Day 1: Mahe and Praslin

After 24 hours of travelling, we finally land on Mahe. We expected the airport to be a tin shack, but actually it was fairly modern. As instructed we went over to the "residents" queue as we had a Gainful Occupation Permit (GOP); all the millionaires and honeymooners stared at us, a little bemused that we were residents. You could even hear them muttering about us as they endured the hour-long custom's queues-an early introduction to Seychellois bureaucracy! Captain M, our headteacher had made our landing and customs clearance quite a breeze.

At the airport, we waited for our connecting flight, a 17 seater jet, which can only be described as a private jet with the most beautiful views. As one of my predecessors once said, "Get Jealous":

MAY BE Prosecuted

The sign above pretty much sums up the Seychellois/Saselwa way. A pretty seriously topic is trivialised and at the bottom of the sign "Thanks". The only thing missing was a Harvey Ball smiley face.
 

As we had time to kill, Captain M took us around Mahe island, health and safety procedures are unheard of so we rocked out in the back of the pickup truck that his artist friend had kindly lent us. Seychelles transportation is a winner, except the Catamaran, we'll get to that in a later post.

We were brought over to Eden island which is a multi billion pound development built by the Rt Hon. Mr Vijay Patel (he is also our school's founder/benefactor/sponsor- he is not a reverend, but he is right and honorable). I digress, back at the restaurant on Eden island, I went for the local tuna and mango salad. Needless to say it looked and tasted delicious and the price was pas mal also.

Here's the marina at Eden island.

We finally landed on Praslin and got settled into our respective houses. To see a map of my house, click here . It doesn't take an Msc in Cartography to figure out that we live 2 mins from the nearest beach, Costello Beach. So we as we had little baggage or running water for that matter, we got our priorities straight and headed straight for the beach:

That's all for Day One.

London Heathrow to Frankfurt International feat. JJ

So I'm sat in my boss's ridiculous house in Praslin. It has a 1960's pinball machine and is just divine. I don't have internet at the moment, so this blog post is back-dated from August 24th.

During the flight from LHR to FRA, I sat next to a guy (let's call him JJ) who was working for an American Airline in Frankfurt. Originally from The BX (Bronx, New York), we got talking and we didn't stop for the whole 2 hour flight.

One of the things we talked about was the evolution of mankind,

"Dinosaurs exhisted without weapons, but were eventually made extinct by an asteroid. That could happen to mankind at anytime. We've been here for relatively little time and we've made amazing advances, but at the same time, we're not investing money in preventing our extinction through natural or man-made hazards. Instead, we create weapons to kill each other."

JJ continued, "To send a missile from one country to another is just primitive." I assume he meant primitive in thought and morals.

"What gives you the right to take another man's life?"

Having read this far, you probably think we're just a pair of peace keepers / raving pacifists. Well, JJ has a military background, having served in the US army prior to working in airline operations.

As we talk about everything from Julian Assange to The Olympics, from Brevik to Merkel; it becomes clear that this meeting is not just by chance.

Whilst discussing the  Olympics, JJ has an awesome idea that countries should compete like they do in the Olympics but instead of sport, they should compete in other things such as finding a cure for cancer, HIV, AIDS. I agreee, maybe eventually these competitions would also lead to co-operation in the off-season!

As we touch down at FRA, I kind of hoped that JJ was flying to Seychelles. We'd make good company and talk for hours more I'm sure. This meeting was just too brief, too short. But then again , short is sweet-maybe our lives will cross paths again some day.

Did I mention he's a house DJ too? His Beat Freak mix is quite good: http://www.myspace.com/djjoejam

"Humankind was gifted by mother nature with great intelligence and potential, but everyday we must choose the right path, make the right decisions and do the right thing."

We surely can destroy each other, but we can also choose to live harmoniously in peace.

Salaam for now.