summer break

i have not been posting for pretty long

tomorrow my summer break (in mauritius summer break is from november or december to january) will come to an end

when i look back on these days i see a lot of memories, some good and some not as good as i wish they would be

i have been going to ile-aux-cerfs, volonteering for a charity fair, hiking to mount le Pouce, going out with my germans friends, felt lonely and helpless but also worked in a diving centre.

all in all i think that i was able to learn to love this island much more

i have been wandering a lot around the island and was able to admire the beauty that it can give to everyone who can see the bright sight of Mauritius

on new years-eve i still did´t know what to do. and i felt like not doing anything. then Phil and the others invited me to the north. we both also discussed about him needing someone to help him in the diving centre that he was actually managing in the north. i did accept for several reasons

-help a good friend of mine

-have something to do so as to escape suicide

-remind myself how i hate working and that i should get back to studying seriously again

-get a few more bucks in my pocket

Perhaps the job started that same evening when he received a call and had to get the centreäs boat on the jetty to save it from fireworks. i went to help him. funny thing we had to swim to the boat which was some metres from the jettz, and as the sun was already down, i can say i had a night swim! after much trouble we got the boat safely back.

I then celebrated new year with Philipp, Nina, Laryssa and Andreas

had pizza for diner, took our stuff to the beach, drank (a lot) and watched people starting fireworks five minutes before midnight and at midnight we had our fireworks too. then Andy and I stayed on the beach for a some conversation while drinking

the next morning went back home.

i started working the diving centre right the day after. basically there was only Philipp, Bernard the boat captain who i like to call TiBen and me. the diving centre is affiliated to one found in Belle-Mare and sometimes some other instructors and divers came from there.

the spot is definitely awesome. some who have been working in hotels around the island mention that it is the most beautiful scenery you can have from hotel. i agree quite much as it was such a beautifull lagoon where you could islands such as Coin de Mire, Round island, Flat island, Ilot Gabriel, Ile-aux-Serpents.

it took me some days to get used to the very hot climate and the burning sun which definitely got me have much more color now! and also the people who were for most of them crazy. i here refer to the guys from the boat team who was just next to the diving centre. all were very special but yet so nice and funny!

most of the evenings Phil and I used to call the day by having a nice Cuba Libre! just to chill out as it was really necessary after such hectic days at the diving centre. the job was really cool but so hectic from time.

at first my plan was to find a place in the north to stay during the period i intented to work there. but i was unable to find a room for me for everywhere was booked. so i had to do the travel from Beau-bassin to Anse-la-raie almost everyday and evening. i had to take at least 3 bus and a car lift for each way! but this allowed me to discover the north which is really beautfull. i found it pretty strucking the outraged number of palm and coconut trees that you can find on this island! but i never would be able to do all this 6 hours round trip without my buddy-ipod!

sometimes when i had free time i would do watersports which was really cool. i did tubing, and waterskiing which was hard for me for i couldnt keep my arms stretched for long, accident issue. i didnt dare trying wakeboarding, discboarding, barefoot and so on.

i was also able to try fishing, to pilot a boat, make some knots, and get to know and endless amount of things about diving.

on the 8th of January we celebrated Phils 25th Birthday at Trou-aux-Biches with Nina and Jörg and Tanja who prepared such a wonderfull diner!

although that some days were pretty hard for me i really enjoyed my summer holidays and i´m pleased to share some pictures.

my computer was dead because of some viruses which blocked the processor completely. thanks to Jörg who spent the whole of yesterday´s evening fixing it i am now slowly able to use the computer again.

i guess this is the reason why i am still awake and blogging at 2,30 am.

i just hope that i will be able to be back on track soon. i have been working on it though, been making my papers, starting some savings, i also took the books for uni that i have to read.. but didn´t start yet...

Incredible Week-end; day 3

sAtUrDaY;
Flacq; 11am
as i promised Ronnie that I would be helping him to set up the Haunted House in a Charity Fair, we set pretty early to this village in the eastern part of Mauritius, despite of the sunburn that i had to face after the Ile Aux Cerfs trip.
Actually Flacq is one of those weird places in Mauritius. Yet much more busy and full of activity compared to some other towns in Mauritius (i here refer to places like Vacoas and even Beau-Bassin, my hometown)
we reached the state secondary school where we had to set the room
it was quite small though and it seems to me that the organizers lacked some coordination and experience.
at about two, i went to the supermarket to grab something to eat. It was a nice feeling to be walking in some place i don't know at all, the people looked different. it seemed like it's been only one or two generation since they came from India. There was two or three shopping malls, a lot of shops on the streets, and a striking amount of hawkers. I saw a lot of taxi working on a 'taxi-brousse' (shared-taxi) system. i guess it's also that crowded due to the Christmas shopping frenesia which seems to have reached the whole of the mauritian population, regardless of community and religion. The buses which are most of the time private operators are never in hurry to start and drive pretty slowly to try to catch each and every passengers and when the bus reaches a road where there'll be no one waiting, it seems like the driver has to catch the last train for survival, like never slowing down before humps, barely downshifting before curves. the only town linked to Flacq via bus are Rose-Hill and Curepipe i guess; the other bus lines connect to some other villages in the surroundings, so do the shared-taxis. Flacq is that place which wants to somehow give the image of a developing region; many shopping centers, brands shop, computerized lockers in supermarket, crowded streets but still conserving this rural spirit, this human closeness. Flacq is also this place where everyone looks into your bag after you've been shopping and particularly when they notice you've got some beers in your bag give you that eerie who-are-you-stare.
The day was somehow tiring for we did much for the preparation but i really enjoyed it for it got me to have a nice time with two of my best-friends from high-school. I gotta say we had much fun making fun of everyone and everything; just like we used to do in high-school where we never went to class. Memories.
We had to cab bringing us home. I had a cool nice evening; shower, then i walked into the town centre for it's somehow lively these days. even the supermarket is opened till 22:00
i had diner again at the Lebanese restaurant. then some drinks while watching still TV shows.

Incredible Week-end; day 2

fRiDaY;
my friend Andreas invited me for this trip to Ile aux Cerfs
this was the first time for me that i visit an outer island
this was kind of an exciting experience for me
we started early; 7:30 after a nice quick break-fast we had to meet the transfer vehicle in a front of a restaurant in flic-en-flac
we waited for long because not only were we ahead of schedule but the minibus was late
after pretty much of a long trip which nearly worn me out (didn't have much sleep the previous night)
we reached the beach of Trou-d'Eau-Douce (picture) which i still can recall since we passed there during the 100Km bike race with TEAM AWESOME.
It is a really nice beach... typical view.. with many boats. It is a central place for departures to the island. After the nice young lady briefed us about the trip we set up to the speed boat who would be taking us to the island. Again that'd be a first experience for me


















The speedboat was nice...we had a 200HP Suzuki motor so as you can see the trail on the picture it was really amazing!
We finally arrived on the island... and what do I see? this
A beach full of tourists, applying sunscreen, sunbathing, swimming in some specially reserved area with protection, restaurants, waiters, massages...
moreover most of them were old.. and enjoying this crap...
we were both somehow stunned about what we saw.
and there's a huge golf track
so that's Ile aux Cerfs?



we moved to some other place, as far as possible as this junk of consumerism and superiority tourism. we laid down under some filao trees and had a swim... the water was ok... but there was a lot of dead seagrass because of the incredible amount of speedboat traffic there and as the water is not deep enough and also the skipper who don't seem to give a damn, the underwater life is pretty much damaged. But the government needs to feed itself upon these tourists... so; to hell the environment.
after some swim i tried to see what does this island have to give me... there was nothing much to see while snorkelling... sometimes i would be lucky to some algae and some fished, star fish, and other thingies...
but there was the hell of a lot of sea urchins... sometimes so huge and so purple...
after that and some well deserved rest, we proceeded to see a waterfall which was at the other end of the island...
again so touristic...boat goes there, at the mouth of Grand River South East... see the waterfall, take pictures, sometimes videos, try touching the water... then our boat leaves... and then comes another one... and there are three more others waiting!
then again the boat took us to another point of the island where we were to have a BBQ lunch..
on arriving there.. it was the sum of all touristic sight-seeing... Sega dancing...
sega is the so-called local folklore here... almost everywhere they wanna sell some kinda image of Mauritius, there are sega dancers...
so we both sat at this table with the Reunion family who were talking shit about us.. but who didn't know that i speak and study French as major... they were always passing comments about what we would be doing... and they were just horror-struck when they realized that i speak french...
anyways back to the sega thing... the musicians could have been worst and they were really great to the point that they tossed a Redemption Song from Bob Marley just for me!!
again the tourists went taking pictures again with the sega dancers and the island around.
we took the boat back to Trou-d'Eau-Douce and set back home.
Bottom-line; cool nice experience with Andreas but way too touristic... they made a mess out of the nice long sandy beautiful beaches of this island.
In the evening i had diner with Phil, Nina and Laryssa. We intended to go to this nice restaurant in Quatre-Bornes but they were full. We had no other choice than to hit the nearby café, the food was OK but such in a small quantity. Then we picked up Tania and hit some pubs. First we went to Le Suffren, this hotel in the Port-Louis harbour, pretty posh, with expensive and crappy cocktails. We didn't stay long there because the atmosphere was somehow boring and Laryssa was yawning a lot. Then we took this water-taxi that took us to the Caudan Waterfront, there was this sports pub which was kind of OK, with of course better cocktails, a bit less than Le Suffren.
We met some crew from LTU, had some nice drinks and chat before finally hitting the road to home by 3 am. Unfortunately no pictures of this evening.