My First Trip Overseas

WORLD MAP MAURITIUS
Here is my Island a dot on the World Map

On January 25, 1966 I boarded a Dutch Cargo/Passenger ship at Port Louis Harbour, Mauritius, on my first trip overseas, an experience of a lifetime. I was only 19 and now I am 69, thinking about it it is half a Century ago.

la boutique mauritius
These are pictures of the typical place where I grew up. On a recent visit to Mauritius I still saw many of the structures as they were fifty years ago.

Mauritius is a small island. Though exquisitely beautiful we did not see a lot of potential in term of a career. So every young man and woman my age dreamed of finding a greener pasture across the seas. England was then a favourite place for us to go, we did not need any visa to enter and work in England, as Mauritius was a British Crown Colony and the residents were given the right to freely move there. Two of my elder brothers were already there and now it was my turn to go to join them.

An important event at that time turned my dream into a nightmare. The British Government passed legislation prohibiting free immigration from Mauritius and for that matter from all the British Colonies. I wondered how many young men and women were disappointed with this turn of event.

This bad news was nevertheless a blessing in disguise because another door would be opening for me. My father wrote to one of my sisters who was living in Hong Kong to enquire about the possibility of me moving there and if there was any prospect for me in term of a career. It was 1965 and Hong Kong was booming with commercial and industrial activities. Hong Kong being then a British Colony needed people like me with good English language skill. Residents were allowed to move freely within the British Crown Colonies and so there were no restrictions for me to move to Hong Kong. My Brother-in-law wrote back and was completely confident of me settling down in Hong Kong successfully. My younger sister, two years my junior, was to go with me but fate is fate, she never made it, she had fallen in love in Mauritius and had wished to follow her future husband. I later learned that my father was saddened at seeing three sons leaving home and he had wished that my younger sister did not go. This was another reason why fate separated us.

I had saved around 2,000 rupees to pay for my passage with spare money to bring along. My salary as a Clerical Staff at the Ministry of Finance was 200 rupees a month. What my tasks involved at the Ministry are something worthy of a new post.

So on that memorable afternoon January 25, 1966 my father and mother and my other siblings accompanied me to the wharf. We walked together all the way from our home to the harbour, a 45 minutes trip. There was no bus service where we lived and taxi was a luxury out of question. We said good bye as I boarded a small dinghy to take me to M.V.”RUYS” anchored in the middle of the harbour.

Next post will continue next Friday

PORT LOUIS HARBOUR
This is a recent picture of Port Louis harbour where my ship the M.V. “RUYS” would have been anchored. There were then no high buildings. The highest I remember was 4 or 5 storey and small in size.

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