16/11/08:

Flight was fun! MASSIVE plane, loads of films; Edge of Love (Sorry i watched it without you Lot...) Angus Thongs, Mamma Mia... Plane food=YUM. 11 hour flight so got dinner (rice chicken vegetables) and a fried breakfast! Getting into the country was not so fun, they wouldnt let us in becauase we didnt have anywhere to stay, so we got frogmarched to the hotel booking desk and had to book into Ocean Villas, in order to be let in. (Dont say you told us so please mums...)

17/11/08:

One night at ocean villas in Grand Bay (north coast of the island). REally nice hotel, pool, free welcome drink, free buffet breakfast (the beginning of our obesity) romantic flowers on our bed, and our own balcony!

!8-21/11/08:

tried to find an 'auberge de jeunesse' (hostel) but apparently they dont exist in maurius.. had to trek with our massive ruchsacks through Grand Bay in full heat with no pavements and lots of honking to try and find the cheapest place to stay. nearly killed us but eventually found a room above a shop with a kitchen and bathroom. pretty dingy but cheapest thing we could find (our only other option was staying with a crazy man called Jean F. Depre, who locked us in his house and said if we were 'good girls' and cooked for him we could stay for free. no thanks mate!) We had some major bug infestation problems... Cockroaches, lizards, tarantulas... we got pro at dealing with them though, bit of body spray and spray plaster then sweep them out with a broom/ hide under the duvet listening to 'i will survive' on repeat. chilled out few days, ots of beaches... met a crazy fruit seller man who kept bringing us presents and trying to stroke out legs on Pereybere beach (beautiful beack about 6km walk from our room) went out one night to Bananas, sat and shared one cocktail (BUDGET) for about an hour before Julie rescued us, and invited us for a dink with her Chris and Arnaud. the start of a beautiful friendship! They bought us about 10 margeritas each, the most salty drink you will ever taste...they invited us to Club Med the next day. it was wicked- water aerobics, buffet food (ate about 5 plates each YUM) bar, sailing etc ALL FREE! then we went on a speed boat with some rastas to an island where we drank punch- really fun. but guess who happened to be on the same beach... fruit seller man who we ran away from at Pereybere! Next day DJ/Jean Marie's friend Shane came to stay with us at the apartment (lucky as a stalker followed us back, but Shane scared him off!) Went out to Buddha Bar. REally fun night. Chris Arnaud and Julie came ot meet us. Amy got very drunk and ate all our left over dinner when we got home (see horrific photos of spaghetti falling out of mouth, sausages, angry gestures....)

22-27/11/08:

moved in with Chris, Arnaud and Julie (still in Grand Bay). beautiful house, own pool etc and guess what, theyre paying the same price for it as we were forour s***ty apartment, we got ripped off big time!) other people moved in and out too, Bernard (Chris' cousin) and Billy (noodles model) had a very relaxed lazy week! Chris and Arnaud were meant to be 'working' (theyre starting up a business which photographs hotels or something) but we spent everyday on the beach and most nights at Bananas, some nights had live music which was really cool. we had to break into our last appartment as well because Amy had left her soap and bungee in the room. so kath took off the crazy trousers and climbed through one of the windows in her underwear (very funny). Amy also managed to get stuck upsidedown between a deckchair and the wall, and then fell in the pool fully clothed! apart from that pretty uneventful week! They basically adopted us, so generous. took us out for dinner loads and paid for all our drinks, and basically everything! on our last night they even brought us a 250 pound bottle of La Grande Dame champagne!!

28/11/08- 2/12/08:

Shane came and picked us up from Grand Bay to take us back to his parents in Eau Coulee, a place next to Curepipe inland. Really good experience, much nicer because it was much less touristy and where the actual mauritian people live. really nice to experience actualy mauritian life. so different! on the way there we visited the capital Port Louis, went to a craft market (obsessed with Dodos, like the rest of Mauritius! Statues CAfes streets etc, its wierd! more dodos than you will ever see in your life!) and the harbour (ate pineapple burgers (YUM) very busy few days. went to Grand Bassin, a massive hindu temple in the middle of a big lake, and Chamarel, a place where the earth is naturally 7 colours! explored Curepipe, went to a massive food market and saw loads of cool and crazy vegetables (thought of your 'fruit bowl' Papa Jew) Kathryn bagged a hottie (Debs the asexual lesbian) and we nearly died so many times due to Shanes crazy driving. never get in a car with a mauritian male under the age of 20! No speed cameras on the island and you use hands instead of indicators etc. thought we were going to die! lots of parties as well. one night at Kitsch there was a flame thrower performing at the club! another night we saw some famous mauritian band live in some warehouse, bit random! Shane's family were lovely too. his mum is officially our mauritian mother! and his sister gave up her bed for us and was so sweet! his dad is practically a chef, he cooked us so much nice mauritian food, lots of rice, salt fish, vegetables, dal puri, FARATAS and lots of other nice stuff. we tried to cook them pasta to say thankyou, quite predictably a disaster! went for dinner downstairs one night at Jean MAries sisters house. she has the cutest, happiest baby ever! everyone is so welcoming and friendly! Mauritian men are also very chivalrous (very different to English men!) and offer/ insist to do literallyEVERYTHING for you. amy of course refused help every single time.

3/12/08:

Got a lift with shane's dad's friend to Flic-en-Flac (west coast) and rented a room at 'Easyworld' for one night. cheapest room on top floor- 70 steps, killer! flic en flac was nice, accideently went fro a 16 km walk in search of water! walked along the beach past all these amazing hotels, and ended up borrowing some from one of the rich guests deck chairs! moved out ofeasyworld pretty quick though.. we were in the supermarket arguing over if a drink was squash of juice when Vedassen overheard (it was squash as KAthryn thought) and invited us for drinks at his hotel. turns out he's food and beverage manager of Sugarbeach, an amazing 5* hotel. He told all the staff to givce us whatever we wanted for free! sat down for drinks, and some very gay south african jockeys (Aldo, Karis, and Derreck) sat down assuming we were the competition (damn our short legs!)turns out aldo and karis share a room so they offered us the spare!

4-5/12/08:

officially moved into Sugarbeach! (Vedassen looked very confused everytime he saw us!) hitchhiked back to easyworld to pick up pir rucksacks, and got the driver to drop them off at reception as a delivery for the jockeys. the porter kindly brought tyhem up for us while we enjoyed the room service, buffet meals, beauty salon (definately didnt help anything) horseriding on ex racehorses (Amy's first time not on a shetland pony she was so scared haha) pedalos (another scar for kathryn no joke they hate me) yoga sessions and pool bar. all for free woooooo! quite embarrassing at meal times, jockeys were all weight watching while we literally had 5 plates each! it was kindly pointed out to us that 'south african men dont like fat women'. they still invited us to the international racing event as their VIP guests though! free buffet strikes again! more yummy sandwiches! had our rucksacks there though beacuse we wer going to grand bay that night, stood out a bit against the posh hats dresses and jockeys perfect girlfriends! the hangover didnt help either, wed gone out the night before with teh guys that dropped us off at sugerbeach to Port Louis and then Grad Bay. went on the biggest catamaran in mauritius ion port Louis, then went to Bananas, Buddhe, and Zanzibar in GB. bumped into Julie Chris Arnaud KArim etc, who actually already knew the guys we were out with, such a small counrty! didnt get back to Sugar beach till 6am (security guard definately thought we were prostitutes...) and had to be up for the races at 7.30, nice.

6/12/08

went back to grand bay for out last ngiht. had to get a bud from the races in port louis to grandbay with our rucksacks, was a little cramped! then we walked to their house where we jumped in the pool fully clothed, then let ourselves in with our key we never gave back soaking wet.they looked a bit chocked when we turned up! we like to make ourselves at home. partied it up for our last night, went out for a meal before going to Bananas and zanzibar (were now pro electro ravers, the club music of choice for some reason of Maurius. Billy and amy had a slight disagreement when we got home. there was one bed and a sofa, ended up with empty bed, one on sofa and one on floor!

7/12/08:

Flight day was a bit stressfull... mauritian life is pretty chilled out and slow paced. Apparently Amy isnt! We had changed out flights to stay for races so didnt actually know when the flight was. Chris called and they said we didnt have one. Amy was all up for heading straight to the airport but chris wanted to chill at home a bit then walk slowly to an internet cafe and relax there for a bit.... another slight conflict! ended up with a hyperventilated Amy winning (thank god) and kathryn happily relaxed, with Billy in hyterics). Turns out Chris had called wrong airline and we did have a flight ( Amy is a genius) Plane was an hour delayed anyway, but our problems didnt end there. not only were we starving (we'd oly eaten 5 smarties all day) but then the plane wing goes andberaks on us, so after about an hour of flying we had to turn around and emerency land back in Mauritius (we've now officially been there twice). sat on the landed plane for another two hours while they tried to work out what was wrong.small compensation, dinner and icecream! eventually took off again 4 hours late.. sitting over the dodgy wing!

Bye Bye Mauritius....