Travel - Mauritius Our Treasure Island

Mauritius was first discovered by the Arabs in the 10th century who named it "Dina Harobi." They named the island area as "Waqwaq" and in Arabic when you say that someone belongs "from another planet" you mention that they are from "Waqwaq Land."

The tropical island of Mauritius, once a haunt for pirates, is now best known for luxury hotels on white sand beaches with volcanic mountain backdrops. It is an island for exploring, with Indian temples, colonial houses, botanical gardens, and opportunities to spot rare birds among soaring ebony trees, walk with lions or swim with dolphins. Mauritians, a fusion of French, Indian, Creole and Chinese peoples, are renowned for their hospitality and visitors to the islands generally rave about the service.

There are so many reasons why we love to travel. For us it's the initial packing of bags and visualising the space we are soon to inhabit.

Then there is the research that goes into every trip we take, the Google Earth scan of the area and the ultimate anticipation of the places we visit and the people we will meet.

Travel lets us peek into the lives of others, for a short while. As social creatures, we thrive on interactions whether it is a long coffee with a newfound best friend in a busy corner cafe, or just a solitary stop to observe life in a new space. It is all very comforting and rewarding.

For us travel is also about taking risks. Some people let their palate choose their destinations. Some just like to get drunk. When we travel we want to take ourselves out of the comfort zone and feel new emotions.

Travel can be the ultimate vagabond experience, the feeling of adrenaline rushing through our veins that sprouts from absolute liberation.

Travel, for us, is the same as reading books. Travel gives us time to think, ideate, observe and learn new things - culture, food, history. It also gives us a lot of time to introspect and understand on how certain things are done around the world. You sort of get a benchmark on life. Inspiration to live better, or perhaps, happy to be living a better life and giving back to those in need.

Mauritius had an incredible affect on us. The Island is filled with beautiful openhearted people who are so willing to share their life with visitors. On so many occasions we were invited to people's homes and asked to stay and on so many occasions we almost did.

Mauritius is that one rare place where we could relocate at the drop of a hat. It has the right climate, it has the right lifestyle, their economy is booming, no one complains about their president and people are friendly and kind.

As humans, we all crave routine. It keeps us efficient, organised and ultimately comfortable. However too much routine for too long makes us numb. It's hard to notice things you see every day, hard to challenge yourself with all the things you do over and over.

When everything is on automatic, a part of your brain switches off. Breaking the routine - making yourself uncomfortable - is key to learning, to feeling more alive, and to being receptive. It wakes you up. It changes you.

For us travel is about trying out new things. We try to push our boundaries and doing things we might not be good at. It means playing with being incompetent, setting our egos aside to let the world in.

Travel is a wonderful way to make things happen, when you are in an unfamiliar place, where everything, your surroundings, the language, the food, the time of day - is different, you become more receptive.

Travel changes your vantage point, in effect forcing you to see things from a new perspective. You begin to understand things more clearly and maybe change your point of view. You renew your life force through increased curiosity. You invite serendipity.

Travel allows you to be revitalized and it makes it easier to live in the present and leave the future for later, where it belongs. Sometimes it's about discomfort, being off balance, experimenting, experiencing awe.

For us travel is about loosing ourselves in order to find ourselves.

Well we definitely lost ourselves in the mountains of Mauritius, the cell phone with the local sim card in had died and our GPS assistant had gone silent. It was beautiful and serene, the morning mist had not yet lifted and the forest-covered mountainside was stoic and inviting. There is something liberating about being lost and finally agreeing to ask for directions. The wonderful thing about travelling in Mauritius is that almost everybody speaks English and we were very quickly able to get back on track.

As we drove over the crest of the mountain and saw the view of the sweeping countryside with its turquoise trimmings the travel bug sank its teeth deeper into our psyche and we headed for the beach.