some more on mauritius

I found some “strange and new” experiences, too. In Mauritius, apparently water is not served for free during dinner in the hotel. Not even coffee or tea. The food was on buffet style, but beverage? Too bad, you’ve got to pay for that. A 500ml of mineral water goes for 3 Euros. Better yet, get a bottle of wine. That’s what they encourage you to take with your dinner.

Nothing beats our 3 minutes experience of buying mineral water at the stall by the roadside. The old lady told us that the 1 litre bottle was 17 Mauritius Rupees. Then we asked her daughter who stood next to her, she said it was 16 Rupees. When we hesitated (actually, counting how much money we have), the old lady chirped that it’s 15 Rupees. Finally, we bought it at 14 Rupees. Till today, I am still puzzled, how much was the mineral water supposed to cost?

Something that breeds familiarity was the traffic jam. At 5.30pm, we were stuck in the heavy traffic heading towards Port Louis (the capital). We were literally in the bus, not moving for 20 minutes or so, and then painfully inched our way through for the next hour. It was certainly not what I have hoped for… cause I ended feeling more stressed. It’s deja-vu, you know, the usual, 3 lanes – to 2 lanes thingy, “bottle-neck” effect everywhere often seen back home in KL.

And finally, our send off was a real treat! To beat the horrendous traffic, our tour bus driver, took to the outskirts to reach the airport. (outskirts meaning, cutting through the sugar cane plantations). The roads were narrow and winding, we were climbing hills one second, then racing down the valleys, the next. The entire journey was full of sudden jerks, turns, swirling around sugar canes – we (hubby and I and another 2 couples) all turned green and sick to our stomach! After an hour and 45 minutes, but to what seems like eternity to us, we reached the airport. Without a single word, the driver unloaded our bags and sped off! What did you make of that? I wonder….