Magnificent Mauritius!

Off to Mauritius today, at least in my sketchbook! 

I've been lucky enough to travel to Mauritius twice; a colourful, multi-culti country where respect for each other’s differences is really lived.

Our first trip was in 1995 in February for 3 weeks and it was wonderful, we were fortunate to meet a lovely German/Mauritian couple who of course knew the island well and organised trips out with us to see the sights, one of them was the amazing Ganga Talao temple on a lake in Grand Bassin,  a Hindu place of pilgrimage with amazing architecture and some very naughty monkeys who enjoyed stealing food and terrorising kids. 

I celebrated my 30th birthday on this holiday and unfortunately it turned out a wee bit different than planned. A huge abscess in a tooth put the kibosh on my celebrations and led to a visit to the dentist (really annoying because I went to the dentist in Germany just before the trip). I must admit I was petrified of visiting a local dentist but I was in agony, so Pierre from Mauritius picked me up at the hotel and took me to a local town. My worst fears were realised when we pulled up in front of a ramshackle hut with people sitting on rickety wooden benches outside, so I sat down and waited my turn, my name was called. Shaking in my shoes I walked to the wooden door which opened and I got the surprise of my life; a super modern dental practice, a wonderful friendly dentist who had studied in London and who sorted the problem, he even allowed me one glass of champers with the antibiotics because it was my birthday!  

An absolute highlight of the trip was the invitation to a Hindu wedding, we were taken to a wee village and all of the villagers were dressed in their Sunday best; fabulous colourful saris, lots of gold bangles and stunning long dark hair. I've never felt more like a ''graue Maus'' (a grey mouse) as they say in Germany in among all of these amazingly beautiful and colourful women. You can see the happy couple in my sketch, the bride in her traditional red sari, looking down modestly, and the wedding ritual with fire, water and holy leaves was very interesting and different; for us perhaps a little perturbing. At the end of the ceremony the bride is bundled, crying, with the wedding gifts in a car and is driven to her mother in law’s house where she is treated like a skivvy for the first year of marriage. Our daughter who was 4 at the time, was treated like a princess by the female guests, they all wanted to touch her hair and she sat on their laps happily enjoying the attention, while one gorgeous little boy tenderly gave her his wedding cake. It was very special to share a part of daily life without feeling like a tourist, we were guests on a very special and private day. A peek at a very different culture, unforgettable!