5th January

              Saturday and second day in Mauritius. Morning up and relaxed day as we waited for Vimal who suppose to drive us to Grand Baie to see the bit of Mauritius and meet another friend Sapna, who is living there and I met her in Dublin. After breakfast we sat and waited around for a car which had not materialized so decision was made to use local music bus and to do tour of  The Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden (sometimes shortened to the SSR Botanical Garden), commonly known as the Pamplemousses Botanical Garden what is not far from the house and since we waited too long for a car we don’t want to wasted any more time. The garden is something to see as well as in the not weather it is nice to be in shade and relative cool place. AS walked around I realized that all here is bigger and nicer than in the glass house at botanical garden in Dublin “which is beautiful” but here it is all outside and huge, what made me sometimes look upwards to see the glass roof of glasshouse but there is none bar the sky. Huge Talipot palm with leaves about three meters in size “ have photo under one” water lilies and lots of others including the medical garden with all the plants labeled with description of the name and what are they used for. Also replica of sugar mill is built on the premises with short description of what and how it was used. It is nice and worth walk through as well as sit or lay down in one of the many kiosks to rest and get some sleep to sound of birds and gentle breeze on your face or if you are with the drinkable blood the mosquitos will pay you a visit quite often as they did to my friend Rajiv while I was dozing off. Lot of local people use the park for weekend rest and picnic, talking playing cards, badminton and just sit and relax in the shade and cool breeze. Fresh coconut and pineapple was nice refreshment and both for 180 rupees / € 4 is nice refreshment on the go when you are tired from all day walking in sticky hot weather. Walked to bus station and took the local bus back home but we stopped at Lolo supermarket to get some supplies mainly water and juices as the heat makes you drink a lot. When we arrived home we met the Rajiv’s neighbors as they are all friends / family here in this piece of heaven on earth. Easy evening with fabulous home cooked food what is so amazing that as if you eat poetry. The acclimatization to hot weather, jet lag from travelling around is now fully gone and from tomorrow we should get on with the exploration of island in full swing. But not before a fesw drinks of Green Island which is local dry cane liquor with some juice after dinner at the roof.

6th January 9, 2019

              Sunday is as everywhere in the world possibly except the middle east, rest day and church day so since I’m experiencing the Mauritius the local way, the church visit is part of it. When woke up and got to the kitchen Rajiv’s Mom was already up and waiting for me with coffee and asking if I will go to church with them so I said of course and she was happy with smile. After quick refreshing cold shower went to change so I took shirt and showed her if this is required, however due the language issue she nodded yes as I think that we did not understand each other. But she send me to wake up Rajiv as he was still dreaming his dreams chasing whatever he was chasing in the dream 😊 He said that we will go by later bus that his Mom can go now. When I told her this, she was not happy and as much as I do understand Creole and tone of her voice this was something unacceptable and he was up in few running to shower under the command of his Mom who was already dressed in lovely sari. In between his mooring chores he told me to get long sleeve shirt and trousers as the church is for dressing up and not for shorts. Thankfully I still have my linen trousers and shirts so I was able to get dressed accordingly since even he got jeans “ my got in this heat it is a near suicide” and shirt and in jiffy we were running for the bus. Journey this time to other side of the road was nice and everyone on the bus was dressed up and probably heading for their respective church mass. You could really see the real Mauritius travelling on the local bus to local areas where no tourist is probably ever came “just guessing but I have not seen any tourist” and it is very easy to play the usual game “ spot the tourist” as we are sticking out like white lighthouse in the dark 😊 also we dress differently. Anyway the church is not a catholic one but it is a Christ church which is much better as far as I can say, since it is lot of singing and clapping at the start and less pompous gold ornamented stuff and clothes. Everyone is dressed very nicely, sitting in this big hall, where on podium band is slowly warming up by jamming few tunes until everyone is seated and until pastor arrive. Guy came in nice white shirt and trousers and Rajiv said that this is pastor so he intruded me and when afterwards Raj told me that he is sixty five years old  I do not believed him as this guy looked max forty five or fifty years old. The singing started and everyone stand up, sing, clap hands and it was so moving that I sat down and fall into trans as if I was meditating but this was a bit faster and stronger. Poor Raj was later panicked as I was stiff non responsive and he tried to wake me up which means that I had to come back earlier than I thought but this means a lot more adjustments to be made before regaining full consciousness. There was mass in progress and the main thing I’ve had received from it thanks my French and Raj translation was that important part is live as Christian in daily life not only one day per week in church on Sunday which I do believe in it anyway, even before attending the church. When we are nice and helpful to each other the life is better and no matter what religion it is we are humans at the first instance. When the mass was over I was introduced to rest of the family / friends and just as I was mentioning that I’m starving Rajiv’s aunt purchase for us Roti which is tasty snack of pancake style bread filled by butter beans and bit of chili paste. We had to run to the bus as the departure was in 5 min so quick promise that we will visit Rajiv Aunt for dinner before I will leave Mauritius and we were off. Before we get home we got off at LOLO supermarket to get water, some veg for lunch and pastry for Rajiv’s Mom as this is her Sunday treat pastry, what Rajiv forgot about until we were on the road to the house so we returned back to shop again and then set off for home. When we arrived the lunch was nearly ready as it was nearly 2pm so the roof dinning area was set and we sat down to have another feast of fabulous food. Stuffed ourselves with all the yummy stuff we said that we will stay I and paint the flower pots at roof to organize this little garden for Mom to look nicer. As Mauritius is relatively slow island first thing is to get nap after lunch what is great idea and we dozed off for a while …. 😊 after waking up we got the paint, and started organizing the area and rearranging the flower pots as per instruction form the Boss / Mom to what ever pattern she want them and then as all was arranged we started painting. As we started a bit late in a day we just finished one quarter of it but it is already looking better and Mom was happy to see progress. Few splashes on the hands, feet and body was a little damage done as we tried limited the paint splash to minimum. Clean all area of paint and all painting tools, covered the table with old newspapers and we sat down to diner. I’m not even going to describe each food as this would be for separate blog itself. Chatting and dozing off after dinner, with checking emails, messages from other world as well as what’s up calls are routine after dinner.

7th January

              Monday is an early start as we are going on road trip around island with Rajiv’s friends in the minibus and the departure time is 8:00 “ well should be 8:00” but as I learned the time is going differently here… bus was postponed to 8:30 and departure to 9:00  so as I and Rajiv were talking to driver of  minibus outside on the road, friends slowly started coming with bags filled with food for picnic. Some took wife and girlfriend and one came with daughter as well so it was nice to see this close relationship that exist in this group. Nearly all aboard and ready to go but one guy was still missing and after few attempts of calling him on mobile, one was successful and rest of the team was informed that he is on his way and that he fell asleep as he was partying last night. Since Rajiv is now in Ireland for a long time he kind of forgot about Mauritius time and was not happy to waiting for guy nut we did anyway. When someone said he is here I looked around and did not see anything except a lorry hurling towards us at some speed, which was the guy and his girlfriend, upon seeing them it was quite obvious why they were late as fresh love marks were very visible 😊 Parked the lorry down the cul de sac and were we off to the trip. Obviously the first thing is the food so packages were produced from the bags and samosa and other snacks were shared around so everyone got everything. Lots of talk and laugh in Creole of course but I’ve got impression that they are slagging each other off and commenting the past mischiefs. As we were on the road to first destination we re routed the van pick up one of the guys Dad as he rang his son to get him lift to hospital as he was experiencing chest pain. Well we picked him and dropped him to hospital and then went off on the road trip. Obviously as any gathering of friend for road trip and picnic is the need of beer is important so first stop was supermarket and beer supply was purchased but since the warm weather is making the beer warm we start the “ tour of ice” as we stopped at every petrol station trying to get ice to cool beer on the road. For some reason the ice was sold out or not available and since the beer was already consumed the need for ice was decreasing with increasing amount of empty cans. The trip itself was nice as we did tour around island and stopped at various points, lighthouse for instance where the laugh of the lads indicated that some of them had spent some “good” time here, which was later confirmed. Crying rocks where we had a picnic lunch and many more but the top was probably waterfall in the middle of the field where I went for splash to refresh myself. Local kids were jumping of the rocky cliff to the pool of water and even some tourists too. The atmosphere in the bus was great and even with the language barrier I was able to have good time with occasional translation from Rajiv or other guys, ladies as well as my little French. I could not remember all the details now but except the silence period after lunch snooze we had great time and after lunch snooze Rajiv continued with his last drink, which resulted in hilarious conversation and slagging off Nitish and his fiancé Sweety about their upcoming marriage. Both of them were so quiet that you would think that they are mute and def but the jokes flying by and we laughed until tears rolled out down our cheeks. When we returned as eventually every trip has to end, One guy had offered me to go night fishing with him. We off load the stuff to home and then took my fins, mask, snorkel and hopped onto back of his lorry, travel Mauritius style 😊 Rest of the lads and Rajiv had a drink or two, maybe three or more on the way to Balaclava beach I think is the correct name. Since the beach could not be bought anywhere on Mauritius all the posh resorts have a nice land and sea side dinning etc but the beach is not private and we therefore settled in under the fancy dinning area of some five star hotel and shine on the dinning guest with my perfectly white naked bum while changing to swim trunks. Got the flashlight and went off to the water having spear gun. Since I had never dived in the night this was special and amazing as you see the fishes in the night resting and unfortunately this means easy target. Few of them were left at the line what carried the catch as well as middle sized crab. Swimming through the corals and reefs in the torch light was amazing and when we turn off the torches we could see the plankton sparkling like thousands little electric stars or lightings, what is truly beautiful and a little bit scary when you see it for the first time. I had not taken the wet suit as I thought that sea is warm but in the night it is not, I actually sneezed under water 😊 thank God that it is hot during the day and warm during the night so I could warm myself after diving. Got out and hop on the lorry again on the way home  with catch what Rajiv Mom will cook over the coming days . Great day and fantastic finish at evening.