I trot off for my morning yoga class with Bev, still feeling the effects of yesterday’s class slightly, especially in the backs of my thighs – my ham strings are even tighter today.
The class is cut short slightly because the room is needed for another function – or so we are led to believe. What is actually happening is that Bev’s parents arrived to surprise her and Moe needs to get her back to the hotel restaurant where they are staying. He does this on the pretext that he has found somewhere that serves Eggs Benedict (Bev has had a longing for this for months). He is busy filming her with her longed-for egg dish when her mum creeps up behind her. How lovely.
I go shopping with Jutta and Rosemary, once again being very restrained (apart from the dressing gown) although my companions are less so!
When I get back to the boat I discover that the generator guys have turned up and have discovered why the bloody thing isn’t turning on – there’s a broken wire and connector – so they go away to make a new one, saying they will be back tomorrow. The senior guy takes our manual to read overnight so that he can get an idea on what could be the solution to our original problem of the generator producing the wrong voltage.
It’s now so late in the afternoon that Mike and I decide to forego lunch but do spot of exploring on the other side of the main road and into Port Louis itself. Coming out of the underpass is like stepping into another world. From the relative calm and quiet of the tourist marina, we are suddenly in Asia. Cars are everywhere, people are everywhere, the streets are lined with hawkers and peddlers selling wares of all types; fruit, vegetables, toy cars, fake handbags, trainers, DVD copies, the list is endless. And the noise! Most of the people working in the shops in the marina are of Indian descent, but on this side, the true mix is apparent. Chinese, Indian, African and Malay all shout in a mixture of languages, although the predominant one is Creole French from which I can only identify the occasional word.
We pass a large ornate mosque looking incongruous with a modern concrete and glass building behind it and mountains behind that.
We walk through Chinatown but everything seems to be shutting (it is about 5.30 pm by now) so we carry on walking right through town and up the hill. As we climb we start to get a view of the sprawl of St Louis and the different cultures. From our vantage point at Fort Adelaide at the top of the hill (accessed by a steep scramble up a hill of scrub, stones and loose earth, and me wearing flip flops) we can see Chinese pagodas, Hindu temples, mosques, a racecourse and commercial skyscrapers with the port, marina and ocean in the distance. Very diverse indeed.
Getting down from the fort is interesting but we eventually find some steps which appear to lead all the way down without going to the effort of the rather convoluted way we got up there. We start to walk quite quickly as the sun is going down fast and we don’t really have any idea of the area we are in. As we turn into the street, we see a company sign but cannot even begin to imagine what the company does.
A major cleanup is in process as we walk back through the market area. It’s as if it was never there. Having missed out on lunch we decide to get an early take-away and settle on the Indian in the food court. It is incredibly disappointing but fills a hole if nothing else.
Back on the boat, sporting my new dressing gown and clutching my evening cup of tea, I wander out to the cockpit to complain about the noise on Crazy Horse. The sound like they are having far too much fun, so much so that when my cup of tea is finished, I get dressed again and go over to join them. After an hour or so the adults all leave to go and eat and return to their hotels leaving Matt, myself, Eline, Sophia and Charlie on the boat. I try to entice Mike back onto the boat, but having gone to bed already, he is not for moving!
Three hours later, and only slightly the worse for wear I go back to Jeannius and wake Mike up once again. How popular am I?
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