My life as an Expat: A few days in Paradise

4 or so days to spare (which, btw, how I still have vacation days remaining is beyond me)

A friend that is perma leaving Dubai that wants to do one last hurrah before joining her hubby back in Spain.

Wanting to visit a close destination, then realize Dubai is pretty much 'close' to everything

Find super flights to Mahe, Seychelles that gives us pretty much 4 full days as arrive early am (7am) and department late at night (midnight).

Done!

Seychelles here we come!!!!!

Day 1:

Well, being that it was 'off' season, meaning 'rainy' season, we were SUPER lucky to get a FAB "quiet before the storm (i.e. Xmas holidays) deal on a FABULOUS guesthouse literally less than 50m from the beach, called "Beach House" in Beau Vallon. We practically had a whole apartment to ourselves, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, and a patio... too big and too fab for words.... all for 65 euros/night! A MAJOR STEAL!!!!!!!

View from one of the bedrooms... beach in the background

Day 1 - max'n and relax'n

The first day was spent wandering around and as it was a bit cloudy and wet, kind of refreshing actually, was just a chillout day!

Day 2- Start with a run by the beach (on the road), too beautiful! A bit humid and hot, buuuut nice to have some hills and change of scenery.

Then we went scuba diving! 1st dive was a wreck dive and it had lots of fish, visibility okay and 2nd dive was at "coral garden." As one of my fave movies is Finding Nemo, in my head I always fantasize that all diving is like that, buuut although it was beautiful and water a lot clearer and we saw a turtle, sting ray, parrotfish, angelfish, and other Indian Ocean fish, I was quite surprised at the coral bleaching and the dead coral :-( Quite sad actually, not as colorful as I imagined it to be. Sigh.

Afternoon was spent enjoying some rays of sun and then around Beau Vallon. We also went.. twice actually, to this little walking 'boardwalk' area that had more or less a street market! This couple at our guest house raved about it and although I can imagine it bumpin' and hoppin' during the peak season, it was fairly relaxed yet busy enough with food stalls. I REALLY liked it however how it was about 70% locals and the rest tourists. REALLY nice to see that it is one for all and all for none, and even prices appeared more or less the same.

Octopus curry and... yummy fresh coconut water!

Caterina and I!

Back again for dinner, this time some fish and lemongrass water, yummmm! Have to say ALL the fish and food we ate was just delish!

Quail eggs!!

Day 3 - Boat/bus visit to Praslin Island .... Explored Praslin National Park and Valle de Mai

Learned a lot about the world's biggest seed - Coco de Mer! Yes as you can imagine, too many jokes about the resemblance to female private parts, BUT besides that, was REALLY glad to see how seriously they take the preservation of it. The government REALLY regulates the growth and numbers of the Coco de Mer palm, especially that it is unique to the island, and the world.

One of the stops was a beautful secluded beach where we chillax'd probably for 20 minutes before... it started raining and raining hard! The tropics! Can't predict it. Again, I haven't seen rain forever so didn't mind, but it wasn't the most convenient of them all!

But.... as soon as we got to La Digue, we hired bikes, took off and came across (literally, we were looking for something else and basically ended up at this gorgeous beach. Things like this is why I love travel so much, coming across these unexpected gems). So the island itself is known to be a paradise island, and really, as soon as we got there, the sun came out and when we came across this gorgeous beach with clear clear waters and white sand and... it really was paradise!!!! It's time like this when you just have to sit back and relax and think that this is what life is all about, and how beautiful life can be. Gorgeous!

Then came back by boat and..... we were nearing Mahe and we heard a loud thump... really sounded and felt like we hit some rocks. Hmm.... the skipper and others looked a wee bit concerned and although it felt like we hit rocks, which was kind of odd as we were fairly far out, I did comment, "we maybe hit a whale shark." Well, lo and behold, we did!!! I couldn't believe it! It is a DREAM of mine to see one and dive with one, and actually, quite alarming they ride so shallow to the waters as the locals said it is quite common for boats to hit them (and can cause a lot of damage). So random!!!

When we got back, we were just in time to see a nice sunset....

Day 4: Started off the day with another nice run!

We did scuba again, another wreck dive, and it was nice! Overall, it was nice diving, not GREAT and fabulous diving, buuuut nice! And I haven't been since 2013 (whoops), so it was just nice to see the underwater world again.

As we had the whole day still, we hired a car and off we went to explore Mahe island by car! Again, got a 'low season' rate of 30 euros for the day, just awesome!!!

Went to the tea factory...

Then a fab-u restaurant ON the beach, a BEAUTIFUL beach, called Del Place restaurant, was just ahhh-mazing! Had this absolutely delicious fish, Cat had a yummy dish as well, and we sprluged on dessert, hehe. Was just gorgeous!

This couple at our guesthouse gave us this hand written 'map' of these hightlights, such as that restaurant and also some little beach places to stop by and see, was too nice and love these random encounters from traveling. And really, if one has time, we were doing this all within several hours, it is a gem just to find these little nook and cranny beach spots.... with no one around.

We randomly came to the Double Tree hotel, and as all hotels have public beach access, we made ourselves comfy here! And of course had to take some glam pics, and yoga pics at that!

And.... there you have it!!! Drove the car to the airport and then overnight flight back to Dubai, back at 4am, in bed at 5am, and back at work at 10am!