17 April - Landing

Well, that was some introduction to the country. As it turns out your not allowed into Mauritius without giving an address that you'll be staying at. It took me somewhere over half an hour to get out of the airport, and non of that had to do anything with waiting in line at customs. The first stop was immigration, once they realised I didn't have an exact address to give them. In fact, all I had was the name of the fishing village I wanted to stay at from tomorrow, la Gaulette. Tonight the sun was already down and I was going to stay near the airport. After a bit of discussion this earned me a personal escort down to where I could book a hotel. Some minuets later I was sitting up at immigration again with a hotel booked, while someone took off saying they were going to get my passport which had been left downstairs at booking station. 'It's ok,' I'm telling myself, 'I have another passport if that one has been taken.' Then 'I wonder if I should be bribing someone here?' How would I even know if I should be bribing someone, will they be rubbing their fingers together or something. I started to realise how little I knew about this country I had landed in. To my relief after what felt like a long ten minuets my passport arrived back. Thank god, or to my mother at the very least, that I had an Italian passport though. I was only going to get a two month visa on the Australian one. Anyway, after half a dozen people had gathered around talking in a language I don't understand, asking me what seemed like half relevant questions; How much money do you have here with you, how much can you draw out, is there a limit on your card, what work do you do, are you going to work here, where are you staying in La Gaulette? Half relevant if you were deciding to let someone in the country, but fairly relevant if you were deciding whether to rob someone or not.

Anyway I ended up in a taxi on the way to the hotel wondering if this guy was going to hold me for ransom somewhere, and wondering if that place would have good kiting and if he'd let me go out.. Turned out more or less ok in the end though. I paid more then I would have liked for the hotel, and more then I should have for the taxi according to the ten year old girl who greeted me at the hotel. I did however learn that I can catch a bus to la Gaulette tomorrow and should be able to rent a guest house for pretty cheep if I make a deal with the boss because I'm going to be there for a while.

I've had a cold shower (who wants to have to pump hot water four floors up at night right), am about to hit the sack. Night 

The hotel