Mark Twain once wrote, “ You gather the idea that Mauritius was made first, and then heaven; and that heaven was copied after Mauritius”. And man was he right! We’ve all seen pictures and movies shot in Mauritius, but actually being there, looking out into the blue waters and beautiful sunrise almost feels unreal it’s that amazing! No picture/video can ever capture the beauty of this island!
The first day I went to the Jummah Mosque in downtown Port Louis. This was a trip which was part of one of my Semester at Sea courses…History of Pakistan: The Islamic Frontier. We headed out at around 9:30am and with my favorite professor, Nillifer Medora, and around thirty other students. It was about a fifteen minute drive to the mosque, as it was located right in the heart of downtown Port Louis (right across the street from China town!)…As we entered the mosque we were greeted so graciously by the President and the Imam at the mosque. This was my first time going to a mosque, and I have to admit I was a little nervous at first on how I would be greeted. Although I was aware that Mauritius is a very diverse and open country in terms of religion, I was debating whether or not I should take off my Ganeshji around my neck and all that jazz…but I decided to just let it go and enter with a open and optimistic attitude…Much to my surprise, everyone at the mosque was extremely accepting and they were all most anxious to talk to me! They spoke to me in Urdu, which is extremely similar to Hindi. They were interested on how I was treated in the U.S. as an Indian and especially after 9/11. They were extremely well versed in U.S. politics and we went into great detail about the similarities between Hindu and Muslim religious practices…
Most of the people at the mosque had grown up in Mauritius, but had roots back in India (in Surat, Gujrat)…some of them had been back to India, but most of their families were settled in Mauritius. Mauritius is actually about 70% Indians and of that around 12% are Muslim and the rest Hindu. The Imam began the program by showing us around the actual mosque and then giving us a brief history on the mosque as well as on the religion of Islam. The presentation was actually extremely interesting, as he focused on clearing up many of the common misconceptions people worldwide often associated with the religion and practices of Islam – I asked him what the biggest misconception, in his opinion, is of Islam, and he said, “unfortunately people have started to regard Islam as a violent religion, when in actuality, it is one which promotes peace and acceptance”. One thing that stood out to me throughout the presentation was when he said NEVER to judge Islam by judging Muslims..you should never evaluate a religion based on the actions of the followers, but rather, you should evaluate it based on the teachings of the actual religion itself…so in this case, by reading and understanding the holy Quran. The explanation behind this is because people are never perfect and they are prone to error; thus, it doesn’t make sense to judge an entire religion based on its followers. He also said that it doesn’t matter if you come to mosque and pray inside the mosque, what matters most is what kind of person you are outside of the mosque..how you act towards others in everyday life. After speaking with my professor on the thoughts of the Imam and the leaders at the mosque, we concluded that this mosque has based many of its beliefs and thoughts on the Sufi and mystical tradition beliefs. It focused a lot on the person and his/her actions rather than strict laws and rules which are sometimes enforced in other more conservative mosques.
This entire experience was a great start to the rest of my trip, as I continuously saw such a great fusion of so many different types of people living in total harmony and peace. Temples, mosques, and churches were all aligned side by side and many locals whom I ran into frequently said that they had never come across any discrimination based on their faith or religion. Actually, the Imam at the mosque mentioned to us that he had been called by one of his good Hindu friends to inaugurate the opening of a temple! Mauritius should be a model for the world and society as a whole…Although they became to be a republic only in 1992, the government has done an excellent job in stabilizing the country and making it a peaceful and enjoyable country to live in. It has only about 1.2 million people, but it is SO diverse, it’s unbelievable! People can usually speak in about 4-5 different languages minimum…including: Creole (their local language which is like a broken French), Bhojpuri, English, Hindi, Mandarin, and many others…After the lecture, we had the opportunity to interact with local students at the mosque and eat biryani with them..although it was no Hyderabadi Biryani, I think people really enjoyed it. Because I was vegetarian, I thought I would probably go hungry the entire day, but the people were incredibly kind and right away brought up hot daal and rice with mango achaar! It was perfect and definitely hit the spot! They even brought out amazing halwa for dessert..that definitely was an added bonus!
After the visit to the mosque, I took a taxi along with some other friends to Flick and Flack, which is about an hour North of Port Louis..as we were trying to bargain the price of the taxi, our driver kept swearing in Hindi, and not realizing that I understand almost every word coming out of his mouth, he kept talking and talking under his breath..finally, when we agreed on the price, he asked me in English, “did you understand what I was saying?” I said yes, and he said, yeah I was just saying how great of customers you guys are…I rolled my eyes and said oh yeah, thank you so much! He was quite a character and kept us entertained the whole ride…
I met up with a few of my good friends, including Chi Chi and Jenny, at the Hilton in Flick and Flack! This was basically like a resort and was absolutely gorgeousssssssssss! We sat down next to the beach and the bartenders kept bringing us drinks and smoothies nonstop (complementary too!)
Although Chi-Chi and I weren’t exactly staying at the Hilton..we decided to make the most of the trip to Flick and Flack so we took advantage of all the amenities that the Hilton offered its customers, since our friends had a room there for that evening! We went kayaking, paddleboating, and jetskiing in the Indian ocean for the afternoon!
It was sooo much fun and the view was absolutely breathtaking…I promise, I am taking all my friends and family back to Mauritius with my first paycheck! You could literally see through the waters, they were so clear. The coral was absolutely stunning – so colorful and unique looking!
We saw the sunset on the beach while stretched out in hammocks! We were a little hungry at the point but only had about 20 minutes before we had to head on over to Grand Bay..so we casually made our way to the buffet dinner which was being provided for all of the Hilton guests. Although we weren’t “technically” Hilton guests, they staff practically FORCED us to sit down and eat comfortably until we couldn’t eat any more! We walked out of that Hilton like we owned the place, and after having some of the best desserts and tortes and chocolate mousse cake I’ve ever had in my LIFE, Baba and his friend were there waiting to take us to Grand Bay!
Baba is actually the brother of my mom’s collegauge- he owns his own tour company called “Moonlight Tours”, so he was an incredibly helpful resource, as he gave us a tour of Flick and Flack, Port Louis, and finally Grand Bay. He arranged a villa for the five of us friends in Grand Bay…the villa was basically a beach side home surrounded with palm trees and scenic beauty! It was absolutely amazing…the man who owned the place was Indian and talked with me for a long time about my Semester at Sea trip as well as how he ended up in Mauriitus! He could obviously sense that I missed my mom a lot, and so he brought over a bunch of old phone cards from past customers, which all had 5-10 minutes left on them! Because I couldn’t find a place to purchase phone cards at this late of on hour, this was absolutely perfect…got to call home from the villa and talk to everyone back home!
Oh - and how could I forget, I had a special, SPECIAL added bonus to my trip! Salil Uncle, my mom's friend from school, came to visit me in Mauritius! I was supposed to meet him in Port Louis for dinner, but obviously overbooked my entire day, and unfortunately didn't make it back to Port Louis in time! I didn't think I would have the opportunity to meet Uncle, but I am SO grateful, he took a cab from Port Louis to Grand Bay at 10pm to come visit my friends and I! It was so nice to see Uncle, and if you are reading this Uncle, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I promise I will make up this confusion to you when you come visit the states! Life is pretty crazy when you think about it...Uncle is from Delhi, India and I'm from Northville, MI --- and we met up in Grand Bay, Mauritius! Wow!
So, after about 3 hours of sleep, we were up again for another exciting and fun-filled day! This was probably one of the best days of my life! We met up with about 30 other semester at sea students for a catamaran ride from Grand Bay to Port Louis...
For those of you who don't know what a catamaran is (because I sure didn't!), it is basically a huge boat that can fit around 40 people..
We had breakfast while sailing for two hours and then stopped in a nice place to dive off and snorkel! While we were snorkeling, the captains were BBQ-ing a fresh lunch for us!
Snorkeling was amazing -- Although I have been snorkeling in Hawaii with my family, I don't think I really remembered how amazing the feeling was to be so close to coral, fish, and all these beautiful living creatures!
The entire day was full of sunshine, music, dancing, eating, and just enjoying the scenery and beauty we were surrounded by! After about four hours we sailed past our home and the catamaran dropped us off right at our door!
Home Sweet Home!
I loved Mauritius, and I truly can't wait to go back!!!
Neha. it was a pleasure to meet you - worth all the effort. Where is the picture?
ReplyDeleteHope you are continuing to enjoy your trip.
Cheers,
Salil
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ReplyDeleteVery nice. I would love to visit it someday !
ReplyDelete