or: Almost a year living in Mauritius

Later this month is my one year anniversary of my permanent relocation to Mauritius.

Naturally it’s time for a bit of reflection.

This is my second country relocation that I have seen as permanent (I’m not including my move to Australia as a baby. I’m guessing if I had an understanding of permanent relocation at that age, I’d probably be writing a more highbrow type of blog at the moment or I’d have gone well beyond my whiteboard calculations on time travel to have a working teleporter by now) so my mindset has been a little different from when I temporarily relocated to HK (that was meant to be for 3-5 years) and Japan (meant to be until 2020 so I could be there for the Olympics. I left after one year in 2017).

My relocation back to HK from Japan was meant to be permanent.

Actually, I was intending to stay in HK permanently when I bought the apartment there. Then the opportunity to work in Japan came. 

But I digress…

And here I am in Mauritius.

Over these various relocations, I learnt a few things to help me feel settled as soon as possible. These include not traveling for about six months, making some friends, finding a place to spend time outdoors that’s peaceful, finding a good coffee shop, learning some basic phrases, and starting some kind of routine.

My six months self-imposed travel ban was up in April. Our lockdown here started in March and our borders opened on 1 October though I’m not sure if I’m allowed to leave the country or if this is just for some to enter.

In any case, I haven’t had my usual desire to go somewhere else yet. I think this is partly because when we’ve been allowed to leave the house, I’ve been exploring locally and trying to better understand my new home. Given the restrictions we’ve all been living under, my lack of desire has been remarkably well timed.

I’ve been slowly making more friends. This is the usual way I make friends anyway and I’m not in a rush. I’ve been fortunate to meet quite a few through diving (tourists as well as those that live here permanently / semi-permanently) and then others who are friends of friends.

The great thing for me is that some have lived here all their lives and some are newer arrivals so I’m gaining a great mix of perspectives on the country and why things are done the way they are.

Also some good restaurant tips.

For the place outdoors that’s peaceful, I have the Indian Ocean right on my doorstep. I dive in it almost every day and see it every day. Even during lockdown. There is nothing quite as peaceful as being underwater and watching the sea life.

When I’m not in this spot, I like to go to Mont Choisy which is also on the beach and have a walk or run along that area or read a book sitting there. The beach nearer home is where I like to have a little picnic on the warmer evenings with a quiet beverage and some gadjak. 

The good coffee shop has not been quite so easy.

The best coffee I’ve had here tends to be the ones I have at home. Instead, I have found a place that does two for one waffles on a Wednesday which one of my diving friends and I go to on alternate weeks. The coffee there is not awesome however the ice cream with the waffles is fabulous. 

It’s a sacrifice.

They also do great paninis there and I have been known to go by myself on other days during the week when I feel more like a sandwich based lunch than a rice or roti one.

It’s a great spot to do a little bit of writing too.

With water.

My basic phrases are improving and I’m finding that I understand a lot more Creole now than I did even a few months ago. I’m not awesome at speaking it and struggle with the sentence structure so am hanging in there since I can see I’m making progress and I’d like to be able to interact more with the Creole speakers here in their own language. They have some awesome expressions and understanding a language also helps to understand a culture too. Japanese is another excellent example of this given their hierarchical language. Creole is a language full of jokes. Cantonese uses a lot of word play and so on…

My French was improving until the tourists left. I here a lot less of it now though we still have a few French speakers that dive with us. I’m just not hearing it enough to make the improvements that I’m making with Creole.

This is one of the benefits to this being a permanent move. I have time to learn.

For my routine, it is basic from start to finish.

I get up fairly early, have breakfast and coffee, go to the dive centre, dive once or twice, have lunch, have a siesta, do some work, have dinner, possibly have drinks depending on various factors (no need for me to draw a decision tree here), go to bed.

Repeat.

I also squeeze in some reading and on a good day, some writing too.

On occasions, I see some people outside of the dive centre.

Often this is combined with beverages and gadjak when it’s not combined with waffles and not so awesome coffee.

This is what I imagined retirement to be like – living on a tropical island paradise, diving, reading and writing.

This is probably why I’m not in a rush to go visiting anywhere else right now.

Just as well given most places are still closed!

 

Thanks to Jack Johnson for the title to this post.