Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Caudan Waterfront at night

Place d'Armes at n9ght.

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.

 

Quite a few shady characters around, mostly statues.

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!

 

Nothing to see here.

My first trials obviously were very bad!

 

A Mauritius-based ship.

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.

 

Caudan Waterfront at night.

& the results were just awesome!

 

I like the reflection on the water.

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.

 

Pizza Hut.

Labourdonnais Hotel.

In this case here, the stone pillars.

 

The Caudan Circle.

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

 

Awesome reflections!

Barkly Wharf.

 

The wind disagreed.

The bridge.

 

Those are ghosts!

Towards the casino.

 

Light trails.

The junction at Place d’Armes.

 

They turn off the fountains at night.

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

3 comments

Yashvin Awootar

Do I regret missing my bus? Never. :)I am not so sure but anyway, it was a blessing in disguise.You should try all the scenes modes, beach one etc :P

Siganus Sutor

Next you should try "a night in Caudan".

In the capital city of the so-called "dragon de l'océan Indien" there is no public transport whatsoever after 19h30. It might say it all...

carrotmadman6

One more example, the "24x7" initiatives that end at 00:00. :)

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