Wednesday 12 June 2013

Buses

I promised a short blog about buses and here it is.
The buses on Mauritius are interesting to say the least, it is a totally free market, there are many companies operating depending on their specific area but they all have services into Port Louis, there are however some aspects that create total and utter chaos, firstly, none of the bus-stops have route designators, thus a newbie could wait at a bus stop and have no clue as to where the services go to or at what time. There are no timetables, none whatsoever, in fact you could find that a service may run one night and not the next but you'd never know.
The buses themselves have a route destination so you'd have to take pot luck.
All the buses are fairly old, and very dirty and noisy and fares seem to depend on how much the driver thinks he can scam you for (I'm sure that this is due to the fact that a) I can't speak french and b) I'm obviously a tourist and c) clearly minted.
So, if you're even in Mauritius, you must get a bus, you'll see the real Mauritius not the tourist brochure, but make sure you know where you are going, have a working knowledge of french, and don't pay too much, standard fares about no more than R100, Oh, and always get a ticket!

No comments:

Post a Comment