I went to Fiji in the 90’s and I still remembered how clean the water was at the beaches. The little fish came and nibbled my legs when I was standing in the water. I wanted to explore places like this again but I didn’t want to return to Fiji yet. I somehow bumped into the name Seychelles. I remembered it could be quite boring if I stayed in that kind of place for too long, like my time in Kota Kinabalu so I decided to stay there for around a week only.
OK, enough of background information. Let’s go! 🙂
I arrived in the morning so I had a lot of time to explore Mahé which is the largest island of Seychelles. I booked a B&B which had access to a beach. The beach didn’t belong to the B&B but the path to the beach was very hidden so it was like a private beach. The B&B had some kayaks which I could use for free. I brought my own snorkel and headed to the beach after I settled down. But I was a bit disappointed. I couldn’t even see a fish. 🙁
Was it the beach? Or was it me?
I walked up to the beach after I snorkeled, with disappointment.
Seychelles was a place for honeymoon but I saw a guy sitting on his own. He was probably waiting for his wife or fiancée but I was cheeky enough to ask him if he had seen any fish at the beach. He looked around. He probably was looking for his wife and was scared to talk to me. That was fine. I didn’t expect to have a long conversation with him. After a while, he said, ‘I…, I… I don’t speak English.’ I nearly laughed out loud, ‘That’s ok then.’ As I started to walk away, he continued and started a conversation with me.
It turned out this young Italian guy was also travelling by himself. He came here to visit his relatives who worked there (so good! He didn’t need to pay for his accommodation which could be very expensive). His aunt had a little shop on the island. Another reason was he had just broken up with his girlfriend whom he loved very very very much, ‘I love her so much. Why did she do that to me? She couldn’t decide if she wanted to go out with me after we had gone out for xx years.’ It was so fun to learn about his stories. Sorry, I mean, it wasn’t fun to know he had broken up with his girlfriend but he was really funny. He spoke a lot too even though he told me he couldn’t speak English. LOL! I was glad I met him on my first day in Seychelles. We started hanging out since then. He followed me to everywhere, literally. He said he had nothing to do anyway. I invited him to my B&B and asked the host if he could use the kayak as well (the kayaks were all double kayaks). The host was a bit concerned at first because they didn’t know if I had met some bad guys but after I introduced this guy to them, they said, ‘ok’.
So, we went kayaking. It was his first time to try it and he got seasickness. LOL! Oh, dear. LOL! Anyway, he arrived in Seychelles a few days before me so he knew the place. He took me to some stalls near the beach to buy dinner and said he’d take me to the botanical gardens in town the next day.
The next day, I thought to myself, ‘nah, he probably won’t remember his promise,’ but I went to town anyway. We didn’t exchange our phone numbers or emails or whatever so we relied on our verbal promises.
I was late. But I was quite surprised to see him standing there waiting for me and even said that I was late. LOL! I thought to myself, ‘he is such a good boy!’ (he is a lot younger than I am). I was really impressed. And I also apologized for being late. As we walked, I took out a map. It was a nicely drawn printed map that I got from the B&B. He recognized it right away. The map was very unique. He had a few at his aunt’s place and then he started talking about his aunt. I asked him, ‘hey, is her shop around here?’ He said, ‘yes, very close,’ he then pointed at a street. ‘Can I visit her?’ He was delighted, ‘sure!’ So he took me to her shop and we had a chat with her. She showed us where we could go the next day and helped us plan our itinerary. All set. They said something in Italian which I didn’t understand but I was fine with it.
There were many Italians in Seychelles, according to him. I also found quite a lot of ice cream shops there too. Gelato! 🙂
I visited a church near the B&B before I went out with my new travel companion.
There were many secluded beaches in Seychelles. As recommended by his aunt, we took a bus and walked to Anse Major. It wasn’t a secluded beach but when we got there, there wasn’t anyone there. When I think back now, it could be because the travellers knew high tide was coming. 😀 So, we didn’t stay there for long.
The accommodation cost was quite high in Seychelles. In fact, most of the things were quite expensive there. After all, it was for honeymooners and divers. I switched to a CS’s place after staying in the B&B for a couple of nights. There had been conflicts between the CSs and B&B owners because the latter believed the CSs stole their business. Well, I still don’t think so. After all, they target different customer segments.
Before I moved to the CS’s place, I took a day tour to Sainte Anne Marine National Park and did some snorkelling.
I told the Italian guy that I’d move to a CS’s place and I told him about CS. He was concerned about my safety. So I suggested he go with me. I introduced my CS host to the Italian guy and then we all hung out together. We first went to my CS’s friend’s place and then we went to a night club where we danced, etc. But I wasn’t that keen on that. The Italian guy drank quite a lot at the night club. When we went back to my CS’s place, he said he felt so bad that he couldn’t go back to his home. That was so funny. The story goes like this: My CS had a big spare room with a king-size bed which he offered to his CS guests. I remember after I finished my shower and went back to my room, I saw my CS host sitting on my bed and the Italian guy sitting on the floor talking to each other inside my room. It was very obvious that the Italian guy wasn’t feeling well. He said he had a headache. I asked if it was ok for my CS host to host him for one night. He gladly did and he even pulled out another mattress from the wardrobe for the Italian guy to sleep on the floor. I met two very nice people in this trip. I was so blessed.
The next night, my CS host took me to his friend’s place again for a barbecue with his other friends and other CS guests. The Italian guy became the focus because of his jokes about how people danced at the night club. He also imitated them. He was such a funny guy. 😀 My CS host and I tried to matchmake him and another young girl in that group but he wasn’t interested. He still missed his ex-girlfriend back in Italy. Oh!
Other than natural beaches, Seychelles also built an artificial island called Eden Island. I decided to spend a day there. This time the Italian guy didn’t join me.
It drizzled all day.
The next day, the Italian guy took me to La Digue, another island that his uncle and aunt took him to.
We cycled around the island. I was so bad at riding uphill. He had to wait for me most of the time. We stopped and then met a couple and we started chatted with them. I mean, the Italian guy and the French lady started a conversation. I and the husband of the French lady who was English stood there looking at them talking. It went on and on and on… and on. We looked at each other. Waited and waited and waited. Finally, they stopped or one of us interrupted them and we continued with our ride. 😀
Goodbye, Seychelles.
Guess where I’d go next? 🙂
Stay tuned. 🙂
23 – 30 September 2014
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