After a tearful farewell at the airport with the whole family, Ash and I
bought some booze at the duty free, 2 bottles of wine and one bottle of spirits
is what is allowed (for those of you that are coming to visit). With 100% excise tax on imported booze, a
bottle of Nederburg will cost you R150 plus. On the plane we had a lovely hot
lunch plus a couple of bottles of wine while watching “The Time Traveller’s
Wife”. A blast of hot air is what
greeted us at the airport in Mauritius as well as friendly passport control
officers and unfriendly customs agents! Viki the taxi driver was waiting to
meet us as we exited the airport and took us in 2 cars (7 large bags and 4
smaller bags) to our new home in Pereybere, about 1hour 15mins from the airport.
We dropped off our bags and popped out with Viki to get a couple of take-away
pizzas for dinner, while waiting for our order we walked to the Pereybere
beach. It was crowded with a variety of people soaking up the last few sunny
moments of the day. Back to the house to unpack the essentials and work out
what’s what in the house. The sweating that occurs while moving around is
incredible so Ash and I put on our cozzies and headed to the pool, it was here
that we met the neighbours, a Jockey named Mark and his Mauritian wife, Kareena.
They, after knowing us for 30seconds, offered us their car for Sunday morning
to go to the shops and get a few things for the house. Along with this generous
gesture they invited us to join them for dinner at the club house where they
were celebrating her father’s birthday; we respectfully declined as we had our
pizza warming in the oven. A quick dip in the pool and back for some pizza and
a glass of wine, we were not long out of bed that night as it was a physically
and emotionally draining one for us.
The House
Beautiful double story house in a complex with 15 other houses, 3
bedrooms with aircons and they are all upstairs. The complex is on a bit of a
secluded tropical land, not many houses around and no tarred roads lead to the
complex. We have 3 bathrooms all with showers, no baths, the 2nd and
3rd bathrooms have double basins but the main bathroom does not :/
it does however have our closet in the bathroom. The water is pressure is not great
and we have a solar geyser. One of the most eye-opening things is that they
have roller doors outside the sliding doors downstairs and outside the main
bedroom as well as in front of the carport. Ash and I joke about initiating
lock down in the evenings when going to bed. You would probably be ok with
having them open while you are in the house; they are more for when you are out
as petty crime is rife. The neighbours we have become friendly with said that
they have been hit twice in 6months, hence the burglar bars, roller doors and
alarm system. We have a TV with a box but it is all in French except BBC World
News and the one Jazz channel plays English music. Even the English shows have
French voice over; we watched a bit of Friends and Two and Half men but not
understanding anything as yet, hopefully soon. We have a washing machine which I
am yet to figure out and use, an ironing board which the maid will have to
discover and fridge, oven and gas stove. We are about a 3minute drive from the
beach and will experiment once we have a car, we also plan to go for an evening
run and sus out our area.
The Weather
It is hot and you cannot help but sweat! It has rained on and off since
we have been here, it is sporadic and comes without warning, no thunderstorms
as yet but apparently they do occur. There are blue skies and the wind blows
often. You either have to get used to sweating, or maybe acclimatise, or have
the aircon on. At night we have the aircon on and sleep peacefully. Mosquitoes
are present and there are mozzie pad machines in most of the rooms. There are
these tiny little ants that appear around food and dirt, so nothing can be left
uncleaned and I am getting used to washing dishes! I did see a big spider
yesterday but Kareena assures me they don’t have any dangerous bugs and slugs.
Our Sunday
Ash and I had a little lie in and had left-over pizza for breakfast. We
then headed over to Mark and Kareena for some coffee, and directions to the
local shops. They very kindly lent us their double cab bakkie and we went off
to Super U, it is like a Checkers Hyper.
They had everything we needed for our first trip, wine glasses,
household cleaning products and some groceries. The items that are not fresh
are not too badly priced especially the stuff from India and China. The fresh
fruit, veg and meat are not appealing to look at and are very expensive, around
R300/kg for fillet, 8 pork sausages for R80. Apparently even the seafood is
imported so still need to find the best places and best prices. They do have
Food Lovers Markets, so will be trying them out once we have a car. The shops
closed at 13:30 so they kicked us out, we then headed home for a braai with the
neighbours at the club house. They spoilt us with fillet, chicken, lamb
sausages, lobster tails, green, potato and fruit salad, which all came out in
stages while we drank Phoenix beer and Green Island rum, I made into a
cocktail, which was popular with everyone. Ash and I had to keep pinching
ourselves saying that this isn’t real and how lucky we were to find neighbours
willing to help us so much.
Monday, Real Mauritian life begins
Ash is up at 7am and off to work at 8am. Leaving the cool cocoon of our
bedroom I go downstairs to face my day. We were given a few crockery and
cutlery items for this kitchen which I want to wash along with the new things
we had purchased, dripping with sweat this takes me quite some time. I do all
my unpacking and hanging up of my clothes all while listening to BBC News in
the background, didn’t realise how much they repeated during the course of the
day. There was a lot of stuff to unpack and find new places for but we have
plenty of space so it is easy and fun at this point. Late afternoon shower and
final sorting before Ash gets home at 4:30ish. Ash had fun setting off the
alarm which screeched in our ears for about 20mins before Kareena came round
and helped us sort it out. The Alarm Company guys came round today and showed
me the ropes for the next time. It was then time for a glass of wine and
catch-up our days. We put the oven on and made some frozen chicken cordon
bleus, that didn’t look like chicken, oven chips and frozen beans and carrots.
10 minutes of French TV and off to bed for an early night and some reading in
bed.
Tuesday, Getting in Contact
Ash left for work later with the taxi driver coming to fetch him at 9am,
so we had breakfast together then off he went with his homemade sandwiches I
made him the night before. I then did the washing up, some sorting of a few
items I had left from yesterday and started this email. Kareena came to fetch
me in the afternoon and took me to the local “Orange” (British Cellular Service
Provider) store where with her help I got Ash and I sim cards on their pre-pay
service which includes Blackberry Internet Services for data. Kareena had
another appointment to get to so she dropped me at the Super U and I bought a
few more household items and some groceries for dinner, this time I didn’t even
try convert I just bought what looked edible. We decided a hot dinner was too
much to handle in the evenings as you literally sweat into it so I made a cold
pasta salad and some tempura spring rolls I found at Super U. Being back in
contact was weird after 4days without so Ash and I spent the rest of the
evening catching up on our phone with friends. Also had a phone call from Yanks
as well as finding out about our first visitors, Sasch and Ryan are coming to
Mauritius for poker in 2weeks and will be landing on my birthday! Yay!
No comments:
Post a Comment