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How to be a Seychelloise
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Jan – Feb 2017

How to be a Seychelloise

A 39-day adventure by How to be a Seychelloise Read more
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  • Trip start
    January 6, 2017
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    Frankfurt Flughafen

    January 6, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ -4 °C

    The blank pages of this diary are waiting to be filled with adventures, fun, sun, sea...everything what the Seychelles has to offer for me. But let's just start at the beginning...why am I travelling to these islands (115 of them to be exact!), situated in the Indian Ocean, east from Africa? A couple of months ago, an opportunity was offered by the company I am working for. Team Leader on the Seychelles - sounds like a dream, but of course as everything in life, it has positive and negative sides also. After a couple of days of hesitation (at the end...what do I have to lose, right?!), I did take the job...and here I am now, writing about my first steps towards a new life...at least for the next 10 months;)

    After the big decision has been made...the following step was getting in touch for the first time with the bureaucracy Seychellois. According to my Seychelloise friend, whom I surprisingly know from Hungary, not from the Seychelles, bureaucracy is quite some thing there. After having proven that I do not have AIDS, my lungs are perfectly healthy and that my intention is to actually work on this island considered to be a paradise on Earth...after more than 3 long months, on the day of my actual departure for the Seychelles, I finally did receive my so called GOP, the "Gainful Occupation Permit". Well I was told that to be able to survive working on the Seychelles, one really has to be patient...so just before my check-in for the flight from Frankfurt to Mahe Island (main island of the Seychelles), this famous piece of paper arrived...yeeey, ready to board flight no. DE 2302 destination Seychelles!    Read more

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    Seychelles International Airport

    January 7, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ 🌬 29 °C

    Early morning at 6 my flight landed on the airport of Mahe Island, Seychelles. There was so much humidity, that I could barely see the mountains around and the small airport building. In the last couple of days it has been raining so much...but the weather was gracious with me upon my arrival: although it was pretty cloudy and humid, it hasn't been raining. I take this as a sign - a good start!

    After a small tour of the airport, and a "business breakfast" talking with my colleague about some work things, I could settle in the hotel where I will stay till my colleague leaves the island. Then I will move to where she used to live, which is called Coral Strand Hotel.

    I slept a bit, because i was up for more than 24 hours, and then I went on a discovery tour around Beau Vallon, where I am staying. I have some quite sharp memories from Beau Vallon, I was visiting a friend of mine 2 years ago here. The only change what I saw for the first sight, was 1-2 new restaurants and a brand new jungle gym not far from the Savoy Hotel. I was quite impressed with the jungle gym overlooking the ocean...Miami is definitely coming to Beau Vallon!

    What I really liked the first time I was here, was this breadfruit chips. So when I saw it in the supermarket, I was happy that already on my first day I can eat something local, something typical. Another funny thing from the supermarket, or better said a funny thing about prices on the Seychelles was that this breadfruit chips, some bread and some cheese cost the same as a bottle of Malibu black bought in the duty free. It's somehow a strange price equality, especially compparing to Turkey, where alcohol in general was quite expensive. I'm excited to go local and explore what they eat, drink, how is their culture, their way of life. Mission to be completed: how to be a Seychelloise.    Read more

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    St Anne Marine Park

    January 8, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Before getting to the serious work, I had the chance to spend my Sunday on a boat trip. The St Anne Marine Park consists of several small island and coral reefs with plenty of fishes. Each small island is known for something else: one of them, Long Island used to be a "quarantine island" where ships had to stop and the people coming from the ships were examined to detect if they had any disease or illness before debarking on Mahe Island. Then later there was a prison there...the Alcatraz of the Seychelles! I'm sure prisoners had quite a nice sea view from their prison cells. After the not so brilliant past of the island, it will finally be known for something nice: currently they are building a Shangri-La hotel on the island. My favourite island was Moyenne Island. Huge turtles are living on the island and the island was once also a home for a dog shelter. The dog shelter was founded by a British woman: she took the stray dogs from the main island Mahe, and took them to Moyenne Island. When she opened the shelter , it provided home to 5o dogs and later when she died, there was 70 dogs living there. The dogs are not there anymore, but the giant turtles are still there, more than 120 of them. They are strolling around the island freely, we were even feeding them - they like all kinds of leaves, they are not very picky. There is a trail going around the island, takes about 45 minutes to go around, the first half of the trail is easy, the second half needs a little bit of climbing skills, but it's nothing that wouldn't be manageable in sandals or flip flops. There is also a small cemetery where the owner of the island was buried when he died in 2012. The owner was Brendon Grimshaw, also a Brit, who bought the island for 8000 pounds roughly 50 years ago. Thanks to him, the island is untouched, no hotels, just untouched nature.
    We were travelling with a glass bottom boat so we were able to see the corals and the different fishes, the zebra fish or the sergeant fish. The corals were a bit destroyed by El Nino, which is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures. The corals are very sensitive, the water can't be either too hot or too cold, otherwise they die. There was also a submarine tour planned on our excursion but it was too wavy to move from our boat to the submarine, so we had to skip that.    Read more

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    St Anne Marine Park

    January 8, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    We could do some snorkelling, which was also very nice. Lunch was a BBQ on the beach of Cerf Island, with some typical food Seychellois - grilled pork, fish, chicken and sausage. What I really liked, was the delicious salad and chili sauce that came with.
    My excursion companions were all very nice people. Chinese couple taking 10000+ pics, and even more selfies. Russian family with just usual drinking habit, but the star of the day was without doubt the South African man (but probably originally more like an Indian Maharaja) who just tore the whole ladder out of the boat as he was trying to get back on the boat after snorkelling. With my adopted german family (2 very kind couples) we nicknamed him walrus and were laughing so much...we just realised later that the word walrus means the same thing in English as in German, well oooops..

    That was a first Sunday well spent on the island..to be continued...    Read more

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    Victoria, Mahe

    January 9, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    I have noticed something here...it's like you have a bad hair day every day. It's impossible that your hair looks anything like back home, nooo...I have the feeling I look like a lion with all my fur around my head because of this insane air humidity. Or maybe I just feel like an untamed lion now after my 12 hour work day.
    Today we spent the whole day at the office with my colleague, I was trying to get to know the destination, meeting people from the agency we work with...a lot of things to see, learn, understand.
    Nice thing about our office, it is located right downtown Victoria (the world's smallest capital)...If I step out of the office, then I can see the famous Clocktower, aka the mini Big Ben of the Seychelles. But the absolute best is that there is a cute little coffee house called La Dolce Vita right behind the office! And the owner is Italian, so there is real good coffee. And there is even more...cakes, ice cream. In one word: Happiness! Mondays are almost fundays (NOT).    Read more

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    La Digue

    January 11, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Yesterday and today were another two days with a full work program. Usually the evening when we finally finish work, I just try to be strong enough to clean my make up, take a shower, brush my teeth and fall into my bed. The handover with my colleague is really very intense, and when I think "oh but tomorrow must be a bit more relaxed", then actually the next day is just even more exhausting.
    Today we went to the other two bigger islands, Praslin and La Digue so that I get a picture about the hotels there. Thanks god the ocean was quite calm, even if in the rain season which is now, it could have been a lot more agitated. From the main island Mahe to Praslin it tooks around an 1 hour with the ferry line Cat Coco (cute name, isn't it?!) and from Praslin to La Digue with the ferry line Cat Rose maybe another half an hour.
    La Digue is the smallest from these 3 islands, and it's also known as the calmest. There are no cars, just bikes. You can rent bikes in the several bike rental places or at your hotel. There are also donkey carriages, so it's like as time stood still on this island and that you are actually living in the past century.
    The hotels are also smaller, there are some boutique style hotels for romantic getaways and also some guest houses for young people who like to be close to the nature.
    I really liked Le Domaine de l'Orangerie which is in a picturesque setting in a garden where it smells like orange flower. I also loved the rooms with the open showers, very nicely designed. There was an amazing view from the spa: the massage beds facing the wonderful ocean view from the top of the property. It really took my breath away.    Read more

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    Praslin

    January 12, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    On Praslin there are also very nice hotels, big, small, boutique hotel, guest house, luxury hotel: there is something for everyone. My favourites were here Le Duc de Praslin and Constance Lemuria. Le Duc is a boutique hotel nicely decorated with the work of local artists, a tropical little garden, a cool surf style beach bar and tapas bar with amazing view of the bay, where you have live music and entertainment almost every day.
    Constance Lemuria is a classical posh golf hotel, with an 18 hole golf course, 3 different beaches (all of them beautiful), great restaurants, a nice spa and luxurious rooms.

    Praslin is also home to the famous “Vallee de Mai” National Park. Unique to Vallee de Mai and to Praslin is the “Coco de Mer” - or Coco de Fesse: it’s a butt shaped coconut. It’s illegal to poach these coconuts. It’s possible to buy them - they are very very expensive and each of them has a barcode. It’s the Louis Vuitton, or the Manolo Blahnik of the coconuts. I remember there is a shop on Eden Island also, where you can buy them. By the way Eden Island is not far from the airport of Victoria, on Mahe Island. It is a man made island where you have a shopping centre, a yacht harbour, some good cafes and restaurants, a hotel called Eden Bleu and also you can buy property there.
    Since this was a business visit with site inspection and tight program, I couldn’t visit the national park yet, so later I will tell you more about Praslin.    Read more

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    Acajou Hotel, Praslin

    January 14, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    We were served a delicious dinner at Acajou Hotel, and finally there was good service. Yes, the first time since I arrived on the Seychelles! Later on I will write detailed about tourism and hospitality on this island and I will explain why is it a “Wow” moment, when something works how it should work. Pretty little hotel with rooms directly on the beach...it's amazing that each hotel is so different here. On the beach of Acajou I had the feeling like it looks like a bit of the beaches in Florida.

    Colourful little birds were flying all over, and there was also an angry bird with a punk hair, I read about that one that it's a local species.Not my fav one though. But there was also a cute green mini lizard, far more friendly than the punk bird. There are also many different kind of insects on the Seychelles, but about those ugly little thing I could write a whole chapter...

    The way back with the ferry was not as peaceful as the onward journey, the ocean was not at his best, so I really had to concentrate to survive the last 20 minutes.    Read more

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    Moving to Coral Strand Hotel

    January 19, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    So it has been a while since I had the time/energy/internet connection to write, but better late than never.
    My colleague left finally, so today was my first day alone. Managed to drive on the left side without damaging myself, others or the car...that's already a good start. I have a pretty Kia Picanto, as the name suggests it is small. For now I just call him matchbox, but I am thinking about a proper nickname. It is pretty funny to drive on the "wrong" side, because it's not only about where you drive, but that inside the car everything is placed the other way as we are used to. So instead of blinking, I usually wipe my window. To change the gears with left hand is also a challenge. The roads around the island are very curvy and steep, and when it gets dark, then there are no lights near the roads, so good luck with surviving here. As we are in the rainy season, it really rains a lot....like I have never seen so much water. I also had to move from one room to another in the hotel where I stayed before, because the first room was under water because it rained so much. So yes, there is really a looooot of rain, so when it rains a lot then the small Picanto turns into a boat.

    I also moved from the horrible hotel (aka youth hostel) where I stayed, so now I have my final residence in Coral Strand Hotel in Beau Vallon. I have a balcony overlooking the mountains and a nice room, so far so good. The front office manager also speaks Turkish, which is cool, like this I won't forget the language and feel a bit closer to my beloved Turkey.

    The first day at the office was quite challenging. A couple of interesting cases to solve and of course, the law of Murphy..nothing seemed to work on my laptop, there are still some things to be set up and sorted out. Me and IT are maybe not that good friends after all...:)    Read more

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    Savoy Beau Vallon

    January 22, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Finally some time to relax (read an interview with Alexis Bledel about Gilmore Girls on the beach...yes I am a big fan!) and do some sports during the weekend. The gym of Savoy Hotel which is located right next to where I live, is just amazing. There is also a spa with sauna..or Russian Banya, as they call it. Steam room, pool, relaxation area. Just what I need! I also bought a yoga mat. Life is good:)Read more

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    H Resort

    January 23, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    My line manager came yesterday evening and today we had a day with site inspection and a meeting at the office. The new hotel during the site inspection was H Resort. It is a creole-french styled hotel with great interior design. They used a lot of wood, and they really caught the colonial creole feeling. It felt very close to the nature. The bathtubs were really cool in the rooms, retro style. The whole garden is very nice, very tropical. They also have a garden with different spices, like for example rosemary, and they also use these organic spices in the restaurants. I really like this hotel, it is one of my favourites so far. I also got to know from a colleague of mine that the Trader's Vic restaurant/bar is also a cool place to go out, and Wednesdays there is ladies night...good to know:)Read more

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    La Misère Seychelles

    January 23, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We also had a lot of fun driving around, as I am still very funny with driving on the left side, and I have not much of an idea about things other as Beau Vallon and Victoria. There are different roads going uphill and then down hill and crossing the island horizontally. These roads go through the lush vegetation, kind of a jungle. So we drove to Hotel Constance Ephelia, through La Misere...it was really a bit of a "misery" with all those steep streets, and so many curves. There is a great viewpoint- you can see the islands of St Anne Marine Park and Eden Island also.
    On the way back I chose to take Sans Souci road. I had high hopes that the road will be "Without worry"...well it was very long and even more curvy as the other one. But at least not much traffic. Then I got back to Victoria and then I was on my usual way direction Beau Vallon. It even started to rain, it was dark...then the bus stopped in the middle of the hill and the car in front of me also stopped and I was stuck there at the worst place. Like on a really steep street...and then cars behind me, and I couldn't start because I was so much stressed that I'm gonna slide down and crash the car behind me. Fear of all the women driver came true...Special thanks to my ex colleague from whom I took the car over: she found one of the few cars on the Seychelles which has a manual gearbox. Well...after I asked for help from the guy behind me, and showed my blonde hair, they were more patient behind me. So finally I could start on my own, without crashing anyone behind me. Successful day, I guess...    Read more

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    Hilton Northolme

    January 23, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    I just love this hotel. Amazing views, several
    small bays, garden with wooden villas...The hillside and ocean front villas are colonial style, inside-outside wood, when you step into the villas it smells very nice, a bit like in a sauna...this wooden scent. The new pool villas which have a modern colourful design inside, have a pool overlooking the ocean. There is a special tree also with a nice flower fragrance and huge melon-like fruits on it. The fruits are more used for healing, medical purposes as to consume it pure.
    On the terrace next to the main restaurant there is also two times a week yoga in the morning...I have to experience that too:)    Read more

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    Victoria, Mahe

    January 26, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    I had to arrange some "official" things, so in the last days I was also getting an insight of how is bureaucracy on the Seychelles. I got my super nice national driving license, so here I come left side driving. By the way, I thought I'm gonna change my matchbox car for an automatic one, but seems like there is no possibility for that, so just have to get used to my left handed gear changing.

    The driving license and also the ID card can be done in minutes, they have their own camera and printing machine, I was really pleasantly surprised. In Europe I haven't seen something like this. OK, one should also precise, that the volumes are different: on the islands there are in total approximately 60.000 people living.

    Going to the bank is another experience, less pleasant as getting the ID card and the driving license. After queuing for at least half an hour, when you once get there then they are already quick. There is no number system, you just have to stand there in the line like as at the passport control on the airport. It took like half an hour to get to the cashier. In the bank seychellois they take it very seriously if you talk on the phone while standing in the line. It is strictly forbidden, just like wearing a helmet:) I got away with my crime as I was talking on the phone and mamma security didn't notice it. The girl behind me was not so lucky, she got warned.

    I also paid a visit to the phone operator as I want to cut/exchange the sim card in order to use it with my own phone. After queuing again, of course I need another couple of emails and papers in order to do this, because the sim card is not on my name, but on the agency's. The phone operator is called Cable, the store is rather simple, it doesn't look like anything back home, so there are no shiny phones and gadgets exposed everywhere in the store.

    It is funny that there is no language barrier, wherever you go, everybody speaks English. This is so different from Turkey, where you had to speak the language in order to be able to make yourself understood. But somehow it was nice...you felt like a local. Here I guess i have to spend some more time to feel a bit more like a local person. But there are so many foreigners: from Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, South Africa, Russia, France, Italy and soooo on... not to mention the huge Indian population and there are some Chinese also. I guess you cannot really become a local unless you were born here. But as I said, this journey is about how to be a Seychelloise...so let's see;)    Read more

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    Anse Major

    January 29, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Sunday I went to Anse Major, it's not far from Beau Vallon, where I live. There is a quite easy trail, in approximately 45 minutes you can go through the forest and find yourself on a postcard picture-like beach, called Anse Major. There are spectacular views of Beau Vallon bay and Silhouette Island on the way. There are massive granite rocks and the trail leads you to Anse Major in the shadow of Morne Blanc, the highest peak of Mahe (on the bucket list...next thing to check out). There is a small waterfall on a huge granite plateau. Locals were enjoying washing themselves on the way back from the beach. There is also a cave, formed by several rocks. On the way there, I took like every two minutes a picture: the lush vegetation, the different plants, trees, wonderful views...not to mention the beach: it really looked like those beaches on the postcards and in the catalogues. Anse Major consisted of two small bays bordered by granite rocks. Behind the second bay, there was also a kind of a lagoon. There were quite big waves, so probably it is not the best for snorkeling, even if the ocean is that perfect turquoise color. But again, maybe around march/april it is calmer. Small note here for myself to come back and check - it is really so close anyways and then by walking to Anse Major and back, I also get my daily dose of sport. And you don't need sunbeds there... the granite rocks provide you a great place to relax, read a book, admire the ocean.
    This trail through the woods and the perfect beach without tourists made me feel really lucky to be here. There is so much beauty here...if you are a nature lover, then here is your untouched paradise.    Read more

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    Maison de Mahe, Victoria

    January 31, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    So how does a less fabulous, usual office day look like in Victoria?
    As I mentioned already, our office is right downtown Victoria, close to the Big Ben and the mayor's office. It means also that as in any other city center, here also we are short of parking places. We have to parking lots close to the office, but you really have to go round and round till finally somebody leaves. There is also a daily or monthly parking fee, we receive a monthly card, it's a round piece of paper with the month and year printed on it, you have to put that in the window.
    At the office it is more vivid as usually in Europe. Seychellois are a bit louder, especially that it's almost only women working at our office.
    I can get quite lost in work and forget about taking a break. But when I do realize it's time for a break, then I either go to La Dolce Vita ("our italian") or to Little Italy which I discover lately thanks to a colleague of mine who showed the place. Sometimes I feel like I am living in Italy after all those pizzas and pastas what I am eating here. I was also very brave and tried sushi at Dolce Vita...and it was actually good.
    One morning I was looking for the key for my office, which I left at our receptionist so that she passes on early morning to the cleaning lady. But our receptionist was strangely not at her place. The others explained me that she must be soon back, she is on the other side of the street in the bank. So I went over, and I saw all these people queuing at the bank..Now I know that this phenomen happening on the 27th of each month is called payday. It's especially the expats from African and Asian countries who want to send home part of their hard earned money as soon as possible.

    When I finally survive the usual office day...I usually do some sports, go to the gym in Savoy and enjoy the sauna and swim a bit. I also started to go to a local yoga class organized by the Indian Embassy. This is the real hot yoga: the instructor is closing the door of the room and there we are sweating like never before. I discover that some unknown body parts can also sweat. The instructor is a Seychellois man with braids...if I would have seen him in the street, I wouldn't have guessed he is doing yoga. But he is quite good, he also corrects the mistakes and has a quite calming voice. I am definitely coming out refreshed...and if I can catch a nice sunrise on the beach, then it's a perfect closure for the day.    Read more

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    Kymani Marley show in Victoria

    February 10, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Creole people in general love reggae music, and the Seychellois are no exception. So the long waited show of Kymani Marley finally arrived to the Seychelles. Organization was quite good (ok except that nobody knew when does actually the show start), you could buy front row and back row tickets. Of course we took the vip ones, so we were close to the stage. There was no huge crowd, more people in the back row. When we entered, they took our tickets and put some uv paint on our middle finger (why that?!). There were some stalls like at a festival, you could get drinks, takamaka as usual and some local beer. Some local artists started the show (each of them was performing one or two songs, and it was more than enough). Kymani Marley, one of the 42 children of the one and only Bob Marley, arrived a bit after 23h, and did a show of an hour and a half approximately, great songs from his father...great voice and there was a nice atmosphere. He also did mention the current political situation and stood up against Trump.
    What I also really liked was that to be honest...I have never felt so comfortable at a concert: nobody pushed nobody, no beer landed on me, nobody tried to approach me...you could just enjoy the music. Also interesting: there was a lot of police and they were even walking around with the drug searching dog..quite a surprise, you wouldn't expect such a control at a reggae concert. I also never so as many people at night in the "city" as Saturday evening/night. Normally the whole city is deserted at 5pm.
    Another interesting fact: the Seychelloise like to dress like they are going to a club even if it's a reggae concert on a football field. Well it was for sure an interesting experience and all in all, it was a super nice evening. As I heard the next celebrity coming in the summer will b Sean Paul...will definitely be there;)    Read more

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    V day on the Seychelles

    February 13, 2017 on the Seychelles ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    V Day is approaching and Seychellois are so much into it. For two weeks every day they are talking about Valentines day on the radio. All the small stores are having very tasteful (...not) V day decorations and special promotions. The restaurants are preparing with special menus and of course there are also romantic boat tours...whatever you want, you have it all on the Seychelles. Well, there is definitely more fuss about it as in Europe.Read more

    Trip end
    February 13, 2017
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