Slow does it

If a holiday consists of doing absolutely nothing, would it be considered a holiday at all? Can you imagine waking and not having a thing to do, no museums to see, no heritage site to explore, no amusement park to splash around? After 10 days in Seychelles, such questions flooded my mind.

The first thing that strikes you in Seychelles is the sparseness of people and vehicles. For an island group of 121 islands, only five of which are inhabited, the total population is barely over 80,000.

When you plan a trip to these far-away islands, you may need deep pockets; you could stretch them wonderfully to fill your days. Like, for instance, avoiding any of the star resorts there and settling for a self-catered accommodation: neat, well-kept, with a stocked-up kitchen. The effect this has on your wallet will be telling, trust me.

So you land in Mahe and set about exploring it. Dozens upon dozens of beaches, many of which you could call private. Each of these beaches is straight out of a post card: shimmering white and clean sands, packed tight, luminous turquoise sea that lavishes its beauty on the lush green palms swaying indolently. No ugly shacks, no vendors, and often, no people. 

Houses in Mahe are all the tropical kind, with either sloping tiled roof or thatched. And there is a local law that prohibits buildings taller than a palm tree. Surrounded by lush assorted trees, ferns and creepers, each house is picture-perfect. None of them have any fencing around. 

The Seychellois are a trusting sort: friendly, chatty, lazy, and ever-ready for a good time. Here, you won’t cross your path with pickpockets, luggage thieves or extortionist cabbies. Locals say there is a lot that is rotten with the state of Seychelles, like greed, unplanned construction and most of all, the big F, forex problem. The saying goes: there are a lot of people who have the right solutions to fix these problems; unfortunately, they are either busy driving cabs or cutting hair.

So a holiday without an agenda is getting to you, huh? Okay, let’s lay it out: there is National Museum, Morne Seychellois National Park, or Vallée de Mai, a UNESCO World Heritage site which is the only place where coco-de-mer (an endemic double-fused coconut) grows.

It feels special when locals share some interesting facts: Seychelles has hosted a few Sports Illustrated Swimsuit special shoots, a Bacardi commercial, a few sizzling Pirelli calendar shoots and a Miss World. Sometimes, you wonder why you hadn't heard of Seychelles before, considering it’s in the neighbourhood. It reflects the local philosophy: stay low key and enjoy life and the beauty around.

When you steer your car over mountain passes, you will be amazed at the incredible flora. Get off and go on an impromptu hike. Bet you will chance upon the rampantly growing cinnamon tree. Get deeper in the tropical greenery and you will be welcomed by a wild growth of pitcher plants. 

Just right

The weather in Seychelles is particularly blessed. 28° to 31° throughout the year. There are two rainy seasons, but that’s a farce: being just 4° below the Equator, it rains practically round the year. But don’t let a shower disappoint you. Point your car over the mountains, over to the other side of the island, and bright blue skies and sun will surely welcome you. And night-time temperature is barely 1° below the day temperature.

Meandering through the neat mountain roads, we were presently stopped by another cute feature: a tortoise-crossing traffic sign. Yes, that’s one of the many photo-ops for you (others being the double-headed palm in Takamaka in south Mahe; the only black parrot in the world; a local pigeon that has a chicken head; the indolent and beautiful local tropic bird with its languidly long tail, and so on).

Another photo-op has to be the coco-de-mer, the national fruit of Seychelles, preserved and guarded furtively. This is a giant conjoined coconut, only found here.

It was sad to learn from the locals that the awesome undersea walk of the old days had been suspended due to the fear of destroying corals. Below the ocean is another world and Seychelles offers amazing dive sites for the intrepid divers. If you dive, you will emerge a new person. 

There is more to life than Mahe in Seychelles. So you take the cute 12-seater Air Seychelles Twin Otters to explore other islands. These planes fly over the ocean so low, the joke goes, you could get seasick in the air! Explore Praslin, La Digue, Aride or Cousin, though the curious rocks jutting into sea at La Digue stand out — they seem like fingers have carved them out of wet clay. They have formed stunning backdrops for many a bikini shoot.

Where's the sky?

On your island hop, if you stretch it to make it to Bird Island, another divine paradise awaits you. Bird Island belongs to millions of birds. Fairy terns, lesser noddies, giant frigatebirds, fodies, magpie-robins and many more. During nesting season, one can hardly spot the sky, that’s how dense the bird flights are.

Curieuse is another quaint and small island 45 minutes by powerboat from Praslin. Another bird conservatory, boats can’t berth at the beaches in Curuiese, for the fear that rodents will hitch a ride and destroy the carefully cultivated fauna — so you have an interesting adventure mid-sea, with chopping waves of indeterminate heights, where a rubber dinghy takes off from the beach and meets you 50 metres off coast, and you do a mid-sea boat transfer.

Like Bird Island, Curieuse boasts of many species of birds. A unique one is the black parrot. The local highlight bird, payanke, or tropicbird, nests here on the ground. It's a white bird the size of a chicken but with a long feather-tail. What’s arresting are its eyes: fully made up with kaajal, it seems!

Back at our shack in Aride, Françoise, a diver from France regaled us with stories of his dives. As he went on, I mulled over our holiday: nothing much to do, lots of nature and beauty to take in, clean air, gorgeous ocean, kindly local folk, facts and sight — and you wonder, why aren’t all holidays like this?