Seychelles and Qatar 2022

We were so glad to have gotten a hotel for the night.  Even the five hours of sleep we got was better than we’d have gotten, had we stayed at the airport.  At 6AM, we headed to the hotel lobby and ordered an Uber to go back to Hamad International Airport.  We have enjoyed chatting with those who have driven us to/from the airport, last week when we passed through Doha and again on our return.  All drivers have come to Doha from places like Uganda, Pakistan and India, seeking a better life and a means of making decent money to send home to their families.   The airport was buzzing this morning — I think it buzzes 24/7, to be honest.  We made it to our gate after walking what seemed like forever.  All Qatar Airways flights to North America require passengers to undergo a second security screening gateside, so the process for boarding was arduous. We were supposed to board at 7:30 for an 8:30 departure, but they announced a two-hour delay, to accommodate...

Argh, that annoying alarm ringtone, repeated and repeated at 6:30AM.  It was just as well, as I had been having a nightmare about a nuclear crisis, no doubt spawned by current events, so the annoying alarm was actually my rescue.  In any event, so began Saturday in equatorial paradise.  We had set the alarm that early so that we could get organized, have breakfast, and enjoy a couple of final hours by the pool before heading to the airport. Everything was going swimmingly (no pun intended) until, at 11:45, I decided to check the status of our mid-afternoon Air Seychelles puddle-hopper over to Mahe, where we were to catch our Qatar Airways flight to Doha.  To my shock, our flight was cancelled and the earlier flights only had a couple of seats left.  (Air Seychelles only uses 20-seat propeller aircraft, so seats are very limited.). We couldn’t get hold of the airline — seems to be a global airline phenomenon since the pandemic! — so we quickly got our things tog...

Today was our last full day on Praslin, as we start the 41-hour journey home tomorrow.  At 8AM, we did our Covid PCR testing at the resort next door to ours.  Then it was a breakfast at the resort that can only be described as “10/10”. At 11AM, we headed by private boat to Curieuse Island, a former leper colony which is now a protected colony for giant tortoises.  By 2PM, we were back at Anse Volbert, where we are staying, to do a couple hours of swimming in the bay and in the resort pool.   We ended the afternoon with a coastal drive and a swim at Anse Lazio, considered by some to be “the world’s best beach”. Our last dinner in the Seychelles was another wonderful meal at the resort’s main restaurant, Le Dauphin, where we had the chance to chat with the resort’s owner. With the exception of a broken flip flop which caused grief on our hike (see the explanation below), this was a wonderful day - we couldn’t have asked for better! A last good night from Praslin. Not ...