Gadling

Travel Regrets: One Lost Conversation

Alex Robertson Textor — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, United Kingdom

It's impossible to know what a lost conversation might have yielded. A lost conversation occupies a place in memory, a reservoir of sadness or relief. It's the shape of the reservoir that remains forever unknown. This uncertainty often renders the very recognition of a lost conversational opportunity difficult.

The decision to welcome a stranger into conversation while on the road isn't always easy. Nobody wants to be an easy mark. In places with pervasive tourism infrastructures, it's often the better part of wisdom to ignore touts and attempts at conversation altogether. There are, after all, many scams to avoid, many tourist traps to escape.

But often a self-imposed barrier to conversation on the part of a tourist or traveler precludes what would have been interesting, useful, personally significant, or simply an opportunity to share a laugh or two.

A year and a half ago I was in Mauritius, having a conversation with my partner on a beach. What was it about? No idea. A very tall man with dreadlocks came up to us and hovered maybe 15 feet away. Very quietly he asked us if we might be interested in buying some jewelry made out of sea urchins.

I couldn't hear him. "Sorry?" I asked. He repeated his pitch. "No thank you," I responded, somewhat curtly. We were not interested in his jewelry. He also wasn't really bothering us. Had our completely forgettable conversation not felt urgent, I would no doubt have been more polite. Hawkers are few and far between in this part of Mauritius, at least off-season, and his entreaty had been tame and gentle. But we weren't interested, and we were in the middle of a conversation in any case.

"Where are you from?" he persisted. Every time we got this question in Mauritius we had to make a decision. Either we enjoyed the unfolding game and entertained a dozen or so guesses before we revealed our nationality, or we nipped it in the bud by responding "American." This time, eager to get back to our conversation, we chose the latter option.

"I know America," he said with sudden clarity. He pointed at his chest with a single finger. "I am from Chagos." Suddenly, everything changed. He was no longer an unobtrusive if vaguely annoying hawker. "You are from Chagos?" I asked, suddenly alert. "Yes," he answered. And then he turned away abruptly. The lines of communication were closed. He was done.

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Travel Regrets: One Lost Conversation originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 14 May 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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10 best places to live for avoiding world conflict

Elizabeth Seward — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Learning, Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Seychelles, Bhutan, Iceland, Switzerland, Canada, Costa Rica, United States, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, News, Central America, Caribbean

Expatify.com asked the question, "Where would you be the safest if World War III broke out tomorrow?" The answers arrived in a post titled "10 Best Places to Live for Avoiding World Conflict." Irrelevant as it may seem to you, the claws of conflict affect a revolving roster of nations. The knowledge of where not to go because of conflict, or better yet, where to go to avoid it, can be useful if you're planning to live, or even just spend some time, abroad. According to this article, countries that make the safety cut are: Switzerland, Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea, Canada, Seychelles, Finland, Tuvalu, Iceland, Bhutan, and New Zealand. Most of these choices make sense to me, based on what I know, but the undeniably gorgeous Seychelles seems like a somewhat uncertain choice. News stories covering the Somali pirates swarming the Seychelles area are prevalent. To be fair, I'm not convinced Somali pirates are a current threat for World War III. What are your thoughts? Where would you move in order to be as far removed from world conflict as possible?

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Seychelles two ways: Desroches and Calou

Alex Robertson Textor — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Africa, Seychelles

To start, I should say that there's no comparison between Desroches and Calou. They're two different beasts altogether, luxury apples and budget-friendly oranges, respectively. Yet taken together they present two distinctive experiences of the country: Seychelles two ways.

Desroches is one of Seychelles' top resorts, a private island resort that underwent a major design upgrade following its leasing in 2008 to South African investors. At €1200 ($1590) per couple per night - not including the €400 ($530) or so it costs per person to fly the 250 kilometers to the island from Mahé, the country's main island - it's very pricey. That €1200 gets guests an oceanfront suite (see above) the size of a nice country cottage. For villas or even splashier "retreats," the nightly outlay is much higher.

Desroches offers an international crew who are always smiling and open to making conversation. It's impossible not to feel pampered at Desroches, a resort that manages to make its guests feel looked after but also left to their own devices. That's a balance that many luxury resorts get wrong.

Suites are wonderfully outfitted in light tones, a nice mishmash of earthy and modern. Lounge spaces are capacious, with few walls. There's a spa, appropriately hushed and meditation inducing, clinging to the beach as well. The resort blends beautifully into the island's tropical greenery. Also noteworthy is the island's very good conservation office, funded by a resort foundation, whose director allows guests to join him on morning wildlife inventory walks around the island.

Calou, located in a garden in the middle of La Digue, is a much less lavish proposition. Staff are few, somewhat overworked though genuinely friendly. Cottages run €124 ($164) per night including breakfast and dinner for two. Cottage with breakfast is only €100 ($132) with dinner for an additional €15 ($20) per person. The evening meal is enjoyed around large communal tables. Calou's cottages are simple with barely adorned white walls, a fan as well as air conditioning, and a corner refrigerator.

Desroches is the fantasy, the space apart from workaday life; Calou, though not hostel-cheap, is within reach of many. Desroches is inarguably more comfortable; its padded gorgeousness removed just a hair from the unreal. It is a dream space. Calou, pleasant and welcoming, is one hotel among many.

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Seychelles two ways: Desroches and Calou originally appeared on Gadling on Sat, 10 Mar 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How to visit Seychelles on a budget

Alex Robertson Textor — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Africa, Seychelles

How to visit Seychelles on a budget? It's simple. Stay in a friendly little guesthouse on the island of La Digue, eat dinner at said guesthouse, rent a bicycle, spend time on the beach and chill out.

For tourists, the Indian Ocean country of Seychelles is luxury territory. This is a fact. It's expensive to fly there and it's expensive to stay there. The country is dotted with unfathomably pricey digs, places like Maia and North Island (the latter, the site of Will and Kate's honeymoon last year) where guests pay €3000 ($3940) per night for extreme luxury, butlers and all.

But on the small Seychellois island of La Digue, there are plenty of guesthouse options, some quite reasonable. La Digue is one island that travelers of modest means can actually afford to visit. My guesthouse, Calou, was a friendly and satisfactory option at €100 ($131) per night for a cottage, including breakfast. I'll write more on Calou in a subsequent post.

Budget-friendly means different things in different places. On La Digue, a couple can have a perfectly blissful time for €170 ($223) a day, €150 ($197) on a slight austerity plan. Is this Central America cheap? No. Is it Balkans cheap? Again, no. But in Seychelles it is bargain territory.

La Digue is a green speck of paradise fringed with enormous boulders. It's like something out of the Flintstones -- only, of course, its boulders are real granite objects and not the work of animation. Roosters do duty as alarm clocks. There are enormous tortoises, both in a reserve and sometimes lumbering down the road. The land is lush, the roads narrow, and the town very social. Bicycle is the main mode of transportation on La Digue and cars are rare. People wave and say hello on the street. For anyone who has spent time in the Caribbean, there are unavoidable social parallels. There is a Rasta subculture here as well, with reggae spilling out of supermarkets and houses.

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How to visit Seychelles on a budget originally appeared on Gadling on Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seychelles idyll for Royal Couple

Alex Robertson Textor — Tue, 10 May 2011 08:45:00 EST

Filed under: Africa, Europe, Seychelles, United Kingdom

The British media reported this morning that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge--the two young lovebirds you may know as William and Kate--arrived in the Seychelles earlier today to kick off their long anticipated honeymoon.

After touching down at Seychelles International Airport in Mahé, the Royal Couple boarded a helicopter and took off for a private, unidentified island.

The location of the Royal honeymoon has been a matter of intense speculation in the UK over the last several weeks. Jordan, the Isles of Scilly, and Barbuda have all turned up as potential destinations.

The Seychelles, a cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean, are a top upscale destination, with tourist inflows coming mostly from Europe. Surely the Royal Couple's decision to honeymoon in the country will not damage the Seychelles' reputation as a playground for the rich.

[Image: Flickr | Olivier Cochard-Labbé]

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Bowermaster's Adventures -- Ibo

Jon Bowermaster — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Activism, History, Learning, Stories, Africa, Seychelles, Ecotourism

Ibo - officially Ilha Do Ibo, by the Portuguese who colonized it - is one of a string of 32 islands that make up the Quirimbas archipelago, separated from the Mozambique coast by just a shallow channel. Barely two miles long and two miles wide a fringe of reefs surrounds it; at low tide you can walk to the next island. On its main, slightly derelict beach fishermen hammer at boats turned on their sides and a pair of skinny boys walk the mangrove shallows with a net between them, trolling for baitfish. Just offshore cruise elegant-if-paint-flaked wooden dhows; their triangular white cloth sails making them look more windsurfer than sailboat. Ironically their masters can only fish when it's windy, since most have no motors.

A grassy square of abandoned colonial houses in ice-cream pastels anchors the island's main town (there are just three). Their grand size and wrought iron terraces and lampposts suggest prosperity. But the ironwork is rusted; the walls pitted with black mold and fig trees grow through the roofs. After the church, the grandest building on the square is the Customs House, pink-painted with ornate iron lattice along its roof. Inside, in a vague attempt at tourism, it has been turned into a tourist office. The unmanned display consists of an elephant skull, an old dining chair with a label reading "cadeira usada pelos portugueses" - chair used by the Portuguese - and a table laid out with a few coffee beans.

Ibo's heyday was during the late 1800s, based on slaves and ivory. When slavery was abolished in the early 1900s and modern ships no longer needed to stop off so often for water and supplies, it faded. The island's graves tell how, over the centuries, it attracted the Chinese, Arabs, British and Portuguese. Today it feels as if time has stopped since the Portuguese left abruptly in 1974, its population having fallen from 37,000 to fewer than 6,000. There are no cars, no banks, no postal service, no television or Internet and virtually no electricity ... except at its lone and elegantly restored hotel, the Ibo Island Lodge (www.iboisland.com).

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Bowermasters Adventures -- Becoming a French state

Jon Bowermaster — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Activism, Learning, Stories, Africa, Seychelles, Ecotourism

Dozens of small tri-colored French flags hang from the awning of the bar 5/5 on Mamoudzou's seafront. A Malagasy polka/country/blues/rock band plays to a mixed crowd of blacks and whites. Two weeks ago a historic vote turned the street out front into a riot of celebration when 95.5 percent of voters on this tiny island of 186,000 people voted to officially become French citizens.

Though Mayotte is closer to Mombassa than Paris, its traditional dish is manioc eaten with boiled fish, is 98 percent Muslim and known for cultivating the sweet-smelling essence ylang ylang (which made the perfumery Guerlain famous) it is now the 101st department - or state -- of France.

A celebratory hangover lingers. I talk with a pair of women sitting in the back of the bar, taking advantage of a cool breeze blowing off the nighttime sea. They are all for the changes French citizenship will bring once the deal is formally signed in 2011: Social security benefits (though not for 25 years!), a new educational system, Islamic judges traded in for French ones and even the income taxes they will eventually have to pay. But they tell me they are also for a couple things the vote will outlaw: Polygamy and child marriages. "Those are from another time," says one, her face masked by a traditional beige-colored paste of ground coral and sandalwood meant to keep the sun away, skin younger.

That its overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population is set to become full-fledged French citizens seems a bit odd to me. Having lived in France for nearly a decade I have seen how the French in France often treat Muslims living there, rewarding them with a high rate of joblessness, apartments in the poorest banlieues and even traditional headscarves banned from schools.

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Bowermasters Adventures -- Becoming a French state originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bowermaster's Adventures -- Communing with hermit crabs

Jon Bowermaster — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Activism, Learning, Stories, Africa, Seychelles, Ecotourism

It is with great privilege and no small amount of humility that I spend as many days as I can on remote, uninhabited atolls. This Sunday morning it is in the Alphonse group of the Seychelles - south of the main granite islands of Mahe, Praslin and La Digue - and is called St. Francois. Shaped like a broken piece of coral, with several small fingers jutting northwards, it is just two miles around. But the lagoon that surrounds, outlined by a sharp reef, is a sizable nine by three miles.

Two facts of nature here in mid-April warrant an early morning exploration of the island: high heat and low tides. By nine it will be over 90 degrees F and humid, the lagoon covered by just a shallow, warm sea.

At seven, when much of the world is contemplating miraculous ascensions and chocolate egg hunts, I am communing with hermit crabs. I've never seen such a huge population (though it's rivaled by a small island off Peru we visited last fall, which had a more intense concentration but nowhere near the volume). Every shell on the beach has been converted into a mobile home, from fingernail sized round shells to the long and conical to big, mossy, partially busted. There are easily fifty quick-moving hermies per square foot trundling shells of every size, shape and color. There does seem to be some weird segregation going on; though admittedly purely empirical it looks on parts of the beach that white shelled crabs mingle only with other white shelled crabs and that in other parts, moss-backed green shells hang only with their own kind.

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Bowermaster's Adventures -- Communing with hermit crabs originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bowermaster's Adventures -- LaDigue

Jon Bowermaster — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Stories, Africa, Seychelles, Ecotourism

I often ask audiences to define paradise. While responses vary, a high percentage involves some combination of white sand beach, coconut palm and blue-blue sea scenario. It's so pervasive I've long been curious where the notion first originated. Honeymoon brochure? 1940s movie? Similarly, as I travel and explore I keep running into places touted as "paradise on earth."

A couple islands in the Seychelles make that list, dating back to the mid-1700s when one of the first visitors to Praslin, Charles (Chinese) Gordon, went away convinced he had seen the site of the original Garden of Eden. Having spent yesterday - a gray, humid day - exploring it and nearby La Digue, it's clear how legends get started.

When Asia split off and drifted away from Africa, breaking up what 160 million years or so ago was the single continent of Gondwanaland, it left in its trail a couple hundred granite "droppings" scattered across what we now know as the Indian Ocean. This makes the Seychelles different from most island groups around the world, which are volcanic. The Seychelles are remnants of continental drift. Characterized by boulder-covered hills and hard mountains as high as 2,700 feet above sea level they are surrounded by narrow coastal plains and extensive coral reefs.

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Bowermaster's Adventures -- LaDigue originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bowermaster's Adventures -- Pirates in Seychelles

Jon Bowermaster — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Africa, Seychelles, Ecotourism, Consumer Activism

Five a.m. on the Indian Ocean, a quarter mile off the small granite island of La Digue. Daylight is still an hour away, the sea flat and quiet, still too early for the call of morning birds and too dark for pirates.

And pirates are on everyone's minds and lips here. Just days before Somali pirates had grabbed a tuna boat with a crew of 29 just to the north of where we motor, near Denis Island. A few days before that they'd taken a commercial dive boat and before that a private sailboat. Apparently being thwarted in waters closer to home - the Seychelles are easily six hundred miles from the coast of Somalia - due to an increase in navy ships patrolling, the brash pirates have headed here for new booty.

Walking the hot-hot streets of the capital of Mahe yesterday it was hard to avoid the subject. Headlines in the daily "Nation" claim "Piracy at Top of President's Agenda." Lunch of garlic prawns is at the Pirate Arms (right next to the Pirate Arms Shopping Complex). On the docks, fishermen tell me they're not going out to sea, for risk of being hijacked for ransom. In the Museum of Natural History literally the first exhibit in the door tells the story of the Seychelles' very first residents: Pirates. From sometime in the 15th century to 1730, these islands were the hideaway of some of the most notorious, most famously the celebrated Olivier Le Vasseur, alias "La Buze," who was said to have been the best of the best, or the worst of the worst, dependent on your take on pirates.

Last month I was a thousand miles to the east in the Maldives; I've come here to continue exploring the boundaries of what was once called the Sea of Zanj. Who knew that the news-garnering Somali pirates would show up at the same time?

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Bowermaster's Adventures -- Welcome to the Sea of Zanj!

Jon Bowermaster — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Activism, History, Learning, Stories, Africa, Seychelles, Ecotourism

Six to seven hundred years ago the very first to explore what we know as the Indian Ocean were Arabs, from Persia and the northern deserts. Searching what every sea-faring explorer of the time was seeking - trading routes and new lands to colonize - they explored what came to be known at the time as the Sea of Zanj, the Sea of Blacks. From the Maldives to the east coast of Africa (Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, the Seychelles islands, Mauritius, Reunion and more the Arabs put down roots, built sea ports. During the 1600s pirates, who used the islands off the coast of Africa as both temporary hideouts and permanent homes, followed the black Arabs. It wasn't until the late 1700s that Europeans - sailing from Spain, France, England, the Netherlands and more - first explored the region. It's a rich history, going back nearly eight hundred years; this past spring I spent two months exploring the seas between the Maldives and the coast of east Africa, in search of all those roots (and routes) and coming up on a sizable number of a species that it turns out is not so new to the region: Pirates.

Stay tuned over the next few weeks from dispatches from Jon at Bowermaster's Adventures.

Bowermaster's Adventures -- Welcome to the Sea of Zanj! originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SUBIOS, Seychelles' Annual Underwater Film and Image Festival

Jamie Rhein — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 14:03:00 EST

Filed under: Festivals and Events, Africa, Seychelles

If you love the ocean, scuba diving, movies, island living and luxury than here is the perfect place for you. From March 19-25, SUBIOS, Seychelles' annual underwater film festival will take visitors on a unique excursion to the deep.

Expert cinematographers and photographers from around the world will guest speak about the work they do to capture underwater images in documentaries and exhibitions. This is a chance to be awestruck and inspired to do your own work--or simply marvel at other people's.

A photography and video competition are also part of this event. Unfortunately, the deadline for this year's entries was yesterday, but you can keep this in mind for a next year possibility as a way to showcase your talents. Use this year to get an idea of what kind of talent you are up against. From the looks of the photos on the website, the competion looks steep. Did I say breathtakingly gorgeous?

If you can't make it to the Seychelles in the next few weeks, April/May and October/November are the best months for swimming, snorkelling and diving.

SUBIOS, Seychelles' Annual Underwater Film and Image Festival originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 02 Mar 2007 14:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Africa Travel: Seychelles

Adrienne Wilson — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Arts and Culture, Photos, Africa, Seychelles

Before I go on about how fantastic the archipelago in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar better known as Seychelles is, let me just say all the islands off the coast of Africa seem to have some fabulous kind of websites. Not that tourism websites make or break a country, but on impulse I'd fly over to Seychelles in a heart beat. Now, where was I? Yes, beautiful Seychelles. With over 100 plus islands to choose from water activities like diving, sailing, fishing, as well as island hopping are a given. In addition to sand and sea the islands offer a diverse range of walking hikes to get lost on. There's really far to much to capture in one short blurb here, so I'll leave you the well done tourism site to explore and gather ideas for your own awesome archipelago adventure. In the meantime just click around the interactive gallery for incredible shots on this incredible African place under the sun.

Africa Travel: Seychelles originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 20 Mar 2006 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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