Mauritius Post, Phone and communication
Mauritius Post:
Postcards to Europe can take weeks! Send in one of your first days. Stamp depends on destination and size of postcard, but around 0,50 Euro
If you want to see the real “Blue Penny” stamp, just go to the same called museum in Port Louis (at the Caudan Waterfront).
here is a link to the Mauritius Post .
Mauritius Calling:
There are several ways of calling home: if you are in a hotel and you use the direct connection from your room forget about you next holiday budget. If you use your own mobile phone (roaming) you might also have a bad surprise afterwards. Check with your provider when you are still at home. Mauritius is covered by two GSM-networks (Cellplus and Emtel). There are only a few places on the island where you have no reception.
Many people bring a second mobile (SIM-unlocked!) and buy what they call here “starter packs” from one of the both local providers. You get them at almost every town and the cost is less than Euro 15 (included phone credits – when you are lucky you come during promotion, then it’s half price) You can then send for example really cheap SMS (around € 0,01 - national or international). Even local calls are much cheaper than from the hotel or roaming.
Another alternative for international calls: use the local phone-cards. Usually the phone card system is the cheapest way to make international calls. There are several companies offering a good service (i.e. Yello, EasyCall). You dial a toll free number, enter your code (its on the phone card you purchased) and you call internationally for around Euro 0,17 per minute!
To make a “normal” international call (via Mauritius Telecom – more expensive!) please dial “020” followed by the country-code. (On mobile phones you can also dial the “+”). If you want to call locally, please note that all phone numbers in Mauritius have seven digits. There are no city-codes.
Looking for a number in Mauritius? Just dial “150”, the (very friendly) inquiry-service of Mauritius Telecom. Looking for a kind of “Yellow Pages”: just dial “152”.
Email:
Don’t think because we are an island in the Indian Ocean that we are not yet connected to the world! Believe it or not, Mauritius has a great future as a cyber-island (if we believe our politicians…). Anyhow, cyber-cafes or internet-cafes are in every corner, even in little villages. There is no excuse that you couldn’t read your emails ;-).
