On Thursday, April 5th, exactly one year after we landed in Accra for Dave’s overseas assignment, we boarded a plane bound for the Seychelle Islands. Having moved to Africa, I have learned more in one year about geography that I have learned (or at least absorbed) in the previous 46 years of my life. Seriously! I had never even heard of the Seychelle Islands before moving to Ghana. One of the nice things about our vacations is that many of the expats have travelled extensively and so we receive lots of advice and recommendations. We know three couples who have visited the Seychelles, and all raved about their experiences.
I always like to include a brief history of the places we visit. I know if I don’t write it down, I won’t remember later, and I find it pretty fascinating. In the early 1814s, there was a struggle between France and Great Britain for the islands. While Great Britain claimed the country, the Seychelles (say-shells) earned their independence in 1976. Socialist rule was brought to a close with a new constitution and free elections in 1993, so you can see that they are really a very young free and democratic society; even more so than Ghana! The Seychelles are made up of more than 100 islands and are located in the Indian Ocean just off the east coast of Africa. They are located just 7 degrees south of the equator, while Ghana is just slightly north of the equator.
The official languages of the Seychelles are English and French, although many, many of the locals speak Creole, which is a version of French. I could pick up a few words (after all I did take three years of worthless French back in high school) from time to time but was thankful for those who spoke fluent English. Historically, the primary industry on the islands was agriculture - cinnamon, vanilla, and coconut. When the Seychelles International Airport opened in 1971, tourists flocked to the islands and quickly took over as the primary source of income for locals. We quickly noticed a strong African influence upon our arrival. In my research I found that when the British gained control of the islands during the Napoleonic Wars, they allowed the French upper class to retain their land. Both the French and British settlers used enslaved Africans, and although the British prohibited slavery in 1835, Africans continued to be enslaved. The Seychelle islands have no indigenous population, so the current population are composed primarily of people who have emigrated (or brought as slaves) to the island.
When we vacationed in Puerto Rico I was intent on finding a souvenir that defined that country and wanted to do the same on this trip. Unfortunately, because the aforementioned issue with no indigenous population, the islands lack a rich culture. So, our souvenirs were quite cheap! We scanned the beach for seashells and coral. Now I wish I would have brought a baggie of sand to put them in….maybe I’ll have to return!!
I originally attempted to book our vacation on my own, as I’ve come to be pretty good at making travel arrangements. However, I quickly concluded this was more than I could handle and it became clear that I needed some professional assistance! My travel agent recommended a beautiful location called Raffles Resort. They have hotels and resorts in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia and come highly recommended. After looking at their website, I was happy to be spending a week in this resort.
When I was trying to book the trip myself, I found a flight that went from Accra to Nairobi, Kenya, and then onto the main island of Mahe (mah-hey), landing in the capital city of Victoria. My travel agent, however, booked us through Dubai. In hindsight, I wish we would have gone with Kenya Airlines as the time in the air would have been considerably less, although we would have had to spend an overnight in Nairobi….but hey, it would have given us time to explore. We flew Emirates Airlines from Accra to Dubai. They have the prettiest flight attendants. Really! These ladies are SO classy looking. I took a picture of them while we were awaiting our flight in Accra.
The airline seats were pretty uncomfortable and the leg room was terrible; especially for Dave. The flight to Dubai was just over 8 hours and we landed at 5:30 a.m. The Dubai International Airport is enormous and it was PACKED even as the sun was just coming up over the horizon.
There were people everywhere and they were buying, buying, buying. The airport is well known for its shopping, most of which is duty free. Someday I intend to return to Dubai and spend a week exploring (oh, and Dave intends to do so as well because he’s an excellent follower!).
With all of the commerce, you would think we’d be able to find an Egg McMuffin. Nope. We were in Terminal 3 and the only fast food restaurant we came upon was Burger King and there was NO breakfast menu. There were, however, lots of people chowing down on Whoppers and French fries….at 6:30 a.m. Go figure. Our stomachs just weren’t up for that kind of cuisine that early in the morning.After buying some of our own alcohol and snacks to take with us, we took a seat and waited for our next flight, which was also on Emirates.
We arrived in Mahe at a little after 1 p.m. (it’s four hours ahead of Accra, ten ahead of Colorado, and 11 ahead of our family in Nevada. The airport in Victoria is very tiny, especially when you look back at the huge plane in which we arrived. We were greeted by a 7◦ South representative who quickly took us through immigration and customs. Here are a couple of pictures of the Victoria Airport.
We had a slight anxiety attack while waiting for our luggage as they were some of the very last pieces to come off the enormous plane.
The representative guided us to our next location where we boarded a very small plane that would take us to our final destination of Praslin (Prah-lynn). Once we (all of about 10 of us) were all seated, the pilot started up the engines, turned around to us and said, “Ready?” and off we went. The 15 minute flight was hot (absolutely no air in the plane), but the time went quickly as we travelled over the blue and translucent Indian Ocean. A second 7◦ South representative met us after we landed and drove us to
the other side of the island to our home for a week, Raffles Resort. We were met at the “Arrival Pavilion” by resort personnel and treated like royalty. As we took some time to gaze out over the beautiful ocean, we saw three very large yachts. They are pretty hard to spot in this picture, but trust me....they were out there, and they were big!
We were told that the one on the right belongs to a Russian family, the middle by the Emir of Quatar and the one on the left was the Emir’s second yachy (one was hauling his sea “toys” like jet skis, etc.). Do you think there might be a bit of money coming into the Seychelles?? The view was stunning. The water is so beautiful and very calm. The islands rise majestically out of the ocean and tranquility just radiates. The island in the background is Curieuse Island. It looked to have a really beautiful, sandy beach, but unfortunately we didn’t have time to explore and find out more.
We were introduced to our private butler, Suranga (sur-ahn-guh) who took us to our villa, #183. This is Dave standing in front of our villa....not Suranga!
Surango is from Sri Lanka, and the guy LOVES to talk. His accent is thick and we had a difficult time following him at times, but nonetheless, he was at our beck and call. Raffles boasts 86 private villas and is located on a hillside. There are paved trails that traverse the property and guests and workers alike primarily move from place to place in what they call buggies, or what we Americans refer to as golf carts!
Dave and I often chose to walk to and from the pool/beach/restaurant on most days, and I think the staff thought we were crazy as the walking can get a bit difficult with the hills. But, we rarely get to walk in the country in which we are living due to all of the traffic, so we embraced the opportunity to be a little more active.
Our villa was outstanding. It was clean, comfortable, and functional. Everything (other than the VCR on the last day) worked perfectly. It was in a great location with no other Villa barely even in sight. The deck area was fantastic. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED sitting out on the deck in the morning and stepping into the plunge pool when we got hot, which was often as the sun is very intense that close to the equator.
We also thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful night time skies every evening. On this particular evening, we watched a beautiful full moon rise over the Praslin Island hills.
We downloaded a “Planet” app onto my iPad, which allowed us a 3D guide to the solar system. We may be nerds, but were thoroughly entertained and fascinated. Again….in Accra I rarely even see the nighttime skies (Dave sees them on his drive home). And, even when you do, between the pollution, humidity, and lights….there’s not a whole lot to see!
We were somewhat disappointed with the lack of meal options. The Raffles website boasted three restaurants and three bars. The Curieuse Restaurant was open daily. It was primarily a seafood restaurant, although they did offer a few meat and vegetarian items. Neither Dave nor I are seafood eaters, but knew that we could access the other restaurant for more choices - the Losean. However, the Losean was only scheduled to be open on two evenings (although it was scheduled to be open every morning for breakfast). The website says it was open daily. That really limited our options. I suspect it has something to do with the lack of guests but when we asked about it the staff would sidestep our questions.
To make matters worse (in terms of eating), on Easter Sunday the resort lost the use of one of their generators, causing some additional problems. Unfortunately, the Easter holiday made it even more difficult to get an engineer on site to fix the problem. Because of the loss of the generator, all of the breakfasts scheduled at the Losean Restaurant were moved to the Curieuse. The Losean breakfast was buffet style with many options. The Curieuse was much more limited and the staff seemed very, very out of sorts. It seems that they should have had a contingency plan for something like this, but it was obvious this was the first time it had occurred. This also meant that there was no in-room dining (which was a much more basic menu of nachos, pizzas, etc.), no services at Losean (so it was only actually open one day during our entire stay), no access to the bars or to the Tamaka Lounge. All in all, it really limited access for all guests. With that being said, the resort did provide each of the guests with a 75 euro per day credit to our accounts. We did appreciate that, but frankly we would have loved to have enjoyed the overall experience....but some things are simply out of their control.
The fitness gym was small but functional. It was clean, cool, and empty! I was planning on taking advantage of the beauty salon, but was informed upon our arrival that there was no hairdresser on site. Again....their website indicates that service is available. The Raffles Resort is a five star resort, but we didn't feel like we received five star service in the restaurants. We've stayed at five star hotels in London and the U.S. where staff provided true five star service. Our every need was addressed. Raffles staff is VERY, VERY nice, but they didn't always provide the same information. In some ways it felt like the resort had opened only recently, and we really felt the Ghanaian influence. One of many examples: The first evening of the "loss of power" we sat down for dinner at Curieuse. We were one of the first guests and our waiter asked us if he could also bring us the dessert menu at the same time as the dinner menu. We, of course, said that would be fine, but we felt like he was already hurrying us. We received our meals promptly, as well as our dessert. But, we waited more than 30 minutes for our bill and finally had to wave down a waiter. In the meantime, we sat at the table with no water, no wine. If nothing else...we could have had an additional glass of wine. This is not five star service. They are all really little things, but those little things add up over a week's time.
Dave and I decided that we would try and get scuba certified while on our trip, so I booked the training with Octopus Diving. We were picked up by a taxi on our first full day in the Seychelles and were transported to the Octopus Diving Center where we met our instructor, Juliette. Juliette is just 20 years old with a beautiful smile. She was born and raised right there on the Praslin Island. She was an excellent instructor and made both Dave and I feel very comfortable in the water.
On our first day she taught us the basics of scuba diving while sitting in the Center. After a couple of hours she taught us how to assemble our gear and then the three of us walked from the Center down a block to the swimming pool where we would do our first dive. The thing I found most surprising of ALL of scuba diving was how heavy the tanks are! I consider myself in shape, and my legs were shaking by the time we got to the pool! Making our first dive in the pool was perfect as it helped ease our fears and anxieties about scuba diving. We spent the rest of the day at the pool practicing the basic elements of diving. Juliette was very patient with us, and (if you know my husband) was kept on her toes by Dave and his humor!
On Easter Sunday, we took a taxi to the other side of the island where we spent a day golfing at the Lemuria Resort.
Side note here. Our driver’s name was Selby. He is also a native of the island, has three children (21, 15, and 6). When he was a child he was adopted by a woman who raised him. He came back to the Island to take care of her (she is now 88 years old). In addition to driving his taxi, he also maintains a small farm on his land. He sells his produce to local hotels and resorts. He was a genuinely nice man who obviously works very hard. Our only criticism of him would be that he proceeded to tell us about the recent (year ago) shark attacks that had occurred just off the beaches of the Praslin Island. In that sense, he wasn’t a great ambassador for his country….especially since he was transporting two people learning to scuba dive in those shark infested waters!!
Back to the golf course: The course was spectacular, especially after having golfed in Ghana most recently. When we arrived, the gentleman checking us in asked if we had brought golf balls, to which we answered, “yes.” What he failed to ask was, “Do you have ENOUGH golf balls?” By the time we got to the 6th hole, it was quite clear to us that the nine golf balls we brought with us were not going to be sufficient enough to even finish out the front nine holes!! The golf course is lined with water and the fairways were extraordinarily narrow. Here is Dave hitting our last ball off of the 6th hole tee box!
The back nine holes are hillier, and were a bit kinder to us. At the 15th hole we soaked in one of the most gorgeous views I have ever seen.
It was absolutely stunning! Here we are overlooking Anse Georgette (Anse is French for “beach”). The hole sits atop a hill and the hole is WAY down there to the right of us. At some point we sort of stopped counting our shots and just enjoyed the experience.
Below is me pointing back up the hill from which we just hit. Lucky me....I hit the green. Poor Dave....he hit one into the trees and another into the lily pond!
Our next dive was on Monday, and this time we were taken by boat to a dive site not far from the beach (5 minute boat ride) with others who were also receiving instruction. While our time in the pool with Juliette just included Dave and I, she now had three additional students. On our first dive, we basically just swam around at about 10 meters down, getting use to the environment and the difference from the pool (like you can’t just stand up!). We saw two reef sharks, a turtle, and a jackfish, which was basically just an enormous fish! Surprisingly, we weren’t afraid at all of the two sharks.
After returning to the beach and eating a quick lunch, we headed back out for our second dive of the day where we adventured a bit further from the island. During this dive we went back to practicing the required elements of the course including clearing our mask, removing and replacing our mask, and buddy breathing.
We took a break from scuba diving on Tuesday and decided to spend the day at the beach on our resort. Unfortunately, there was a lot of seaweed both in the water and on the beach and so we ended up moving up to the pool area. (Look at the picture….don’t feel too bad for us!)
Wednesday was our last scheduled day of diving. During our morning dive we saw an Eagle Ray and again, more fish and practiced many of the skills we learned in the pool. After lunch, we were on the boat getting ready to go out for our very last dive. Thereafter, all we had to do to get PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) Certified was to take a few quizzes and a final exam. Everyone except Juliette was on the boat. She had forgotten something and had to return to the dive shop. The engines were on, our gear was loaded, and we were ready to get to the dive site. As Juliette came down the beach toward the water, she was stopped by a gentleman. She returned to the dive shop when the co-manager (Flo) came out to the beach and made the “stop dive” sign. We all groaned….we so wanted to dive. Evidently, Indonesia experienced an earthquake, and subsequently a tsunami alert was announced in the Seychelle Islands!! The Seychelles were hit with a Tsunami in 2006, so the locals are very sensitive and reactive to the alerts. Having said that, we did not move to higher ground. In fact, we stayed right there on the beach and took our quizzes and final exam!
At one point during our test taking, we observed Flo’s wife get into an argument with the locals. (Flo and his family are French.) The locals had moved their boat from the water onto the beach….right in front of the dive shop. Flo’s wife was asking them to move the boat to a better location. You know….in case the tsunami hit the boat which would then be thrown directly into the dive shop building (and Dave and I!!!). It was actually quite comical as the Frenchwoman displayed her temper, and we observed the reaction of the locals.
Because we were called back to shore prior to our final dive, we returned to the Octopus Dive Center on Thursday afternoon and dove with Flo. When we discovered we wouldn’t be diving with Juliette, we sort of looked at each with a bit of panic in our eyes. However, Flo ended up being another fabulous instructor. After completing our final two skills, he guided us around a reef where we saw an enormous (and scary looking) moray eel, a couple of turtles, another eagle ray, and so much more. He took us under ledges and through crevices, which ensured we practiced our buoyancy control. After only 35 minutes we had to ascend to the top, as Dave was running low on air. It was another fabulous afternoon of diving. We were now officially PADI certified and can dive anywhere in the world!
On our final day, the resort allowed us to remain in our villa until our pick up at 6 p.m. As a result, we headed back to the beach, which was free of seaweed.
Dave wanted to do nothing more than sit in his lounge chair, rest, and read. I headed out to the water to snorkel as I just couldn’t get enough of the underwater world. After circling the rocks shown in this picture, I came out of the water and encouraged Dave to join me. He just had to see the cool looking trumpetfish!
The water was so clear and warm and was all done in relatively shallow water no more than 30 feet from shore. We were astounded at the variety of fish in just this one little area. When we would lie quietly at the surface, the fish would move towards us, and in no time at all we would be surrounded. Shortly after we got out of the water, the rain came. It was pouring. Neither one of us even considered looking for shelter. Instead, we waded in the water and walked down the beach, fascinated by the tropical world. There was not another soul on the beach. It was one of the most tranquil memories I have of our trip.
All good things must come to an end, and so the 7◦ South representative picked us up at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 13th to transfer us back to the airport for our short flight back to the Mahe Island. This time we had a few hours to kill in the Victoria airport, which is mostly situated outdoors. We played several hands of gin, had a couple of final Seybrew beers, and reflected on our amazing week.
Other than the limited meal options, there was only one other thing that happened while we were on our vacation that was disturbing. Dave and I were sound asleep Saturday evening (I think it was Saturday, I’ve tried to block it out of my mind) when what Dave thought was an alarm went off. He was obviously quite confused, and I gently said….”answer the phone.” I quickly looked at the clock and it was about 2:30 a.m. Somehow Dave hit the speaker phone and I heard the operator say, “Mr. Kern, I have an international call for you.” All I could say after that was, “Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!” I was sure someone had died. I was shaking and my heart felt like it was beating out of my chest. Who was it? It was Barry….my brother, and Jimmy….my other brother, and Benjamin….my son, my mom (who insisted she had no part in this), and my dad….well, he’s my dad. They were celebrating Easter dinner and they decided to give us a call and see how our vacation was going. Not sure how much alcohol had been consumed, but too much. Family: I know you all just wanted to check on us, but you scared the living hell out of me!! All is forgiven….but that doesn’t mean I don’t hold a grudge….and paybacks can be hell!
I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed scuba diving. I was a little anxious and was worried that I might begin the course and then wonder why in the hell I was spending so much money to become certified after one day. But, all of my concerns were quickly laid to rest the first time I went under the water in the swimming pool. And, once we moved to the beautiful ocean, I could have kicked myself for waiting 47 years to learn! Scuba diving is like being in a big aquarium (Dave’s wonderful analogy). There are SO many different types of sea life; big fish, little fish, colored fish, eels, turtles, sharks, sea urchins, starfish, and so many other animals for which I have no name! It was one of the most fascinating things I have ever experienced, and cannot WAIT to jump back in on our next vacation, part of which will be in Zanzibar, another tropical island in the Indian Ocean!!
