MEET THE EXPATS: Unwrapping Mauritius with Katy!

With both us having discovered Katy on Instagram before we moved to Mauritius, she, under the name of her blog Mauritius Unwrapped, is someone we have both followed online for a while now. So naturally, when she was happy to be interviewed for Meet the Expats, we were both excited and curious to meet the personality in person, behind it all. We met the charismatic, friendly and beautiful 31-year-old on the West coast of the island on a glorious sunny day last week, and here is what happened…

We are both so happy to be meeting you today, Katy! So firstly, please tell us what brought you to Mauritius? 

We were both offered jobs here in Mauritius; James, my husband, in banking/finance and me in the education sector. So we decided to move here in 2015, and we came here and moved to the West coast. 

Do you have links to Mauritius or had you visited before making the big move?

When we were offered jobs, we came out here. And also, James was here for three months while looking for a place to live. 

So, are we right in saying that you’re originally from Leeds in the UK?

Well, James and I went to school in Northamptonshire. I went to university in Leeds and ended up living there for 10 years. I love Leeds so much, the vibe and everything. We also lived in London too. 

Going more in depth into your life here, what do you like about Mauritius?

I absolutely love the beaches. I do love the way of life in some ways. I love the way our family and friends visit us a lot. When we moved here, we thought that we would hardly have any friends and family come to visit us with it being so far, and the cost of tickets… But it’s been the complete opposite. One of James’ friends has even moved here. I do love a lot of things about Mauritius. I love the freedom. I love how you can go to places and it won’t be busy.

What do you dislike or what has been a challenge for you?

Communication – it’s been a very fine line. 

Do you speak any Creole or French?

No. I can understand French, but I’m not confident enough to speak it. But in general, communication here can be difficult. For example, when we got married, it was pretty much impossible to organise things. Plus the fact that we were English expats, prices would go up. I had three wedding planners and ended up sacking them all… Since the wedding, I get so many requests from people wanting to know where to go and people wanting exactly the same wedding as me. For me, because of my experience with misunderstandings, it’s really put me off and I can’t really recommend it (getting married in Mauritius). It’s so sad. There was one Australian lady that wanted exactly the same wedding as me. She asked me to put her in touch with the hotel, but I didn’t. I contacted my wedding planner, who was really great. In regards to weddings here, 100+ weddings are really difficult. I don’t understand. Things were not made easy in terms of me organising my wedding here.

Is there anything else you find difficult?

The traffic is really challenging! 

How have you adapted to life here or do you feel you are still adapting?

I’m still adapting, definitely. I joined a netball team and I joined a book club – basically, to just get out and meet people! It was about putting myself into situations where I’d have to make conversation. I think it can be really easy as an expat here to not make friends. And especially I think if you don’t force yourself sometimes, even if you don’t want to. You can put yourself in situations where you widen your friendship group. 

Is it more expats that you’ve met or are there locals too?

It’s a complete mix. With work I’m meeting with some Mauritians, South Africans…etc. Our neighbours and best friends are Belgian. So it’s a complete mix. 

What else do you like doing on the island? Do you take advantage of the nightlife here?

I am definitely a big time city girl. I like walking into bars and trying new restaurants. James is the complete opposite and a lot more chilled out. We have had the opportunity to travel quite a bit, so that’s been good. But the nightlife here, yeah… hmmm. We go to the bars here. It’s normally a nice meal and a bottle of wine. We have been to Grand Baie a few times, and that’s quite nice. There are quite a few nice restaurants, too. 

Are there any restaurants you’d recommend?

In the West, I’d recommend here, The Bay, for sun-downers. I’d definitely recommend Moustache (Tamarin). The wine and the food is so good. It’s quite a minimalist menu, but the food is all locally sourced and it’s just so consistent. You know what you’re going to get every time you go there. And I’m a newfound lover of steak, so I would also recommend the new steak place called Medium Rare. It’s so good!

Moving on to the blog! How did Mauritius Unwrapped come about and what was the idea behind it?

I’ve never really been into social media at all. Coming here, I realised that I used it more. Here, it was so difficult finding what times places opened. Plus, they all run on Facebook pages here - which I find really odd - as a opposed to a website, as there are a huge amount of people who actually aren’t on Facebook. So anyway, I decided to write a blog about my experience in Mauritius. Something a little bit different. For example, the Outrigger resort is somewhere I love to go to, but it’s not advertised, so you really wouldn’t know about it. It’s somewhere I like to take guests.

I like to focus on luxury and boutique at the same time. So, I just started writing about things. I was getting a lot of questions about moving to Mauritius from people – what it’s like to get a visa, etc., so I decided to make it a little more personal. In addition, it was a great way for our friends and family to keep up with what we’re doing. 

I’m also launching a new website soon! As James and I travel a lot, it will be a way of showing our story. I think it helps when things are quite personal. 

In terms of moving to Mauritius, were there any resources that you used, online or otherwise, that helped to facilitate the move?

I personally found that online was really unhelpful with my move to Mauritius, which is one of the reasons why I started my blog. It’s just silly things like finding a house. It’s all the big groups that would push on advertising, whereas I’m more into things that are a bit different. I like blogs and reading about people’s personal experiences.

What about in terms of getting married and getting the official paper work and the civil marriage done? How was that experience for you?

They have very strange rules here in that you can’t have a ceremony, as the minister isn’t allowed to come, before 1pm. We wanted to get married before 1 o’clock. I mean come on, it’s my wedding day - I wanted it to be the whole day! It was really complicated and quite difficult. Then we needed an affidavit and we had to go to Port Louis. We also learned that we had to get the documents signed. It’s quite un-romantic. It’s not the kind of thing you want to be doing on your wedding day. 

And how did you find out about all of this?

It was mainly James’ work contacts that pointed us in the right direction. Online, I found you’d read one source and it would tell you one thing, then you would read another and it would tell you something else. 

But after all that, was it a good day?

It was fantastic. It was the best day. We had 150 guests and they all came and stayed around Tamarin. Some stayed in hotels and others stayed in Airbnb. Apart from all the hardships of getting married here, it really was the best day - I wouldn’t change it for the world. 

That’s interesting as destination weddings are a big industry here. You would have thought the process would have been more streamlined…?

I was working with some really big companies. I wanted some big marquees and big fireworks, but dealing with them… they were lackadaisical. It was as if I was a pain for them, I really felt like I was annoying them. I spent my days calling them and asking them if they had read my emails. We had a couple of wedding planners at the hotels that were just amazing. One who helped so much with the language, and she sorted everything out with the decorations. And she worked with all the suppliers, so I ended up just sacking the large companies I was working with, as it was three weeks before the wedding and nothing had been confirmed! So, Bridgette (wedding planner) just took over. 

So what made you want to get married here in Mauritius in the first place?

Why not! When else are we going to be on a paradise island, and for our friends and family to be here with us? And a lot of our friends of family wouldn’t have ever visited Mauritius, so it was a great excuse for them to be able to visit. 

Looking at your Instagram page (@mauritius_unwrapped), you spend a lot of time in hotels. Is that how you spend your time?

Some of them I’ve been invited to, to spend some time there and write about them. Some of them we’ve just visited. It’s a great way to get content for the blog also. Some of them are just getaways. It’s just what I love to do to be honest. I love hotels and eating out. 

What’s a typical day like for you here?

Well it depends. I’m a morning person, so I’m always up early. I think you have to be here, as the mornings are so beautiful. On the weekends, we sometimes visit hotels or plan a visit somewhere. Or we usually just spend time on the beach. 

How does your life here differ from the UK? Is there anything you miss about home?

There are a lot of things that make life different here. You can’t really compare it. We get help in the house, which is different to the UK, as that’s a lot more accessible here.

I miss a lot about home… I miss being able to walk to bars without the fear of being run over! Pavements, too - definitely miss that! I miss choices and randomly coming across a pop up bar. 

Are you bored of being in Mauritius yet?

No, but I definitely have days of island fever, I can’t lie about that. For example going to work, it’s just one road. In England, I used to work in Bradford and sometimes I’d take a different route to work. And sometimes, I’d get a morning coffee on the way to work. But sometimes here, the shop will randomly be closed. 

To find out more about Katy’s life in Mauritius as well as interesting things to do on the island, check out her blog at www.mauritiusunwrapped.com.

If you are an expat living in Mauritius and have an interesting experience or story to tell, please email us on hello@beyondmediacreative.com

By Sabah Ismail & Khalid Khadaroo