For ten days my husband and I explored paradise and discovered what the tour guides tout as the ‘original Garden of Eden’. It was a more-than-perfect choice for a honeymoon. I was with my honey however the entire time we did not see the moon.
The Seychelles is located 1,800 kilometers east of Kenya in the middle of the Indian Ocean. There are 115 islands of which three contain the majority population. Mahe, the main island has 70,000 inhabitants most of whom live in or near the capital, Victoria. Praslin, the second largest island has a population of round 5,000 and lastly La Digue, 3×5 kilometers with around 2,000 people. The official languages are English and French however the Seychellians speak Creole.
That’s the result of over 200 years of British and French rule. Indigenous people did not inhabit these islands. Slaves were brought there and the former colonial rulers mingled with the population.
Today the formidable blend of African, Indian, Asian and European have produced a people so hospitable, warm, enchanting and peaceful so as to put the so-called American ‘melting-pot’ concept to shame.
Unlike other former colonies, whose invaders forced the locals to adopt their Christianity through religious cleansing and propaganda on the scale of which the world is still suffering, the Seychellians were spared this psychological violence. The majority practices an entirely non-Western version of Catholicism whilst Hindu, Muslim, Protestant and hundreds of other sects co-exist harmoniously side by side
Mahe
We slumbered at a first class hotel, Le Meridien Fisherman’s Cove located on the Baie Vallon beach, which is on the northwest tip of the island. The airport is near the capital Victoria. Upon arrival we were greeted by at least ten species of birds all cackling, tweeting, flapping and singing. A rush of birds in cerulean bluish-green, ruby red and coconut white pranced by our beachfront property awaiting tidbits from the ‘welcome basket’.
Walking along the Baie Vallon I met Henry, a local retired fisherman who carved coconuts and made bracelets from twine. He knotted and braided a bracelet for me but first quizzed me on whether the bracelet was male or female. Apparently if the braid at the end is cross-legged well, that means female because the male is clutched in her grip and cannot get away. Great metaphor if you’re a black spider kinda woman or into dominating men. We tend towards the rule of union=equality so my husband and I switched wearing the bracelet.
Pure, unadulterated and free from tourists. Baie Vallon Beach.The Indian Ocean is erratic and each bay, private beach and shoal has it’s own personality, depth and color. No matter where you venture on the Seychelles you will find some of the very best beaches in the world. National Geographic and the World Heritage Foundation send their divers to the many islands to photograph the wildlife and almost extinct birds, tortoises and mammals.
The weather is roughly 28-30 degrees Celsius all year round except for the sturm und-drung rainy season in April – May. Sometimes in October it can also be rainy. If you despise humidity either bring a suitcase of Kleenex, a sun umbrella and bottled water with spray or forget the Seychelles since it precipitates 80% on average.
Food for Thought
The food is fantastic – Creole seafood, grilled fishes of exotic varieties such as bourzwa (red snapper variety), king fish (thick white steaks), tuna, sword and sailfish, shark and tec tec (shells collected on the beach and made into soup). Don’t miss the rabbit fish, without buckteeth or long furry ears. These little rabbits can swim! Most of the food is grilled on a BBQ and smothered in curries and intoxicating blends of lime, chili and hot sauce.
Digging in to creole seafoodThere’s a superstition that if one consumes breadfruit one will return to the Seychelles. I had three helpings just to insure my return. You probably won’t return if you don’t like the taste of floury air with a nutty aroma. It is something like potato chips. Fruits are scrumptious and filling. Paw paws (papayas), jackfruit (smells disgusting like rotting meat) and is delicious, pears, mangos, corosol, bigredes (mini oranges made into jam) and passion fruit. At breakfast your tastebuds will cry out in ecstasy over the fruit jams composed of these delectable wonders.
Victoria and beyond
Victoria is the capitol of Mahe. Spend some time visiting the fish Market, The Hindu Temple and the Botanical Gardens. The gardens contain over one hundred sorts of palm trees and many huge tortoises. The most famous Coco de Mer grows only on the Seychelles and is said to have inspired the legend of the Garden of Eden. The plant can weigh up to 50 kilos and comes in male and female form. More on this under Praslin.
From Victoria we rented a taxi from Claude Moise. Pascal Village, Mahe. Telephone: (+248)51 02 22 or (+248)26 60 54. He’s friendly, jovial and knows every nook and cranny on the island of Mahe. Claude drove us to the hideaway beach of Anse Intendance southwest on the island hailed as one of the best beaches on the Indian Ocean by many travel writers including moi! Rolling waves and half a mile of white powdery sand ensconced by huge granite boulders, palms and itsy bitsy crabs, monarch butterflies and fossilized coral. You can swim if you dare and are capable of passing the waves. There is a strong undertow.
From there we drove to The Tea Plantation. Highly recommended is the vanilla tea. Bring some home, it costs about one tenth of what you’d spend in Europe. We then drove onto the ruins of the Mission built in 1875 by the Anglican Church Missionary Society. From the vantage point high over the mountains we could imagine the Arabs and Brits hauling in slaves from Africa and Zanzibar to this paradise. The thought was utterly depressing and in contradiction to the serenity of nature and Claude’s endless jokes so we got back in the car.
A few minutes later Claude stopped at a hairpin turn in the mountain to pluck fresh lemongrass from the side of the road. He proudly gave us enough for 15 bouquet garni.
Moyenne Island is one of many small islands east of Victoria. We did the glass bottom boat thang. Once we were about 10 meters down we heard a lot of grumbling Italian, German, Russian and French tourists. We witnessed around five species including zebra fish, yellow goldfish, big blubbery blue fishes and then swish swish no more fish. Just murk, blue cascades of bubbles from the rudder and pulverized sand whipping up a storm. Oh well another time.
Praslin
Praslin is a 45-minute flight from Victoria. This is the creme de la creme of the Seychelles. The shape of the island is like a frog or grenouille. Next time I return I will spend most of it on Praslin going ribbit, ribbit, with side trips to other islands I did not get a chance to visit this time around - Bird Island, Denis Island, Fregate and Felicite. Praslin is where Somerset Maugham and Ian Fleming have spent many of their holidays.
It’s enchanting, luxurious and rich with plant life. Frangipani, marigolds, Bourgenvilla, mangroves, orchids. One of the main attractions on Praslin is the Valee de Mer, a World Heritage Site. Here you can find the site of the Garden of Eden. The story goes that since the coco de mer tree is in both male and female form and to be found only on the Seychelles, duality began here. The nut of the female coco de mer can weigh up to 22 kilos, making it the heaviest seed on earth. It takes 2 years to germinate, 25 years to bear fruit and seven years from fertilization of the female flower to maturity of the fruit. If that is too long for you to wait till your woman bears enough fruit, well then get a divorce. These trees are said to be many hundreds of years old. The male coco de mer has an appendage hanging off the top which resembles a pineapple skinned male organ whilst the female fruit is shaped exactly like a woman’s pelvic region. Around 4,000 of these trees are left on earth, mainly here in the Valee de Mer. On rare occasions one can see and hear the almost extinct Black Parrot, the national bird of the Seychelles. I recorded the voice yet didn’t glimpse the bird. It’s haunting click click cawcawing is distinctive, loud and is supposed to bring ‘good luck’ to those who see or hear it.
The (captian) Picard SuiteThe Hotel L’Archipel, PO Box 586, Praslin. Telephone: (+248) 232 040, fax: (+248) 232 072. is one of the best hotels I’ve ever been to in my life is located on the gem of the beach Cote d’Or bay. Nothing beats it for quality, privacy, gorgeous chalet type rooms with magnificent interior design and excellent quality of food and service. Each room overlooks the bay and guests can go snorkeling, canoeing and big game fishing. A wonderful local who gave up a business career to have fun on the beach and serve the hotel guests ensures that your drinks are brought to your table on the beach.
Lunch is a hop skip away to a restaurant opened only to hotel guests. The most yummy tuna sandwiches were served.
Here’s the recipe.
1 can yellowfin tuna, 1/3 cup lime juice, 1/3 cup Mayo (Hellman’s), dash of curry and salt and 2 sprigs of scallion. Sliced toast with smear of butter.
The supreme service award in my opinion goes to Margo who works at the hotel restaurant. This was service beyond service. We kibitzed, danced, took photos together, exchanged addresses and all the while this lady didn’t miss a beat. You see however grandiose and luxurious this hotel is; the staff is a rare combination of polite, humble and totally down to earth. So when you get a certain Cretan kind of guest like me, who likes to rumble, Margo and company can get down and boogie. We sang karaoke with the Food and Beverage Manager, danced to Seychellian Creole, African and Jamaican ska and reggae as Orion glittered in the Southern Hemisphere. He wanted to dedicate a song to us under the full moon. Too bad for us there was no moon in sight and we strained to see it in perfect pitch black.
Did you know that water goes down the drain counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere?
Anse Boudin a short drive away from Cote d’Or. We rented a 4×4 jeep. It will take you around 2 hours to drive the 15 kilometer island if you’re not stuck in a ditch. Yep, some adventurer’s are a bit too impertinent. In the sweltering heat yours truly had to find ‘help’ since hubby was busy burning rubber. I walked down a newly paved road at first fuming with irritation until I looked around the bend to see one of the most beautiful sites in the Seychelles, mountains, bays of turquoise, birds and flora. Funny how moods change in seconds! An hour or so later (who was keeping time?) I hitched a ride with a Creole family of seven who all helped to retrieve the by now exhausted vehicle. Even granny was out there rooting for our speedy return to paved road. We then went to what is hailed as one of the best beaches in the entire world, Anse Lasio. How spoiled we had become. We saw a mere ten people and griped, ‘oh look how crowded it is’. A terrific little beach restaurant served up a mean octopus curry.
La Digue
Last of the three islands visited and hailed as a rustic, rougher version of Corsica sans rifles, Mafia and explosions thank you very much. There is no public transportation save for oxcart. You rent bicycles or walk on this tiny island of 5 x 3 kilometers. We stayed at probably the only decent hotel, La Digue Island Lodge at Anse la Reunion, La Digue. Tel: 234 233 and fax: 234 100, done up like a la Gilligan’s Island.
The small pitched roof lodges were tiny yet cozy. If you enjoy sitting under a thatched roof with about 200 “hi I’m a tourist in a Hawaiian printed shirt and have a camera around my neck” guests gorging the food like there’s no tomorrow simply because it’s included in the packaged deal, then eat at this hotel. But hey, there’s not alot of choice on this island so brave the western style cuisine and dig it on La Digue.
Sites
Union Plantation features Creole homes and oxen, vanilla and tea plantations and more of my favorite friends, the giant tortoises. Wild tiger lilies in fuschia white and red bloom on the roadside. You see life as it was before modern civilization reared its ugly head on these laconic grounds.
Anse Source d’Argent is a spectacular and most photographed beach on all the Seychelles. Huge granite rocks tumble into the sea in haphazard formation jutting out and upwards. Coves, inlets, dips, turns and caves create a landscape of irresistible beauty. We saw green geckos climbing up trees and thousands of spiders in the woods.
A side trip for half a day takes you to the Robinson Crusoe island of Sister (they are doing it for themselves, sisters!) where languid palms and chickens, lemon yellow chicks, turkey and fowl are backdrop to the main event, the beach.
Additional Information
Granite, sand, surf and NO tourists here either!The most informative website for the Seychelles is http://www.sey.net, which is run by a Florida, based travel agent and whose owner is a professional diver. The Seychelles offers newlyweds special ‘honeymoon packages’, which are constantly changing so read the finer details on the website and in the brochures. Most hotels give the couple a bottle of champagne and fruit basket upon arrival and others offer room discounts. We met one British couple at the airport who was going to be wed on the Seychelles. If you plan on marrying there the whole ceremony can be arranged, except for the bottles of calamine lotion to ward off mosquitoes and stomachache relieving pills. Any hotel nor tour operator unfortunately does not provide these.
Green gekkos are everywhereYou need not book your travel arrangements through this agency if you’re based in Europe, although comparison-shopping yields better prices for hotels through Seynet than with traditional brick and mortar travel agencies.
If you are flying from Europe I recommend you purchase your tickets through a local travel agent or online. There are several excellent tour operators based in the Seychelles who cater to your every whim. These operators pick you up from the airport by mini van, drop you at the hotel, book day excursions and arrange your total holiday. If you book through a tour operator ask them which local travel agency is handling your tour on the island.
I used Mason’s. I was told they are the most attentive and efficient and for all intents and purposes they were. If you decide to book your itinerary yourself contact them at Mason’s Travel, PO Box 459, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles. Tel: (+248) 322 642. Fax: (+248) 225 273. If you fly directly to Praslin (my recommendation) telephone (+248) 233 211 or fax (+248) 225 273. Mason’s will assign you a personal representative who greets you upon arrival and departure as well as minibus transportation and tickets for boat trips and excursions.
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