Astor Maiden Cruise Around the World 1987-1988

Mauritius in the late 1980's, unemployment is at its peak and a young girl gets the amazing opportunity to travel leaving behind her bleak job in a textile factory. A whole Mauritian crew of one hundred and fifty is recruited to form the hotel staff of a brand new cruise ship, the Astor which flies the Mauritian flag and is due for a three month maiden voyage from the port of Southampton in England to Genoa in Italy around the South America Coast to Peru and the Caribbean islands. Their difficulty to adapt to European food and misery of seasickness is compensated by the luxury of their new living quarters and fascination seeing so many wonderful places. The cabin stewardesses Mela, Bianca, Nicoleta and other members of the crew tour this great world stunned by the beauty of Norwegian Glaciers and fjords, the greatness of the Amazon River and awed at Jerusalem and the holy land. Souvenirs of unpalatable pizza in Portugal, encounter with rude Spanish horse carriage drivers in Malaga, meeting with a Togolese in Hamburg, a Pakistanis in Montreal are evoked. They befriend Turkish students in Ankara, eat delicious baby octopus salads in the Balearic Islands and dive in cold seas of the Mediterranean and warm lagoons of the Indian Ocean. In French speaking countries they delight in using their familiar Creole with people of Haiti and Jamaica and enjoy the different French accents of Montreal and Quebec in Canada, Casablanca in Morocco, and Dakar in Senegal. They dance in the nightclubs of the world, moving to South American music in Salvador de Bahia and carnival music in Rio de Janeiro, Whitney Houston's 1987 tube 'I want to dance with somebody' in Montreal and Mediterranean rhythms in Greece.