Mahe is the captial of Seychelles and all international flights lands in Mahe. Mahe was the first place we visited in Seychelles. We stayed two nights in Mahe( First and Last day of our trip). We took an early morning Air Seychelles direct flight from Mumbai to Mahe. Our flight was at 5.00AM in the morning, that means entire night went on airport formalities. We were fast asleep as soon as we boarded the flight, we slept through out our 5 hour journey and woke up just before landing.
When we looked down, in midst of the clouds we spotted few islands popping out of the vast ocean surrounded by turquoise blue water. We were really excited, but our excitement got drenched in tropical train the moment we landed. Our first encounter in Seychelles was ‘Rain’; all we could see was the airport and a hill covered with clouds. Immigration takes maximum of 1 hour. Immigration was pretty easy, you need return air ticket and at least one nights accommodation booked. Authorities will grant your visa for 30days for free.
Rental Car in Mahe
We already done our car rental with Thrifty, which costed us 40 Euro per day. We headed towards their counter.While Amit was busy doing the car rental formalities, I went to check the Airtel SIM card counter right out side the exit gate. we chucked the plan as it was very expensive . The Airport free Wi-Fi was enough to inform home we safely landed. We hired a small hatchback Kia Picanto, which Amit had hard time driving it, clutch was too tight and the break was hard. Seychelles roads were good and right hand side driving so one relief. While driving towards accommodation Amit started cribbing “Why it’s raining? Why the place doesn’t look like the pictures? blah blah”. We drove to Anse la Mouche, Cella Villa, where Cella our host greeted us and showed us our room. (Review here)
Things to do in Mahe Seychelles
We carried home cooked Paranthas, ate that for lunch. First time we saw red coloured sparrows, how cool is that? Post lunch, using our downloaded offline Google Maps, we headed towards exploring Mahe. It stopped raining, and slowly Amit started getting the feel of Seychelles.
Beau Vallon Beach
This beach is 3km from Victoria. It is towards the Northern part of the island. It’s the beach to enjoy sunset. We loved the beach, white sand clear blue water and beautiful clouds. We packed our dinner from a beach side stall, she was selling grilled fish, rice & noodles with Creole curry. It was 80SCR= 400 INR (6$), and was sufficient enough for two. Though we wanted to wait till sunset but started feeling sleepy, tired and had an early morning ferry to catch next morning, so we decided to head towards our abode. We enjoyed a cloudy sunset at Anse La Mouche, before calling it a day. You can choose to stay near Beau Vallon, I bet that would be worth as well.
Baie Lazare
A day before leaving Seychelles we were back at Mahe. We got the same car & chose the same place to stay. This time we planned to visit southern part of the Mahe Island. We started going towards Petite Anse & this time without Google Maps, only physical map (story to come later). We struggled a lot to find Petite Anse, asked people around and no one seems to know. One lady said it’s inside the Four Seasons Hotel. When we reached there another fellow said we have taken a wrong turn it’s the other way. We took that path, and then found a picturesque beach. The name of the beach we didn’t know back then (Baie Lazare), but it had a beautiful view with clear blue water. Kempeinski resort is located in this beach. In search of Petite Anse we came across this beautiful hidden gem.
Petite Anse Mahe
We asked another guy for Petite Anse on our way back from there. He also said you have to got through Four Season Resort. Determined to see one of the beautiful beaches in Mahe, we were in front of the Resort gate. We checked at the gate, they confirmed the way to the beach is through the hotel. All we had to do is enter our name and number. It takes 10-15 mins to walk and reach the beach. The beach was beautiful, white sand, turquoise blue water, no rocks and perfect place for swimming because Petite Anse beach is maintained by Four Season, and worth its fame. So, one thing to note here in Seychelles there are no private beaches, isn’t that amazing?
Anse Intendence
Post that we wanted to visit Anse Intendence, one of the best-rated beach in Mahe. But rain again played a pivotal part to spoil our plan. Bummer! So we dropped our plan, parked our car, ate our lunch and I finished the remaining Vodka. As I was finishing my drink, little did we know what was planned for us? Because, suddenly we see part of the island it was raining and part sun rays, what an amazing experience.
It’s not over yet, on our way we saw double rainbow, amazing it was tried to capture it hope you can make out in the picture.
Victoria
Our last day at Seychelles, and we had some currencies left, we decided to visit Victoria for shopping & dinner. We reached Victoria post sunset around 6.30-7.00PM, little did we know all shops were closed. So no street food vendors for budget traveler like us & no shopping as well. We then took some pictures of the clock tower and the church at Victoria & headed home. You can go and see an Indian temple as well, being an Indian we have plenty of such temples in Southern India so we skipped it.
Story doesn’t end here. Our Drive to reach home turned out to be agony. We didn’t have Google offline maps, so we started taking wrong turns, and no one on the streets to ask for directions. On top of it Southern Mahe had narrow hilly roads with sharp turns and at night it was pitch black. We were tired, hungry and got lost three times while returning back, towards the end we completely lost it. Somehow yelling, fighting with each other we reached Cella Villa, ate Maggi and slept with a heavy heart.
Next day early morning we started driving towards the airport, on the way we encountered the most beautiful sunrise ever, that Seychelles has to offer. The view made us so happy that we couldn’t help but stop to take some pictures. Then left for our next destination South Africa with a jovial mood.
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