Making the Best out of Unfortunate Situations – Seychelles Edition

In my opinion, there’s nothing better than being able to travel, see the world, meet interesting people, observe cultural differences, and taste new foods. But no matter how well we plan, there are times when bad things happen to the best of us.

Hubby and I planned a trip to the Seychelles (Hello, Africa!) for our first anniversary. Since it was a special occasion, we decided to splurge the first three nights and stay at a “5 Star Resort” in Beau Vallon. The beach was beautiful, the sand was soft, and the traditional granite rocks were just splattered across the shore.

Unfortunate situation #1: Our 5 star resort did not have any hot water. I can deal with many issues that arise when traveling, but if there’s one thing I need, it’s hot water. It could come out of a hose, I don’t care – but I need it! How does a 5 star resort lack this basic amenity? Well, the property had only been open about 3 months and apparently management was still working to fix all the maintenance issues for the hotel. FAIL!

Fix: I quickly splashed under the cold water a few times, but finally started using the electric water jug to heat small amounts of water at a time, until we could get a reasonable amount in the bathtub.

The next day, we booked a day trip to do beach stops throughout Mahe:

Beach sunset at Beau Vallon

 

Matching pants/temple action

Unfortunate situation #2: We stopped at a cool little beach shack and shared a grilled fish. Upon returning to the hotel around 6:30pm that evening, Hubby started to puke uncontrollably (thankfully the toilet of the 5 star resort worked just fine – and where better to get sick than a 5 star resort, right? So I guess they had that going for them.)

Anyway, luckily I had some antibiotics and though he couldn’t take down any more food, at least had the right meds. He passed out, waking up randomly to puke at times. It wasn’t until around 12:30am that I also started to feel hot and uncomfortable. It was my turn to feel the effects of food poisoning. Since we both got sick, it must have been the darn fish.

The next day, I stayed in the bed the entire day – basically because I didn’t have the energy or ability to get up or do anything without throwing up. (Not having hot water to soak my body in just made me hate this hotel even more.)

We had previously booked a ferry ride over to Praslin (pronounced Prah-lin) Island on Day 4 of our trip. I didn’t even think about my seasickness because my tummy was so tired of having thrown up so much already.

Praslin was beautiful and we had a beach all to ourselves. Unfortunately, we found that as a rule, the food in the Seychelles is just not good. It’s basic and okay but nothing a foodie can truly look forward to. Luckily, nothing unfortunate happened during our two nights in Praslin. But the morning we were leaving, I again vomited the Tom Yum soup from dinner the previous night. Guess my tummy was still healing. Seemed like Day 2 of our trip was setting the tone for our entire experience.

Our basically secluded beach behind Villa D’Or

 

paradise – Anse Lazio beach

 

Upon arriving in La Digue – we decided to rent bicycles to tour around the island. It is relatively small compared to Mahe and Praslin. It is also known as the true gem of the Seychelles as people live very simply – no cars or buildings.

I still get scared riding a bike downhill because I always think I’ll go so fast that I’ll flip the bike and break something. So hubby and I got into a few spats about my lack of adventure, but overall, we had a beautiful day out and about.

Getting closer to our hotel, we realized we needed to figure out dinner since we had not eaten anything since breakfast. Not seeing any promising food options, we went into the little village store, bought baguettes, sliced yellow cheese, and tartar sauce (no mayo to be found). We made our own sandwiches back at the hotel.

Our pimped out rides

 

That classic Seychellois shot

 

drink shack

 

Famous beach, but rough waves.

 

Last of the unfortunate circumstances: Our flight out of Seychelles was at around 5pm. We had to take the 8am ferry from La Digue to Praslin (no problem), and then wait an hour to take the 9am ferry to Mahe – problem!!!! Not only were the waters extremely choppy, but the ride was about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Even though I took seasick pills, I still felt nauseous. When we got to Mahe is was thunder-storming. That’s right – “thunder-storming.” We both got soaked, and got to the airport at 11am – six hours before our flight. As you can imagine, the airport did not offer many things to do. So we literally sat around and waited (in our wet clothes) for 5 hours.

I was totally looking forward to getting home, and thankfully, we made it home safely. While the Seychelles has some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen, getting sick at the get go really took my enthusiasm and energy out of the entire trip.

It’s one of the first trips where so much random stuff happened but we were able to face it head on together – a successful first year of marriage, indeed.