Day 2

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Day 2

The perfect place to do absolutely nothing.....

Next morning, went to have a (poor) buffet breakfast in the exotically named restaurant called "Parrot". No more comments.

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Went to check if tour operator is present. No sign still. One staff said to come back by 09am. So we went for a walk round the hotel. It had rained the night before. So everything smelt fresh. We checked out some giant tortoises which where there in the hotel premises itself. I have never seen such gentle creatures.

And by 09 we went to the desk. He was not there still. It was a lil annoying. But then this is where Shamal comes in. This lovely lady who actually works at the car hire counter called up her friend and arranged a tour for us. A trip to the 2 popular islands i.e. Praslin and La digue. It would cost us 140 Euro per person. Phew!!! Yeah hole in our pockets but….then off we went. Our new friends name was James.

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Next stop La digue.

We basically had 2 choices to travel the high-speed catamaran ferry, or fly in a little aircraft. We chose the catamaran for a different experience. And boy was it different or what.

The inside of the ferry was really nice. Comfortable sofas and chairs. It even had a TV. The Jackie Chan movie Rush Hour was playing. Each seat had a motion sickness bag too (first sign of things to come), which we didn't notice when we sat down. There were automatic air fresheners bolted to the wall on each side of the room, which we didn't notice also (second sign of things to come). The weather was actually bad. The wind was blowing a lil hard and maybe drizzling a bit.

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As soon as the ferry rounded the corner out of the harbor, and it started to get a bit bouncy, one of the staff came over to us and asked if we were okay. Can you believe it!! He turns out to be the official seasickness chief. He has 3 or 4 assistants working with him to "ease the passengers."

This hour long ride was torturous to say the least. The sea sickness chief used to come every few minutes to give us a paper bag and used to give us extra saying for “stand by”. Not only us, even some of the locals were having it bad. Several times it felt like the ferry was going to tip over - huge swells, rocking back and forth; we decided then and there that we are flying back. And James was saying that we are actually now in the newstate of the art catamaran that has an amazing new stabilizer. Some stabilizer!! He cannot imagine what we would be suffering if we were to take the early morning ride which had no stabilizer. Gosh!!

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The ride seemed endless.

It was a little sad; all of us were paying a lot of money to get seasick so that we could spend three hours on an island.

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We fumbled out of the boat and just sat on the curb. We had some tender coconut water and then we were off to see the island.

James and our new driver Ihlas took us straight to the Anse Source D'Argent, the much ballyhooed "most beautiful place on earth." Well...in my humble opinion, the claim is 100% accurate!

Bonjour mes amis. Welcome to paradise. The sea is warm, shallow and inviting with a color only imagined by a paintbrush.

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Even though it was overcast with a gray sky so the turquoise hues of the water were subdued, it truly is unbelievable. Our photos don't even begin to do the place justice. We had our much needed rest and were totally rejuvenated after an hour on the beach.

This is a small island with a population of hardly 2000. Time moves at a leisurely pace here. Time honored modes of transport like Ox-carts and bicycles are still king.

We took a small trip to the L'Union Estate where you can see the traditional copra mill complete with the ox going round and round. Of course we spent some time watching the antics of the giant land tortoises. As usual they were mostly enjoying themselves and doing what they do best - lots of shagging! :D. Apparently in the times gone by when a baby was born one of the baby gifts would be a baby tortoise, which would mature along with the child, and would be served at the wedding feast when the child got married. They are the longest-lived animals on earth. No one knows exactly how long these animals are capable of living, but they are believed to easily surpass 100 years.

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We then took a stroll around the coconut and vanilla plantation. One can also go horseback riding but our stomach disposition was not conducive. hehehe

It was time to go to the next island Praslin.

Praslin Island

According to Legends, Praslin Island is “the” legendary Garden of Eden, and that the famous Coco de Mer palm –unique to the island – is the fruit of knowledge of good and evil that led to the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise.

Coco de Mer palm.

There is a male and a female tree, both of which have seeds larger than coconuts. By the magic of nature’s coincidence, the male seed looks like the male private parts, while the female seed resembles a girl’s pelvis. Scientists do not yet know how the Coco de Mer reproduces. Local legends have their own explanations: Under the light of full moon, the male tree moves over to the female tree for a tryst of love much like mammals, and any human who witness the act of passion is condemned to death or immediate blindness by the spell of the magical trees. No wonder it’s seen as aphrodisiac for kings. Other than as a botanical curiosity and producer of expensive souvenirs, the Coco de Mer has little use to man. The gelatinous meat of the nut (which some have compared to congealed semen) is tasteless and apparently of little or no nutritional value. It used to be a delicacy, but anyone caught eating a coco-de-mer these days gets five years prison. If you want, you'll be able to buy and bring one home with you, a souvenir of your time in Eden. But it can set one back $250.

James told us that majority of the children are born out of wedlock, as traditional marriages are expensive. Sexual relationship without marriage is common here and carries little social stigma. Most of these children are, however, legally acknowledged by their fathers.

Perhaps this is the effect of that fabled aphrodisiac, Coco de Mer, whose huge female seed appears everywhere in Seychelles as its tourism logo. It’s on stamps, stickers, postcards, t-shirts, cookies, drinks, and even as passport stamps! If you have a pelvis staring at you everywhere all the time, your thoughts will turn to sex too! Hahaha

Any way our journey back was on the 36-seater SD 360 on Air Seychelles. But it was thousand times better than the swaying stomach churning catamaran.

We came back showered and headed straight for the bed. Our biggest regret was that we could not see a single sunrise or sunset because of the weather. But there's always a next time..