Mauritius is about a lot of things: the sea, the sun, dholl-purees, rougaille poisson salé, the séga, Phoenix beer, koz n’importe and, well, picnic dans bis.
Since I was a kid, I love going to picnics in a rented bus. Most of the time, we rent a 60-seats bus and pack it with (i) family (ii) drinks and (iii) food. And, of course, we make sure that all of us coming know (i) how to sing the séga and (ii) drink without, ahem, spilling.
As you can guess, I am in an excellent mood right now because I’ll be going on a picnic dans bis very shortly. I hope I’ll manage to capture some nice pictures to share with you.
Incidentally, all my Chinese relatives will come to the picnic. As you know, Christina’s father is Chinese. His sister and himself came to Mauritius just after the Second World War from China. That was more than 60 years ago. My father-in-law never went back to China and, consequently, did not meet anyone else from his family for more than 60 years. So you can easily imagine how happy his sister and himself are to meet their youngest brother (who was a kid when they left) who has just come to visit them in Mauritius:
(From right to left: my father-in-law (Christina’s father), his youngest brother (he is more than 60 now!) who lives in China and has come to Mauritius for the first time, my father-in-law’s sister who lives in Mauritius and who is now 84, the brother’s wife, Christina, Kyan and Anya.)
Maybe you briefly saw Christina and myself on TV during the 19:30 news bulletin a few days ago? MBC thought that siblings meeting each other after more than 60 years of separation was newsworthy. I tend to agree.
How do you say picnic dans bis in Hakka?
[Bus photo courtesy of Helen Morgan.]
We used to go picinic dan bis a lot when I was a kid. It was fun and sometimes I really miss those good old days!
I saw the family reunion on mbc news. The younger brother meeting his brother and sister after so many years… I thought this was emotionally moving.
I don’t remember seeing you or Christina on TV but I think I caught a glimpse of your little girl :)
Hi Avinash,
Yes, I did see you, Christina and the kids on TV. You were all looking happy. I think you should now go visit the family in China :-)
My brother-in-law from Canada has come to Mauritius with his family for holidays and we had a ‘picnic dans bis’ a few days ago. That was great fun! Our bus was also half-filled with food and drinks :-)
Hmm, didn’t see you on mbc, but heh, you are someone who the media loves all the way. [staying away form the mbc lately… since nowadays the news is mostly about only our star prime minister, am pretty bored of that.
as for the pic “(From right to left: my father-in-law (Christina’s father)”… now i understand your scheme well… you probably planned yourself to get bald to impress christina when you were younger… hehehe that was surely a well calculated plan, took me quite some years to figure that out.
As for the picnic in a bus :D this sure rocks! beer flowing all around, singing the sega and “bourr tapaz allE em” … this sure is just too cool :D.
+Selven
When I met Christina, I still had some hair…