Jun 072012
 

Common route right?  Lots of people just happen to fly From Seychelles to Bulgaria  😉   There was a route with two stops, but I chose to add a third one in so I could maximize my time on nicer airlines.  However, even before I got started, there was some rather serious drama.  Flight didn’t leave Seychelles until mid-Afternoon, so after waking up, I went for a 5 mile or so run on the beach.  Absolutely amazing running right along the water lapping on the beach, some serious waves crashing…it was definitely paradise!  Got back to the room famished, pounded over a liter of water, and gave in to the diet coke in the minibar.  It was listed as 500ml for $7 which was a ripoff, but I was willing to pay it.  However, the can was only 300ml.  I figured I’d take my changes.  Make note…

After a shower, I packed my bags, and when leaning over to put the scuba gear away, heard a loud POP in my back, and collapsed to the floor.  Fortunately, I was near the bed so I could break my fall, but still scary.  Sitting there dazed for maybe 15 seconds, I finally used the bed to lift myself up to sitting and assess the damage.  Didn’t feel awful, just really stiff and swollen, and I wasn’t going to miss my flight, so popped some serious anti-inflammatories and called the buggy to take me to check out.

Was honest about the mini-bar, and the agent called the manager on duty.  He offered to reduce the Diet Coke to $6.50.  Let me get this straight…it’s 40% smaller than promised, and you offer me approximately 8% off.  I asked the agent to please call him back and thank him for his extreme generosity, and to please let him know he has an unhappy platinum member whose stay will always be remembered for this act at check-out.  I only honestly wanted a fair price (even $5 would have worked) but the sarcasm was duly noted, and the item was removed completely.  Above and beyond, tho a bit disappointed I had to go through such extremes.

Taxi came for the airport, and the driver requested 600 Rupees.  I was in a negotiating mood at this point, and had put all but 500 rupees to the hotel bill….so I offered 500.  He took it immediately when I said it was all I had, which I was mildly proud of, considering I’d paid 600 for the airport.

Check-in at the airport 30 min later was pretty painless, and immigration was pleasantly air conditioned, and soon I was in the lounge.  No decent food to speak of, but a few Seychellois rums and diet coke eased a bit of back pain, and the slow internet was adequate for some browsing and e-mail checking.  Soon, it was time to board!

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 878
Mahé, Seychelles (SEZ) to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (ADD)
Departure 16:25, Arrival 19:40 Next Day, Flight Time: 4:15
Boeing 737-700, Registration ET-ALK, Manufactured 2003
Seat 4A

The most notable thing about this flight is that business only had 3 people in it, and economy might have been 33% full.  The route had just started a week before, so maybe it will take time to come up to speed.  There was a rather cranky family that boarded at the last second, and basically demanded to the station manager to be upgraded, and he gave in.  I’d seen them in the lounge, so assume they were some sort of local VIPs, Ethopian frequent flyers, etc.  To their credit, although they were a bit demanding, the small child was perfectly behaved, and having an extra 3 people in the 20 seats was no big deal at all.

The other strange fact was just how early we were going to be!  I guess everyone got boarded early, so why not!

Upon boarding, one of the stranger amenity kits I’ve ever seen was waiting for us!

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Jun 062012
 

Arrived at the resort just a bit after 8pm, and mysteriously was invited to have a seat in the reception area because my room was not quite ready…odd, but ok. While I was waiting, the manager on duty came over and introduced herself, apologized, gave me all the details, so that when my keys were ready in a few minutes I wouldn’t have to wait. That was nice. About 10 minutes later they were set, luggage was loaded into a golf cart, and got a short ride to the room. It was very walkable (300m or so max?) but the ride was nice with luggage. Once inside, I forgot about the wait – the suite upgrade was amazing, and came loaded with a giant fruit basket, bottle of wine, and plate full of snacks.

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Jun 052012
 

Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and now it was onto the trip’s main attraction. See, this all started when I found a friend who was deployed in Djibouti would be going to Seychelles on leave for a few days…and would I like to join? An excuse to visit a new country with a good friend? Of course I would! Then I learned this was to be a scuba-centred trip, so had to get certified up for that to make the most of it. Little did I know an offer to visit one small island nation would end up consuming so much of my spring weekends! A weekend of scuba classes, an awful (hah!) vacation to the Cayman Islands to finish open water certification, and a trip around South Asia since I would be in the region. …and I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

Check-in was quick, and I learned the flight was completely sold out. Who knew there was so much demand for flights between Mauritius and Seychelles! Immigration and security took ten minutes top, and soon it was to the Air Seychelles lounge for a short rest. The lounge was absolutely packed thanks to a flight to Johannesburg leaving at the same time, and there was decent food and beverage on offer…well, more beverage than food. The food offerings were pretty slim. I attempted a picture, but was chastised by the food attendant, so no luck there. They also insisted on pouring all drinks for you. I couldn’t tell if that was to keep an eye on you, or an attempt to be service-oriented. No matter, a couple of glasses later, and it was time to board.

Air Seychelles flight 54, Operated by Etihad
Port Louis, Mauritius (MRU) to Mahe, Seychelles (SEZ)
Departure 17:10, Arrival 19:45, Flight Time 2:35
Airbus A320, Registration A6-EIM, Manufactured 2009
Seat 3C

Yes, you read that right, Air Seychelles operated by Etihad! It seems Air Seychelles ran into some financial problems as a result of GFC (Global Financial Crisis) Round 1, and Abu Dhabi stepped in to the rescue. They now operate Seychelles to Abu Dhabi as well as this route, with aircraft wet-leased from Etihad. The irony is that most of our crew, despite being Etihad crew, were South African and Seychellois…I guess it’s a pretty sweet deal for them!

Champagne was offered before departure, and business class was quite generous for an A320, I would guess somewhere between 45-50 inches of seat pitch. Definitely better than you usually see on a narrow-body, and the food was much better as well. One thing gulf airlines do well, even with less than ideal aircraft, is make sure business class means business class so people will pay for it. Is anyone at US or European airlines listening? Thought not….

The crew was quite friendly, efficient, and generous topping up drinks. The meal also blew away anything you’d ever seen on a narrow body in other parts of the world. Pictures are below.

One final note on arrival in Seychelles. It’s absolutely essential to have a copy of your hotel booking. They insisted on seeing my printout – nothing on the iPhone was acceptable. Not sure what they would have done had I not had it (odd, since this is the first trip in an eternity where I actually bothered printing hard copies) but they were quite insistent on it!

ATM in the airport worked as expected, got cash, negotiated the rate WikiTravel and TripAdvisor told me to expect, and soon I was off to the hotel. About 10 minutes into the trip, we were pulled over by the local police. Seems by driver wasn’t displaying his taxi permit properly, and was going to have to pay a fine. He claimed to have just renewed it so it was sitting in the glovebox for some reason…it was all a bit shady, but eventually after my complaining to the police that he was holding up tourism, giving the country a bad name, etc etc, he decided to let the driver go with a warning. You’d think the driver would have been mildly thankful, but nope. He was still surly. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

Taxi was negotiated in Euros (guess that’s the bulk of western visitors) and after a slight reluctance he was willing to take Seychellois Rupees at the slightly (maybe 5%) disadvantageous rate that I offered with a round bill and not having to make change. They were making a steal on the short trip anyways.

May 222012
 

So it had been four months, and I was itching to travel. I’d recovered from my visit to Somalia in January, and the friend I visited next door in Djibouti was headed to Seychelles for some R&R…and of course, having never been there – I wanted to go with. But can I do it the easy way? Of course not…I started looking at alternative routings that would allow me to visit as many countries as possible…as cheaply as possible…in as short of time as possible!

You might remember the last three years where I spent New Years Eve…yes, Iraq and then Iran/Afghanistan, ending with Somalia this year.

So…I found a great fare to India….which told me I had to finally visit Nepal and Bhutan. Great fare from there down to Seychelles that allowed a stopover in Mauritius…and we were well on the way. The fare back from Seychelles allowed a stop anywhere in Europe…so a chance to finally get to Bulgaria. Tentatively, the parts to this report will be:

Part I: Washington DC, National (DCA) to Delhi, India (DEL)
Part II: Transit in Delhi, and the Sheraton Muraya
Part III: Delhi to Kathmandu, Nepal (KTM) and touring Nepal
Part IV: Kathmandu, Nepal to Paro, Bhutan (PBH) and visiting Bhutan
Part V: Paro, Bhutan to Male, Maldives (MLE)
Part VI: Sheraton Full Moon Resort, Maldives
Part VII: Male, Maldives to Port Louis, Mauritius (MRU)
Part VIII: Visiting Mauritius
Part IX: Port Louis, Mauritius to Mahe, Seychelles (SEZ)
Part X: Seychelles, including the Le Meridien Fishermans Cove and Scuba
Part XI: Mahe, Seychelles to Sofia, Bulgaria (SOF)
Part XII: Sheraton Sofia, and visiting Sofia, Bulgaria
Part XIII: Sofia, Bulgaria to Washington Dulles (IAD)

The Route:

The Route

Hope you enjoy…I’ll try and get through this with lots of pics relatively quickly!

Apr 092012
 

So with my country count now at 109, it’s getting a bit more difficult to “collect” multiple countries in the same trip.  When I found out that I’d have  a chance to visit a friend in the Seychelles this spring, I started, of course, looking at creative ways to get there.

One thing I’ve learned the last couple years is that roundtrip fares are rarely the best way to go somewhere if you’re looking to maximize the number of countries you visit.  Fares from the US tend to be expensive, and often you can string together several one-way fares at a much better deal – especially if you want to travel in the pointy end of the plane.

To that end, I found an amazing fare that would allow me to hit south asia on the way, and visit Nepal and Bhutan.  Of course, that got me wondering if I could stop by the other country in the region I still need to visit – Maldives – and I found a way to make it happen.  Of course, on the way from Maldives to Seychelles, I wanted to see if I could transit elsewhere in the Indian Ocean – and sure enough it looks like Mauritius is a possibility!

Now, leaving Seychelles was easier…and even better when I found a “hidden” fare to north america that was milage-based, and allowed stops in Sudan and Bulgaria on the way back for just a few airport surcharges…great deal!  Now, I don’t get to leave the plane in Sudan…but by the rules of the game I can count it for now, with the hopes of returning for a real visit soon.  That will make 7 new countries in just under two weeks, and bring me to 116 on the count.  How is everyone else doing?

Mar 152012
 

Needless to say, the next few months is going to be incredibly busy! Starting this weekend, I have 6 big trips planned in the next three months. Short story is:

Ski and birthday weekend in Mont Tremblant, Quebec
Four days of diving in Grand Cayman, getting SCUBA certified
Then, a few days later, off to Oahu, Hawaii for a welcome home
After that, I’ll actually stay put a few days before it’s off to Nepal, Bhutan, Seychelles, Sudan, and Bulgaria
Work a few days, then off to Ottawa, Ontario to run the Ottawa marathon
…and from there, I fly straight to Longyearbyen, Norway, at 78 degrees north latitude, for the Spitsbergen Marathon 6 days later!

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Mar 092012
 

Count stands at 109, and in May, I have a trip to get five more countries already booked.  Nepal, Bhutan, Seychelles, Sudan, and Bulgaria (strange combo, for sure) are already done.  That marks 114.

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