Places:Mauritius Activities: Beaches, Birdwatching View Photos

Miraculous Mauritius

God created Mauritius and then the Heaven

Mark Twain

Mauritius is the Dodo land, a paradise, and a shopping vacation. The country includes Rodriguez, an island 560 Km. to its northeast and other small scattered islands, such as Agalega, St. Brandon etc. Mauritius is 855 Km. off the cost of Madagascar, Africa being the nearest country. The fame of Mauritius lies in its spectacular beauty. It is an amazing melting pot of cultures and traditions. Its 1.2 million people have ethnic division: 68% Indo-Mauritian, 27% Creole, 3% Sino-Mauritian and 2% Franco- Mauritian. They are Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Chinese, and Creoles. Almost all speak English, French and Creole The country is saved from extreme temperatures, it is summer from November to April with temperature around 28 degrees C. and winter from May to October with temperature around 20 degrees C. About 650,000 tourists visit the island every year, and a growth of 10 % is expected currently.

Apart from the natural beauty, the visitors are impressed mostly by the economic and social life of the people of Mauritius. They are entitled to free education up to the school final tenth standard; they get free medical facilities for any thing, for any amount, including the heart transplant operation. As soon as they reach the age 60 years, all of them get the additional senior citizen pension of Rs. 1,500 per month, without any contribution to this fund. This is in addition to their normal pension and other retirement benefits as per their service contract. In short, they are looked after from the cradle (school) to the grave (senior citizen pension) Naturally, there are no beggars. They all follow the traffic rules and at road crossing, the motorist will stop allowing the pedestrian the right of way. The car or bus journey in any part of the island is a visual delight, with views of sugar cane fields, numerous beaches, trees and bushes full of flowers, hills, mountains, rivers and even water falls. Their bus service is most efficient, convenient and covers all parts of the island at the most economical cost. However the taxies are extremely costly, the minimum charge for a kilometre is Rs. 50. I understand that tourists can always negotiate with the driver to have a better deal. In any case, compared to European standards their normal charges are very reasonable. There are many hotels with extremely reasonable charges, giving such a variety for breakfast that you will never have to take lunch. People speak English, French, and Creole and even when they talk with you in English, amongst themselves they always talk in French or Creole. Their newspapers are in French, and only on Sundays you can see a page in English. Most of the meetings in companies are conducted in French, but the minutes are written in English. When you go to a duty free shop at the airport and buy an article for $ 98,you will get back the difference of $2 in equivalent French Francs and not in US $. Thus there are three main languages and currencies. A few Mauritian can also speak a bit of Hindi, picked up from Hindi films. The role of Hindi Films, which are quite popular here, as the one unifier of the Indian Diaspora worldwide is evident here.

The whple island celebrate"Durga Puja" at over 150 temples."Divali", Hindu New-year, is also celebrated as one of Mauritius national holidays, when mass is also said in Catholic churches. The new fourth / fifth generation of Indian decendents have krpt intect the values they have inherited through preservation of traditions, such as joint family system. There is also an amazing blend of French culture even though they keep their tradition of eating on banana leaf and fasting on" Govinda" and "Mahashivrati" ( Hindu festivals)

Mauritians, with their roots in three continents, celebrate a variety of festivals. Maha Shivaratree in honour of Lord Shiva is celebrated for three days with great pomp, as Hindus of the island are in majority. Following an all night vigil, devotees, clad in white, carry the Kan-war wooden arches covered with flowers, walk in procession from all directions of the island to its centre where there is Grand Basin Lake. The scene at the lake is reminiscent of the great rituals on the banks of the Holy Ganges in India. Processions after processions come to the lake two days prior to Shivaratree to collect water of the lake and the next day they go back walking to their homes. On Shivaratree day they use the water for pooja in temples all round the island.

No island on earth offers such a variety of beautiful beaches and lagoons. The sea around Mauritius is a beautiful shade of green, which is a welcome change from the usual the muddy grey sea. On the west coast are the beaches of Tama Tamarin (surfers paradise), Flick en Flak (fine lagoons), and Baie de Tombeau among others. The northern coastline has Pointe aux Piments (under water scenery), Grand Baie (yachting, diving, fishing & water skiing) and Pereybere (bathing beauties). Along the east coast are snow-white beaches like Roches Noires, Belle Mare, and Blue Bay (deep clean bathing). Pamplemousses is the world famous botanical garden, founded over 200 years ago, in the north. Its 60 acres boasts of 500 species of plants with Victoria Regia (giant water lilies) and spice garden. Another shoe piece is the Talipot palm that flowers after 60 years, and then dies. There are many saplings planted by world famous visitors, which have now blossomed into strapping trees. Some of the familiar names include Francois Mitterrand, princess Anne, Nelson Mandela, Jiang Zemin, Rajeev Gandhi, and Atal Behari Vajpayee (once as foreign minister in 1970s and recently as Prime Minister of India) In the west, there is 25 acres Casela Bird Park with 2,500 birds of 140 species. The Queens here are the Mauritian Pink Pigeons, one of the rarest birds in the world. In the south there are Chamarel Coloured Earths, dunes of volcanic ash with orderly patterns of seven colours.

Port Louis, the capital, boasts of the historic Natural History Museum, which houses the famous dodo. The Dutch Settlers, who arrived in 1598 and named the island Mauritius after Prince Maurice of Nassu, ate up the dodos down to the very last. The French took over the island from the Dutch in 1710 and renamed the island as Isle de France. They rebuilt Port Louis and opened the first sugar mill. In 1810 the British took over the island and renamed it Mauritius. It finally became independent on 12th March 1968. It became a Republic on 12th March 1992. Based on the Westminster model, the political power vests in the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

In the southeast there is Mahebourg having the Navel Museum. This site was the port where the Dutch settlers disembarked, the first capital harbour of the island. This was the theatre of the sole victory in 1810 of the Napoleonic fleet over the Britishan event commemorated by engraving in the Arc-de-Trompe in Paris. There is a unique site Domaine Les Pailles (near Port Louis), where Mauritius can be observed as it used to be in the good old days. Here you can observe the traditional way of making sugar from freshly crushed sugar canes and also see the rum being distilled from sugar cane syrup. You can further tour the nature reserve, on horse back or in a land rover.

Their music for the Sega, the local speciality, is derived from the African music of the old slave days, with added Creole lyrics, which evolved during those days as some sort of lingua franca between slaves and masters. Let us end this description of the only Paradise on earth by an old folk Sega:

Oh, my dear friend,

I am inviting you to this island in the sun,

the island of sugar canes.

Mauritius welcomes you,

Mauritius welcomes you.

Additional Notes

Safe & Miraculous Island.

Never to be missed