Just when I have caught up in my blogging about the Seychelles, I’m off again – this time for some snowboarding in St. Mortiz, Switzerland.
See you guys in a week. After which, it will finally be time to hunker down and find a job.
So sad to leave La Digue! We had such a relaxing time here biking around and sightseeing the island. Except for when I kept falling off my bike. Mostly because Diana kept stopping short in front of me. The last fall was the worst – I not only fell but got my shorts stuck on the bike seat and couldn’t untangle myself so some passerby had to help me pull my shorts out and pick me (and my bike) back up. Luckily I only sustained a few scrapes, bruises, and a sprained pinky toe but I think the soursop and mangoes (local fruit we bought off the side of a road) I was carrying were the worse for wear.
It just occurred to me that I have not been on a bike since 2003. Wow, 5 years. Where does the time go?
We took the 7:30am ferry from La Digue back to Praslin and then the 9am ferry from Praslin to Mahe. This time around, the ocean was a lot rougher than when we first arrived. Many people were sea sick on the ferry and even Diana felt a bit queasy. I had popped a Dramamine so felt just fine. Oh, and remember those coco de mer nuts that look like buttocks? Well, here they are as part of the ferry logo. Incidentally, the coco de mer image is also used as the entry/exit stamp for passports at Seychelles immigration.
At 59 square miles Mahe is, by far, the largest island, and it is home to the capital (Victoria), the international airport, the fishing and commercial ports, most of the population as well as many resorts and hotels, plus four casinos.
In Mahe, we booked one night at Choice Villa in Beau Vallon bay which is northwest of Victoria. We were picked up at the jetty by Cecile, the owner of Choice Villa, who took us to the guest house which, although not directly on the beach, is on a hill overlooking Beau Vallon bay.
Again, the seas were a bit rough and we could here the crashing waves from our room. The beach can be easily accessed across the the street and through the Le Meridien hotel. I’m sure those rooms are a lot more than the 50 Euros we paid for ours!
Cecile had upgraded us to a 60 Euro room (woo-hoo!) which had a kitchen, sitting room, and best of all – two queen beds! After Cecile oriented us to the restaurants and facilities around the area, we took our beach towels and headed out for some pizza and more sunbathing. It was a nice 15-20 minute walk along the beach to the center of Beau Vallon.
We were spoiled by the beaches in Praslin and La Digue so didn’t think the Beau Vallon beach was as nice. Also, at high tide, the beach completely disappears. Poor Diana! She learned this the hard way as she had picked a spot in the middle of the beach, then fell asleep, then was rudely awoken when the tide came in and almost swept her and her flip flops away. I had picked a spot under a tree and closer to land so was nice and dry – but not for long as within another hour, the tide had reached me as well. Oh well, back to the guest house for some reading and napping before dinner.
The next day, we checked out of Choice Villa and jumped into the rental car that Cecile had been so kind to arrange for us. We had a whole day to kill before our red-eye flight at 2am and figured a car would be the best way to see the rest of the island. We drove into Victoria, the capital, where we walked around a bit and enjoyed some lunch from a take-away stand.
As it was market day, we were able to visit the local fish, fruit, and vegetable market:
Then we drove towards Grand Anse (yes, it does seem like there is a Grand Anse on every island), stopped at Anse a la Mouche for some photos, then one last day of basking in the Seychellois sun at Anse Intendence, which is by the lovely 1100-Euro per night Banyan Tree resort. We enjoyed our last Seychelles sunset and said our final goodbyes to the lovely beaches.
After that, we headed towards Vye Marmit in Anse aux Pins for dinner of crab curry and “flying fox” braised in a red wine sauce (flying fox = local fruit bat). All quite tasty! Here is a photo of Diana’s braised bat entree:
Then it was off to the airport and back to Dubai.
La Digue is the fourth largest and third most populated of the Seychelles, with over 2,000 inhabitants.
Getting here from Praslin is quite easy. There is a Inter-Island Ferry that runs a couple times a day, takes about 20 minutes, and costs 10 Euros per person one-way.
We spent two days in La Digue and I would have to say that it is my favorite of the three islands we visited. It was very very laid-back, hardly any traffic, and lovely beaches. Here are some of our photos…
Sunshine Guesthouse – we stayed here for 80 Euro per night including breakfast. The guesthouse is just a 10 minute leisurely walk from the jetty. Diana thinks it looks like the Polyanna house from the outside:
We had a room right in front of the beach (not swimmable due to high waves and it didn’t look particularly clean) but we it was lovely to have the sound of the crashing waves lull us to sleep.
La Digue is pretty small and except for a few taxis and lorries, no other vehicles are allowed on the island. Everyone gets around on bicycles. As the weather had cleared up a bit (but not enough to go to the beach) we decided to hire bikes as well (10 Euros per day each):
We biked the 10 or so minutes to the center of the island, and when the path got too steep, we pushed our bikes as far uphill as we could humanly manage, and then abandoned them altogether and just hiked up, aiming for Nid Aigle, the highest point in La Digue:
We made it as far as the bar:
Nothing like a nice cold beer after a strenuously steep uphill hike nor a nice fresh and tasty mango juice:
We did try to make it to the top of the mountain. We maybe had 20-30 more minutes to climb. But then we got distracted by this not-so-little guy, a baby giant tortoise, that looks like it got stuck in the mud during the rainstorm:
And because of the heavy rains, the trail was no longer visible and I decided not to risk it in case Diana fell off the mountain (which she’s prone too…it runs in the family so I guess I’m prone to as well) and no one would hear our cries for help. We headed down the mountain, back onto our bikes, and pedaled over to Grand Anse for some sunbathing.
The next day, we headed out after breakfast to do some more diving. We had made arrangements with Octopus Divers in Praslin to pick us up at the La Digue jetty as the one and only dive operator in La Digue had shut down operations a few months ago. Sadly, White Tip Divers (the op we had dived with in Praslin) did not do the La Digue run.
When the boat from Octopus Divers showed up at our jetty, we discovered that they had not brought full dive equipment for Diana (no fins!) – they then blamed it on us not making reservations. I promptly told them that I spoke to someone personally and that that someone was standing right next to me. By the time a passerby had offered to find Diana some fins, she was pissed off enough and passed on the whole dive trip. I told her I’d meet her at the next beach and off I went diving. The seas were still pretty rough (again thank god for Dramamine!), we went to a dive site by Felicite Island. The diving wasn’t very good – just rocks, again hardly any coral, fish life was so-so, visibility was even worse than before and our DM was way too chill. I don’t need to be babysat underwater but compared to White Tip Divers, this operator left a lot to be desired.
A juvenile Blue Triggerfish:
A little remora shark that hung out with me during my safety stop:
After my dive, I grabbed my bike and pedaled over to Anse Source d´Argent to meet Diana. As I approached this beach, I could see why it is listed as yet another one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The giant rock formations that surround the beach are amazing. I wish my pictures could do them justice:
Some interesting facts about the Seychelles from Wiki:
As the islands of the Seychelles had no indigenous population, the current Seychellois are composed of people who have immigrated to the island. The largest ethnic groups are those of French, African, Indian, and Chinese descent. French and English are official languages along with Seychellois Creole, which is primarily based upon French. Most Seychellois are Christians; the Roman Catholic Church is the predominant denomination.
We traveled around the island via the local bus system (only 3 rupees = $0.40! per ride) with it’s natural air conditioning of permanently opened windows AND doors. Drivers were very friendly and always helped us with where we needed to go. Roads were very narrow with lots of sharp bends and steep inclines/declines.
Some photos from our two days in Praslin:
Hiking in the Vallee de Mai (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), which is one of only two places in the Seychelles where the Coco de Mer palm grows in its natural state. The female Coco de Mer palm produces a seed that looks like my bum and is the world’s largest seed – to bring one back as a souvineer will set you back 200 Euros and is rather heavy! The male palm produces a phallic looking flower stem. A young Coco de Mer Palm:
Guess which is the male and which is the female part:
Anse Lazio – considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the world:
Diving with White Tip Divers out of the Paradise Sun hotel in Anse Volbert. Great operation and attentive service – from the dive shop manager to the dive masters. Would highly recommend this operator. Boat ride was a bit rough though as a big storm was approaching. Abundant fish life but not much coral. Sadly, the reefs suffered severe coral bleaching in 1998 where almost 75% of all coral suffered mortality. (Coral bleaching is when high water temperatures cause the coral to release their symbiotic algae, leaving them colorless, and without these photosynthetic and nutrient-producing algae, the corals eventually die.)
Visibility was relatively poor due to the recent storms but any diving day is a good day!! Besides the usual fish life, we also saw turtles, octopus, sharks, sting rays, and the following…
Moorish Idol:
Eagle Ray:
Small Panther Electric Ray (about 7 inches):
Next Stop – the island of La Digue…
My sister Diana came to visit me over Chinese New Year. She had 2 weeks holiday so she planned one week in Dubai and for the other week she looked at visiting either Egypt, Maldives, or a host of other places but finally decided on the Seychelles because – get this – her flight from Beijing to Dubai was roughly US$1,000 and to add on the Seychelles leg from Dubai was only US$200 more. Not bad huh? Considering that I paid US$850 for the same flight that cost her $200, she got a great deal.
What the heck are the Seychelles? It is an archipelago of 155 islands in the Indian Ocean about 930 miles east of Africa and northeast of Madagascar. The red “X” below represents Dubai:
Diana flew direct from Beijing on Emirates (9 hours) and I met her at the airport where we continued our journey (4 hours) to Mahe – the main island of the Seychelles.
FLIGHT – I wasn’t very impressed with the Emirates flight at all. (1) There were serious air quality issues and the flight attendants had to go up and down the aisles spraying air neutralizer. (2) “Hot” towels were almost cold by the time they got to me and they were so scraggly and worn-looking that they were barely held together by what was left of the threads. (3) No I.C.E. system – I guess shorter flights do not have I.C.E. so no on-demand movie viewing. There were supposed to be 2 movies on the flight, I think, but due to some technical error, the first movie was repeated halfway through so there wasn’t enough time for a 2nd movie. (3) The blankets smelled grossly sour – imagine the smell of baby puke or smelly feet. Diana had to open up 3 blankets before getting to one that was least smelliest. Not pleasant at all. (4) Food was so-so. I had the omelette and Diana had a cheese sandwich. (5) Alcohol had to be requested – I know it was only 9am but I think Emirates is stingy with their alcohol.
IMMIGRATION – will skip this tale to be revisited another day. In short, the lines took forever and we were mistaken for prostitutes. Luckily, this was the only blemish on our otherwise lovely trip.
GETTING FROM MAHE TO PRASLIN – I had planned the trip so that we would do the outer islands first and then come back to Mahe at the end. We got some rupees at the airport ATM, then hopped on a taxi to the ferry terminal (called a “jetty” here) in Victoria. At the jetty we bought our tickets (40 Euros each, one-way) for the 50-minute boat transfer via catamaran to Praslin.
The Catamaran ferry was much nicer than I had expected. We must have gotten a new boat as all the seats were clean and bright, there were tray tables in front of each seat (like on an airplane), flat screen TVs to watch a movie (I don’t know what movie they were playing but it was horrible – like a “Look Who’s Talking” remake). The ride was quite gentle and the rocking actually put us to sleep.
PRASLIN – At last! We arrived in Praslin. After collecting our bags from the luggage hold, we went in search for a taxi. A nice lady saw that we were lost and called one for us. We were expecting a rinky dinky little car like in Mahe but instead a huge SUV in the form of a Toyota Fortuner pulls up in front of us – leather seats, moon roof, fancy radio system and all. I checked for the presence of a “Taxi” sign on top of the SUV to see if we were indeed getting into the right vehicle and not some pimp-mobile. It even had new car smell! 100 rupees and 10 minutes later, we arrived at our guesthouse on the Western end of the island.
BEACH VILLA GUESTHOUSE – I had booked us into a B&B called Beach Villa for 90 Euros per night. It is located right on the beach at Grand Anse. “Anse” means beach or bay. We were shown to our room (clean, roomy) where we promptly dumped our luggage and then walked the 10 meters from our room to the beach to check out the sunset. The ocean was so beautiful at Grand Anse – barely any waves and the sand was so soft and fine and clean. No seaweed at all except for some small dried up patches closer inland. We took in the fresh ocean air, enjoyed the sunset, and marveled at the amount of stars we could see.
After a quick unpack, and a bit of drama where Diana locked her passport into the room safe but couldn’t recall the password, we headed out in search of dinner. Good thing I remembered my flashlight as the streets were not lit up at all. We had our first meal at Britannia Inn – Diana had a crab curry (so yummy!!) and I had grilled job fish (so-so).
Locally brewed, Bavaria-style beer, “Eku”:
I know, I know, I have been very delinquent lately at blogging. Over 3 weeks without a post! After my last post, we lost all internet service in my area due to the damaged undersea cables. You’ve probably already heard about this incident as it’s old news by now. But if you haven’t, go ahead and read about it here on Wiki (boy, Wiki’s fast). Latest reports are that the cables were not cut accidentally – how do 5 fiber optic cables “accidentally” get damaged within a few days time of each other? And they all just happen to be in the Middle East? Hmm…
At first, the cable cuts significantly slowed down my web browsing but by Jan 31st, I was cut off completely from the internet. As I was leaving for the Seychelles on Feb 2nd, this meant that I could not print out any of my flight details nor hotel confirmations. DB said web service wasn’t restored in our area until Feb 4th or 5th.
Speaking of the Seychelles, that is the other reason I have been MIA. My sister Diana flew from Beijing to Dubai where I met her at the airport and we continued together to the Seychelles (about a 4-hour flight due South from Dubai). We spent a week there sunning and exploring the islands, then back to Dubai where Diana spent a week with DB and me. It was great to have my sister around again. Now I just need to get the parental units and my other li’l sis over.
More pictures and details to come later – promise!
I will leave you with a photo of the beach in front of our guest house in Praslin (the 2nd largest island in the Seychelles):
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