My World Part 1: Paradise Islands

SEYCHELLES
                Islands worth every promise




This is the first part of my "travel the world" series of blog entries... among many other entries I write, as always totally random and irrelevant to any specific topic a proper blog should have... but I have been to many places, mainly thanks to one amazing person in my family, and sharing it with whoever wants to read, is a good way to share some stories, I think.




So to start...


There is an amazing lady, full of energy and vitality, who comes from the Seychelles. So actually she is a Seychellois. Her name is Therese. Thanks to her I discovered these beautiful, exotic and unbelievably amazing islands and their food and culture. I will come to the food later...


The reason why I mention Therese is because she is a local. It is always worth visiting a place with a local person, which every tourist guide will recommend too... but apart from the greatness of Therese's generosity, kindness and great love of these islands... her greatness also comes from having a beautiful house with a beautiful view on the Island of Praslin. Thanks to her, I saw these islands like no other tourist probably has.


The thing about going to places with locals, is that they show you places you would never dream of. You probably wouldn't even think of visiting them... because you wouldn't know about them. Simple.

So our journey to the Seychelles started with an approximately two hour flight from Mauritius. And I can really say sitting at the airport at two in the morning is not exactly my view of a holiday, but it was the only flight available... so worth the lack of sleep.


The first thing you do, before you actually step foot onto the tropics of the Coco de Mer, is attempt to land on a ridiculously short landing strip at Mahé island.


Since my fear of flying is pretty bad, this part really turned into my worse nightmare... but after a successful landing! we could happily step into the blinding sunshine.


We rented probably the smallest car you can imagine... (I swear even smaller than a smart car) and managed to fit four people and six suitcases (three out of those four people were women...) into this car. Pretty much a miracle.


So p.s. If someone who reads this decides to go to the Seychelles, I would seriously recommend renting a car there. (probably not one of those proportions but...) The islands need to be explored and Mahé is one of them!

We drove through Victoria (the capital of the Seychelles) which is a beautiful and very clean and well taken care of city. Unlike many other tropical islands where I have been, the Seychellois really take care of their heritage, which is great.


Since for the first night, before going on to Praslin, we stayed at some lovely and welcoming friends (thanks to Therese again), we got a chance to see how some people live on the islands.

Not bad, right?


Well apart from the house, the views from it were magnificent. Located on top of a mountain, we had the view over Victoria harbour and of course the Indian ocean. After a welcome drink of wine, we explored Victoria itself.

The fruit and vegetables market was amazing. Unbelievably colourful and full of coconuts. And the great thing about being there with Therese, was the fact that we got everything at the 'local' price and everyone was very very friendly towards us.


And fresh coconut water, I can say, has become my most favourite drink in the world.


However... since this entry should not be too long... I will write more about Mahé later. 
I will also cover the ultimate paradise greatness of Praslin, La Digue, Bird Island and others. 


But to end for now I just wanted to say... that


THE SEYCHELLES LOOK EXACTLY LIKE THEY DO ON POSTCARDS 


-> really.

Save our Planet -> Donate Money [WWF]

Just before Christmas I was at Trafalgar Square in London as a huge ice sculpture of a polar bear caught my eye. I was slightly taken aback by its ugliness, as in the enormous metal skeleton that was coming out of it.

Than all of a sudden, caught out by my own interest (stupid me), this young over-eager guy hops in my way and I know already that I will stay a while. (Don't get me wrong... I'm not an evil person, but charity people not only scare me, but also strangely annoy me..)

So there he goes on and on if I get the point of the sculpture (well duh... obviously, who wouldn't) and then he tells me about global warming and the Copenhagen Summit and what the WWF organisation is trying to do about it. (oh and rescue the polar bears along the way...)

So he asks if I would like to sign a petition, to save the polar bears. Well he was in luck, since I happen to like polar bears quite a bit and would not mind signing a petition to help a cause. However, this signing actually did not require my signature.... as you might have guessed... but actually all my personal details, from age, address, phone number... (I know... stupid me) All in the name of this petition... and there will be no phoning up or passing onto third parties, he said.

So off I went to enjoy my Christmas break in a few European countries.

Get a call from WWF whilst I'm abroad on holiday. 1st time. Say I am on holiday, so can't talk.
Later get a call from WWF in England. Miss the call. 2nd time.
Get a call from WWF again about 4 times the same week until I pick up.

And off it goes... "We saw that you signed our petition, well you know what happened? Nothing... so we need you to donate this much per month... would you do that?" <> "How about this much?" <> "This much?" (By now he has gone down to £3 a month) So I say I would much rather look at their website to find out what they are really about as an organisation. But here's the catch. According to this WWF 'volunteer' I cannot donate on their website....

Well I 'politely' said goodbye and WWF leave me alone.

Let me explain this story. I am not some horrible cruel person who hates the world, but at the same time I know very well how many if not most charities work. £3 a month will not even closely cover admin costs that will go on to promoting their cause to that one person (i.e. me). Not to mention supporting and helping some endangered animal.

What is more, if you do go on their website, you may find, that if you donate or subscribe to their magazine, not only do you get gifts for your donation (panda key ring, shiny papers), but you also get a thick glossy magazine to tell you how great it is what you are doing, and how you are helping all the pandas, chimpanzees and so on.

Now please tell me if this makes sense?

Shiny thick glossy magazines probably cost a lot of money. Not only that, paper comes from trees, and shiny glossy paper comes from trees plus uses a lot of chemicals etc to get produced.

Saving the environment?

I don't think so.

*Night cream and Aromatherapy*

My new year's resolution did not involve night cream that gets rid of wrinkles... I do not call it anti-wrinkle cream, because I'm only 23... and that would make it strange...

But anyway, I bought myself a night cream that has all these great essential and fatty oils in it (or so says the ingredients on the packaging). So far, after two days of using it, I must say it's pretty good. It doesn't make my skin oily, which is a first, and it wasn't expensive!

This is not the reason why I am writing this though. My new year's resolutions included a lot of things, which as always, I am not sticking to, well maybe apart from the one of getting a good grad job...

So night cream is a post for today. And since I am actually obsessed with cosmetics and fashion... I guess it's more interesting than writing about unsuccessful job applications and the world of marketing...

From now on, beauty and fashion, will be the main topic! Or at least one of many topics that will set a new me... or at least a great new year.

Happy 2010 :)