Monday the 26th December began bright and early and I woke up to light streaming into my room and got up from my bed to see the spectacular view that the resort affords. Green sea and an island with trees all over it…
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| M at Anse Lazio |
Had breakfast which also is a fixed menu affair (choice of eggs, fruits and bread) and hit the absolutely gorgeous pool for an hour or so with M.
We then went to the pier which is a 5 minute walk where we hired a car for our stay here on Praslin Island. We got a Parrot green Daihatsu Sirion which cost us 40 Euros a day. The car rental guy took us to the garage, washed the car for us and gave it to us to drive. He told us that all the shops are owned by Indians as, in his opinion; Indians are very good with trade. We drove down to the other end of the island to the Anse Lazio (Ans Lazio) which is rated among the top beaches in the world.
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| Aquamarine Green at Anse Lazio |
The drive to Anse Lazio is through wonderful winding roads and dense vegetation. We drove with the windows down, feeling the glorious cool breeze blowing through the island. This is the time for the North Easterly winds in the Seychelles, and it really made the island an ideal place to be. We took a wrong turn, and M found a souvenir shop that she wanted to take a look at. Stopped for 5 minutes and drove on. I stopped and asked for directions (M should have been surprised, but didn’t say it: Her contention is that men don’t ask for directions until it’s too late, and I agree!) and found that that we were indeed on the wrong road. Fortunately, it was a very short turn back and hit the right road. I drove uphill through beautiful flora passing the Valee de Mer (will cover it as a part of another blog) and came across this really wonderful resort-aparttments called raffles which could be owned with $1.5 Million dollars only. So if you have money, read this blog and you decide to buy the apartment, make sure you call me, and as a part of my commission, I will take a week free every year! Anyway, we reached Anse Lazio.
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| Crab |
Anse Lazio is a lovely little crescent shaped beach. It’s soft and fine white sand and a brilliant aquamarine green ocean with easy waves greeted us once we were there. It is among the best and the most stunning beaches that I had ever seen. The sand is so soft that when wet, it felt like I was standing in clay. There were not many people on the beach, and the people who were there were mostly Europeans (predominantly French families and couples) were on the beach. White frothy waves, hitting the pearly white sands, was, a spectacular sight. The sound of the waves, heard with a lot of birds chirping, was just so soothing. The clean beach was strewn with large boulders strewn across the beach as if nature intended them to be used for taking photographs. There were lots of jelly fish (mix of colorless and purple color) that were washed on the beach sand from the sea. We also saw a large crab alive and running for its life (am guessing that it was as scared as me when I saw it).
Spent some time in the ocean here playing in the water that was surprisingly cold (it is the rainy season and summer here and therefore the surprise). We had just one towel, that we hid and took from the hotel Chalet Côte Mer, which we used despite the formidable lady at the reception telling us not to!
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| Mr. Universe contest winner at Anse Lazio |
We then headed off for lunch at the lovely restaurant there called Bonbon Plume where I had the Seychollois Eku (EEku) beer which is stronger than the Seybrew and I did not like it. Switched immediately to Seybrew, had a sumptuous lunch of vegetable curry, rice and French fries. We had a long leisurely lunch where we sat generally chatting, mostly exchanging views on Seychelles and how amazing the place was. Met an Aussie bartender, who I chatted with, who gave me an update on the Boxing Day test match between India and Australia, which Australia ultimately won. He tells me that Seychelles is seeing an increase in Indian tourists, as against earlier, Indians only came for work, typically as laborers for construction activities.
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| Me, in another life? |
The restaurant had an area that was cordoned off where they had the massive sea turtles that Seychelles is famous for. Went and saw the grand amphibians which M likened to me. She said that I am so lazy that in a past life I could have been either a turtle or a snail as I am too slow to move my butt for anything. I had to agree with her assessment. These creatures moved so slowly that it is no wonder that they live for such a long life. The oldest sea turtle in Seychelles is 148 years old! Goes on to show, no stress equals a longer life.
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| Boulders on the beach |
On our way back, we went to Steve’s museum which I felt was a rip-off at 125 Seychellois Rupees a head. He had a few fruit bats, a couple of sea turtles and spices such as cardamom, vanilla, lemon grass growing on his farm which he showed us around. He also showed some photographs of how life was in Seychelles before development reached the shores.
We then drove back to Chalet Côte Mer after filling gas in our Daihatsu and chilled out at the pool side where M tried to get me to learn to float in. What struck me about the place was how windy it was here. The only coastal town I had been where it is not just sultry and dry, but also windy. There is a slight nip in the air so dip in the pool in the evening had me cold.
Had dinner, consisting of beer and sandwiches and called it a night.
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