Kerala might be God’s own country, but He lives in Seychelles: Day 7: Glass boat trip to Sainte Anne National Marine Park

It is the last day of the year 2011, and I woke up early and excited about going on a glass boat trip to the National Marine Park near Sainte Anne and Long Island.
As I did yesterday, stepped out of the room, got myself a cuppa, took my laptop and went to the beach to write about my trip. Sitting on the beach with the cool breeze blowing, put all my thoughts in the freezer, I just sat and stared at the mesmerising ocean for about an hour without writing and enjoying the experience. It felt like a guilty pleasure.
We were to leave at 12:45 when Mr. Sonny asked us to meet him at the beach. Mr. Sonny took us to the pier and we started our ride in the small glass bottomed boat.
It was a sunny and a humid day and the ride, once our skipper opened up the throttle, was extremely pleasant. We introduced ourselves to the rest of the passengers: A beautiful young Italian couple, a Mauritanian couple and their teenaged daughter who were living in Kenya and the two of us. The teenager looked bored and embarrassed to be seen with her parents. I guess it is the same everywhere: Teenagers hate to be seen with their parents, no matter where they are on the planet. After a 20 minute ride, the skipper stopped the boat suddenly and poured (some petrol, I suspect) on the glass inside so we could see below and suddenly, the world underneath the boat opened up. Sea Urchins, Zebra fish, Parrot Fish and multitude of other fish. The skipper brought some bread along and all of us fed bread to the fish. It was a wonderful new world for me. I had never seen so many fish in the middle of the ocean and it was a wonderful sight. There was also a lot of coral that we could see clearly through the boat.
We then moved ahead close to the Sainte Anne (St. Anne) island where the snorkeling is supposed to be really good. The waters were calm and the skipper anchored the boat. Anyone who wanted to snorkel, could. The young Italian couple and the Mauritanian man decided to get in. The young Italian girl changed into her bikini and the talk veered around top how cold the water could be. She took her dive and uttered just one word: Bellissima! It means beautiful, wonderful to the un-initiated! (Not that I knew Italian, it was just one of the few words I did know!). The other two followed in the water while the rest of us sat in the boat taking in the stunning views that Sainte Anne offered us. It had a small hill and a 5 star resort and is surrounded by lush greenery! One would be disconnected from the rest of the world, if they would stay there. 
After about 20 minutes, we left the gorgeous sight and moved on to a private island called Moyenne island. This was purchased by an Englishman for a paltry sum of 10000 GBP in the 1960s. The skipper anchored there and here I was, on one of the most stunning beaches in the world. The sand soft beneath my feet, cool breeze ruffling my hair, bright and sunny, and crystal clear aquamarine waters. If the water wasn’t salty, I wasn’t averse to bottling it and drinking it. The waters are so clear that I could see my feet even after wading in about 4 feet. The waters were so calm that it felt as if I could walk through the waters to Mahe. We spent some of the most glorious time of of our lives. We waded into the waters and walked hand in hand to the National Park (the smallest in the world). There also was a restaurant Jolly Roger, which was unfortunately shut. We left with a heavy heart from Moyenne island with a heavy heart. We passed by Long island which was used a jail a la Alcatraz, which is now shut.
The skipper took us back through another route to Mahe and there is an island, aptly named, Eden island with some magnificent villas which provides private moorings for personal yachts. How the rich enjoy life! I was insanely jealous of the Englishman who owned Moyenne island and owners of the yachts moored at Eden island!
We were back at Berjaya Beau Vallon Hotel & Casino and hit the pool until the prayers start again(refer my earlier blog )!  We went for a quick shower and came back down for the last dinner of the year. It was a long dinner where M and I sat talking sweet-nothings. At 10:30 PM, we decided to call it a night – the first time I did not usher in the New Year since 1984! It was a glorious holiday and we had just one more day in the wonderful country of Seychelles. We planned to take the road trip of Mahe the next day and our flight was late in the night back home.

Kerala might be God's own country, but He lives in Seychelles: Day 6: Car search, Berjaya Beau Vallon Hotel & Casino, Swimming pool and beach

Woke up early to pen some thoughts on Seychelles. Came down to the restaurant, picked up a cuppa and went to sit on the desolate dawn beach with only the soothing sound of the waves to help me with the thinking and writing. The air is very fresh and a bit salty, a gentle but cold breeze blowing. Dawn was just breaking, I decided to, at least, get my feet wet. The water is cooooold. Sent a chill down my spine. Beauty never affected me as much as it had done on this particular trip. I don’t know if it is the effect of Seychelles or of the Neuro Lingustic Programming (NLP) course I had just attended with Sue Knight where I was told to open up my senses. Probably was both. I could hear the birds chirping, the wind blowing softly as it seemed to have caressed my very soul! I spent close to half an hour just staring at the hypnotic and mesmerising ocean in the serenity that surrounded me while the leaves of the trees, under which I was sitting, were being gently ruffled by the wind.

Anyway, as it was the end of year and the tourism traffic, I guess, peaked and so we did not get a car to hire here at Mahe. M was disappointed and I wasn’t! We decided that we will spend time on the beach right outside and chill in the pool and see where tomorrow takes us. We took some towels, went to the beach and there were these 2 touts that we struck a deal with. One of them was to take us on a glass bottomed boat and the other for a tour on the 31^st December of the Mahe island on the 1^st January 2012. Since we had decided, we thought we would as well enjoy the rest of the day.

We had bought a CD from Sue Knight called :The Discover your Excellence Coach” and Meera asked me to listen to it. We spent the next couple of hours talking about the excellence that we see in all the people that are closest to us. I had said things that I had never even thought of before and it amazed me. M did the same too and, I think, it got us closer. We got to hear each other’s perspectives and made me realize that there are so many things that I don’t know about M and it was a great learning experience.

Had lunch at Le Canton, the Chinese joint at Berjaya Beau Vallon and had fried rice. They gave us a green chilli chutney (maybe a sauce), that M and me ate with gusto as the two of us really wanted to eat something spicy and both of us overate. It was really funny to see M pack food! How the two of us were laughing, we asked for the green chilly thingy at least 4 times and by the the 5^th time, the waitress just got the bowl of the substance, that they seemed to have prepared for the whole day, and dump it on the table. We were just laughing at ourselves. It was quite silly.

After the copious amount of food we ate, the only thing that we could do was to get a siesta. We went up to sleep and fell asleep watching the TV (thankfully had more channels on than the one at Praslin: that had 1 channel, for God’s sake!), when I was just about to fall asleep and then someone knocked on the door like the goddamn heaven was falling on us. It was the housekeeping for changing something and that killed my sleep.

Aida, the talkative mermaid, from Northern England,
living in Abu Dabhi

We decided to have coffee and went to the glorious pool. I never knew that a pool could make me feel the way I did. Made me feel liberated, free. M tried to teach me swimming and she got me to hold my breath underwater and to float with my stomach in the water, without holding anything. That felt like being weightless. I was floating! Can you believe that? I mean, with my weight? It felt so good, so relaxing, so powerful, like I could do anything! I am so scared of water, and I don’t know why. I mean, I tried to learn swimming when I was like 10 or so but never did and somehow ended up having a mortal fear of water. So to be able to float in the water was priceless! Thank you M for teaching me to do that.

Aida, remember her, she came over again and made me feel miserable. She is all of 6 years old and can swim like a mermaid in the water. She is the one of the most adorable kids I have ever met, but she made me feel really inadequate. So I made a promise to myself: learn swimming in 2012. I hope that I live up to that promise!

Phew! What a day!!!

Kerala might be God's own country, but He lives in Seychelles: Day5: Cataraman ride, Mahe island, Berjaya Beau Vallon Hotel & Casino

We said ourgoodbyes to the staff at Chalet Côte Mer and hopped onto the Catamaran at 8:15 AMsharp and started the ride back to the largest island in Seychelles, Mahé.The ride back was far calmer than earlier even as the ocean was just asundulating as earlier. There were fewer people falling prey to sea sickness onthe boat. We were quiet for the duration of the ride and the 45 minutes wasspent in peace. I was contemplating on how small we human beings were in the vastness of things (the ocean, in this case, it scared the bejeezus out ofme!).

Took a taxi fromthe pier to the Berjaya Beau Vallon Hotel & Casino (http://www.berjayahotel.com/mahe).It is situated on the other side of the island from the pier and we had afabulous taxi ride. The ride took us through the smallest capital in the worldVictoria. It is a quaint little town with small shops and even one temple thatwe saw while driving to the hotel. The island of Mahéis small and to cross over from one side of the coast to another, one has tocross pone of the many hills that are on the island. Once we reach the top ofthe hill, the view of the pier is just fantastic. The view on one side is thatat of the pier and the other side is lush greenery that is on the hillside. Asthe cab driver told us, Seychelles has about 90000 people. He also told us thatSeychelles is an expensive destination and that fuel is very expensive on theisland. They have to import everything from outside. There are a lot ofrestaurants as we pass by and for some reason pizzerias seem to be very popularand not the corporate kinds, small restaurants that offer pizzas. We arrived atthe hotel at 10AM.

My entry for the cover of the Sports Illustrated,
Swimsuit edition

Aida, the talkative kid

The Berjaya,where we were staying at, is a large hotel with over 200 rooms, 3 restaurants(a Chinese, an Indian & Creole and a Pizzeria), a superb pool, and ofcourse, a casino as the name implies and is situated on a beach. The view fromthe room is that of hillocks on one side, while it is that of a beach and theocean from the restaurant. The hotel is surrounded by lush greenery. However,the hotel has the most ridiculous policy of giving out the rooms only at 12PM!So if you arrive before 12 (as I saw the next couple of days, people arrivingat 7AM had to sit in the restaurant), the hotel just refuses to give you aroom. As we had 2 hours to kill, before we could get a room, we had breakfastat the restaurant, a buffet spread consisting of a variety of breads, jams andmarmalades, different fruits and they look so colorful when together (apples,oranges, peaches, plums, kiwis), choice of eggs made for you, bacon, ham,sausages, mixed fried rice, cold cuts, variety of cheeses, coffee, tea and juices.We then proceeded to see the pool. The pool is large and is filled withchildren, with their parents lounging on the comfortable wooden pool chairs. Wewalked over, took a couple of towels and went to see the beach which is rightoutside. We requested for some lounge chairs right under a large tree, which ison the beach, which is wonderful as one can sleep on the lounge chair withoutthe fear of getting sunburnt. There were quite a lot of people loungingcomfortably, either listening to their own music or reading. We also saw a lotof people sun bathing and looking extremely happy, while others were out for aswim in the, once again, lovely colored ocean.

Finally, theroom was ready, we changed and hit the pool. Spent the whole day at the pool aswe decided that today was the day when we do nothing and stay in at the hotel. Oh, and we met the most adorable little 6 year old from Norther England, Aida, who would speak so much that it amazed me! She would ask a question, not wait for a response, move to teh next until she got tired!

Had dinner at the Pizzeria and retired for the night.

M at the Pizzeria at Berjaya Beau Vallon

Kerala might be God's own country, but He lives in Seychelles: Day4: Valee de Mai, Pirogue Restaurant, Anse Volbert

Ealry morning view of the pool

As I had already said in the previous post, we were to to go to the Valee de Mai today. Woke up bright and early so I can enjoy the glorious viewfrom the balcony and to catch the English guide at Valee de Mai. Had breakfast,chilled by the pool took a quick shower and we left for the Valee. We reachedthe place at 945 AM sharp and it was no surprise that we were among the firstto be there. While we waited for the guide, got myself a cuppa to refreshmyself. We then walked out and started to look for English speaking people andthere weren’t any and just for the two of us, the guide was asking 50 Euros so wedecided that we could go on the trail by ourselves.

Thick vegetation in the Valee de Mai



Coco de Mer Female and Male.
Need I say which is which?

Valee de Mai is a UN World Heritage site for the Coco de Mertrees which grow only in the Seychelles – specifically on the Praslin andCurieuse Islands. They are tall trees that look like palm which bear fruit. Infact, they are the only case of gigantism in fauna on the Seychelles islands. Treescould be male or female based on the type of fruit that grows on it. The classificationof male or female can only be made after the tree bears fruit and this typicallyhappens after 8-10 years after the seed is sown. The female fruit resembles thehuman ovaries and the male fruit resembles the human phallus! It is absolutelystunning! We talk of life imitating art, but here was life imitating life.

Sunlight streaming through the palms at
Valee de Mai

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
at Valee de Mai

The valee was very picturesque. Thick vegetation was allaround us. It was so thick that sunlight was barely piercing the palm frondshigh above us. I was looking for a bright yellow gecko that is present only onthis island, and a nail sized frog that is really loud unfortunately I did notspot either one. We could hear the birds chirping, frogs croaking and, Isuspect, various other reptiles making sounds. While the Valee did not looklike the garden of Eden that people claim it to be, it certainly looked likethe forest scene in the movie Jurassic Park. This, in my opinion, is probablyhow Jurassic period forests would have probably looked like all those 65million years ago. We walked a long, winding 2 KM trail in the Valee.

M at Valee de Mai

Anse Volbert

We got back on the road towards Anse Lazio where on Day 2while driving we took a wrong turn and saw a restaurant called Pirogue which iswhere we wanted to head for lunch. This is probably the most professionally runrestaurant (or any other establishment) that was run on Praslin island. We hadlunch and M wanted to go to Zimbabwe, a high point on Praslin island. However,I wanted to see the beach that is right opposite Pirogue called Anse Volbertfirst before we left for Zimbabwe. We walked to the beach and here it wasprobably the most gorgeous beach I had ever seen. It was so beautiful. We thendecided to stay at the beach, despite not having clothes. So we went to a shopthat was selling souvenirs to see if they sell any bikinis and shorts for us toget a dip. We shopped and spent the next couple of hours in the ocean. The mostfun I have had in the cleanest beach I have ever been on. While Anse Lazio isextremely pretty, it probably is rated so high because it is privatelymaintained, but this one, is not and yet is so gorgeous and so inviting. Thesea was calm, the beach very clean and white, the water was a azure, the sky abrilliant lapis lazuli with some white clouds floating through, the steady coolbreeze blowing wonderfully caressing M’s hair. This was a feeling of pure andimmaculate bliss. I promptly proclaimed this to be my best beach in the world.

Another view of Anse Volbert

M at Anse Volbert

Had to go to the pier, as I had to change the timing of ourreturn catamaran ride to Mahe island to the morning run instead of the eveningone and I had to also return the car. When I asked around, I was informed thatI had to leave the car at the pier, with the car keys under the mat! Left the carat the pier with trepidation and started the walk back to Chalet Côte Mer, which isnot very far, but the road to reach the hotel is at a 20% incline, and boy Iwas busted walking back! We were leaving for Mahe the next day at 8:15 AM andgiven that the reception at the hotel does not open until later, I settled thebill and went back for a dip in the pool. It was with a heavy heart that Irealized that I won’t get this view again from a room, at least not for theduration of this trip.

M in the pool

Kerala might be God's own country, but He lives in Seychelles: Day 3: Valee de Mer, Capricorn, Anse Kerlan, Le Monde

 

View from Chalet Côte Mer

We woke up to a bright and sunny day on Praslin to hear so many different birds tweeting. There’s a bright orange little bird, called the Madasgascar Fody, that is amazingly pretty. It was cloudy the couple of days earlier so it came as a pleasant surprise. Headed down to the restaurant for breakfast and then to a dip in the pool. M tried again to get me to float J! Apparently, I was breathing too heavily and not giving in to the experience.

View of the jetty from Chalet Côte Mer

The Jetty

We left the hotel at around 1015 AM to go to the UN World Heritage site: Valee de Mer. It supposedly feels like Jurassic Park in there. By the time we reached the English guide had already left with a bunch of tourists so we decided to come back the next day. We went to the café and I had a cappuccino (I need my cuppa!) and decided to explore the only other coast left on the island.

View of the Chalet Côte Mer and the Jetty 

The road is among the prettiest road I have ever driven on. Vegetation is so thick on both sides of the road that there is barely little sunlight that reaches the road. The road is winding and with steep inclines that it is wonder to drive on. The moment the road flattened out, we could see the ocean with its awesome azure color. It’s a color so pretty that I begin to wonder why only a few islands have it. A sobering thought then strikes, if it was everywhere, it probably wouldn’t have been such a wonder.

Love this pic of M on the bench

I wanted a pair of shades, so we would stop at every place that was selling souvenirs to check if they sell shades. We drove further until we hit an area which had a bit more people and, a mall! I completely fell in love with the mall. From a person who hates malls because of the sheer number of people who throng it in other cities, it came as a shock, there were maybe 10 people in it apart from the sales persons. Oh and what brilliant work life these Seychellois have! Shops open at 10 Am, lunch is from 12 to 1 (or 2 whatever the owner decides) and they close by 4PM. I loved it! This is a dream destination to retire from the vagaries of work. I digress, so let me get back to the topic. It was 12 so the shops were shut and we drove down further in search of a restaurant called Capricorn which is on Anse Kerlan (Ans Kerlan). We finally found it, shut, for Christmas and New Year. Oh, there was a small little beach and what a beach! Super soft white sand, turquoise waters, marvelous, with nary a soul anywhere close by.. Either nature or the restaurant had made a small cove, where stones have been placed to look like a fashion ramp. At the end of the ramp, a wooden seat had been placed for people to sit and watch the lovely ocean. In my opinion, it is the most ideal place to sit and contemplate Life, Universe and Everything (with apologies to Douglas Adams). I was very glad that I spent some of the best 30 minutes of my life here.

Breathtaking Anse Kerlan

Found a supermarket where we bought some water, some biscuits and cigarettes. Well, we had to eat and there wasn’t a place that was open and we remembered that we passed a French restaurant that seemed open so we drove back and there it was, cute little French restaurant, Le Monde, so we parked our Sirion, went in and ordered food. It was a hot and balmy day. Sitting in the portico of the restaurant, with no fan on, made me a bit uncomfortable, but we had to eat. Waitresses seemed to be all on vacation so there was only the owner, her daughter (?) serving food. Tables got mixed up and meanwhile on a table next to us, there were 6 Italians who all ordered Lobsters, and they were among the largest I had ever seen. We ate to our hearts content and drove back to the mall. M and I bought a pair of shades and some other knick-knacks and drove back to the hotel. We hit the fantastic pool there and spent the rest of the evening at the hotel.

Kerala might be God's own country, but He lives in Seychelles: Day 2 - Anse Lazio, Bonbon Plume

Monday the 26^th 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…

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.

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. 

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!

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.

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.


Boulders on the beach

Kerala might be God's own country, but He lives in Seychelles: Day 1, continued

We arrived on the Praslin island and what struck the two of us was the sheer amount of greenery that is present. We had a large suitcase and therefore it was not possible for us to walk to the hotel which we could see from the pier. We hired a car to drop us to the Chalet Côte Mer where we had a reservation which is barely 5 minute drive from the pier. Winding uphill roads with a cool breeze blowing as we were driven greeted us at the island. 

The view from the hotel room was just supremely splendid. The hotel has been constructed on a side of a small hill, where every room has a view of the ocean. Lapis Lazuli of the ocean, green trees all around and a view of the ocean with a couple of small islands from the balcony was the view. I could feel the warm, gentle and salty breeze blowing along with the smell of water just pricked my senses. While I try to describe the view with words that I can, it falls short and as they say “A picture is worth a thousand words”, I am including some pictures of the same.

M wanted to freshen up and I needed a cuppa to get the blood flowing back to my head as I hadn’t had a coffee for the last 20 hours. Meanwhile, I went to the restaurant which has dried thatched roof from the palm trees that Praslin is famous for, ordered for my caffeine shot and went to the pool which is situated right next to the restaurant. The sight from the pool just blew my mind. The sea water which was an ugly grey in the middle of the ocean gave way to a lovely azure that I hadn’t seen before in a sea, except for in the movies. I could see a couple of boats in the harbor opposite to me. The pool is a deep sapphire in color because of the tiles that had been used and where the edge of the pool ends, I could see the beginning of the beryl waters of the sea. Thoughts failed me and I was moved to tears, the second time that sheer beauty in nature just crippled me emotionally (the first time was in the snowcapped mountains of Auli situated in the Uttarakhand state in India). What a sight to behold! I tried to capture the place and the beauty with a camera, but experiencing it with my eyes was an awesome experience.

Chalet Côte Mer is a wonderful hotel, tad expensive, but superb rooms. The large room that we had, had a double bed, with an extra single bed (for kids or for a couple who fight and need a separate bed!), a full closet with a digital safe, a refrigerator, 3 sofas, and a balcony with a couple of chairs to just sit and take in the view or read or just contemplate if one is so inclined. The bathroom is superb, with a bidet and a shower panel.

Everyone in Seychelles speaks French and Creole, a dialect that has evolved from French. Seychelles was a French colony until Napoleon lost in the battle of Waterloo when the administration changed hands to the British. So while English is widely spoken, French is the language that everyone is adept with. The overwhelming tourists are from France, there are settlers from Africa and India (brought here as slaves by the British) also, as there are from France. Indian cuisine is available which is mainly cooked in coconut milk. Coconuts are present in two colors: a bright orange color and the green (as against only green in India), which took us a couple of days to figure out. People drive on the left hand side of the road as is common in most countries in the Commonwealth.

Dinner is a fixed menu affair and if you are a vegetarian, you will have to inform the staff accordingly so that they can prepare something for you. They have a limited drinks menu and I tried the Cote de Mer special and the Pina Colada, both of which were - lip smacking. I also had the local Seychellois (Seychel-loa) beer Seybrew (say-brew) which is light.

M and I have already decided that Seychelles requires another visit and I hope the next time, it is with a bunch of friends that I know appreciate nature.

Kerala might be God's own country, but He lives in Seychelles: Day 1

ON Christmas afternoon M and I landed in the Seychelles International Airport situated on Mahé island, on the Emirates flight from Dubai. The flight was as uneventful as possible except for the ocean that was right beside the runway which made for one of the most wondrous landing that M & I ever experienced.

We finished the immigration formalities and came out of the airport. The feast for the eyes that awaited us was simply breathtaking - A green carpeted hill with the top covered by clouds. Smell of the warm sea wafted across the airport with the warm breeze swaying the leaves of the trees surrounding the airport. I could almost taste the salt in the air.

5 minutes later, the heavens opened up for a quick shower. We waited, impatiently, for the shuttle to arrive to take us to the pier where we were to take a fast catamaran ferry (Cat Cocos: www.catcocos.com) to the Praslin island (pronounced as Pra-lin island).

A new awareness and a deep respect for sailors emerged in my mind.

The catamaran ride from Mahé island to Praslin is a 45 minute ride. The day was windy and therefore the waters choppy. It was like a combination of being on a roller-coaster and the desert safari that we had done a year back in Dubai. The first fifteen minutes were spent in pure exuberance and thrill of being on a fast catamaran for the first time coupled with the fact that we were in deep sea waters. It was after the fifteen minutes that the mind opened up to new possibilities. The waters were very choppy, and the catamaran moving up and down on the waves, coupled with the fact that there were a lot of people throwing up due to motion/sea sickness, the mind started to wander. Being on a shore and watching the waves and the sea until the horizon, just does not cut it. In the middle of the ocean surrounded by the immense volume of water from all sides, until the eyes can see – a full panoramic 360 degree view, where the waves, are really large, is a completely humbling experience, therefore the new respect for sailors. The waves, when I sit on a shore, given that my feet are planted firmly on terra firma, are not relatively scary. Sitting on a boat, over which I have no control, the sheer size of the ocean and its waves which are so large coupled with it's movement akin to a terrifying monster's body undulating slowly as it breathes in and out, wave after wave, scared the living daylights out of me. The sound of the water splashing as the catamaran scythed through the sea was terrifying. The catamaran that we were sitting on was a big boat and it was being tossed about like it was made of paper, spraying cold water on us sitting on the upper deck, with an impunity that is chilling. Winds blowing hard, waves getting bigger and more powerful didn’t help my rather disturbing thoughts. The remainder of the 30 minutes was spent in silence. I could hear my heart pound in my chest and adrenalin pumping very hard. It was a wonder that neither M nor I threw up. I could feel the rumbling and the churn in my stomach and was beginning to regret eating the French Fries just prior to the ride!

This is an experience neither of us will ever forget and it is a check on one of the few things I had wanted to do in my life – Catamaran ride in deep sea waters.

Day 5: Harrowed in Harrow!

Stayed put at home in Harrow as M was badly unwell! Got chills and was shivering the whole day.. Chilled out, watched TV, chatted up as much as i could with my sis when she had the time! The damn woman was working and claimed that she was on vacation!!! She is the very definition of a workoholic! Anyways my Brother-in-law did come home early and caught up on drinks later in the eve.. Ordered yummy Turkish food at home and ate..

Rest tomorrow or maybe later today! ;-) Heading out now! Ciao!

So many wishes!

So many wishes from all of our friends.. Thanks one and all.. Never had so many people read my blog! Guess I have Facebook to thanks! :-)

Day 4: London!

We finally make it to London! Oh and no luggage! Remember all of it is still on the Kingfisher flight! M and me had to shop for undergarments and socks and the most important stuff!
Got up late - bugged my sis no end (so much fun to bug her after so long) and had a lazy morning! Brrrrrrrrr.. is it cold or what here! So much fun! Left for London at about 2:30 in the afternoon.. Went to a mall in Brent Cross, my sis wanted a MicroWave and in any case we did not get one because the one she liked was out of stock! Sis wanted o go to Wagamama, but there was a queue and Ijust refused to stand in a queue as I had to stand in a queue everytime we wanted food in Brussels! So went to a sandwich joint had sandwiches and left! By the time we reached Central London (well my sis is in Harrow) was already 4:30PM and getting dark really fast! Started hunting for parking and that was a pain in the butt! Finally found some parking in Soho and she could not parallel park so parked the car for her and started walking around London! Got into the Original Tour. Went around London in cold pouring December rain.. was a lot of fun! Went for dinner at a small Greek joint in Hampstead.. had fabolous food and came back home for a whiskey which was a godsend! :-) Whiskey in this cold is so much more fun! Oh and we got to know that the Kingfisher passengers were ferried across the English Channel by boat.. Shudder to think how cold it must have been! Bloody cold it muct have been!
So much for Day 4.. the walk in London had its own horror which shall be told later! ;-)

Day 3: Afternoon at Brussels!

So, as expected - no news from Kingfisher. So booked yet another flight, actually my sweet lil sis did on flybe.com, and we yet again waited for the flight. Went to the gate and the flight was late by 40 minutes. Meanwhile my sis got extremely antsy and started looking for other flights. Meanwhile, flybe called an announcement that teh flight will finally take off at 2:40 PM. So ran back to the gate and finally boarded the bus that will take us to the flight. Long drive to the aircraft and waited for the driver to open the door. He finally does after 20 mins waiting and tthen we board!!! The flight finally takes off and we land in Southampton at 5PM local time! Finally UK!!!! We de-plane, finish immigration and my sis just parks outside the arrival in her Audi A6 and we are off! Hit a small pub have a Guinness and head to a small restarant have dinner and hit home! What a lovely home my sis has.. Have to post pics of her place! Lovely backyard snowed in! :-) Another day!

Day 3: Early Morn!!!

Well, its bloody early here in Brussels and my sis actually booked me on a British Airwways flight! As you might already guess the way the whole drama is unfolding: It gets cancelled!
So looking at other options: M went and asked the immigartion guys if they can get us a transit visa for us to travel by EuroStar and they said no and took her to the KingFisher guys who were here at the airport, surprisingly!! Meanwhile Jet is flying out of Brussels - which means that both Brussels and Heathrow are operating!!! Yippieeee!!!!! Anyhow, Kingfisher is saying that we will fly out of Brussels between 11 and 1 PM. Crossing fingers! Lets see!

Will keep you posted! :-)

Day 2: Still at Brussels!

Went back to sleep and woke up by 8! Went back in the queue to get some food … broke the line – no one figured out I did.. got food in an hour and a half what would have taken easily 3.5 hours! Ate a hearty breakfast, and M and me went back to sleep! Woke up by 10 and called my sister up – poort thing did not sleep a wink figuring out what the hell to do! Checked once again – the morons at Kingfisher haven’t done shit.. for all the customer service crap that Dr. Vijay Mallya spews out while taking off in a video .. we were left to do our own jazz!

So my sis then asked to check if there were flights from Brussels to other airports .. there is no information desk in the area where we were been shepherded like cattle (Damn.. Shashi Tharoor should’ve been on this expedition – He would have given a whole new spin to the phrase “cattle class”!!). Asked my sis to check if there are indeed any airports that are actually operating out of London and poor thing did check and get back that Manchester and South Hampton airports were indeed functioning, she booked M and self on the FlyBe Brussels to South Hampton flight at 5:55 PM! Thought we had to get the tickets from the Brussels Airline counter and stood in the queue for about 2 hours! Standing the queue gave me perspective on why jobs are getting outsourced to India! It takes 15 minutes to book an international ticket in India at the airport counter (did that last year for our Bali trip where makemytrip screwed up for us!) Finally after I hit the counter, get to know that they do not give flybe tickets and that we need to print on our own! Fortunately, the Brussels airport has enough Internet terminals with printers that allowed us to do that. My sis meanwhile (bless her soul) had even called up the Brussels airport authority and checked the gate where we had to egt in the flight! Came back, checked the gate and finally had the first hot meal in about 28 hours at the Bar! Typing this while M is passed out on the table and waiting for the announcement of the flight! Meanwhile, it is snowing here in Brussels and is tremendously pretty looking at the concourse with the planes parked all over! Meanwhile, no word from Kingfisher and even Air India had arranged for their passenger to be moved to Madrid and Jet Airways arranged for transit visas for their passengers and tickets on EuroStar! Talk about customer service! Korean Air, meanwhile, was the ultimate in customer service. They don’t have a hub in Brussels – they actually flew in a crew from somewhere so that they can keep their passengers updated on the status on a hourly basis! KingFisher for all its 5 star experience is shit!

Waiting now for the Flybe flight so that we can start our holiday in earnest! Well.. Flybe also got cancelled! back to the drawing board! Checking a few other options!

Meanwhile the Kingfisher guys showed up and took everyone's passports except ours! :-)

So now we are stuck! Resting for the night at the Brussels airport in a tent bag! :-) Talk about roughing it!

Day 1: Stranded in Brussels

Left early in the morning at 6:30 AM from home in Bangalore to catch the Kingfisher flight to Mumbai at 9:05. The flight was over 15 minutes late and landed in Mumbai at 11:40 AM. Kingfisher connecting Flight from Mumbai to London Heathrow was at 1:05 PM. As we were obviously late, the airlines arranged a bus for us to catch the flight directly at Mumbai. Connected the flight without much of a hassle.

Supposed to land at London Heathrow (LHR) at 6:30 PM London time and we heard an announcement in the flight that London Heathrow has been snowed out and the pilot will try to land at Manchester instead! Well, we had already heard that London is having the coldest winter in over 30 years so that was something to be expected! Crossed our fingers and prayed.. well, an hour after the first announcement, we heard that all the airports in London are closed and that all the flights are getting diverted to either Schiphol (Amsterdam) or Brussels. As luck would have it, ours got diverted to Brussels. I had never seen Brussels so was mildly excited. Landed in Brussels and were in the flight stuck for an hour and a half when the Brussels Airport Authority came on line and told us that they are expecting a lot of flights into Heathrow to be diverted into Brussels and we disembarked.

The Brussels airport authority was kind enough to provide us with Food Coupons worth Euro 13 per person and then started the troubles! Brussels never anticipated the kind of a problem this whole snowstorm was going to ensue. There was just 1 restaurant open at Brussels and we had to stand in a queue for about 4 hours before we got food! Getting food was pure mayhem. The restaurant am sure had made more money that one day compared to a whole year.. There probably were close to 3500 people whose flights got stranded in Brussels. Had dinner, slept on bedsheets given by Kingfisher on the floor of Brussels airport at about 5AM in the morning. Up by 6, to try figure out what the plan of action is! No representative by Kingfisher.. no one even knows that Kingfisher is an airline.. Right royal mess we are in!

Uk Holiday - 18th December 2010 - 3rd January 2011

Off to the UK for a holiday.. dreaming about a white Christmas in UK.. Given that we just completed our home improvement project (what a bitch that was!) we finally did manage some time to get Visas and buy tickets!!! Extremely excited about heading off there and capping a fantastic year..

Global Economic Crisis

Hell – it has been a bloody long time since I have penned anything of note.. so here goes, my two cents on the current headache that all the governments in the world are trying to fix..

Well – first and foremost – I do not understand it at all..

Yes – I get the fact that this was precipitated by greedy and over-enthusiastic banks and the housing crisis…. but what is the fix for this mess that we all are into – most of us have been spectators who have become involved unintentionally?

Governments all over the world are trying to put more money into people’s pockets by reducing key lending rates so that consumers who have started penny pinching to get back to the market and spend some money. Now this money is what most corporations need for R&D and for any new products that hit the market. However, if you read any business news papers or websites, it will probably scream that some corporation or another has frozen salaries or stopped hiring!

Isn’t this counter-intuitive? Governments are trying to get more money/credit into the system and corporations are doing exactly the opposite? No matter how much money the government puts into the system, if corporations decide not to give salary increments to their employees – how will consumers hit the shops?

Call me naive – but I don’t get this at all – shouldn’t it be in the corporations’ benefit that people have money with them – it will help necessitate the want to buy their products and therefore will boost their share value – which goes on to satisfy the shareholders because the stock value will go up – no matter what because the customers are spending money buying up products which means they will consistently exceed market expectations!

Yes – I agree this recession will go a long way to get people to save.. but should this not be corporate responsibility to ensure that any nation’s economy does not reach recessionary levels!

Does this make sense?

The glorious uncertainty of sport

Well – What a match it was last night between Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal!
Superlatives flowed so easily by Vijay Amritraj who himself was, apparently (only because I did not see him play), very stylish and sublime.
This match was by far the greatest sporting match that I had witnessed, even if it was on television.

Superb, supreme, mind-boggling, mind-blowing, awesome, delicate, deft, sublime are but a few words that come to mind! BBC has been showing the McEnroe versus Borg match in the rain delay and I think this will put an end to that.

It was not the fact that almost everyone was expecting an epic, but the fact that it became one as soon as it started was what shocked me! While expectations are one thing, we have very often seen one opponent demolishing the other in any kind of sport where there is such intense rivalry, most recently between these two protagonists themselves in Paris at the French Open.

We as spectators of the rivalry that, I hope, will survive in the years to come and hopefully only get stronger, have been privileged to have been able to watch this spectacle between these two tremendous gladiators. At one point in the 4th set, it was impossible to choose between either of them. This is, by very far, the best match that I have had the pleasure to watch. And boy, was I glad!

I am also not sure of the tag that Rafa had been called by – underdog, pretender etc. Pretender – who is anyone kidding? Pretension is only by mere mortals who want to unseat an emperor. Rafa has earlier at Paris, demolished Federer so systematically that sometimes, one tends to be reminded of Andy Roddick, who gets so mentally harassed when he is playing Federer, is Federer getting a taste of his own medicine?

Who won the match was incidental and both the players will have to live with this fact that they will always be talked about “that match at the Wimbledon finals”. Roger has to love with the fact that he did indeed come second on his favourite surface.

It will now get even more interesting that since Rafa has mastered this particular surface and has this piece of silverware in his cupboard on a surface few Spaniards win on, it is Hard Courts that he will begin to target for the other 2 silverware that is missing – As Roger said in the award ceremony in 2007 at the same hallowed ground when he won – this kid will win everything there is to win. He is young and strong and mentally so focused that he will have to bear the burden of spectators like me hoping for a career slam, if not the Grand Slam.

Reams will be written of this match by people more accomplished by people who can certainly write much better that I can ever claim to, but this was too good to miss out penning about.

Oh – what I would give to be at the ring-side of another epic of Roger vs. Rafa at Wimbledon…..

Wishing both of them for more riveting contests in the future.

Thank you Rafa and Roger for giving me and the other teeming millions, the pleasure of this stupendous bout.

Relationships and Compromises - A conundrum

Had written this earlier – different shit from what I usually write! Please do bear with me!

Why are human relationships so difficult? I am not just referring to a relationship between partners, but every single one of them – with friends (doesn’t matter if it’s a man or a woman), with parents, with siblings, with co-workers, with bosses (and this certainly differs with the sex of the boss and either can be difficult or easy).

Every relationship needs care and has to come from both the parties involved and my personal take on why relationships are difficult is that it is because of our system of beliefs that we are brought up with, initially by our parents and later on predominantly with friends.

This has a lot to do with the fact that each person is different, has different needs, aspirations, and goals in life. I might have become cynical, but I think that they will never match with anyone else, ever. All we need to do is ensure that we at least make an effort to walk part of the way to meet the other person and it can never happen if the other person refuses to do so – lets not fool ourselves, but everyone one of us has a certain amount of a narcissistic streak in us, which leads us to believe that “I” am most important. This is not even a function of age of the individuals involved – in fact, if truth be told, as ones children grow older and become responsible (there are exceptions), the streak becomes even more prominent – maybe it is the fear of death and the realization that “I” have not got enough of what “I” thought “I” should have achieved. This is what makes them even more difficult because I believe that individuals are less open to change in the latter part of ones lives.

So what happens next? We compromise with our own set of beliefs hoping that the other person also will do the same with theirs and try and move ahead. Funny thing is we end up thinking that this is precisely what “I” have done for the majority of my life – so when will this end? The answer is simple – NEVER. We humans are social animals and no one likes to be alone – we tend to want people around us all the time – why else would we want to invite people when someone is born or gets married or dies? We need support and that very support system comes with baggage which we call compromise.

The question we need to ask ourselves – is it worth all the trouble? There is, unfortunately, no answer that will satisfy everyone. Everyone’s capability to handle compromise is different. Love is what drives us to compromise and falling out of love drives us to, eventually, end the relationship.

We need to be able to make a decision on what is more important – salvaging the relationship or satiating our ego. This, my friend, is never easy because you are fighting with the self.