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Heaven on Earth?
After returning home, everyone asked us about the vacation. For me it was no vacation, but a lifetime experience. A hotel vacation at the sea means being drowned in different languages, well-stocked beaches with struggle for the best spots, buffets, restaurants, children's playgrounds, water sport, social niceties with neighbours, starting relationships. Evening promenades along the streets lined with the souvenir shops, perhaps a glass of refreshment on the terrace before dinner. After dinner another chance to hit the bar, take a stroll along the little streets of the resort. There are always people worthwhile looking at surrounding us and people watching us. A vacation, especially at the seaside, is also closely connected with mass consumption, the constant pressure of the locals to sell you something, or even better, rip you off. The traveller must be on guard all day long.
The pictures in the tourist brochures attracted us by white beaches fringed by the palms, the granite boulders shaped by wind and water into cliffs, and the tropical sea. This all can be photographed. What cannot be photographed are the friendliness, ease, and natural smile of Seychellois. They accept visitors as guests, not as hordes of tourists who they must deal with, because they bring money to their country.
This is provided by non-mass level of Seychelles tourism industry. The total accommodation space are some 2.200 rooms, which serve some 140.000 tourists yearly. A hotel is usually 10 to 30 rooms, mainly the bungalow style. One hotel only is constructed higher than a palm tree, these factors help to keep the tourists from overcrowding.
The Seychelles are expensive, but negotiating prices is quite uncommon, relieving us from that task that we are not too intimate with. Tips are really not common; even taxis have government set rates for individual routes. We watched a taxi driver chasing tourists hurrying onto a ship, because he wanted to return the exceeding 10 rupees.
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The first day we were on the beach, there were about eight of us, when a Seychelloan arrived with a bunch of coconuts. He cut off the top with his hands, and gave each of us one to drink. I was preparing myself for an unpleasant rip off, but the young man just gave us a smile and left. Perhaps he was sent by the hotel, but it was not a private beach, and anyone was allowed on it.
During our stay on the Seychelles, I became aware of the fact that I was often smiling for no reason. I am a little more morose in character, more likely to get angry or worry whether I catch the tram, or how much I have to pay the mechanic, or if the weather will turn out nice for tomorrow's trip, and a thousand other trivial matters. Sure, I can laugh at a hilarious book, a good joke, or a well-done comedy. But a smile out of the blue, just because I was feeling fine, was something new to me. The natives never tried to spare with smiles or laughter. In the first moment it was somewhat unpleasant: Huh! Are they laughing at me?!? I could not see the reason.
We encountered a waitress in the restaurant who just could not seem to stop laughing. When she had just about managed to stop, one look at the guests who followed her efforts with amusement, set her off again. Her efforts to stop laughing then led to laughter from the guests, which came back to her, finally she had to leave to the kitchen and we did not see her again that evening. She made the entire restaurant laugh.
When we had called to the previous hotel, on a different island, that we had forgotten something, the girl on the other end just giggled. Two days later we found the forgotten item at the table in our bungalow.
My soul was full of happiness and contentment, because I could spend a biblical day on a deserted island, empty beach, with no sign of civilization. The island was perhaps 2 or 3 kilometres long. Apart from us there were a few dozen tortoises and a National park warden.
We truly did not know what time it was, or even which day for that matter. We knew that when it got dark, it would be evening.
After six or so days I got the sacrilegious idea - I am ready to go home(!). I was the chosen one who was shown paradise, and I need be here no longer.
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Last modified January 2005
copyright 2000-2011 © Vlado Branko
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