Sand, Sunshine and Seychelles!

Thank you all for your love and responses on our previous post (Merhaba Turkey) !! Until our next trip, join us for a walk down memory lane of our travels so far….

First year of marriage, many people consider it to be an important milestone in your life (people may even say its more important than a Honeymoon) as you have now spent a year with the person who will be your HumSafar for the rest of your life. To celebrate this occasion, we decided to visit charming lands of Seychelles in June 2018.

Seychelles offers Visa on arrival for Indians, so there was no hassle or formality involved there. The best flight we found was from Mumbai, so we booked another airline from Bangalore with a sufficient buffer to board our international flight, Air Seychelles, a direct flight from Mumbai to Mahe on time.

We had booked our travel through an agent, who luckily for us had themselves visited Seychelles and were thus able to guide us really well with the itinerary and things to do. They suggested us to split our trip into 2 islands Praslin and Mahe, and explore other islands on day tours.

Day 1– After a long journey from Bangalore to Mahe via Mumbai, we were greeted at the airport by our driver around 8:30 AM who took us to the jetty to catch a ferry to Praslin. Our hotel was a bit secluded, away from the markets and busy areas, but it was a beautiful property complete with 2 swimming pools, a private beach and a sea view restaurant. The hotel also had sea-facing villas with private pools which could be booked for bigger groups. We had the day at leisure, so decided to rent a self-drive car and explore the island. After driving around for a bit, headed to visit one of the best beaches in the world as per Google, Anse Lazio. The beach lived up to the hype and expectation we had- clear blue pristine ocean, soft white sand and only a handful of people on the beach. A mesmerising sight at sunset! We clicked some pictures and made our way back to the hotel. Due to lack of a map or GPS, we ended up losing our way while driving back (in my defence, the roads were hilly, with very less streetlights or signboards). We managed to reach our hotel with the help of a few locals, in time for a nice dinner at the seaside restaurant before calling it a day.

Day 2– We had booked ourselves on the La Digue tour which was a full day activity on another island.  Our driver picked us up in the morning and we took a schooner from the jetty to visit the La Digue islands. The ride was around an hour long, and quite bumpy, but we were too engrossed with the view and crystal clear waters to be bothered. Upon reaching the island, we were provided with bicycles to explore the island on our own. We managed to cover the length of the island, from a secluded lane by the sea to the other more crowded tourist spots such as L’Union Estate, the Giant Tortoise pen, Colonial plantation house, and Anse Source d’Argent – another one among the most spectacular beaches in the world. We were told bird watchers could also sight the Paradise Fly Catcher, but we weren’t lucky enough (or maybe just didn’t recognise it even if we did see it). The boat took us back to our jetty, with the bumpiness more prominent now that we were tired. We were back at our hotel by evening, and didn’t have the energy to explore any more after all the cycling and retired for the night.

Day 3– We took a bus right outside our hotel to visit Vallee De Mai, which is a reserved forest and has numerous kinds of flora and fauna. Since we were short on time, we decided to roam around the place without a guide, only relying on the sign boards talking about the various kinds of lifeforms that we could potentially see there. After the tour, we were shown the Coco De Mer, which is the biggest nut in the world and weighs anywhere between 15 to 30 kgs! This fruit is considered auspicious by the locals and was served at major functions such as weddings in the past and is still also used for medicinal purposes. Apparently one Coco De Mer takes 6-10 years to mature and it is thus forbidden to pluck the fruit and it must be allowed to ripen and fall on its own. There was also a funny side to all these amazing facts, the uncanny resemblance the shape of the seed has to the female buttocks.

After this wonderful and informative tour, we headed back to the hotel where our driver was waiting to take us to the jetty so we could reach Mahe, our next destination. The hotel in Mahe, was a separate world in itself. The hotel was on an island, accessible via a bridge, and the property also had a mall inside of it along with luxurious sea facing villas. It also had a private jetty, where we saw multiple sailboats and yachts parked. In fact, if you plan a trip to Mahe, your agent may sell you a half day tour which includes a large amount of time at the Eden island itself! Since we were staying there already, we explored it at our leisure. Our Anniversary dinner was planned at the Maharaja Restaurant (Yes, Indian food!), with beautiful candle light setting by the dock.

Day 4– We didn’t have a tour pre-planned for today and thus rented a self drive vehicle to explore Mahe on our own. Kudos to Michael, the guest relations manager at the hotel, who charmed us with his amazing hospitality and very useful suggestions of where we should drive around. He even gave us a detailed map which had indications of restaurants, petrol pumps and all things useful. As suggested by him, we ended up driving to the far end of the island along the shoreline reaching a beautiful beach which is not commercial and mainly visited by locals and was hence untouched. The view from there was mind blowing and definitely worth the trouble!! After driving around the city, stopping time and again for photographs, we reached one of the most famous casinos in Mahe, Gran Kaz, and gambled a bit (meaning lost some hard earned money) before driving back to our hotel for the night.

Day 5–  We had booked ourselves for the Marine park tour, which included a glass boat ride to view marine life, snorkelling and feeding the fish in the deep sea, and relaxing at Moyenne island. There was a steady drizzle early that day, which would have spoilt our plans of the glass bottom boat as visibility gets poor. Luckily for us, the rain stopped and we were off. The boat had around 30-40 people including the crew, who were all very excited for the trip like us. They halted the boat in the middle of the sea, for us to feed the fish around us (only bread which the crew provided us with, nothing else). We also got into the water with the snorkelling kit provided by the team and enjoyed the cold blue waters. Apparently few of the fellow passengers also saw an octopus and turtle too, but we weren’t lucky enough. Once we were all tired from the snorkelling, we went ashore, where there were arrangements made for lunch and entertainment. The island was also home to giant tortoises, which were absolutely majestic! There was a small band with drums and a guitar who were entertaining the crowd. A group slowly gathered to dance around the band, and following suit so did we. After spending the entire day on the island, we headed back to the hotel and retired after a nice dinner at the dock area.

Day 6– As this was our last day at Seychelles, we left our luggage at the cloak room and headed out after an early breakfast to explore the Victoria market area. Along with some big stores, it is also a good place for street shopping such as clothes, pickles, spices etc. After looking around for a bit we ended up in another smaller casino which mainly had slot machines, (yes, lost yet again). Grabbed some lunch at a nearby mall before heading back to our hotel. Lazed around there for sometime by the pool, savouring the view and clear blue skies. Michael was kind enough to arrange a room for an hour so we could freshen up before our flight. Our driver was scheduled to pick us up in sometime for the airport, and we were just wishing time stopped for awhile and our stay could be extended a bit (maybe forever?).

Few Pointers:

• The self drive vehicle we got at both islands were automatic. Tell them in advance if you need a manual as the availability is normally low
• Vegetarian food is a bit difficult to come by, but you will find Pizza and Pasta almost everywhere. That is actually really good!!
• The currency used is Seychellois Rupee, but USD and Euros is also widely accepted (didn’t use my credit card anywhere so can’t comment on that). We carried USD and converted a bit to Seychellois Rupee at the Mahe Airport for day to day expenses
• Hotels may ask for a small refundable deposit of around 100 USD, so keep that in mind at time of check-in.
• We didn’t explore water sports at Mahe, but if you are interested there are a lot of options near Beau Vallon.
• English is generally understood everywhere, so there shouldn’t be any communication issues
• Public transport is well connected, easily accessible and quite reasonable
• Approx. costs of trip (all prices for 2)
  • Total package (including all tours and flights)- USD 2500
  • Self drive vehicles around USD 50-60 per day
  • Overheads (Meals, Fuel, Shopping etc.)- USD 900-1100

Hotels we stayed at:

• Praslin– Castello Beach Resort
• Mahe– Eden Bleu Hotel

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