Mauritius enters Lin’s account as both a brief destination and a point of connection: a mission there takes him from the violence of the Kinshasa run into an unfamiliar hotel and a tense meeting with local contacts, while a currency dispute later helps lead him toward a new contact and a profitable smuggling route.

Setting and Arrival

After the Kinshasa run, Lin travels on a mission to Mauritius and stays at the Mandarin in Curepipe. The hotel’s exterior was built as a small-scale Scottish castle, approached through an English garden; inside, its Chinese owners had created a contrasting Chinese baroque interior. The blend of architectural references gives Lin’s stop an immediately layered character, combining a castle-like exterior with Chinese design rather than presenting the hotel as a uniform setting.

Contacts and the Currency Dispute

Two Indian contacts from Bombay who lived in Mauritius meet Lin as arranged, arriving in a yellow BMW. Their drive along back roads is so fast that Lin is thrown into a corner of the back seat; after about fifteen minutes, they stop in a deserted grove. The meeting is marked by tension as well as speed: one passenger takes offense when Lin disparages the currency, insisting that it is Mauritian rupees. The evidence does not specify the full exchange or its financial stakes, but the passenger’s response makes clear that the currency is a point of local pride.

Connections Beyond the Island

The Mauritian currency fiasco has consequences beyond the meeting itself. During the subsequent trip through Singapore, Lin gains a valuable new contact, Shekky Ratnam, an Indian moneychanger from Madras. The episode also gives Lin his first look at a profitable smuggling route carrying duty-free cameras and electrical goods from Singapore to Bombay. Mauritius therefore functions as a hinge in a wider itinerary: an awkward encounter associated with its currency unexpectedly precedes new commercial knowledge and a useful connection elsewhere.