Month: July 1979

Dinner With The Delaîtres, Souillac, Mauritius, 31 July 1979

An overview of my 1979 trip to Mauritius, courtesy of the wonderfully hospitable Biltoo family, can be found by clicking here or below:

Mauritius, July & August 1979, Overview, Summary and Picture Links

Here is an extract from my eighth letter, which is in effect my diary entry for the evening of 31 July 1979:

I said in my last letter that there would not be much to report for the next “goodness knows how long” and here’s a letter arriving on your doorstep the same day (I think) as we can’t post letters here at the seaside so the two are having to go together. And of course, I should not of underestimated my hosts so much as to think that very little would happen.

On the evening of the 31st (unbeknown to me at the time of writing the letter on that day) we had for dinner Mr and Mrs Delaître, Mr [Jean] Delaître being the director general of MBC (that’s the Mauritian equivalent of the BBC). He is an extremely interesting fellow, having been in parliament and chairman of the Youth Council for 20 years. (We have been invited to his house for the day today; we will be leaving soon)

Jean Delaître – this picture links to its article from L’Express Mauritian

If anything ever goes awry with the above link, I have scraped that piece about Monsieur Delaître to here.

Seventh Letter From Mauritius, 31 July 1979

A very brief background to this travel adventure is covered in the overview posting linked here, which contains links to photos and cine.

I wrote letters to mum and dad which doubled as my diary/travelogue. Here is a scan of the seventh of them.

Mauritius Journal Letter Seven Side One 31 July 1979 Mauritius Journal Letter Seven Side Two 31 July 1979

Carrom, Dominoes, Children & Exploring, Souillac, Mauritius, 31 July 1979

An overview of my 1979 trip to Mauritius, courtesy of the wonderfully hospitable Biltoo family, can be found by clicking here or below:

Mauritius, July & August 1979, Overview, Summary and Picture Links

Here is an extract from my seventh letter, which is in effect my diary entry for daytime 31 July 1979:

Today, also, we spent the day playing Carrom, dominoes and with the children and exploring.


This week is supposed to be a lazy week, so there won’t be much to report I shouldn’t think. Plus don’t expect a letter within the next couple of days but in about a week, unless of course we do decide to do something worthy of report.

At the moment one of the kids is throwing a tantrum and my ears ache. But all in all I’m having a great time. So see you soon, lots of love, Ian.

I wonder whether it was Manjula or Vanisha in tantrum mode that day?

Left to right: Garçon, Manjula, Janee, Anil, Vanisha, Dat (Bill)

Relocating South, Souillac, Mauritius, 30 July 1979

An overview of my 1979 trip to Mauritius, courtesy of the wonderfully hospitable Biltoo family, can be found by clicking here or below:

Mauritius, July & August 1979, Overview, Summary and Picture Links

Here is an extract from my seventh letter, which is in effect my diary entry for 30 July 1979:

Yesterday, we moved south. It took two journeys to get everything down and I was in shift two, thus I didn’t get there until lunchtime. I had time, thus, for a quick wander around Rose Hill.

The summer bungalow is really beautiful down here, and the rocks are great for exploring. The sea is too strong to swim in, though, so we have to go about half to 3/4 of a mile for safe beach.

We spent the afternoon and evening playing carrom and dominoes and exploring rocks.

Shahil And Sega Records, Mauritius, 29 July 1979

An overview of my 1979 trip to Mauritius, courtesy of the wonderfully hospitable Biltoo family, can be found by clicking here or below:

Mauritius, July & August 1979, Overview, Summary and Picture Links

Here is an extract from my seventh letter, which is in effect my diary entry for 29 July 1979:

Anyway, on Sunday, although we were going to go fishing, it was decided that we were too tired, so we had a lazy day and will go fishing at a later date.

In the morning we did an awful lot of nothing at all. Just before lunch another of Anil’s cousins Shahil came to lunch and for the afternoon. He is from the side of the family that we don’t talk about, but he is accepted cause he’s nice. He is 17, which makes him good company for us. In the afternoon he took Anil and me out around Rose Hill, and then to a garden fete. In the evening we all danced Sega (Shahil brought some [records, presumably] with him) and thus we spent the evening until bedtime.

Dinner & Dance At Trou Aux Biches, Mauritius, 28 July 1979

An overview of my 1979 trip to Mauritius, courtesy of the wonderfully hospitable Biltoo family, can be found by clicking here or below:

Mauritius, July & August 1979, Overview, Summary and Picture Links

Here is an extract from my seventh letter, which is in effect my diary entry for the evening of 28 July 1979:

How’s things? I hear that by last Wednesday (25th) you have only received one letter. By now (31st) you should have received three, and be well satisfied.

Anyway here’s the news. That Saturday that I wrote to you (28th) I mentioned that that evening I was going to some sort of dinner dance at Trou aux Biches. I found out after I finished that it was for doctors – Janee (Garçon’s wife) got us the invitations. Trou aux Biches is one of those really posh 5-star hotels, swarming with Americans et cetera, and the meal was absolutely superb.



Doctors dining at Trou aux Biches

The dance too was good, and Anil and I learnt the sega, the traditional local dance in which you “shake it all about” and so on.

This Cousin Cousine sega record was a major part of the soundtrack of our visit.
https://youtu.be/-Esa8G0x3Wo
This video shows the sega dance in all its “shake it all about” glory

Sixth Letter From Mauritius, 28 July 1979

A very brief background to this travel adventure is covered in the overview posting linked here, which contains links to photos and cine.

I wrote letters to mum and dad which doubled as my diary/travelogue. Here is a scan of the sixth of them.

Mauritius Journal Letter Six Side One 25 July 1979 Mauritius Journal Letter Six Side Two 25 July 1979

Coca-Cola Factory And Visiting Friends, Mauritius, 28 July 1979

An overview of my 1979 trip to Mauritius, courtesy of the wonderfully hospitable Biltoo family, can be found by clicking here or below:

Mauritius, July & August 1979, Overview, Summary and Picture Links

Here is an extract from my sixth letter, which is in effect my diary entry for daytime 28 July 1979:

Today we went again with Anil, to the Coca-Cola factory where a friend of the family works and went back to the latter’s house for a quick visit. We then had lunch and came home to the prospect of catching up with our respective diaries so here we are up to the present. I hear that this evening we are going dancing or something. It was supposed to be Manjula ( Garçon‘s daughter’s) birthday party, but because of next door [bereavement/funeral] it’s been postponed.

Manjula with Anil at her subsequent (belated) birthday party

Anyway I’ll tell you about tonight in Letter Seven. Hope all is well at home.

See you. Love. Ian

Tamarind Falls With Two Anils, Mauritius, 27 July 1979

An overview of my 1979 trip to Mauritius, courtesy of the wonderfully hospitable Biltoo family, can be found by clicking here or below:

Mauritius, July & August 1979, Overview, Summary and Picture Links

Here is an extract from my sixth letter, which is in effect my diary entry for 27 July 1979:

Yesterday we went to Narrain’s for the day and had arranged to stay at Marraz’s the night. Narrain insisted that we stay the night however, so during one of our outings we popped to Marraz’s and cancelled. In the morning, Mim took us shopping in Vacoas. In the afternoon Anil –  that is the cousin of the Anil that you know and love –  took us to Tamarind Falls and its water reservoir for hydroelectric power. Then we went home very tired so just had a brief walk after dinner and slept.

Two Anils. Anil Biltoo (left) and Anil’s Cousin Anil (right).

More Touring And A Funeral, Mauritius, 26 July 1979

An overview of my 1979 trip to Mauritius, courtesy of the wonderfully hospitable Biltoo family, can be found by clicking here or below:

Mauritius, July & August 1979, Overview, Summary and Picture Links

Here is an extract from my sixth letter, which is in effect my diary entry for 26 July 1979:

I’m a couple of days behind now, as you’ll realise when I explain what happened. Today we went south, visiting all sorts of interesting places there. Again Garçon couldn’t come so again we took picnic lunch and chauffeur. the thing was, the next door neighbour passed away in the early hours so we had to return early for the levayah [funeral]. Like Jews, Hindus insist on burial [sic] very quickly, usually within 24 hours. Anyway, we went to Chamarel again and also Baie du Cap by the sea where we took lunch. Then came home for the funeral (or rather, watched it from the house) and then (it was evening by then) got ready for dinner. Lynford Smith [Anglican Priest from Vacoas] came for dinner, which made for quite a pleasurable evening.

Chamarel – probably. I didn’t label photos much back then.

I’m sure my reference to “burial” is an error; the funeral will have been a cremation. But my point about rapidity was accurate.

I seemed to have got ever so used to being chauffeured around ever so quickly, once we got to Garçon and Janee’s place.