Allison Morris

I didn't know a lot about Mauritius and I consider myself something of an expert.

So it was a completely uninhabited island.

And as you know, the national bird is the dodo, which was quickly made extinct when settlers found it and settled on it.

And they used African slaves to grow sugar on it.

And when slavery was abolished and the African slaves couldn't be used to work for nothing anymore, then they brought loads of people from the Indonesian subcontinent.

So you can see that in the population.

This is a sort of plantation, if you like, of a false population.

So a lot of people, they speak French, but they speak a type of French Creole.

I did French in school and couldn't understand hardly a word of it.

So a lot of people you would see, and they're of African descent, and that's way back in the times of slavery, but the majority of people are of Indian descent.

The majority of them are Hindu or some kind of Christian.

And they were lovely, very gentle people.

Like I remember going and knocking doors of people who had been arrested and their wives answering the door.

And even when they were telling you to go away, they were doing it in a, I am sorry, I am so sorry, but I can't speak to you.

Could you please know I'm sorry?

And I'm thinking these are the politest people I've ever met.

They were, they were very gentle.

It's completely been refurbished now.

It doesn't look like the same hotel.

You know, that room is still very much in operation, albeit it is unrecognizable from what it was.