Travel
Mauritius, Paradis D'azure
Dive into the blue waters, the history, and of course, the food of Mauritius - a true gem of the Indian Ocean.
An island of white, sandy beaches, crystalline turquoise
waters and palm trees swaying in a soft, tropical breeze.
It feels like a faraway paradise, somewhere in line with the
Maldives or the Virgin Islands, maybe even a little like the
Côte d’Azur with its glossed-up texture of exclusivity.
But Mauritius is not all glitz and glamour, yachts and
luxury holidays. It is, in fact, an African country, built on
the slave trade. Uninhabited when it was discovered by
Arab seafarers in the 10th century, Mauritius is a country
that endured subsequent occupations by the Portuguese,
Dutch and French all before the British colonised it in
1810, finally winning its independence in 1968.
The culture here is a complex, kaleidoscopic melting
pot, where religious sects celebrate not just their own,
but each other’s, religious festivals. Sure, you could stay
in your resort, but there’s a lot more to Mauritius than
cocktails at sunset.
Let us begin in the capital, Port Louis, at the bustling,
sweet-smelling Central Market right on the shoreline.
Open daily from the wee small hours, it’s a hodgepodge
of locals and tourists, with stalls piled high with chillies,
spices and vegetables in psychedelic technicolour.
It’s been here since Victorian times and the complex
structure, adapted over the centuries and in places
beatifically ramshackle, seems to weave itself above
and amongst the throng. ›
interiors at Port Louie; The cocktail bar at the Lux Grande gauge Hotel.
Finding ourselves at vegetarian food stall Chez
Bayo (ask for directions from a local – the stall is often
referred to as ‘Mr Maraz’), we order one of Mauritius’
most traditional, and most delicious, snacks: dholl puri.
Introduced by Indian labourers more than a century ago,
dholl puri sees a tender, stretchy flatbread sporting a fine
layer of dry split pea dal within the bread itself. This is then
wrapped around a dollop of butterbean curry, doused
with a spritz of chilli-vinegar sauce, rolled up like a crêpe
and eaten standing up. While we’re here, we try a bajia,
which is like a cross between a doughnut and a pakora,
and a few gato brinzel – eggplant and gram flour fritters
that melt in the mouth.
Still in Central Market, we head to a stall that is simply
named after the drink it sells; alouda pillay. Our taxi driver
(always the best people to ask for an eatery endorsement)
tells us this is a Tamil place to hang out. Alouda is similar
to Indian falooda – a tall glass of super cold, super sweet
milk speckled with vermicelli strands of pink agar jelly and
pops of soaked basil seeds (similar to chia seeds). Think of
it like Mauritius’ version of bubble tea.
Afterwards, we wander past the pretty Jummah
Masjid mosque, which dates back to the 1850s, and into
Chinatown, where we are greeted with mural after mural
of vibrant, contemporary street art. Chinese people have
been in Mauritius since the 1700s (potentially even earlier),
when they came over to work, or were enslaved to do so.
Although Chinatown is a faded version of what it once was,
the old-fashioned shops are worth a look in, and it is here
you can try traditional Sino-Mauritian dishes like mine
frite (fried noodles), and bol renversé, a layered dish of
rice, meat, veggies and egg.
You get a sense of Mauritius’ colonial past walking
amongst the dilapidated architecture of Port Louis,
as if the buildings themselves were constructed from
the bones of Miss Havisham or Blanche DuBois. On
some corners you could be in New Orleans or Havana.
With a million Indians travelling to Mauritius to work
in indentured servitude between 1830 and 1924,
their ancestors now make up some 75 percent of the
population, the remainder mostly creole of mixed African
and French African descent, with some Chinese and
Franco-Mauritian folk, too. Mauritian food, too, follows
this ratio in terms of popularity.
Outside of Port Louis and onto Mauritius’ roads, we
find we are shrouded by field after field of lush, green
sugarcane, until recently the country’s dominant industry.
A market stand.
A day at the L’Aventure du Sucre museum is well-spent to
learn about how sugar, on these same plantations, shaped
Mauritian culture and that of the world (museum panels
tell tales of decadent 16th-century Venetian parties where
everything – even the tablecloths – was made of sugar).
Nearby, in the island’s north, with interiors designed
by renowned British designer Kelly Hoppen, Lux Grand
Gaube resort is an ideal spot to make your base. We spend
one of our days doing a Mauritian cooking course onsite,
making historically-heady dishes such as Indian-style
farata flatbread, tomato-rich creole stew rougaille, and
buttery, Barbie-pink biscuits known as Napolitaines.
The spa is also a highlight, and we find ourselves bathing
daily in the outdoor pools of varying temperatures before
nipping off to the hotel’s Creole Smokehouse restaurant
and bar for rum cocktails in a treehouse.
We head south to sister hotel, Lux Le Morne, for
a guided hike up UNESCO-listed Le Morne Brabant
mountain, once a shelter for runaway slaves. The views
from up here make you feel like a castaway scouting for
boats – sweeping and wild, and ocean, ocean everywhere.
Afterwards, we dive into that very sea to hunt for sea
urchins with our resident diver, Vik, which culminates
in coupes of Champagne on the beach while feasting
on our foraged bounty.
While you’re in Mauritius’ south, Saint Aubin house,
built in 1819, is worth a look. Here, you can experience a
colonial building and visit their tea and vanilla plantations
before sampling the delicious rums of the estate.
On the way back up north, visit the spectacular pond
of giant waterlilies at Pamplemousses’ 250-year-old Sir
Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanic Garden (the oldest
botanical garden in the southern hemisphere), or stop in
at the village of Chamarel to see the natural phenomenon
that is the Seven Coloured Earths – a geological formation
of multicoloured sand dunes flowing together to
surrealistic effect.
Echoing the colourful sands, Mauritius, like many
world sites built on a questionable past, is today a place
of contrast. It’s easy for westerners to fly in and out
without acknowledging any of this place’s history – sun
and sea and a bottle of rum – but what a shame that would
be. Sure, yachts are nice, but the energy, the culture, the
food and skills Mauritians have brought here from all
corners of the globe, over the past three centuries, make
this one of the most diverse, culturally rich and culinarily
delicious islands to visit anywhere. •
Words Freya Herring; Photography Unsplash.
