HOW THIS USUALLY HAPPENS IN THE LIFE OF A WRITING BROTHER, WE RECEIVED AN INVITATION. AT ALL ORDINARY AND ORDINARY HAS BEEN IN THE DOCUMENT AND SOMETHING SPECIAL - WE INVITED TO PARADISE! WHAT ARE MUCH MORE ASSOCIATIONS MAY APPEAR AT THE MENTION OF THE WORD “SEYCHELLES”?
Start. In Singapore Banana-Lemon ...
There was a second word in the letter, which also gave rise to the association - the Raffles hotel, designated as the inviting party and as the host hotel. For residents of the United Arab Emirates, the mention of the Raffles hotel in most cases evokes an image of the pyramid from the subconscious - this is what the famous chain hotel looks like, located in the Dubai area of Bar Dubai, next to the Wafi shopping center.
But in other parts of the world, when the word Raffles is mentioned, completely different associations arise. And the “first fault” of this chain is the legendary Raffles Hotel in Singapore, built 120 years ago by four brothers of Armenian origin. By the way, for me personally it’s very symbolic that the place of construction of the first hotel (10-room bungalow), like the building itself, belonged at that time to the well-known Arab merchant Said Mohammed Alsagoff. The chain of fame brought the new hotel building, built in 1899. Remember Singapore Lemon Banana? Alexander Vertinsky performed this romance for the first time in the Singapore Raffles hotel.
Somerset Maugham, who was just crazy about the hotel, had his own apartment in which he wrote the famous novel Rain. Do you remember the "Hotel Raffles" Ryu Murakami? What about the popular film Hotel Ruffles? Yes, it’s all about him, about the first-born, because of which in the speech of Singaporeans the word “raffles” has become synonymous with wealth, splendor and prestige.
We are flying! Not far here
So, having learned that a new hotel of such a famous chain has opened its doors for us in the Seychelles, we did not hesitate to pack our bags and book tickets. By the way, about tickets - I don’t know why, but the most durable aircraft bridge connects the Seychelles with the United Arab Emirates. Liners of as many as three airlines (Etihad Airways, Emirates Airline and Air Seychelles) operate flights between these small countries on a daily basis. You need to fly only four and a half hours.
Russian tourists have long known about convenient connections, and today most of our tourists get to the Seychelles in transit through the UAE. For many, it’s really more convenient to split a 12-hour flight from Moscow into two shorter ones. By the way, the aircraft bridge itself let us down a bit - the Etihad Airways airline didn’t want to leave Abu Dhabi’s native airport, the flight was postponed for technical reasons, and instead of the expected hour of the day, we landed at the Seychelles main airport on Mahe Island only at 7 pm, when thoroughly darkened. Our second flight to the island of Praslin due to a 6-hour delay was in question, but, fortunately, the small aircraft turned out to be more friendly to us, and after only 40 minutes we were ready to take off. Only 15 minutes, and the wheels of the light-engine Cessna touched the concrete runway of the airport of the island of Praslin (or Praslin, from French Praslin), in which representatives of the hotel were waiting for us. Another 20 minutes in a comfortable car along a winding road along the coast of the island and here it is - a paradise in its earthly embodiment, in the form of a complex of luxurious villas at the Raffles Hotel on a green slope of a low mountain. To say the word, there are no high mountains in the Seychelles. The highest point of Praslin, a hill under the exotic name of Zanzibar, rises above the sea level by a modest 300 meters.
Due to the late arrival, we left the hotel the next morning and it was worth it! Can you imagine - morning, sun, greenery, ocean? But first things first. Let's start with the hotel.
Hotel, island and hotel again
The description of the standard room of the Raffles Praslin Seychelles hotel, which actually went far beyond the generally accepted standards, would take more than one page in small print - a chic terrace with a private pool, sun loungers, a spacious living room with two (why?) Huge beds, a bathtub with a window with a full wall and fantastic views of the ocean, a secretary, a pantry, a toilet, one shower room in the room and another shower outside, under the open sky. HOW to describe all this in words? And is it necessary to waste time on descriptions when a personal butler on a club electric car is already waiting outside the room to take us to breakfast, immediately after which the first tour is planned. Butlers, by the way, are called personal assistants or butlers, who can be at the disposal of guests around the clock. After breakfast, we will be handed over “hand in hand” to perhaps the main person at the hotel, the hospitable Kharkov woman Tatyana, the manager of the Raffles Praslin Seychelles hotel, who is responsible for sales and public relations, and, as it turned out, she had worked for two years before ... in Dubai !
And Dubai, as you know, is a small city, and five minutes later we found out that we even managed to meet the Old New Year together in a warm company of mutual friends. It's a small world!
But, to hell with details, an island tour awaited us with a visit to perhaps its main attraction - Vallee de Mai National Park, in which Seychelles palm trees grow. On their branches, the main treasure of the island of Praslin is ripening, becoming its symbol - Coco de Me (Coco de Mer), coconuts of an unusual shape, considered the largest fruits in the plant world.
Since 1983, the park has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And today, all the palm trees are numbered, and the nuts are counted. Ripe coconuts are certified, they are assigned unique numbers, without which it is impossible to take out the national treasure from the islands. Like the part of the human body that this outlandish souvenir is so similar to, nuts delight the eye with a variety of sizes, shapes and colors. They say that most often such souvenirs are given by employees to their ardently "beloved" bosses. We have no bosses, and we really love employees, so we limited ourselves to buying standard fridge magnets, and other paraphernalia abundantly offered by local souvenir shops.
By the way, for those who do not understand the title of the article about associations, we suggest reading the last three sentences one more time. In less than two hours, passing through the national park, breathing in plenty of fresh air after a little rain, making a hundred photographs, we considered our acquaintance with the local flora sufficient, and went back to the hotel, where we were already waiting for the man-made charms of a hospitable island - a luxury spa -salon, a huge pool in the form of two crescents, cocktail courses at the bar, and, finally, a sumptuous dinner with the main dish from the chef - amazing fish tastes prepared for us according to a special recipe. There was also a beach at the hotel, with the most delicate and whitish sand, with huge turtles swimming for the hotels, but this did not apply to man-made wonders.
Turtles and everything, everything, everything
Having completed, as already mentioned, our acquaintance with the flora, the whole next day we planned to communicate with the fauna. Just 10 minutes on a speedboat that took us from the beach at the hotel, and now we are heroically landing in the shallow water of one of the bays in Curieuse, another famous island that is part of the archipelago. The main goal of our visit is to stare at the giant land turtles, as well as snorkel, hoping to see the inhabitants of the underwater world.
And if we coped with the first part of the task perfectly, then we were less fortunate with the second — the day turned out to be windy, and light excitement dispersed all living creatures from shallow water. Having promised ourselves to return and try again the next time, we continued to talk with turtles, who fearlessly let their rough neck be stroked, and graciously received treats from our hands.
Returning to the hotel, we came under a real tropical downpour, which, for us, yearning for the Arab Emirates in the rain, unfortunately ended as unexpectedly as it started. On the same day in the evening, the general manager of the hotel, the Englishman Simon Hirst, kindly invited us to a joint dinner at a restaurant, on the open veranda of which it was so nice to talk at ease about life and business, remember the past and dream about the future.
Take a word ...
Understanding all the unreality of pouring on three magazine pages my delight from what I saw on the paradise islands, I will mention in passing one more local attraction that we managed to visit on the last day of our stay in the Seychelles. We are talking about Anse Lasio beach, famous not only for its crystal clear white sand and turquoise water, but also for a small open-air bar, the owner of which built a self-service and trust business, giving it the corresponding name - Honesty Bar. The bar does not have any maintenance personnel or the owner himself - choosing beer, water or other drinks and snacks, visitors leave money in a special basket at the exit. It turns out that not only in the United Arab Emirates they believe a word.
All good things come to an end, our short vacation has ended. To say that I did not want to fly away was to say nothing. True, the plane of Air Seychelles, unlike its Abu Dhab “colleague” from Etihad Airways, took off exactly on schedule, leaving paradise islands under its wing, which we will definitely return to.
The Russian Emirates Publishing House expresses its gratitude for the invitation and hospitality to the Raffles Praslin Seychelles Hotel, as well as personally to the general manager of the hotel, Saitom Hirst and Tatyana Polunina, sales and public relations manager.
