Electric Fence Zine: Mauritius

Traveling to Mauritius took 2 full days.

My voyage began on Thursday October 12 at the Raleigh-Durham airport. To my delight, at the ticket counter I discovered that United Airlines only allows 50 pounds of luggage, even on international flights to Timbucktu and beyond. Which of course made it wonderful that I had three bags weighing between 60 and 70 pounds.

From Raleigh, I flew to Chicago, where air traffic was backed up due to the year's first snowstorm. Instead of landing 2 hours before my connecting flight to London as scheduled, my plane arrived 15 minutes (?!?!) before my departure, incidentally at an entirely different terminal. Yay! (note sarcasm).

Anyone who remembers my career in track knows that I am good for 100 meters when sprinting.. after which point, walking becomes an athletic activity in itself.

So yeah.. despite the odds being against me, I managed to sprint, jog and pant the distance between terminal B and terminal C in just under 7 minutes... Although my lungs had practically collapsed by the time I arrived, I made it to the gate just before the cut off. My baggage wasn't so fortunate, but what can you do?

From Chicago I flew to London, and from London I flew to Dubai. Despite the fact that I only set foot in Dubai for a couple of hours, the experience was memorable enough to write about. I had an 8 hour layover that took place during the oddest of hours.. 7pm to 2am. As a result, although it was too dark and too late to paint the town red, the prospect of spending a third of my day in the airport lobby was equally uninviting. Thus, I stumbled across a happy medium : going shopping!

After clearing customs, I boarded a taxi and had it drop me off at the City Center Mall, just about ten minutes drive away. Although the cabbie chatted me up about his family being Kenyan and handed off his business card, he overcharged me craploads. The return trip from the mall in similar traffic was 15 Dirhams, compared to 25 Dirhams on the way there. Bastard.. but who's complaining?

As I soon came to find out, the Dubai City Center Mall is a three-story monstrosity frequented by shoppers of all races and persuasions-- at all hours of the day. In addition to staying open until the ungodly hour of 1AM, the Mall provided shoppers with what could perhaps be called the definitive Middle-East meets West shopping experience.


If you think the world is still culturally distinct, that just means you haven'’t been to Forever 21 Dubai or visited the UAE Body Shop lately. That, or picked up the newest offerings from Diesel Jeans Emirates.

Peering into Forever 21 Dubai was a definite pinnacle experience in my shopping excursion. However, passing by Arab versions of Lush, Unos, Starbucks and Burger King came in as a close second.


I was also pretty floored when I encountered a shop dedicated to converse sneakers, skatewear and longboards.

That surprise was only surpassed when I ran into a series of women'’s clothing stores catering to more '“refined tastes.' One shop in particular featured a series of mannequin’s wearing rinestone studded hijabs and veils accented with gold thread.



At the end of my extended tour of the mall (4+ hours when you factor in the time in took to order french fries and 2 rounds of jasmine tea), I returned to the airport convinced that global capitalism is a wondrous, wondrous thing.. and by wonderous, I mean jaw-dropping, ubiquitous and absolutely terrifying.

Alors, mon voyage a l'Ile Maurice continue (Alas, my voyage to Mauritius continues...)

Posted by east of madagascar on Friday, October 13, 2006 at 7:56 PM | Permalink