Caudan Waterfront at night

To be more precise, stranded in Caudan Waterfront at night…

 

Let’s start from the beginning; on certain days, my classes at UOM end at 19:00. On those days, I usually leave early at 18:30 to catch the last Triolet bus, which leaves Immigration Centre officially at 19:00 & unofficially at 19:30.

Today, I left a little later, at 18:40, thinking I’d catch either the 18:50 or the 19:00 Réduit to Port Louis bus. Instead, the bus came at the bus-stop at 19:10, which meant it was going to be a race against time to catch that last bus.

During the entire Réduit to Port Louis journey, I was confused as to what shall I do next? Get down at Victoria station & run to Immigration or get down at Venus (Bell Village) & catch an Immigration bus from there. I eventually decided to do the latter & almost immediately I caught a TBS bus. As it turned out, that was the last Pointe aux Sables to Immigration bus. Very lucky indeed. The time was 19:21. Enough time to reach the bus station before the 19:30 bus left.

19:26. As the TBS bus finally reached Immigration station, I got down & started running toward the other end of the station. As I approached, I saw one TBS leaving the station. Nothing to panic, there was still that last bus…

There wasn’t. Not a single bus was waiting at Immigration Centre. Apart from the street-sellers, I was the only person there. This is a situation I’ve mentally rehearsed quite a few times, so I knew exactly what I had to do. Except that when it really happens, it’s still a shock. After walking in circles for while (waiting for ANY kind of bus), I knew I would get mugged if I waited any longer at Immigration, so I walked to the safest place in Port Louis at night, i.e. Caudan Waterfront.

 

So here I was, waiting at Caudan Waterfront. I had already phoned home & arranged for transport. So to while away the time, I did the only logical thing I could do… taking photos of Port Louis at night!

 

My first trials obviously were very bad!

 

Compact cameras really struggle at night. Too much noise, over-exposed, blown-up lights, motion blur. That meant I had to use the most unlikely preset I had on my camera – Fireworks mode.

 

& the results were just awesome!

 

The problem with Fireworks mode is its long exposure time of 4s requires a tripod. Since I had no tripod, I had to make use of my environment.

 

In this case here, the stone pillars.

 

I saw quite a handful of people lurking with laptops. Definitely wifi thieves!

 

Barkly Wharf.

 

The bridge.

 

Towards the casino.

 

The junction at Place d’Armes.

 

& this was my last good photo as my transport reached Caudan. Do I regret missing my bus? Never. :)