Allo - a Creole Hello from the Seychelles

Sep 11, 20234 min read

Welcome to the Indian Ocean. 2nd stop in the Southern Hemisphere.

The long flight was uneventful. The seat and legroom from seat 27C onboard Qatar 777 was quite spacious. It was a bit noisy from the exit row location near the bathrooms, but nothing the Sony noise-cancelling headphones couldn’t handle.

I slept a solid 6-7 hours after my first dinner upon takeoff from Dallas. Awoke and listened to my entire “Favorites” playlist while browsing social media and texting a few family + friends. Then had my 2nd dinner of the day, or at least the flight which started and ended in the dark across 2 different days.

It’s a bit confusing taking off in the dark in Dallas, flying ~14.5 hours and landing in the dark in Doha. Also interesting, Deanna Carter lied to us all when she sang the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. I suppose that’s true in a two dimensional world, but in a spherical earth, an arc is the shortest way.

But, this is a travel blog, not a math lesson so I’ll leave that at that and Google it if you want additional answers.

Hotel issues that arose while airborne:

On the way, like literally while sitting on the airplane to Doha I got an email from Hilton Hotels/LXR Mango House where I am staying stating that the only way I could use my Hilton Honors Amex Card at check-in is for it to be charged in local currency, which will add ~$500 to my weeklong stay. I made my reservation in January in Euros ON the Hilton Honors App. Questions are: (1) Why is this just coming up while I am less than 20 hours from

Check-in and on an 16 hour international flight (2) how do you expect me to complete a “change in credit card” authorization form (that’s a non-fillable PDF) while on the flight, (3) why would you think that I would ever put all of that info into an email form and scan it back to you via unsecured email (4) how are you going to resolve the above issue.

It’s not my fault or your online reservation system should clearly state you don’t accept you own branded credit card at the published rate.

So, as a Hilton Honor Diamond member, I am not even checked in to my “5 star” hotel, and I am already moderately annoyed and ready to argue profusely with the hotel manager.

We will have to see how this resolves itself at check-in.

Hotel issues upon check-in:

It didn’t get resolved or resolve itself. I am not going to worry about it while I am here and will submit a claim to Hilton Corporate and with the credit card. I have limited time here and I don’t want to spent it being upset so the cards (and the charge) will fall where they may.

It sucks…

Languages:

While on the long flight, I decided I better look up what language is spoken in the Seychelles. I realized on this flight what a true privilege it is to be American/speak English as many other nationalities, and primarily a lot of Indians struggled with announcements, how the bathroom doors functioned simply out of a lack of signage and vocal announcements in their native languages. I mean, there were basically no other languages used in the aircraft announcements other than English, and Qatar Airlines is an Arab airline. One would expect the announcements in at least their native language, right?

Getting back to the question though. On the islands, the 3 official languages are: a local Creole dialect is spoken by the majority of the population. French and English are the other official languages.

As I sat on the plane about 20 minutes before touchdown on continent number four, 34 hours of travel later, smiles and disbelief that my trek around the globe is taking me here.

Folks, create your vision boards, manifest the shift out of life. I am reminded and extremely thankful for the ability to do this, but I promise you, create the vision of the life you want, look at it in the mirror every day, and it too could very well become your reality, even if only for a short time like my year of “yes”.

I knew my dream was to travel. I never thought my dream was to do it solo, but here I am, living my dream in a dream I didn’t know I had.

Today is day 254 of the year. 112 days left. Another 53 nights of travel to go.

Yes I can. Yes I will.

The room is stunning.

I spent the afternoon doing some work. Taking a nap by the pool. It’s been off and on rain today and overall cloudy. Hopefully the weather improves but it’s comfortable and tropical so no complaints.

I made dinner reservations here at the hotel tonight and then it’ll be early to bed. This boy is TIRED.