Green Egyptian Noise

Our entire vacation was a dream, but visiting La Digue was easily our favorite day in the Seychelles. We had to wake up at 6 am and take 2 ferries to get there, but it was totally worth it. La Digue is a tiny little thing and only has about 20 cars so everyone either rides a bike or takes an oxcart. We chose bikes. We had the most exciting day of exploring the island, biking wherever we pleased, admiring giant tortoises, shopping for souvenirs, drinking fresh juices at little fruit stands on the side of the road and following a sweet pup to a secret beach. If it wasn't so freaking hot, I would move here in a heartbeat. The heat reminded me of the way Harper Lee described Macomb County - "Somehow it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer's day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum." The next paragraph in the book describes it perfectly, too, but I think you get the point.

Picture overload #2 coming your way...

These guys are everywhere!

You can't see my face but I'm SO happeeeeeee!

This sweet pup lead us to a secret beach. He hiked a little bit, stopped and waited for us to take pictures and then kept hiking. The dogs in the Seychelles are amazing. They're everywhere and don't appear to belong to anyone but they're all well-fed and extremely friendly. And they get to hang out in the ocean whenever they want. That's a pretty sweet deal.

Ahhhhhhhhh...finally made it to the secret beach. :)

All that hiking and beaching made us thirsty :)

Tree stump seats.

Restaurants in the Seychelles are either super nice or look like this. I think I prefer this kind of restaurant because it seems more authentic and the food is tasteeee.

Proof.

Our favorite pup again.

Cutest little fruit stand there ever was!

The Juice Master

It's beautiful even in low tide and splattered with seaweed!

La Digue, heaven on earth.

If we ever have the good fortune of visiting the Seychelles again, we will definitely go back to La Digue. It was gorgeous and breathtaking and spectacular and filled with hidden treasures. Definitely one of my favorite days in all of my 31 years.

We just got back from the trip of a lifetime. The Seychelles were absolutely incredible, so incredible that we took about 1,000 pictures because everything was too beautiful to believe. If I wasn't lucky enough to vacation here, I would hate me right now, but please don't hate us. We have had a reeeeeally hard time adjusting to life in Dubai away from all of our favorites, and this is just a little piece of happiness that comes with the whole package. It's our trade off for constantly being homesick and missing our friends and family. :)

So without further adieu, here is our first of three posts about the glorious Seychelles. We visited three main islands, so I'm splitting the posts in three. We rented an apartment on Eden Island, a man-made island connected to the main island, Mahe, by a little bridge. Here's a little tour of our apartment, which, by the way, is bigger than our apartment in Dubai...

Our view from the back porch. Not too shabby.

The kitchen we used for making toast and pouring champagne and beer :)

We had a hard time finding a nice, affordable hotel. The hotels were either super fancy $1,000/night resorts or run-down places where you wouldn't want to spend a vacation. Jordan found this place and it was absolutely perfect. If you ever have the good fortune of visiting the Seychelles, I highly recommend it. They're just called Eden Island Apartments. The island is so small that cars aren't allowed, so everyone gets a golf cart with their apartment. There are cute little boutiques on the island, 4 main restaurants, a mini grocery store, a smoothie shop, an ice cream shop, a GORGEOUS pool, 3 beaches and a marina filled with fancy boats. What more could you need?

We were only able to stay 4 nights because my dad flew in from Dallas the day after we got back. 4 nights didn't seem like much when we were planning it, but it was actually perfect. We had enough time to do everything we wanted to do and even had a little time left over for relaxation.

The first day we got there, we just explored Eden and Mahe. It was a little stressful figuring everything out when we first got there. Jordan arranged a rental car to share because taxis are insanely expensive. We were supposed to have a little baby jeep called a Suzuki Jimny, but the rental car guy wasn't there when we got off the plane. We waited an hour and finally got so annoyed that we went with a different company and smaller car. Then we had to figure out how to drive on the left side of the road while shifting with our left hands. Not too hard but not exactly easy peasy. When we got to Eden, we couldn't find the rental office and then the rental guy wasn't there either because it was a national holiday, so we had to wait again. I think everyone in the Seychelles is on island time, which we quickly adjusted to and loved after the first day.

Anyhoo, here are a few pics from our first day on Mahe.

Check out my cute beach bag EJ sent all the way from Texas! It came exactly 1 day before our trip. She's the best!

Even the clouds in the Seychelles are beautiful!

Our funny little rental car.

That pretty much concludes our first day.

The best, best, BEST thing we did on Mahe was a helicopter ride. Remember our dinner cruise on the Seine? That was Casey's Christmas present to me, and I almost got him the same thing but I had a little feeling that he might get me that so I held off. Welp, I never actually got him anything and he's OBSESSED with flying, so I thought I'd splurge a little on an experience we'll remember for the rest of our lives. The ride was 30 minutes around the island of Mahe, and it was so, so amazing. I can't even describe it. We were grinning ear to ear the ENTIRE ride and filled with adrenaline for hours after the ride. It was one of the coolest things I've done in my entire life, and we made a pact to do it again someday. The pilot said one of the best places to ride in a helicopter is in the Grand Canyon, which works out perfectly because we're planning a trip there when we move back :)

This is pretty much how we looked the entire flight.

Our amazing pilot, Ralph

We admired this house the entire vacation and then our pilot told us it belongs to Sheikh Khalifa from Abu Dhabi. He said he flies in on his airbus with all of his cars and helicopter and keeps the house running 24/7, just in case he decides to make a surprise appearance in the Seychelles.

This is Sheikh Khalifa's helipad, which he also keeps running 24/7.

This really made me appreciate Mahe's beauty even more. It was more than spectacular and these pictures don't do it justice, but now you've pretty much been on a helicopter ride over Mahe.

More Mahe randoms...