We were well prepared for this tiny island of Mauritius. Days beforehand, all aboard filled in an exptensive questionnaire for the local authorities - a first in terms of extra requirements so far on this journey.
We docked in good time, to subject ourself to a personal interview with the local authorities. No one was allowed off the ship until all of us paraded through one entry of the theatre, where we received our passport from the ships administration (they keep them locked up and ready for port authority general inspection), passed all the seating rows to the stage and returned passed all the seating rows to the other exit, where the officials were lined up in wait for us, open passport, show face, get inspection ticket, close passport, deliver it back to ship administration and safekeeping. Nobody, even the wheelchairbound were allowed by the local authorities to take a shortcut to the inspection tables via the back of all the seating rows. OK - whatever, they must be very important here....But, the ship was cleared in a surprisingly short time.
As well, due to stringent taxi regulations there was no shuttle bus between ship and terminal entry/centre of town - a distance of 2 1/2 km. So one faced a bit of a hike, before getting anywhere past the endless line up of containers.
I remembered from a previous visit, that watertaxis seem to ignore these stringent regulations and appear en masse at the steep wet walls of the dock and transport people for two dollars across the short distance by water to the town centre.
I espied one lone taxi hovering about 15 feet below dock level under the huge overhang of Amsterdam's bow. Some passengers trundled over - surprised that there was an alternative to walking in heat and humidity - and looked longingly at the little boat. How to get down into it, he was obviously eager for business? Climbing down the emergency ladder did not appear as an attractive option. But, a tug with a floating dock and a couple of rickety stair-cases was on the way.
It was soon tied up underneath the sizeable hawsers, that tied Amsterdam to the shore - not a good place, but the locals did it anyway. They wiggled one of the ladders in position, bracketed by a thin piece of wood, and loosely tied to some projection, however, it toppled over at the first passing of a wake. One of our ships officers - concerned about the lack of safety precautions in this slap dap operation - had joined the group, and oversaw the 'final installation' of the boarding ladder.
By now, the little waiting crowd of Amsterdam passengers had grown, word of easy transport at $2 one way was out. An elderly couple (husband in a wheelchair) waited amongst them. Looking at the boarding arrangement, which involved climbing over and above the dock-wall and down this wobbly contraption, and then clamber onto a bobbing little boat without so much as handrails did not seem to be a good idea. I suggested that they get a 'real' cab, cost $ 10 one way...they wheeled off.
The rush was on, I stood back. More than one person at a time looked like overtaxing the system somewhat. All got to the little floating platform below, into the boat with a few headbangings on the overhead canvas support, and we were off - $ 2 in hand. Not a life jacket in sight.
The landing spot at the other side offered no steps, so all clambered over the side of the boat again and onto the flat concrete dock. Navigated a few scattered pallet, one lady stepped on one of them, it broke, and she fell getting a heavy bruise and a few scrapes. She limped the rest of the day...A steel ramp, not attached to anything presented a bit of a moving target as far as crossing from the floating concrete dock to terra firma. But - the adjacent building housed the spiffily dressed local coast guard - so we were in good hands. Outside were the stringently regulated taxidrivers....laying in wait for their non stringently regulated prey.
Mauritius is an independent country since 1968. When I lived there in 1964 or thereabouts, it was still under French 'protection', since then the character of the island has metamorphosed from a mostly French population, sugar-plantation and resort covered island scape to a bustling harbour (Port Louis) and a largish city (Curepipe) with financial services, sugar cane and pineapple.
The population is now a mixture of 80% East Indian, 18% African, Indonesion, Chinese and 2% European/French.
Mauritius is mostly famous for the extinct Dodo bird and the valuable 'Blue Penny Stamp', the latter being probably the most valuable postal stamp in existence.
Mauritian Rupees are the currency, but US dollars are allegedly accepted everywhere. Not today, though.
The post office lady shook her head - only Rupees, please. The grocery lady shook her head, only Rupees, please (unless one pays with visa), the waitress shook her head, only Rupees, please. - But, US is fine, at a rate 60% of that offfered by the bank. What the heck, it was 36 degrees in the shade, and 100% humidity, a beer with a 40% exchange premium was still a good deal after walking around for hours in downtown Port Louis (Port Lousy in the old days) even at the atrocious sum of $7!
I took a stroll through the local market, which was partly housed in an impressive multi storied building with slender columns. Separated into sections for vegetables & fruit, pork, beef, chicken and fish, clothing, handicrafts and a cramped food-court. The sights and smells created an interesting symphony of odours, some pleasant (spices all over the place) some not so pleasant...especially as even fresh fish gets a bit high once exposed to tropical temperatures. The food court looked - let's say - interesting, especially after observing how the chicken were killed 'on the hoof' and chopped up in the poultry section of the market.
The city boasts some shady parks with large banyan trees and scores of statues and fountains, as well as wide palm lined avenues. There are remnants of colonial architecture reflecting the turbulent history and ownership of this island: Portuguese, Dutch, English, French, Pakistan - all owned it at one time or another. There are plenty of mosques, the largest of them Jummah Mosque (built 1850) is right in the centre of local China Town.
The Le Caudan Waterfront could compete with any cosmopolitan waterfront anywhere else, modern glas covered shopping malls, restaurants, pubs, shore esplanades, casino, museums...the works. A city with a few differences, one of the most notable ones for me was, that so few people ever smiled. There were some, as the attached photos show - but smiles were indeed rare.
Time to brave the watertaxi ride again. The pallets had been removed from the dock. There must have been 30 people on a boat made for 20, including a few passengers from another cruise-ship, who shared the ride to their dock (sans make shift ladder, which the Amsterdam had conscripted).
The driver must have been on his first run ever, as he did not know how to stop his boat. Somehow, we crashed through a space between a couple of tugs to a dock near the other ship, and its passengers crawled over the rest of us to scale the dock wall ladder - they all (even the 80year old granny) got up without further incident. Our Amsterdam bunch somehow navigated to our ship.
There, the crew had lowered and readied the tender port (an opening in the ship's side) and instead of using the infamous step ladder of local engineering design, we now could get back aboard via our own steel platform. But, a couple of our passengers on the water taxi had to double as line handlers to get us tied up, with the help of a few smiling (aha!) crew of the Amsterdam.
The taxi being the same height as the tender platform, the choppy waves caused it to rub and shear against the steel sides of the platform. I was having visions of one of us losing a few digits whilst performing seamen's duties. The crew helped us off, with minimum headbanging on our part, and we entered 'home' via security clearance at the tender platform.
But not enough yet...announcement from the bridge told us, that ALL of the passengers had to run the gauntlet AGAIN, before we could leave port. This was the first time, that the Captain's voice had a tinge of annoyance to it, as this requirement was totally unprecedented, unpredictable, unexpected, unplanned....and probably unneccessary. It took a while and a few repetitions to get everybody to oblige and go through the same rigmarole as we had already enjoyed that morning.
Most of our 'processeded' passengers hung about the top decks, watching the other cruise ship depart.We watched the dozens of rafted fishing boats - mostly from Asian home ports - and their crews going about their business right under our noses: washing clothes, eating, showering, chasing their ship dogs, climbing from one boat to the next, and throwing masses of garbage into the already murky waters.
After rounding up the troops, and rousing a few half deaf stragglers hiding in their cabins to complete the second face-to-passport inspection, we finally got off the dock and out of there. Anyway, a bonus champagne for that evening's desert made up for the slight 'inconvenience'.
I wonder what the Captain's recommendations to head office are in regards to future visits to this port...
