Seychelles

Seychelles: Praslin, La Digue, Mahe
09.09.2011 - 25.09.2011



The last time I was in the Seychelles was in 1981 or so and I was working on a cruise ship called the MS Vistafjord. The main island Mahè was a quiet place with not too much traffic so we rented a mini Moke to drive around where we found beautiful, white sandy beaches with no people, huge rock faces, giant boulders and lot's of green forest everywhere. But the thing I remember most were the beautiful rock formations, the huge boulders and large spider webs hanging from the telephone lines so we were always wondering if one might fall on us as we drove by.



On this trip we came by air so this time I had a bird's eye view of some of the beautiful islands surrounding the coast of Mahè, some not far from the capital city of Victoria, with white sandy beaches surrounded by clear blue water and coral reefs. After a rather turbulent landing we picked up our bags and headed for our next fight which would take us to the island of Praslin some 15 minutes flying time from Mahè or 44km north east of Mahè.



After landing we were driven along the west side of the island before starting our climb through the lust green forest of the Vallee De Mai and down the winding road the coast again at Baie St Anne. We continued up the coast to a long beach area call Anse Volbert and at the north end was our hotel Le Duc where we would be staying for the next week.



The Le Duc is a small hotel set back from the beach with beautiful gardens, large rooms, a swimming pool, fish pond, lot's of friendly staff and good food especially the Art Cafe that offered great food and service. While walking to the beach we found out they had 7 or 8 giant tortoises who lived in a enclosed area and were very fasinating to watch. The weather was still a bit unstable at this time of the year so we did have a few rain showers and the seas were quite rough, but in general the bay area was nice and calm, and the long beach gave us plenty of space to enjoy the sun and the water. Sadly at this time we were restricted to swimming too far from the shore as there had been a couple of shark attacks a month earlier. Also snorkelling was not allowed.



After some time on the beach it was time for some diving, Sadly due to the rough condition and the shack attacks diving was limited as we were also not allowed to dive the Marine park at this time. I did three dives between the islands of Praslin and La Digue (a smaller island close by). We were battered and bruised and a little bit sea sick by the time we arrived at the dive sites but did have some good dives and saw some interesting thing: On the this trip we dived: Ave Maria, Channel rocks, Baba rocks and Booby island. Things to see: Eagle rays, sharks, turtles, crabs, octopus, trevallies, batfish, unicorn fish, humphead parrotfish and much more. There is definitely some good dive sites here but due to the poor visibility (still about 10 to 15 m), rough seas, surge and current the diving was not so good at the time.



We had some good days on the beach by now so it was time to see some of the other wonders on Praslin. Our first stop would be be at Vallee de Mai, one of the worlds smallest World Heritage sites and home to the Coco de Mer palm. We decided that we would travel the cheaper way with 5 Seychelles rupees per person for the bus). The drive up into the hills was fast and windy but pleasant. At the entrance er were met by two choices, one is to join a guided tour (beware that the tour starts when there are enough people and depending on what language you speak) which will take you about 2 hours and you will get lot's of information or you just pay for the park entrance, grab a brochure and have nice relaxing one hour or so walk.



Vallee De Mai is home of the Coco De Mer palm and can grow up to 30 meter with very large palm leaves 10 m in diameter and 2 to 4 m in length and also produces the world largest seed. This is not the only thing to see here, there are other palm types, small streams, wild life like the black parrot, big spiders and the walk is fantastic.



We hopped onto the bus for a fast paced ride to the north western tip of the island to Anse Lazio, having chosen the bus we soon found out that the bus does not go all the way to the beach! It's a long hot uphill walk and a steep downhill before you reach a dirt road that leads to the beach and as the sweat runs taxis and rental cars pass by (if you're lucky someone will pick you up and drive you over the hill or you can hitchhike). At the top of the hill we caught a glimpse of what was to come and when we walked onto the beach we knew it was worth it, pearly white sand stretching to the east where it ends with large granite boulders.



The water is clear with different shades of blue, to the west end of the beach there are more granite boulders but beyond that a smaller more secluded beach. This is a very beautiful beach and it's safe to say it's one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. At the time due to the shark attacks you were advised by the police to only swim in the net area but there were people who chose to swim out side the enclosed area. After we had lunch we headed back and had another steep climb before we reached the bus stop only to find out it had already left, this time 15 minutes early.



Our time on Praslin was almost over so after a day on the beach we decided to take a trip over to La Digue. On a rainy morning we took the bus to the ferry where we arrived in a heavy downpour. After a rocky boat ride we on the sunny shores of La Digue, where we found a relaxed place with a few cars, lot's of bicycles, ox carts (to drive the tourists around in) and people just out and about. We first stopped at a small beach to dry off and take some pictures, then to a bicycle rental to pick up our transport. La Digue is a small island and there is a paved road that is fairly flat with a few small uphills on the west side of island.



We started off south to Anse Union, a beach with the famous granite boulders on the south end. There is also a old coconut plantation (L' Union Estate) at this location that will charge you a hundred rupees to enter the Estate and the beach (there is a way around this, we just walked through the water and unto the beach). Sadly we did not get too many good pictures as it started to rain heavily and we had to run for cover.



After waiting for the rain to stop we hopped on our bicycles heading north, and after a quick lunch we headed further north enjoying the scenery before stopping to look at a large giant land tortoise that you find on the various islands in the Seychelles. At this point we decided to go snorkelling as we had heard that this was a good place.The first problem was low tide, so we crawled our way out into the water, second problem the sea was rough and the waves were making it difficult to get further out, third because of the rough sea we were getting many small cuts from the rock, fourth problem with the low tide we were having trouble finding a safe way back to shore, fifth problem when we found a break in the reef the waves were pushing a bit too fast to stop. We made it safely with a few more cuts to patch up.



After drying off, it started raining and not just a shower it was pouring and it went on and on and the ferry was leaving in an hour! After a long wait we hopped on our bicycles still in bathing suits and headed off to the ferry, about half way there the rain stopped and by the time we reached the ferry we had changed into somewhat dryer clothing. It was a different ferry, smaller and a bit slower and it rolled a lot making quite a few people very queasy. The rain started again as we came into the harbour so we grabbed the nearest taxi and headed for the hotel and a hot shower, enough is enough.



It was time to say goodbye to the wonderful people at the Le Duc and take the plane back to Mahè and new adventures (we were lucky to be flying back we would have hated to be sea sick for two hours). Arriving in Mahè our bus took us north through the streets of the capital Victoria then up a small motorway (with no guard rail) through the granite hills and then descending on the west side of the island, our destination Beau Vallon. We stayed at a really nice B&B 50 meters from the beach. Beau Vallon is the most famous beach stretching for 2 km or so with beautiful granite boulder on the north where there is also excellent snorkelling where you see lot's of different fish and sometimes turtles. Towards the south end of the beach you can see the beautiful granite hill covered in green that fall towards the blue green waters below.



Life was easy staying at the Bordmer Villa, we would get up, get dressed, sit out on the terrace and after a little while breakfast would be brought up (the manager at the Bordmer Villa was fantastic and very helpful and to our surprise was married to a man from Denmark). After breakfast we grabbed our stuff, walked across the road and we were on the beach. As the sun had decided to come we spent most of our time on the beach and swimming and later in the afternoon long snorkelling excursions. The snorkeling on the north end of the beach by the granite boulders was best you could see lot's of fish and a couple of times turtles. We also did some diving though there was not very much to see as the visibility was poor and there was very little macro life to find and it's hard to see the larger fish when it's snowing underwater.



We only did three dives, as it was not worth it to dive more with the conditions as they were, we dived the marine park, Northern Rock, and the twin barges. Twin barges was the best as there was a fair bit of macro life and lot's of fish around the two wrecks. Things to see: Humphead parrotfish (over two meters long and very close), pipefish, snake eel, moray eels, turtles, a few nudibranch, crabs, leaffish, flatworms, friendly bat fish and much more.



We had heard a lot about a walk to a small secluded beach (Anse Major) on a nature trail in the direction of the marine national park so it was time to do some walking. We tried to catch the bus, as the trail started much further on, but we just missed it and it was getting late so we jump in a taxi for a short ride to the beginning of the trail (lucky for us too as it was getting very hot and from the bus stop to the start of the trail it was all uphill!). After passing a number of construction sites and a few small tastes of the views that were yet to come, the first part of the the trail was in the shade of the trees but once we started the upward climb we emerged into bright sun with a view over the granite hills covered in lust green vegetation on the inland side and to the other side the blue water that was so clear that you could see the coral below the surface. In the distance we could see Silhouette island, at one point the trail is blocked by two gigantic boulders but amazingly enough there was a large passage underneath them that also gave us some shade from the hot sun. After an hour and fifteen minutes we reached our destination, Anse Major, with two small beaches with crystal clear water, lazy palms hanging over the white sand and a little tidal water back under the trees.



While there we met a friendly national park policeman that gave us some helpful advise about the area (he took this walk every day! ) before he walked on to check the area. We rested in the shade under the palm trees, took a swim and hung our clothes out to dry in the bush (lot's of big spiders in the bushes), but it was getting late and it was time to return. We retraced our tracks once again enjoying the view but not stopping as much as we were running low in water. At the end of the trail we filled up with water ,walked to the bus stop to catch the bus and back for some rest and relaxation.



The evening meals were pleasant and the La Plage restaurant was right on the beach so you could watch the sunset with drinks and watch the moon and the stars come out. Some of the other good places were The boat House (a good fish place with a buffet in the evening), the Black Pearl, a couple of pizza places and a Chinese place at the Berjaya resort.



After a morning on the beach we decided to do do some snorkelling further up the coast so we took the bus going north and got off close to the Sunset Resort where we heard that there was some good snorkeling. It was a very pretty area but it was not very good for snorkelling and either the resort staff or the guest feeds the fish to make sure there are a lot of them around. After a short swim around we decide to return to Beau Vallon for some good snorkelling and later to watch one of the beautiful sunsets.



The Seychelles is also known for it's whale sharks and there is a dive centre that does monitoring and have whale shark safaris. We thought this would be fun, as it's been a great experience the other times we've seen whale sharks. Sadly after over 2 hours in a small boat we saw no whale sharks, even with a ultralight plane trying to spot them from the air. This cost a fair bit but a good deal of the money goes to whale shark conservation so we suffer the lost (we could have gone again another day for half price!! get real!).



Our flight did not leave until late in the evening so we spent the day lounging around on the beach and just enjoying the last bit of warm sunshine before we headed back to a much cooler Norway.

Italy - Rome and Lido di Ostia

Italy
20.04.2011 - 25.04.2011



For our Easter trip this year we headed off to Rome, Italy to see if we could get some sunshine and do a little bit of sightseeing, as it is too early in the season for swimming or diving for us. We departed Oslo in the evening and arrived closer to midnight, the taxi ride only took 15 minutes and we were soon at our hotel the Albergo Sirenetta in the city Lido di Ostia.



After a good night's sleep we had a quick (not very exciting) breakfast and looked at our balcony, which overlooked the beach. We headed out for a long walk on the boardwalk along the beach, as it was a bit cool in the morning. After lunch on the beach it was time for the beach, we found a nice spot and enjoyed the warm sun and the smell of the ocean. While we had been walking we noticed that there were many houses on the beach that looked like small closets or outhouses, so when we got back to the hotel I had to ask and soon found out that they were small changing rooms that had showers and were rented out for the season to the people of Rome that come to the beach (the price being anywhere from 2000 to 5000 euro), mystery solved.



For dinner we decided to eat at a gourmet restaruant caled Il Tino that we had been reading about but it did not open until eight in the evening. Not good for Jorunn as we all know she is always hungry, so we decided to have a small snack and a glass of wine first. We found a small family-owned wine bar close to the restaurant, inside we found shelves filled with tea, a counter with chocolates, an small espresso bar and a small seating area. We ordered a couple of small snacks but when the food and wine came there was a lot more than we ordered in food and wine and all for 10 euro, very cheep for us Norwegians.



We were a bit tipsy when got to Il Tino but we were promptly buzzed in, (you have to ring the door bell to get in). We ordered a 6 course menu with wine and had a fantastic meal with wines from small local wineries, they were very good and they had lot's of interesting combinations (the waiter was very good he knew a lot about both food and wine).



We woke to a cool and overcast day (we were also a bit tired from the night before) so off to Rome we went, after a 30 minute tram ride we arrived in Rome where we took a short ride on the underground and popped up right in front of the Colosseum. What a mad house, there were people and gladiators everywhere and the queues snaking everywhere (chaos). We tried to get into the Palatine Hill where it looked like there were not too many people but the queue was totally disorganized. We ended up hopping on a tourist bus to get away from the crowds (We later found out that Pope was at the Colosseum and thus the chaos and the crowds).



I not going describe all the things we saw (or passed by in a bus) but I will leave a link to Wikipdia for those of you that would like to know more.
Isola Tiberina
Citta Del Vaticano
Piazza Navona
Pantheon
Fontana Di Trevi
Piazza Di Spagna
Piazza Venezia



After an eventful few hours in Rome we head back to Lido Di Ostia and some much needed relaxation.



After a long day in Rome we decided to stay in Ostia for a day and took long walks on the boardwalk by the beach enjoying the fresh sea air. Ostia is a great little place with good restaurants & mainly Italian tourists, and easy to walk around.



The next morning we got up early and arrived in Rome about 8:30 to find very few people around so we hurried into the Colosseum to see where so many people and animals had been killed for sport. The Colosseum is an amazing place so we took our time and looked around before the crowds came. Next was the Roman Forum. We had to walk a lot, but found this area to be very interesting with scattered remains of the old market, financial district, speakers corner and much more.



After walking through the ruins for a while we walked to Palatine Hill where there were less people and lot's of open space. At one point we reached a vantage point which gave us a great view of the Colosseum before finding a nice park bench to enjoy the sunshine.



As the sun was shining and the day was getting warmer we headed back to Ostia for lunch then to the beach to enjoy the warm sunshine and the salty sea air. That evening we walked through the walk streets where small tents had been set up for the Easter chocolates that are very popular and there was a steady stream of customers and children ran in every direction. We found a small wine bar where we enjoyed some wine and some very nice snacks while watching all the locals go about their business or doing the same as us and enjoying a drink and a tasty snack. After dinner we took a walk out to the pier to enjoy the stars before heading back to the hotel.



Our last day in Ostia was once again on the boardwalk where there where lot's of people so we decided to go to the marina and soon found out that lot's of other people had the same idea. We joined the crowd stopping for ice cream, looked at the boats, looked through the shops and checked out some Harley Davidson's that were also there. It was time to head home so we walked back to the hotel and picked up our bags for the flight home.

Bali - (Pemuteran, Kuta Beach) and Singapore

It was time for a new adventure as we are on our way to Pemuteran, a small city on the northwest side of Bali to spend a week of diving. The trip took about 2 1/2 hour on windy roads through small villages doted along the coast and through Bali's second larges city Singaraja before arriving at our destination the Adi Assari Resort.



We arrived at the hotel and were met by sunshine, which we had been waiting for after all the rain and thunder showers, and best of all a sandy beach (the Tulamben beach area was just rocks)! After an afternoon in the sun it was time to dive, at the resort we found the dive centre Sea Rovers.



I was met with big smiles and laughter and this is how it was every day! I would be diving without Jorunn the first two days as she was out with a cold, we had some very good dives and my dive guide Made was great at finding things and we had lot's of laughs. Dive sites we visited were: Deep reef, Napoleon reef, Pos1, Pos2, the Temple (the last three were at Menjangan island), and Secret bay.



One place we dived was Secret bay which is a 40 minute drive to the town of Gilimanuk, this is where people catch the ferry to Java and when you look west you see the three towering volcanic peaks on the other side. Secret bay is a typical muck dive where there is lot's of garbage lying around. Now this dive was not very deep, only 8 meters, mainly sand, some garbage and some coral here and there. Most people would not want to dive here but they would have missed a lot of interesting stuff.



What you can see here: Frogfish, seahorses, sea snakes, snake eels, moray eels, devil scorpion fish, cockatoo waspfish, crocodilefish, banggai cardinal fish, anemone shrimp and thousands of small fish under the pier. You know this is a shallow dive when you're trying to take a picture and the kids jumping off the pier start pulling on your fins to have some fun!



When not diving we spent our time lying in the sun and working on getting a tan and walking on the beach as we knew at some we would have to go back to the Norwegian winter. Also the resort was really nice and relaxing, with good food. There were two places down the beach that were interesting: one was the turtle sanctuary where they helped injured turtles and had a hatchery for turtle eggs so that they have a better chance to survive.



The second place was out in the water for the most part and this had to do with coral growth, this was where they set up metal structures with a small electric charge going through it and adding small pieces of coral around it to start a new coral reef or help with damaged areas (the electric current stimulates the coral to grow faster).





After a week of diving and enjoying the sunshine it was time to move as we wanted to spend some time on a white sandy beach instead of the volcanic black sandy beaches of the north. Our drive south became more of a guided tour instead of driving directly to Legian, just north of Kuta Beach. We drove along the coast past the Monkey Temple (we did not stop to monkey around) before we started up the steep green volcanic sloops. The higher we went, the more we could see of the steep valleys covered in tropical green forest speckled with rice fields, we passed through many small villages as the road got windyer and windyer with lot's of hair pin turns.



At our first stop we walked through the tropical forest for 500 meters to reach a towering water fall (Munduk waterfall) that fell through trees thundering into a stream below throwing up a fine mist into the surrounding area. As we continued our ride up and over the volcanic slopes we reached the top where there is a drop in temperature as we drive into the clouds.



Suddenly there were a lot of old Volkswagen Beetles (boble in Norwegian), apparently a veteran car run, not what we would have expected in the mountain areas of Bali. When the fog breaks we can see the valley floor with two large lakes, we also had traffic that we later found was due to a holiday. On the way down we saw people by the road feeding groups of monkeys before we reached the valley floor. We decided not to stop at the temple by the lake because of the crowds, we met more and more traffic as we neared our destination.



The check-in in at Legian was very frustrating as we arrived at one, tired and sweaty after a long drive, but check-in time was two so we had some lunch and waited, while Jorunn used the computer to kill some time I sat in reception, after two I noticed that new people had arrived and received welcome drinks and not long after were taken to their rooms. After this had happened three times and it was two thirty, I went to reception to ask and soon realised that they had forgotten us and the room had been ready for some time :-( )



We took a long walk on the beach and later had a a very filling dinner at a place call Blossom. One of the people working there had worked on a cruise ship just like me so we had long enjoyable chat about life after working on a cruise ship and life on Bali. After dinner we wobbled around a bit to digest our food before heading back to our hotel room.



The next day we headed right to the beach after breakfast as time was getting short and we wanted to get as much sun as possible before we headed home. In the late afternoon we went to do some shopping at Rip Curl, Billabong, Quicksilver, Roxy as things are sooo much cheaper here (Jorunn found three tops that cost just as much as one in Norway, and there's a lot of variety). The taxi ride took forever due to traffic, as always, but saved a very sweaty walk, but we did walk back as the sun was going down and it wasn't as hot and sticky.




Going out to eat at night is an experience as the streest are narrow and with cars and scooters parked in one lane there was even less room. To make things worse there were stalls everywhere with people trying to get you attention to get you to buy something (t-shirts, handbags, watches, sunglasses and lot's of other stuff) or have a massage. Now this was fun enough dodging car and hawks, now come the fun part, when you first find a nice quiet sidewalk beware as I found out that the scooters use the sidewalks to sneak past the traffic (when the scooters came Jorunn would move out of the way while I just kept on walking, had three scooters behind me once).




This is Asia at it's best, chaos, fun, challenging, frightening, frustrating, OH what a life! Time to leave Bali so we packed our gear and headed down to the beach for a little more sun before we fly back to Singapore.



Back in Singapore we stayed at a small hotel, South East Asia Hotel in Bugis where we had stayed on another trip, and after a short rest headed out to Raffles for a good Chinese meal (great food in Singapore) and to walk around a bit. Our last day in Singapore (our fight was leaving at 23:50) was spent on Sentosa Island, which is great way to spend the day as they have beaches, restaurants, shops and lot's of activities.



In the end it was time to leave so we had quick meal in the Raffles area before heading back to the hotel to pick up our baggage and later to the airport. On this flight we got lucky and we each had two seats and slept fairly well and after a stop in Istanbul we arrived home to minus 18 degrees the next morning. As it was 32 degress in Singapore that made for a 50 degree difference. I was really tempted to jump on the Thai Airways plane parked next us leaving for Thailand that evening.