TOUCH DOWN // Spring 2017
DRIVING , island style
If you want to catch a glimpse of the soul of an island , taste its cuisine . If you want to fall in love with an island , watch the sun set over its sea . But if you want to experience – even for just a very short while – what it ’ s like to be a local , Ami Kapilevich reckons you need to get behind the wheel of a car and drive .
In 2004 my girlfriend and I rented a Suzuki Jimny from our landlord in Bali . The whole deal was made sitting cross-legged on the floor of his homestead . The car was a wretched little jalopy that looked like it was being held together by bamboo leaves and prayer . But at least it blended in with the rest of the island . A few days later we picked up a friend and his girlfriend from the airport . Tall Joe is six-foot-four barefoot and weighs 140kg before beer consumption . Our house was at the top of a hill and the ancient Jimny couldn ’ t make it all the way up with Tall Joe in the passenger seat . In fact , that blasted car didn ’ t even make it up that hill with me and both our girlfriends in it . Tall Joe got out and pushed . Children stopped and stared as Tall Joe heaved that Jimny up the hill like some wretched rugby-playing Sisyphus ( you know , the Greek king who was sentenced to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity ). Tall Joe and his girl left a few days before we did , and when the locals saw me and my girlfriend struggling up the road without him , the kids ran behind the Jimny , pretending to push it . At least I thought they were pretending . A few years later my girlfriend became my wife and , when she was six months pregnant , we went to the island of Réunion for one last holiday as a childless couple . Réunion is a department of France and the infrastructure is impeccable . The roads are newly tarred and well signposted . But it ’ s still an island . There ’ s one particularly hairpin-riddled drive that takes you from sea level to 3 000 metres above on roads that even the French civil engineers haven ’ t got to yet . We were driving The World ’ s Smallest Renault , and quickly learned that tourist
“ If you don ’ t slow down ,” my wife growled after one of these missed us only because our vehicle was small enough to wedge itself into a non-existent breakdown lane , “ my water ’ s going to break .” buses speeding up and down these tropical Alpine roads do not slow down . They merely hoot as they approach each bend . “ If you don ’ t slow down ,” my wife growled after one of these missed us only because our vehicle was small enough to wedge itself into a non-existent breakdown lane , “ my water ’ s going to break .” We crept the rest of the way like a couple of Amish newlyweds . Ten years and two water-breaks later our family went to Mauritius . As was our custom , we rented a strange little car from a shady little man . I considered myself a veteran island driver by now . But the roads in Mauritius are something else entirely . One moment you ’ ll be cruising around one of the dozens of traffic circles that punctuate the main highway of the island , the next you ’ ll be in a suburban dead end . It ’ s even difficult to keep to the main coastal routes as they frequently swerve inland with no way back to the shore . The roads in Mauritius are out to get you , but somehow , we prevailed . To this day if anyone asks me if I have been to Bali , Réunion or Mauritius , I raise an eyebrow and say : “ Been there ? Why , I ’ m practically a local .”
TALES FROM THE ROAD
62 // MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE