Cindy On Tour

Monday, September 18, 2017

Tour around Seychelles

We spent Day 2 touring around the island of Seychelles. Our taxi driver from the hotel took us around, but first - breakfast! Charlie likes hard-boiled eggs:

And Graham likes sausages. Both these boys couldn't be more different!

Oh, by the way - toast once, not twice. Ha ha!

Such a gloomy morning!

We are off into the city first. Graham and Charlie loves to see fish:

Off to the central market. It's busy as it is the weekend:

Nothing like the smell of fish first thing in the morning:

Narrow isles along the souvenir markets upstairs and a tad humid:

Graham and Charlie lucked out and get a free wooden fish from a lovely lady/store owner!

We are off to see the giant turtles. I was actually quite upset with the condition of the place these turtles were situated in :-(

The boys didn't seem to phased by it, so it was just a few quick minutes feeding them and we were off to the next site - the ruins of Venn's Town:

I can't recall how many people lived in what's left of this building but I remembered being it being a lot and being shocked!

We find the tree where the leaves are used for roofs, like the one on our hotel:

Going to see the view:

Just magnificent!

Family op!

Somehow we got to sniffing trees:

And sniffing leaves. Ha ha!

Okay, moving on. Our tour guide takes a quick stop to fill up his water bottle. Fresh water??! We didn't dare try as it was only Day 2 of our trip!

Supposedly cinnamon is a big thing here. Fresh cinnamon bark off a tree and some leaves of... hmm... I can't seem to remember what now. But gosh, that cinnamon smelled so good!

Also along the way, some magnificent villas built into the hill. Perhaps next time, for 4,000 Euros or almost US$4,800 a night???! Yikes! Perhaps we will just have to use our imagination :-)

The boys are fast asleep in the car by now:

We stop for lunch and thankfully the restaurant is by the beach, so the boys don't mind. And we have also picked up a new turtle along the way:

Caught a little crab in the sand:

Didn't attempt with this bigger one that was close to our table during lunch:

I think all restaurants need to have this concept of dining on the sand. It definitely kept Graham and Charlie occupied!

A fun day out and about. Meanwhile, back at the hotel, we check out this other section by the pier:

The boys are loving these swings! Charlie and his flowers. He really loved these white ones:

Charlie would find these flowers everyday so I would just put them in my hair. Photo op!

Speaking of flowers, I plucked a whole bunch of these little red ones for the boys to make necklaces. I used to do this as a kid in Malaysia:

Obviously a bit tricky! :-D

Success!!!

This kept the boys busy for a bit as the ocean was just a bit rough:

But Graham and Charlie was able to enjoy time in the pool instead. Maybe I need to sign them up for synchronized swimming. Their timing here was impeccable!

Okay, so perhaps Charlie misunderstood about the number of back-flips but I was really impressed :-)

Bye bye Seychelles! What a fun vacation!

This really makes me look forward to our new life in California!

4 hours later, we are approaching Abu Dhabi. What an extreme difference in color!

Nonetheless, our departure from Abu Dhabi will be bittersweet. Lots of memories and friendships that I hope will continue when we return back to the US. Less than 2 more weeks and counting. So glad we were able to scratch Seychelles off bucket our list!

More adventures at Seychelles

Instead of paddle boarding, Bobby decides to take on the kayak instead. Ready to go!

Quick practice run on the kayak as Charlie tries to spot Daddy:

Here goes! Graham is loving all these new adventures!

Thumbs up from Graham! This kid seems to be fearless at this stage. At least this time he has a life vest on:

I am glad Bobby had a life vest on too! He had quite the wipe-out, which I won't talk too much about :-P

Charlie on the other hand, is just happy chilling by the pool. That seaweed on the beach and ocean really got to him!

Mommy and Charlie time! :-)

By the way, Charlie did finally get to drink/eat his coconut while on the island. He was so happy:

More Mommy and Charlie time. Neither Bobby nor Graham likes to eat coconut. They don't know what they are missing out on!

Speaking of missing out, Graham didn't want to miss out playing in these two big sand pits that were dug by other kids during the week:

Couldn't get them out of it!

What lovely sunsets here:

The boys just can't get enough of this sand. That island in the backdrop almost reminds me of Mt. Kinabalu - the highest peak in Southeast Asia, which I can see from my bedroom window when I lived in Malaysia.

My dad would have probably been excited about all the flying foxes (fruit bats) that were constantly flying around the island. He used to shoot these and yes, boil it in soup. Blaaahhh..! Obviously a bit difficult to snap a good photo on them in-flight:

Enjoying the island life!

Adventures at Seychelles

I have come to realize that not a lot of people know about Seychelles (pronounced like "say-shells"), so here is a map of where it is! It is a country consisting of a group of islands in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa:

Alright, back to our adventures at Sesel, as they would say in their local Creole language. There was paddle boarding - too bad these pictures were blurry:

Charlie did not like this one bit! He was so afraid of the seaweed that was on the ocean floor:

What an amazing view once you got further out into the ocean!

Graham's version of snorkeling :-)

I have to admit - I was just a tad scared/nervous as the water was just a bit choppy and neither Graham nor I had a life vest on! I obviously did not think that through very well. And it didn't help when I couldn't see the ocean floor any more. GULP!!!

Some not so "elegant" moments on the paddle board for Bobby. Splash!

Let Mommy show you how it's done :-P

A few moments later... wipe out! And I saw that wave coming too!!!

Graham and Charlie spent so much time in this one little section by the beach. They were trying to catch these little fish. That was probably the most fish we saw all week. Didn't see any in the ocean, which seems so strange. Oh, other than the one time where there was a guy fishing and he actually caught a grouper!

Okay, back into the ocean! Graham has no fear whatsoever and literally takes the waves head first!

We try and catch a few waves on the paddle board. It becomes a bit tricky as the board occasionally would tumble over so we scraped that idea after a few tries:

By the way, we observed a strange phenomenon in the sky - a halo around the sun???! Supposedly there are tiny ice crystals in these high, thin cirrus clouds that refract and reflect the light. Too cool! Our waitress said it would rain when they see these halos and sure enough, she was right :-)

Here is Charlie trying to drink the rain water from its source. Too funny!!!

In case you were wondering how the weather station works here on the island. Love it!!!

On this trip, we also learn about Dominoes. Who knew it would be such a fun family game. Ps: Charlie seems to be at a point in his life right now where he loves to show his muscles!

Fun times at the Seychelles!

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Relax!!! It's the Seychelles!

This is exactly what the guy selling coconuts along the beach of Seychelles (2 weeks ago) told me. Haha! I was trying to rush Charlie into drinking up his coconut quickly so that when the guy comes back around, he could cut it up. But hey... Relax! And relax we did at "Sesel" as you call it in the local language of Creole.

But first, from the beginning. I could get used to not having to bother with the kids at the airport :-)

This one is new at Abu Dhabi airport - a Lego Camel!

It's a quick 4-hour flight and Charlie is struggling a bit with the ear-phones. Moms are always being challenged somehow and thankfully this solution worked out, for the most part at least: