Introduction
ANA Business Class Chicago to Tokyo
United Club – Tokyo Narita
Thai Airways Business Class Tokyo to Bangkok
One Night in Bangkok
Thai Airways Business Class Bangkok to Bali
D’Wina Villa Kuta and Exploring Bali (Part 1)
Exploring Bali (Part 2)
Exploring Bali (Part 3)
Ethiopian Airlines Bangkok to Addis Ababa
Ethiopian Airlines Cloud Nine Lounge and Addis Ababa to Seychelles
Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort and Exploring the Seychelles (Part 1)
Exploring the Seychelles (Part 2)
Exploring the Seychelles (Part 3)
Ethiopian Airlines Seychelles to Addis Ababa and Back to the US

After spending 2 nights on Praslin, we arrived at the Praslin airport at about 2:00 pm, even though our flight  back to Mahe wasn’t scheduled to depart until 4:00.  We had negotiated a late check out until 1:00, but couldn’t stay any later at our hotel.  We were hoping to jump on an earlier flight (there was a 2:45 flight), but that flight was completely full, so we tried to entertain ourselves in the small, single-room terminal.  We had about 24 hours left of exploring the Seychelles, so it was unfortunate that we had to kill about 2 hours sitting in the airport.  Although there wasn’t much to do, it was clean, and somewhat air conditioned:

Eventually, our flight was ready to board, so we headed out to the plane.

We had front row seats again, just like our first flight from Mahe over to Praslin, which made the flight even more interesting for an aviation nerd.

After another quick 15 minute flight, we were back on Mahe island for another 24 hours.  Although there was some confusion about our rental car, we eventually got one, although it smelled a bit like the inside of shoe.  We drove south to our hotel, Au Fond de Mer View, which had beautiful views overlooking the ocean.

Our villa had a separate living room and kitchen, although we didn’t really need to use any of it since we were only there for 1 night.  Every room also has a huge patio/balcony.

The place was family owned, and primarily run by a woman named Solana, who was extremely accommodating and helpful.  She recommended that we have dinner at the Takamaka Bay Rum Distillery Restaurant, which was a beautiful historic house.  It was tough to get a good picture at night, but our dinner was delicious, and we would highly recommend eating there.

The next morning, we had several hours to explore, as our flight would be leaving Mahe at 4:25 pm.  Solana recommended a few deserted beaches to drive to for good snorkeling.  We drove across to the west side of the island, and found a small beach, Anse Louis, there with no one else around.

Lauren relaxed on the sand reading, while I ventured out into the water.  It was a bit eerie with no one else around, and I nearly jumped out of the water when a sting ray swam directly underneath me (and the water was only about 4 ft deep).  I swam back to shore and told Lauren about it, then headed back out.  Within a few minutes, I swam near some large rocks, and saw a rather large eel peering out at me!  At that point, I decided I had seen enough, and didn’t want to end our trip getting stung/bitten/swallowed/dragged out to see by some unknown creature, so I headed back to shore.

After relaxing for a bit on the beach, it was about 11:30, and we knew we wanted to be at the airport by about 2:30, so we made our way back to the hotel.  After a quick dip at the beach by the hotel, we took showers and sadly packed up our suitcases for the last time.

We still had a bit of time to kill, and the rum distillery where we had eaten the night before was on the way back to the airport, so we decided to stop by there to walk around in the daylight.  We got to peek into some of the distilling rooms, and saw some folks that were doing tastings.  We didn’t have time for a full tour and tasting, but walked around the grounds a bit, which was very enjoyable.

Reluctantly, we finally made our way back to the airport to begin the journey home.  We had already covered 19,107 miles and had 9,271 miles to go:

Continue to Part 15: Ethiopian Airlines Seychelles to Addis Ababa and Back to the US