Port Louis – 2 J's World of Adventure

Arising early – well!! 7.30 am ( that’s early for us), we showered dressed conservatively ( incase we visited Religious establishments) put on comfortable closed shoes for walking in and went off to breakfast.

With our usual choice of breakfast quickly consumed we were ready and raring to go.

We had booked an 8 hour private excursion with Hello Islands. At 9.30, the agreed time, our driver and guide was waiting in reception. He walked with us to his car and he got in the driving seat, leaving us to manipulate the front passenger side seat so Johns long legs could get behind. As we started off he said he liked the fresh air so we wound the windows down a bit. He soon went into a spiel about the political history of the island. It was a little hard to hear him as his background music mumbled on, in a low drone…I had to keep asking him to repeat himself. He explained where we were going first …to the capital Port Louis ( south of where we are staying), because he would be able to park and later on he wouldn’t be able to…OK ….parking wasn’t really our concern especially as it was a tour recommended by the company….he also asked if we were ok to walk some distance. I said “No and I don’t do steps unless essential” …the reply was that we would have to walk only 10 minutes, to which I said that was fine. He then proceeded to have a conversation with John about Liverpool Football Club and how he wanted to buy a Liverpool Shirt today….hang on I thought this was our excursion… we had after all paid €170 for the trip….

We parked up by the new waterfront marina…there were certainly some big yachts moored……John and I laughed about which one was ours….

We walked passed the “Blue Penny Museum”… their claim to fame is that The Blue Penny stamp is the most valuable stamp in the world…..how accurate that is I don’t know ….but they have one in the museum….we weren’t tempted to go and see it…

We were then escorted into a very colourful new shopping Mall

Inside the Mall were the obligatory top designer shops, I managed to buy a couple of lipsticks in one without having to break the bank, I had inadvertently come away without one.

Up an escalator to the first floor of the Mall was the usual tourist souvenir shops…it called itself a handmade arts and crafts market …..I guess T-shirts made in China or perhaps Bangladesh have perhaps touched someone’s hand, sometime in their mass production!!! Of course after several tries John did get the ‘holiday t-shirt’ to join the 400+ other ones he has at home!!!

There were one or two more unusual shops and I purchased both saffron and vanilla pods…both grown on the island….the later was very reasonably priced… at 20 pods for £8 in the UK this would cost me about £50. The saffron was about £23 for 8 grams which in the UK would have cost me about £45. So although they might of seemed expensive compared to UK prices they were cheap and I use them both often in cooking. The shop vacuum sealed them both separately for me.

We had now had enough of expensive shopping malls and we traversed numerous steps to get us back to ground level. where there were a few more nice handmade goods shops.

We followed our guide outside and passed the usual anchor and cannon balls found in most cities with ports all around the world, we had to laugh at a casino sign and the fact that Microsoft seem to get everywhere.

We crossed a square with 3 big statues the middle one was the 1st Prime Minister the island had after Independence from the British, (who had taken it from the French in 1810) in 1968.

Our guide told us we either had two long flights of steps to go down to get under the road to cross to the old town market or we could take the ramp…we choose the ramp which seemed to spiral on forever….finally crossing under the road we took the steps up the other side and soon found ourselves in the old town fruit and vegetable market it was vibrant and colourfu.

We left the market and our guide said we were now going to see China Town. In the distance we could see a Chinese gate across the road

On and on we walked…we were told we were walking through China Town…a rather rundown area with very old small shops, deep drainage channels and some pretty vile smells…why a tourist would want to see this is beyond me!

Having now walked over 9000 steps in the heat of the day I was exhausted and beginning to get grumpy…. I instructed our guide to find us a seat somewhere and to go and bring the car to us….my little legs were on strike!! We were stood near a carpark which had a rather nice wall art…

The guide then took us to see some more wall art …

I repeated my request that I had walked too far and he needed to fetch the car. There was a seat in the downstairs of a Chinese restaurant.

The guide asked how we would know he was there and I pointed out the carpark with the wall art was directly opposite and he could drive into it and we would see him then he could drive out again and we could jump in….finally he conceded that this could be done but that it would take him 20 minutes. 55 minutes later he returned, he was very happy with himself as he showed us he had bought a Liverpool Shirt…he said he’d tried several sizes on but gone for the large size…..we both thought this was his mission for the day never mind keeping his clients waiting….

We were driven up to the Citadel which gave excellent views across the capital.

I sat inside in the shade while John went up onto the battlements.

John said the views were even better from the top….

It was time to move on from Port Louis, to our next destination…..were we impressed with Port Louis – no not really it was a fairly typical mixture of old and new which you see in so many small island capitals…we might have enjoyed it more if we hadn’t had to walk so far through areas which tourists really ought not to be shown….or rather smelt….

We set off to the botanical gardens, which are slightly north of where we are staying. Once again we endured being blown away with the windows open while frying under the heat of the sun…..in the end I shut my window as did John….even playing with the air vents didn’t encourage our driver/guide to use the aircon…..He asked if we wanted to go to the botanical gardens next or have a lunch break next. I explained that we don’t eat much for lunch just a snack but somewhere where we could get a nice cool drink and use the bathroom would be appreciated. He said did we want coconut water … “No” I responded “a nice cool drink”. The next thing we know we’re at the Botanical gardens and our escort points us to a van selling coconut drinks ………is this guy just trying to be difficult or is he a complete idiot……now I am not only a tad grumpy but I am also getting cross…..We decline the coconut drink and he takes us to the ticket kiosk and tells us to buy our tickets…..now hang on….we need a cold drink and the toilet and what’s more I’ve already walked too far…and I spy a golf buggy which you can hire to take you round the gardens..bingo….i point this out to him and his reply is that he had already asked us if we wanted to walk around the gardens…..ummm yes he did at 9:30 am before he had trudged us around Port Louis for 3 /4 hours….and he hadn’t mentioned any other way of seeing the gardens – like a buggy ride……He went to enquire about the buggy but there was no driver this afternoon – there had been one in the morning. I then spoke to the lady in the kiosk who spoke aggressively to our guide, who meekly handed her a paper guide to the gardens which was our side of the kiosk… The lady kindly ringed a phone number on the back of the booklet and told me if we wanted to come at another time to phone the number in the morning to book a time for the buggy…its an hours tour of the gardens…John and I had a quick private conflab and decided this was the best bet and we would get Sachin- our lovely taxi driver to bring us next week.

Our guide was obviously quite cross that we weren’t going to walk round and we got back in the car. We had no idea where we going, he drove in silence…well! apart from his radio which was still droning on with Indian style music. A few minutes later we arrived at the Sugar Cane museum…. He said while we went around he would have his lunch. He also wanted the phone number of our booking agent, Nirmala, because he wanted to make certain she knew it wasn’t his fault we hadn’t gone around the gardens. We were pleased when he left us alone…he really was spoiling our day for us….we soon located the toilets and then we found the nice restaurant bar and had a delightful drink…I had ginger, mint and lime and John had passionfruit, pineapple and grenadine……they were so yummy and we were so thirsty we had 2 each. We also messaged Nirmala and told her about our day, all the walking, the heat in the car and that we didn’t want the same driver on Monday when we do our next tour…She replied instantly with an apology and an assurance we would have a different driver.

Feeling refreshed we headed into the museum…wow! Were we shocked at the price of entry…MUR 1200 per person…so about £40 for us both….hey ho! in we went….. It was beautifully laid out and both the historical origin to sugar cane growing and the process by which sugar cane is made into the various end products were all explained by boards, pictures and audio presentation which you can download onto your phone…and loads of exhibits…

If you make these pictures bigger …you to can read the in-depth details of Sugar Cane!!..

I don’t have a high level of concentration in museums so I mostly just read a few bits, watched the video presentations and enjoyed looking at the artefacts and the factory machinery.

Enough is enough and by now we had had enough….we went in search of our reluctant guide..

He started the conversation stating he wanted it made very clear that if we went to the botanical gardens next week it was at our own expense and we’d have to take a taxi…( thank goodness for that!) …”Yes we appreciated that”, was our reply…he seemed to relax a bit then …I think Nirmala had, spoken with him because he shut the windows and put the aircon on….phew cool at last… We headed North up to Cap Malheureux…the northern point.

On the way up we stopped at a Hindu temple – we had asked to stop at one we’d passed in Port Louis but we were ignored…John and I walked around the temple in bare feet so we could observe the beautiful building..

We resumed our journey to Cap Malheureux. This is not just the most northerly point on the island it is also where the British first landed in 1810 to claim the island from the French. A red roof Roman Catholic Church now stands on the spot. It was erected in 1938…. Our guide didn’t tell us this, even though I asked if this was where the British had landed…

This point on the main island stands opposite two other Mauritian islands, the small left island is Ile Plate and the larger right hand island is Coin de Mire.

From here we headed towards Grand Baie. Before arriving we stopped at another Hindu Temple with a splendid 17 meter tall Golden Lord Murugan

We took the coast road back to our hotel. Our driver got out and actually opened my door for me….we gave him the obligatory tip and wished him well.

It was a good tour. We saw a lot of what we wanted to see and it helped us understand the country a bit better. Yes our guide was not our cup of tea….we’re used to being treated with respect and not just another punter who you can churn the same information out to whether they want to know it or not….but to be fair we had seen a lot of interesting places and things.

We had a quick rest before supper. We went to the buffet, had our usual table. A duo were once again murdering some good songs !! With smiles on their faces and hope in their hearts…