Seychelles

Up at 5 a.m. the next morning and back to the airport for our flight to Doha. Yep, Doha. (John says: Doha is in Qatar on the Arabian Peninsular and is part of the United Arab Emirates. I had no idea where it was either!)

When we booked these flights way back in July/August last year, we had so many that I neglected to notice that our flight to Seychelles from Sri Lanka was via Doha with –wait for it – an 8 hour layover in the middle of the night! Yes, you read that right – an eight hour layover! Not to worry, I was convinced that they would have internet and we had lots of books to read, and, well, we would just have to suck it up and deal with it.

Bring Dollars not Rupees.

However, with angels sitting on both our shoulders, when we got to Doha, we were immediately guided to a separate desk, rather than going through the transit lounge. We waited in this line, not really knowing why, a little like lost sheep, but when we made it to the front of the counter it turned out that Qatar Airlines was putting us up in a hotel, free of charge with dinner and a snack for breakfast! Brilliant.

Off we went to the Al Seef Hotel, in Doha where we were given this great room on the fifth floor. Why is it that we always get these great rooms when we are only spending one night somewhere?

Dinner was a buffet and as it was about 11 pm and we had actually been given quite a good meal on the plane, we didn’t eat much. At 5 a.m., once again up for the onward flight. We went downstairs to get our “snack” which turned out to be a drink of tea/coffee/orange juice. Only one choice and only one cup – but hey, it was all free, so mustn’t grumble. (John says: Someone is on a good deal here. I was asked to sign the voucher for dinner and our breakfast snack. It was 100 Riel’s for dinner and 40 Riel’s for breakfast. I had asked for another cup of coffee but was told I had to pay. I had already seen the menu on the table and coffee was listed at 12 Riel’s a cup. Nice little profit)

Back to Doha airport to go on to Seychelles.

When we got to the airport at the Seychelles, we were asked for our onward ticket. We didn’t have a physical current ticket, only the one we were issued at the outset of the trip which was now expired. We hadn’t had the opportunity to print the new reservations. So the very nice lady at immigration ran over to Kenya Airways and got it for us before we could be allowed into the country. I guess they want to make sure we all leave.

Once through the gates (with a quick stop at duty free to pick up wine) our taxi driver was beginning to panic – everyone else had come through the gates except us. I stopped for a quick ATM break to pull out Seychelles Rupees – more on that later – and then a quick 25 minute ride to Beau Vallon and our hotel. (John says: the taxi driver was desperately trying to get me to stop Lynne. You’ll get a much better rate if you just exchange your dollars in a shop or on the beach he said. I couldn’t convince Lynne. It took a menu with Seychelles prices and a gas station attendant to do that!)

Now then, what have we been doing in the Seychelles? We moved hotels again because the one we booked over the internet just wouldn’t do. It was up the hill again, and had no beach, no pool, no internet, a very weak breakfast, and a manager who wasn’t really warm and fuzzy.

So, the first evening we were here, we were walking along the beach and passed a bar attached to a hotel. John was distracted by some local guy trying to buy our dollars, and I heard an English voice at the bar. There were three young people drinking, all early 20s and I asked them if they were staying at the hotel. They said yes, and really liked it. They are here with Global Visions Inc., a company that sends people to different places to try and do some good. They are in the Seychelles keeping an eye on the coral and the turtles. (John says: They were doing surveys of the fish types, numbers of turtles sighted and reef configuration. We did hear later that the data they collected wasn’t actually used anywhere. The whole thing was just a good idea for a vacation for people who wanted an active holiday. Richard said it cost him $4,000 for 10 weeks. I guess $400 a week was pretty good for the Seychelles but really expensive for say Vietnam. I guess it depends on which project you get.) The long and the short of it was, one of the guys, Richard, showed us his room and told us it included a wonderful buffet breakfast (he was right about the breakfast), and we were sold. To top it off, it had a dive school attached, and apparently if we booked the hotel through them, we got a certain amount off the dives or something.

We went back to where we were staying and didn’t unpack. Next morning we boogied down to the dive shop where we met Glynnis the owner, who has been here for 21 years but is originally from Scotland, and she put us in the Coral Strand Hotel, where we are now, for a great rate and John (or I) got 6 dives. Not a bad deal. While I was booking in, John went back to the hotel to tell them we were moving out. It was his turn to tell someone we were leaving early.

In the meantime, I rented a car – well more like a Rav4/Jeep vehicle, so we could run around and check out the rest of the island. (John says: Silly me. I did it again. I left Lynne alone. I should know better by now. The idea was that I would go and pack, tell our original hotel we were leaving while Lynne checked in and then Glynnis was going to drive down in her SUV to pick up our cases for us. Unfortunately, the rental car place was right next to Reception. I can just imagine the conversation.

Thrifty car sales guy, “Hi, Do you need a …”

“Sure!” says Lynne.

Thrifty sales guy “Well, they cost about …”

“That’s fine! We’ll take one!” says Lynne.

I’m waiting for Lynne to show up with Glynnis and this huge SUV and she arrives with a Tonka toy in which we just manage to get the cases and backpacks into.)

I drove up to our old hotel and picked up John and the cases. The landlady had agreed to keep our extra night’s fee as her cancellation. Our feelings about her were correct.

Anyway we were standing at the reception desk waiting for our key and I asked what kind of room we had and they said a mountain view. I jokingly said wasn’t there one with a sea view and a balcony – and, guess what? There was! What’s more, we got it. (John says: Lynne is great at this. She has managed to charm many a hotel on this trip to upgrading our room) It’s actually a family room with a double bed in one room and bunk beds and a sofa in the other portion. Very cool.

So now we are staying in a great place right on the beach with breathtaking sunsets and a great room – karma! We were as yet unaware of the giant tortoises which had an enclosure just at the back of our hotel, and the palm spider which lived in the tree outside our room.

As I had the car for the day, once we unpacked we drove around the top of the island and fell across this fairytale cove called Carana. We were driving up the hill and glanced to our right and there was a small cove. John backed up and we found a trail leading down. John walked down it first and then pronounced it safe for the car and we drove down to this white sandy, blue water beach. It was only missing the low palm tree and the hammock. The water was warm and calm and it was idyllic. We swam and played there for a long while, but unfortunately, we hadn’t come equipped with towels or water or food to be able to stay all day. We asked a passing local what the name of the beach was and she told us. She also said to be careful of “robbers” that hide among the palm trees and rocks and will steal your belongings. I was told this when I rented the car too – not to leave anything in it because of “robbers”. I have to say, we are on our last day and have yet to see any robbers.

I have to add here, that the beach at the hotel wasn’t bad either. On the first day we went into the water here, not only was it clear enough to see the fish swimming around (there were loads) but you could also see their shadows!

Over the next week John did his dives. He even managed to join me on a snorkel trip between dives and we saw a turtle and an eagle ray, and all kinds of colorful fish and coral. The seascape is really pretty down there. I’ll let John fill you in on the actual diving he did. While he was doing that I sat on the beach or around the pool careful to avoid too much sun.

(John says: It was good to dive again. I had been disappointed that there was no diving in Sri Lanka. I had heard that the diving there was good, plus every dive is more experience of different sites, operations and conditions, all of which I cannot get enough of if we want to open our own dive shop some time.

The dive shop here seemed pretty good and Billy, who we first spoke to, seemed very relaxed and friendly in a competent sort of way. Good first impression.

I did two dives the second day we were here. I’m just not used to someone putting my gear together and it will take some time before I get the “I’m the customer” attitude. Like many tropical resorts, there is no pier and you just put your gear on, head down the beach and wade out to the boat. Most of the time there is no surf to worry about. The Seychelles are granite islands and that’s what makes up most of the formations close to the island. There are some coral heads but in the main its granite boulders. No complaints though, it’s warm water diving at about 88 deg. F and what I consider half decent visibility at 10m even if the locals think it bad. I think I have seen at least one turtle on every dive with a bunch of Eagle Rays, Parrot Fish, Lion Fish, and Scorpion Fish as well.

The only down side that first day was having to use rental gear. I really do miss my own, not that theirs was bad, it just wasn’t mine. The one thing that became a problem though was the fins. They have the standard full foot fins and unfortunately the pair I had was just a little to narrow for my foot. I started to notice a little discomfort at the end of the second dive and when we got out I found I had a nice blister on the inside of each foot right at the broadest part (Lynne: I’m re-editing here - the ‘blisters’ John talks about are actually quite nasty ½ inch holes in his feet). This was to prove a pain in the neck (or foot!) for the rest of our time here, not just the diving. I am happy to go around in bare feet most of the time, but there are times you just have to wear shoes. To do this I had to put a plaster on each blister and then tape up my feet. The only tape we had was the packing tape left from Sri Lanka. I looked really silly with brown packing tape wrapped around my feet! Still, it allowed me to keep diving. I eventually did three more dives here and they were all enjoyable. Ok, you say, just enjoyable? Well, let’s face it, a bad day’s diving is still better than a good day in the office and these were not bad by any stretch of the imagination. However, comma, but…Maybe I’m just here in the wrong season but I wouldn’t put the Seychelles in my top three, but then neither is Pattaya or Vietnam. Cozumel and the coast of Mexico are still my favorites with Belize and maybe the Caymans next.)

We did actually get to know some of the dive guys, and one of them filled us in on how the currency works here. Apparently, locals can’t get US$ or Euros. They have to trade in rupees. The big hotels and car rental places have to be paid in US$ or Euros. This may not seem like a big deal, but if a local wants to buy a plane ticket or rent a car, he has to do it in US$ or Euros, which he isn’t allowed to have. So, we were constantly being asked if we wanted to sell dollars at a higher rate than the bank would give us.

John will tell you I did my first black-market deal when I bought gas for the car. The cost was 100 rupees. The bank rate is 6 rupees to the dollar, but I asked the gas attendant (a local) how much in dollars and he said $10. That’s 10 rupees to the dollar. I’m afraid I couldn’t get into changing money on the beach, and its just as well because some locals are literally printing their own money and selling it to tourists, who, obviously don’t recognize the difference between fake and real rupees. Interesting perspective on this little African island in the Indian Ocean.

On Monday nights here, they have a Manager’s cocktail party and we went. It’s pretty much a “hello – these are your restaurant managers.” But there were also tables displaying things you might want to do during your stay in Mahe. On one of the tables was information about snorkeling trips in a glass bottom boat (but it wasn’t actually going out on the day we wanted, it was getting painted!) and also information about a four hour climb into the rainforest.

I know I’m not the athletic type, but the pictures of the rainforest looked pretty good, so I asked about the fitness level required to do this hike and was told that its pretty much tailored for the hikers. It turned out that we would be the only ones going the next morning, so we signed up. What was I thinking? (John says: My thoughts exactly! What are you thinking! Hiking up a mountain would only come second to grocery shopping in a supermarket for Lynne which she absolutely hates! Plus, here am I with two new holes in my feet….I swear, if you have the enthusiasm, you can sell Lynne the Brooklyn Bridge!)

Next morning at 8:30 off we went with a guide to climb Mount Copolia. Our guide, Basil, was the Seychellois’ version of Crocodile Dundee – hat and all! He was very knowledgeable and told us what all the plants and flowers could be used for in the way of medicine. He definitely believes in the old ways and told us he grows a lot of the medicinal plants in his own garden – just in case. We didn’t see much in the way of animals or reptiles, just a couple of lizards and a small snake, which I suppose is good. The climb up was half scrambling over rocks and half tiered mud with logs making the steps up. It is well done, and even I could do it (although probably much slower than most).

Once we reached the summit (that’s what you call the top of a mountain, ha ha ha ha) its about 500 meters high, the view was amazing. Basil had brought sandwiches and we sat up there just looking over everything and eating. Wouldn’t you know it, it began to rain. With the wind and the rain it was really exhilarating. The rain only lasted a few minutes, but the wind was quite strong. Basil told us it can get really cold up there at different times of the year.

If you ever come to the Seychelles, you should take Basil’s trip, it’s worth the money and he really does know his stuff.(John says: It was a good day and Basil was very knowledgeable, although after a while I got a little overloaded trying to remember the names of the six different types of ferns! It cost us $135 for the day. I am not sure the walk was worth that much, but it was worth every penny to see Lynne make it to the top. I know that if it had just been the two of us she would have lost the plot early on and turned back, with Basil she couldn’t do that.)

What else did we do? Well, we spent a fair bit of time in the internet café skype-ing Fiona and trying to organize our e-tickets for the rest of our trip. They are all done now, and we have a return date to the States.

Oh yes, and one night we did something called Enjoy the Beauty of the Southern Skies by Jacques, which was essentially stargazing. I saw Saturn and the moon, and even traversed the moon’s surface using a computer gizmo. (John says: Jacques had a telescope hooked up to a computerized mount. This allowed him to input the coordinates for any object in the sky, star or satellite, and the telescope would automatically find it in the sky and then track it. It allowed us to really zoom in on the moon and then use the arrow keys to move around the surface. Very cool!) Let me tell you, when I looked in and saw the rings of Saturn, it looked like someone had stuck a sticker on the inside of the telescope - it was so clear. And the moon, the moon is not made of cheese! Jacques also showed us something called the jewel box which was a collection of different colored stars and then some other stuff but I began to lose the plot after the moon. And Jupiter, well Jupiter was just a bright light with four moons around it (I know there are more, but that’s what we could see). But Saturn was still amazing to me.

We also went into Victoria (the capital) on the bus. That was fun. Its only 3 rupees on the bus as opposed to 100 by taxi. The bus, hmmm, well its an older style coach that literally flings itself around these hairpin bends. Beau Vallon, which is where we are staying is on the other side of the island, so we had to go over the top and it’s a very windy road. But, the bus is the biggest thing on the road, so things do move out of the way. There is no air conditioning, just open windows. Oh, and the seat configuration, there are two sets of seats, one on each side of the bus. One set holds two people, the other holds three. Now the Seychellois are not small people and to see three of them sit on one seat would be a miracle! We did have three on our seat coming home.

Victoria is a quaint little town. Very bright, and people everywhere. There is a fish market in the center of town called the Selwyn Selwyn market after one of the governors of the island. We went to the police station to get directions to a pharmacy and the tourist information center. Let’s just say we never found the tourist information center, and we had to ask again about the pharmacy – twice! The Seychellois speak Creole, French and English in that order. But they speak them all well.

When you are in amongst the people, you can imagine how this used to be when it was a pirates island.

We went to the Natural History Museum, which was 20 rupees each and was divided up into sections. Seychelles has an interesting history with the French and then the English and then independence in 1976. Mahe, the main island (there are 145 altogether) was used as a dropping off point for slaves, as well as a home for exiles in later years – the most famous being Archbishop Makarios who was exiled from Cyprus. One of the outer islands, Curieuse (I think that’s how you spell it) was a leper colony for a while too. It didn’t take long to walk around the museum and it did give us a snapshot of where we were.

Then on to the Pirates Arms for lunch. Someone suggested we go there, and I’m not sure why. It is a nice enough place, the fish was good, but nothing special. It was, however, packed. So maybe it’s just the “only” place in town. (John says: It really had about eight prime tables that lined the front of the restaurant and looked out onto the street. That’s the place to have lunch.)

On Wednesday nights, just down from our hotel, the locals have what can only be described as a small street fair. People set up grills and sell cooked food, and others sell fresh fruit. Some people are artisans and are selling necklaces, or paintings. Worthwhile, and although we didn’t eat there, by all accounts it is perfectly safe to do so. Even if you don’t eat, take a stroll down and admire everything.

There is also a great little goldmine of a place called the Boathouse which has an all you can eat Creole BBQ for 145 rupees each. Its great food, and if you are hungry a wonderful place to go. The wine/beer is priced a little high and is obviously where they make their money, so be careful. They only take cash.

The food is set in an old boat and really well presented. On one side they had tons of different types of salads, octopus salad, bean salad, mango salad, potato salad, breadfruit, and at least six different curries on the other side. At the end there was a chef broiling the most wonderful tuna steaks. Yum.

There only seems to be one seating, and that is at 7:30 pm so if you go, make a reservation and be prepared to sit next to strangers as they sit family style.

My overall impression of the Seychelles, is that it is the playground for the fat cats, mainly Russians with younger wives, then Germans, then French with a smattering of Brits. It’s not cheap here by any means. (John says: The government is causing the high prices with its currency regulations. The locals are starved for dollars which they need to buy big ticket items like cars or plane tickets. That’s why there is so much black market action every where you turn. Hotels are required to convert some of the money for each sale to rupees and give it to the government, so everybody bumps their prices to cover that. Some of the people who live there feel it’s out of control and that the rupee will have to be revalued soon) The type of folk who are here are older, no backpackers on this beach! Most of the women here (both tourists and locals) are fairly large. I feel quite svelte amongst this lot. I could probably even buy clothes here (which was hard to do in Asia).

We didn’t island hop here, so we didn’t get to see Praslin or La Digue, which are very popular (although beware of sandflies on La Digue) but I don’t think we would come back to the Seychelles, nice beaches, but not really our scene.