Seychelles Olympics

It's the 2012 Summer Olympics and the travelenvelope was vindicated during the parade of nations. It was fun to see the athletes from all the places I've been virtually.

This time around Seychelles sent six athletes. Which is good for me to see, because I don't actually picture people living in Seychelles. Obviously they do!The athletes are:

Andrique Allisop--Boxing

Dominic Dugasse--Judo

Jean-Yves Esparon--Athletics

Aurelie Fanchette--Swimming

Lissa Labiche--Athletics

Shane Mangroo--Swimming

I'll post any medals won. Of interest to me is the "Athletics" category. It seems to basically mean track and field. Chalk that up to one more thing I don't know about sports.

Tuna Fish and Bananas

Believe it or not Seychelles actually has cuisine---as opposed to just resort martinins. I made "Tuna with Safrin (cumin) and coconut milk" and a plantain dish also with coconut milk. Both dishes surprised me. The tuna dish was good enough that Dave actually wants to have it again. It's not something I would ever crave, but it wasn't bad. We had it with rice, and since we happened to have homemade banana ice-cream on hand, we had banana ice-cream floats in fancy glasses complete with swizzle sticks.

It was a gorgeous day, but we had to imagine the ocean and the sand. While we were at it, we imagined that we had just picked up this dinner from a road side stand.

Tigger was very much interested in the tuna dish.

The plantain dish, on the other hand was surprising in a bad way--it sounded so good! Put cinnamon sticks in a frying pan then put the peeled and sliced plantains on top--sprinkle with sugar, salt and nutmeg--cover the whole thing with coconut milk and a split vanilla bean pod (which I actually had) and simmer. Smelled great. Tasted---really bland. The dish might be saved if served with a big scoop of ice-cream with hot fudge, but short of that, no.

Resorts

The resorts are out of this world. For no particular reason, I imagine that William and Kate stayed in the presidential villas at the Lemuria which come complete with private pool and staff. Commoners could stay in a room with a view like this

for about $719 a night, which actually sounds very reasonable after one has been brainwashed by some of these other places and prices first.

Next, there is the Halaveli, my personal favorite. A water villa here with private pool goes from $1449.70

And then there is a place where we might actually stay--Daniella's Bungalow for about $124 a night.

This makes me very excited that there actually are places where we could realistically stay. Who's going to spend time in the hotel anyway? Even if I were booked in the presidential villa you'd find me either in the ocean snorkeling or in the hospital being treated for a massive sunburn. Daniella's Bungalow looks perfectly fine in it's own right. I wonder if they could use a maid for the summer? Or, better still, the Halaveli might need staff.

Ultimate Honeymoon

As if these islands weren't glamourous enough already. This is where Prince William and Kate went on their honeymoon.

I confess to feeling guilty. I just came from virtual Somalia which is about as wretched as it gets in this world--how can I leave those poor people and just go frolick on the beach?

Snorkeling

Snorkeling is probably my all time favorite vacation activity. Bummer that I live in landlocked Utah. Seychelles has 115 island of PERFECT snorkeling. I really think I need to visit Seychelles!!

Although snorkeling is not without its hazards as I've just found out. My friends just came back from their honeymoon in Cancun. Things were great the first three days and then started to go downhill when the bride caught the infamous "Montezuma's Revenge" and also broke her baby toe. Still gamely trying they went on a snorkeling expedition where they were given a special bio-degradable sunblock to wear. The groom had a massive allergic reaction--his poor face swelled up like a balloon, turned bright red and painful and he couldn't see--because his eyes were swollen shut. The bride, who has my kind of sense of humor, made this helpful comment, "Geez, what's the deal here? You get married and think you can just let yourself go? Look at yourself!"

I'll risk it. Even swelling up in Seychelles sounds like a dream.

Xiphias Gladius

Sail fishing is a big draw in Seychelles, but I mention it here mostly because I have a story. For 6 weeks I worked with extremely mentally handicapped adults. One of the stations was about reading, even though reading was well beyond most of them. among the supplies were some very basic coloring pages--A is for Apple, B is for Ball and so on--all normal, until we got to the letter X. X was not for X-ray or Xylophone, Nope. X was for Xiphias Gladius! What the heck? I had to go home and look it up! It's a kind of swordfish. Come to Seychelles and check them out.

Seychelles

What a relief!! We were just in virtual Somalia where no one in their right minds would go---at least not at this time. Seychelles which is off the coast of Africa, northeast of Madagascar, looks like pure paradise and it has the travel industry hype to prove it. It's relatively close to Somalia so I think that some billionaire should set up a fund for Somalian people---anyone who has lived in Somalia for more than say, two years NEEDS a trip to paradise and the Seychelles islands (there are 115) would be an excellent choice.