Goodbye Seychelles, Hello Dubai Hello Bengaluru

so 7 days had passed so quickly and now we were waiting for our cabbie to pick us up and drop us to the international airport.
ours was the first flight from Mahe to Dubai and since protocol demands we be at the airport at least 3 hours in advance meant that we would be spending a lot of time at the departure terminal at Mahe.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 7 - Glass Bottom Boat

Day 7 :  so here it was, our very last day! once again, our tour guide had informed us that we would be the only couple to go on the glass bottom boat ride as the other tourists had rescheduled their plans.

so effectively this turned out to be a very private , romantic date, with just me and my wife niki.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 6 - Scuba Diving

Scuba diving was something nikki was interested to do the very first day we landed in Seychelles! and the place we stayed at was called "Diver's Lodge" kept reminding her of scuba diving and we had "Big Blue Divers" for our immediate next door neighbours.
me on the other hand, well, am petrified of water, have always been, and so was not really keen to go scuba diving. when we met the instructor, i nearly signed up for scuba diving as well, but my senses prevailed and i decided not to enrol while nikki was jumping for joy!

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 5 - Sunday at Victoria + Lunch at Butcher's Grill + Dinner at La Plage

the only time we actually got to explore the city on our own was on day 5, which also happened to be a lazy sunday.

after our super awesome breakfast, we decided to travel to Victoria by local bus as it was the cheapest way to get to the main city and back. we totally forgot to overlook the fact that on a Sunday, nothing open! literally, all the shops are closed, the markets closed , only a few restaurants are open.

managed to ask a few friendly locals if any restaurants would be open as it was lunch time already, and we finally got to eat Seychelles Junk Food courtesy The Butcher's Grill.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 4 - Praslin + Ladigue + Emmanuelle house + Anse Volbert +Coco De Mer + Anse Lazio +Baobab Pizza

for me, day 4 was the most memorable from our entire Seychelles trip. thats coz we got to do so much and see so much and meet a lot of people.

Catamaran from Mahe to Praslin and Ladigue : 

another early breakfast and Paul our designated driver dropped us from our lodge to the harbour where our tour operator Sultanne was waiting for ur with our catamaran pass.

Mahe was the main island with a population of about 75000 people while Praslin (pronounced Praa-Lean) and Ladigue were the other 2 important and big islands , with a combined population of not more than 4000 people.

everyone depended on catamaran for transport from one island to another and it was really expensive! our each ticket cost ur around SRs 3000/- and i was told the locals have a monthly pass to make commuting easier.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 3 - Copolia Nature Trail + Beau Valon beach at night

Nikki and I were extremely excited on day 3 after finding out that we were the only couple to be part of Copolia nature trail with our very own personal tour guide Steve.

as usual we were greeted to the sounds of colourful birds waking us up, and after my fav breakfast 'bacon-ham-egg' we were off to explore the beautiful mountains of Seychelles.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 2 - Beau valon and Marie Antoinette Restaurant

marie antoinette restaurant

The second day of our honeymoon began by admiring the surroundings of divers lodge. right in front of our lodge was an open patio where the residents could sit have their breakfast whilst watching the waves of  Beau Vallon . The owners of divers lodge grow tomatoes, green chillies and mangoes in their garden. Close to the patio  is a small bird food dispenser . It brings the most beautiful birds of seychelles every morning! we managed to spot the red fody also called the madagascar fody it resembles a small orange to red feathered sparrow. A few others were the zebra dove or the barred ground dove and the seychelle bulbul. It was heavenly to hear the morning waves, sounds of chirping birds and the scenic turquoise colored waters of Beau Vallon!

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 1 - Tour of Mahe

pic clicked from the cab we were travelling in

the first thing we did after we got out from the airport was to convert Euros to Seychellois Rupees. Euros, Dollars, British Pounds are all accepted in Seychelles, but its always better to carry the local currency so u get back the exact change. at that time, 1 SR = 5 INR approx. and 1 Euro = 16 SR approx.

we managed to get a cab just outside the airport and the lodge we were booked at "Diver's Lodge" was situated at Beau Vallon beach which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. it was a 20 minute drive, covering a distance of about 15 kms.

topographically the island of Mahe and rest of the islands that comprise Seychelles is pristine beaches and granitic mountains. thats it. buying houses is very expensive coz u either get the beach front or the mountain range. in both cases, beautiful , ridiculously gorgeous landscapes.

Few things u need to know about Seychelles

• its comprises of 155 islands and only a handful of them are inhabited. 
• the largest island is Mahe, and Victoria is the capital
• Victoria is also the worlds smallest capital city
• the population of Mahe is about 70,000
• the other major islands are Praslin, La Digue and Silhouette islands
• languages spoken are French, English and Seychellois Creole. 
• the local cuisine or Creole food has chicken curry (non spicy), fish baked or steamed, and lots of vegetables, with the occasional fruit bat and octopus. 
• Cable and wireless is the primary telecommunications firm based in Seychelles, the other is Airtel
• a bus ride to any point costs SR 5/-
• Seybrew beer is the local beer and its delicious!
• the people live in complete religious harmony and ethnically Africans, Indians and Chinese are the local inhabitants.
• they dont have any manufacturing units in Seychelles except Tuna , which is exported throughout the world , making them the biggest exporters. 
• everything is Seychelles is super expensive! thats because everything comes into Seychelles by boat/ship 

Honeymoon tip #1 : NEVER plan a tour on the very first day on arrival!

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 1 Landed in Seychelles!!

the flight from Dubai to Seychelles was about 4 hours. but it really felt longer! so the joy on our faces when the captain announced "we will be landing in Mahe shortly" was priceless! here we are finally in Seychelles!

i took a lot of photos using the 5d mark iii and ultra wide 17-40 lens from the window of the aircraft.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 1 Bangalore and Dubai

i am a professional wedding photographer and so travelling is something that comes naturally to me. i never really enjoyed travelling when i was on assignment as i never really got to enjoy the travel, most often i would get confined to the hotel rooms, marriage halls of the events i am covering, so this is truly the very first time i enjoyed the travel. more so as it was my honeymoon! and magnificent Seychelles was our destination. so i decided to blog our journey from Mangalore to Seychelles for 2 reasons.
1. the photos are just not to be missed
2. this could serve as a travel guide to first time travellers to seychelles from India. will be writing about the must visit places in Seychelles, the local cuisine, culture etc. in the upcoming blog posts. 

we have been planning our honeymoon destination for months now and we had narrowed it down to the usual suspects Maldives, Mauritius , Bali, Malaysia etc. Nicole, my wife hates the cold, so travelling to Europe in January was totally out of the question even though we had initially agreed to go to Greece.

i really dont remember now who had come up with the idea of Seychelles but i was fortunate to have a friend Mario who arranges holidays through his firm Fleetfoot Journeys based in Mumbai.

after countless hours of talking over the phone and hundreds of email exchanges we were extremely happy to get our confirmed hotel reservations. made all the payments months before the Rupee had a nasty fall and had booked our flight tickets from MANGALORE TO BANGALORE, BANGALORE TO DUBAI, DUBAI TO MAHE (Seychelles)

there was an alternate route to fly via Colombo. but since it was our first time travel together abroad as a married couple, we thought it would be best to go via Duabi. in any case Dubai has a wonderful airport, which looks like a massive shopping mall.

some pics clicked at Bangalore airport, its not wise to take out the DSLR and start shooting inside the airport. a lot of pics are taken using their smartphones but i dont think its allowed to click photos with big bulky DSLR's inside the airport.

bangalore airport