Originally, we had booked a flight from Tana to Kuala Lumpur with a one hour layover in Mauritius. However, since our flight was canceled, our airline offered to fly us out the next day with a day layover. They paid for a really nice room at the Holiday Inn, so it actually worked out better for us in the end, as we had a day to explore the island a bit. We spent the day in Mahebourg, a small shore town near the airport. The weather was lovely and the town was colorful. We checked out the history museum, which gave us a lot of good information about Mauritian history; we learned about ship wrecks, the slave trade on the island, the arrival of Indian labor (known as Coolies), and sugar cane plantations.
The island and our hotel were a nice change from the past 3 months in Madagascar. The hotel had elevators, plenty of hot water and electricity, it even had a "pillow menu" with either soft or firm pillows! In town, no one cared about our presence - people were friendly, but not fascinated with our white skin and hair. While I really loved Madagascar and it's unique charm, at times it was hard to be comfortable and relaxed - our day in Mauritius was a welcome moment of luxury.
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