Mascarene Ridge -- Reunion, Mauritius and Seychelles
Since leaving Africa two weeks ago, we’ve taken a meandering course through the Indian Ocean, heading up to India. It is late summer in this part of the world – still very very hot. It’s hard to believe we were shivering in our parkas little more than a month ago. Three of the island nations we visited – Reunion, Mauritius, and the Seychelles, are on something called the Mascarene ridge, a piece of the earth’s plates that has been forced upwards. They’re all volcanic islands, and none of them had inhabitants until reached by Portuguese and Arab explorers. They were settled primarily by the French, with slaves imported from Africa; then the British came and imported Indian indentured servants. The result is a really interesting Creole culture – a blend of all the influences. All three have drop-dead gorgeous beaches, but our favorite was Mauritius – much livelier, and much less expensive than the others.
Headed out to the main city, Port Louis. Reminds us of Singapore -- mixture of cultures, a little something different on every corner, hot and humid. Not nearly as antiseptic as Singapore, which is a good thing. Nasty traffic which is... less so.
Reunion
Our first port was Reunion, a French protectorate. It has a spectacular set of volcano craters, including one that is (quietly) erupting. It’s said to currently be the most active volcano in the world. We just looked around the capital St Denis. Not much to write home about. French protectorates tend to be extremely expensive (such as Tahiti) because of the way they are administered. We thought about joining the huddled masses on tours, but for each characteristic of this new (to us) land, we found ourselves saying “Oh, that’s a lot like Tahiti” or “Oh, remember that volcano in Costa Rica?”. We’re not completely jaded on travel, we’ve only been to about 1/3rd of the world’s countries, but some times we’d just prefer to “hang out”, and this was one of them.
Mauritius
Mauritius was our favorite of the three, as well as being the largest. It’s an independent nation and a beach-holiday destination for people from Europe. We spent our time wandering around the capital, Port Louis, in a steady rain. Despite the damp, we were quite taken by the mix of Indian, Chinese, and Creole culture. It seems to be very well run, and has a lot going for it. This is a place we’d like to come back to. It has a lot of the qualities of Singapore, yet has not undergone the “sterilization” that Singapore has, gutting old buildings and replacing them with Disneyland-like versions of themselves. Mauritius has a real vitality to it. Mauritius is most famous for being the home of the world’s stupidest bird, the dodo, which went extinct shortly after the island was discovered, in the 1600s. They didn’t taste that good, but they were the largest meat source on the island, and they tended to run towards humans because they were curious. Their Latin name is, appropriately, “ineptus”. They are thought to be descended from the pigeon family.
Seychelles
We got to spend an extra day in the Seychelles, because of our skipped Madagascar stop. Seychelles are yet another Creole-based Mascarene ridge volcanic island group. Our first stop, Praslin Island, is famous for being the home of the world’s largest nut, the Coco de Mer (a type of coconut tree). It grows naturally only on Praslin and one other island in the Seychelles. Besides being both huge and rock-heavy, the trees are in male and female varieties, and it is hard not to see human anatomical cues between the boys and the girls. Perhaps we’ll make you blush with a pair of photos. Each Coco de Mer nut must have a government license to leave the country. They sell for about $250 for a smaller, poorly shaped one, to $500 or more for a prime specimen. (We chose not to buy one). Our second day was on the largest island, Mahe. Instead of exploring the island, we spent the day on a catamaran trip around nearby islands, snorkeling and visiting the National Marine Park. While the beach was beautiful, the coral was beat-up (allegedly from coral bleaching from the last El Nino) and there weren’t that many fish. But it was wonderful to spend the day on the water. We both got rather sunburned and it was not for a lack of care on our parts – the sun is intense (we’re about 4 degrees south of the equator) and the sky largely cloudless. We visited what turned out to be our favorite island on the third day, La Digue. It’s only a few kilometers wide, and most people get around by bike or ox cart. Very sleepy, laid-back and not overbuilt with hotels. Unfortunately, we’d had so much sun the previous two days that we had to give La Digue short shrift. You can find more photos from this section of our trip on Flickr. We can’t upload them from the ship because the Internet connection is too slow, so we update whenever we can find a decent Internet café on the little dots in the Indian Ocean that we are visiting.
Male, Maldives
We last updated you around Male' Maldives, where we spent a blissfully short time in the capital city, collecting sundries for our onward journey at the local "supermarket". Aside from finding tonic water to accompany our gin, snapping some photos around the fish and vegetable markets, we can say little more about the stop except that it was efficient. The Maldives are fabulous... its capital isn't.
A Brief Passage To India
Onward to Goa, India, where we've never been before.We had more than passing interest about Goa with its hippy heritage, Portuguese influences and promises of beautiful beaches and spicy cuisine. Goa is the name of the state. Alas, our port of call was a little zit of a town called Vasco da Gama, with no beaches in sight. We escorted a ship's tour (so we go free) around Old Goa and the capital city of Panjin. Old Goa was nothing more than a couple of 450 year-old Portuguese churches -- nice enough, but hardly worth the hour's drive it took to get there. The capital city Panjin was undistinguished, but we did get a chance to go to the local fruit & flower market, which as always was colorful and fun. Our fellow passengers who ventured out by themselves saw more of what makes Goa special. We'd go back to Goa, particularly if it was a bit cooler -- but it wouldn't make the top of our list.
Our next stop was Mumbai, where we had three full days. The Big City. Bollywood. Taj Hotel terrorist site. "Slumdog" on the television and in the ship's theatre (thanks to Scott who brought the movie on board and have lent it to the ship). We were docked right in the heart of the city, about a mile down from the Taj Hotel & Gate of India. This downtown area is full of grand old British Victorian buildings that are quite stunning, presiding over the typical chaos and dirt of Indian city life.
On our first day, we escorted a tour out to Elephanta Island, an hour's boat ride to a little island that is home to a very large man-made cave carved with a series of Hindu gods. Quite interesting, but the Portuguese had chopped the arms and legs off many of these "idolatrous" statues in the early days, so they were quite disfigured. It was a steep 300 step climb to the caves, made all the more difficult by the hordes of vendors assaulting you all the way up, and the very hot, very humid weather. For those willing to act colonial, there was an option to be carried up in a sedan chair - a straight-back chair attached to two long pieces of wood, carried by four strong men, which would whisk you quickly to the top with no exertion on your behalf. All for about $8. The boat to Elephanta Island departed from the Gateway of India, the big plaza right next to the Taj Hotel. If you watched any of the TV coverage, this is where all the cameramen were set up to covering the attack as it unfolded. The Taj is huge and stunning. There were very few signs of the attack visible from the outside - some scaffolding around some of the rooms on the upper floors was all. But it was all barricading off, and remains closed. The locals are still quite traumatized by it, not unlike we were after 9/11. They call it 26/11, since it happened on the 26th of November.
Our second day in Mumbai was spent shopping. Our first stop was at the Leopold Cafe, one of the terrorist shooting sites. The cafe was open & busy - couldn't really tell that anything had happened. There were a few boarded-up window panes, but those as likely as not were already broken before the attack.
First stop was an Indian pharmacy, right next to the Cafe. As in many developing countries, prescription drugs are available over-the-counter and at much lower prices than back home. So we stocked up on everything we'd been running low on. Next, we headed off to the big locals market, Javeri & environs. Finally, back in the real India at its loudest, most crowded, and most chaotic. Block after block of tiny shops crammed into every spare location, sprawling out onto the sidewalks and into the streets. We strolled around for an hour getting our fix of Indian life until the ever-blaring horns and 95 degree heat made us flee back to the tranquility of our ship. We feel a little spoiled retreating to our "first world bubble" so often -- unlike our previous trips where we jumped right into the local culture & stayed there. But, we have to admit, that first blast of A/C on boarding the ship and the awaiting hot shower were very welcome indeed.
We escorted a Mumbai city tour on the third day, which was very interesting. Our favorite stop was Dhobi Ghat, where washerman hand-wash (more like hand-beat) clothes for a living, each with his own little washing stall. Thousands of them, one right after the other. We stopped at a Jain Temple, where adherents are so respectful of life that they wear mask and sweep the floor in front of them as they walk, lest they accidentally inhale or step on an insect. A stop to visit the room Gandhi lived in while he was in Mumbai - sparsely furnished.
We liked Mumbai a lot: modern, ancient, diverse. It's a little of the best and worst India has to offer. We'd spend a week or two here, figuring it out and investigating some of its many nooks and crannies. But for those looking for the "real India", this perhaps is not it; get thee to Porbandar.
Porbandar, our next and final India stop, was a thoroughly un-notable place except for being the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. Doesn't see many cruise ships- maybe one a year. The docks are known for their overwhelming fish stench, that being the towns major industry. But the locals apparently had had the dock thoroughly cleaned, with no hint of the "perfume of decomposing fish" we were warned to expect. Instead, we had a very loud band and a literal red carpet. They provided entertainment on the dock throughout the day, offered quality tourist information about the state (Gujarat). There were a large number of local gawkers who were amazed at the site of our big white ship.
The town is some 18km from the dock, and it was a very hot afternoon -- so we decided to give the town a miss, and spend the day catching up on various Internet and other chores. Many passengers did, however, decide to visit and loved it - this was their chance to see "the real India" - something we have seen many times before albeit not in this particular spot.
That evening we left India and headed to the mysterious Middle East with our first stop in the enticing city of Muscat, Oman. More to follow, inshallah, as they frequently say in these parts -- "If God is willing".
Photos, when we succeed at uploading them -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott-kathy/
Next: Awesome Oman
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