabbed a beer some where while the girls and I split. We ended up at one boutique and tried on some stuff. It was fun =) Had to get more rupees from the ATM or in eventual spots, pay with our VISA's because we kept forgetting that the sum converted in USD was relatively cheaper than it sounded. lol. That happened a lot. For instance, my total which was about $68 USD was worth close to 2000 rupees. lol. Nuts. It's always tough to do the conversions. Anyhow, Ali and Karen were hungry since they hadn't eaten Mickey D's with us earlier so we wandered back out into the city in search of food.  This time instead of walking through the underpass, we walk past it and followed the sidewalk. We came down towards a few stands selling postcards, key chains, ya know the typical touristy stuff. We stopped and brought some stuff. Most folks were looking for stamps since the post office was closed today. No luck. Fortunately we were standing next to what was an entrance of yet another mall! There were two levels but the top was for the kiddie playground and the other stores were closed. Upon walking in the first level we got excited to see it was filled with restaurants. We then checked out some of the gift shops and brought more touristy stuff. Their national bird is the Dodo. Hahaha. Just felt I needed to point that out. Anyhow, one of the women try to get us to buy some scarves and we're like no thanks. Someone tells her we're in search of stamps as we walk on and she's like I have them. It was hilarious how fast we were crowding in her store. Well not me per se since I didn't have any postcards haha. But them, sure. We were pretty sure she ripped all those who purchased stamps off, but hey- you can do that when you have the product in need.

Walked past the internet cafe and frankly, I'm glad we didn't even stop by. Totally addicting and we probably would have wasted a perfectly beautiful day sitting in a dim lit cafe, hunched over computers. Walked around towards the water or what was the front of the restaurants. Sat outside at a table after looking over the menu. We ordered and finally got our food. I asked the waiter for his name and he said "MeRony" so I said oh ok, thanks MiRony. And he said, no, me, Rony. My name is Rony. And we all bust out laughing. Hahaha. Just because I love food, gotta share the details: I ordered crispy calamari, Ali had some sort of burger, Karen had a margherita pizza, Stephen had a swordfish sandwich, Stephan had a Mauritian styled octopus meal (curry, saute). The food was sooo delicious. With my calamari came three sauces: tomato, chili and garlic. However, we forgot about the chili one because it was an odd greenish. Took some and put it on my calamari and almost died. Lol. I couldn't make out the taste or how to process it. haha. Everyone else was trying to decipher my feelings or how it was and I was just stunned by it. Lol. So Stephen decided to try it. He also made gagging noises and his face turned red as did his eyes watered. It was hilarious. Rony thought it was funny that we had such low tolerance ( I guess since he looked somewhat Indian). He had heard about the ship so he automatically began asking us questions about it and about our next stop. It was funny because he said that everyone but me looked American. I looked Mauritian haha. The interesting point about that is Mauritius is one brown country. Seriously. We kept having to think about it. Where in the world was Mauritius it seemed like a random location on the map, and I guess when you see where it's placed, you can still say that. It is literally in between Africa and India, separated by the Indian Ocean. The influences were obvious and that's why it made the most sense as a stop post Africa and prior to India. We mentioned wanting to visit America. When we told him we were heading to India he started telling us how spicy things were going to be and that EVERYTHING had some sort of spicy element. Lol. He was telling us to make sure we eat a lot of yogurt or drink milk if we're not accustomed to spicy stuff. He was awesome. We left after he took down our facebook info and took a picture with us. Oh random tidbit, it was hilarious how many places including the restaurant we ate at, took USD, Rands, Euros and pounds in addition to Mauritian Rupees. Hahaha. Actually our receipt converted it into each for us so that we had the option of choosing either. In Mauritian rupees my meal was 150ish rupees. In USD it was only 7.80. That's wild. We got our change back in USD with the exception of change which we got into rupees.


Took the water taxi back because we didn't feel like walking back. Got back to the ship late 3ish pm. It was like a 10 minute commute and it was fairly relaxing. We were happy we avoided any line. Thus concludes my account... I'm exhausted. Need to nap.... even though it is just about 8 pm. I say nap because the hope is I will wake up and study for my mid-term in International Perspectives of Family Violence tomorrow. The good news is I have that class around 2:55 pm. I tell ya, these people don't think about this stuff when they schedule the syllabus. But eh, we are in school after all. Mauritius was a blast.