Ahhhh! Glorious "sea day"!! Two in a row! We're hovering in our cabin today, Tom reading and me playing on the computer! Tom's on his 6th or 7th book! Three were electronic and then he's been going to the ship's library for old-fashioned hard-back books! And, we sit on the balcony watching the sea and occasionally an albatross overhead. Yes, the sea in this area really is this blue!
The last post was on arriving in the Seychelles which, we learned is NOT a French word for sea shells but rather the name of France's King Louis the XV's Minister of Finance! At the time, the Seychelles were part of the French East India Company. I really think history would have been far more interesting if we'd had the opportunity to travel before taking the classes.
Victoria, on the Island of Mahé and the capitol of the Seychelles, is large enough to have a real port. No tenders here! In fact, the dock is big enough to handle at least two cruise ships. A Costa ship was already docked; we settled in behind her, aft-to-aft.
First on the agenda for the tour: a stop at the Botanical Gardens. By comparison to other gardens, it was quite small. But consider this is a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It was beautiful, green & shady, a brief respite from the heat! Admission price of SR (Seychelles rupee) was included in the tour. It is really only about USD $8!
One of the highlights in the garden were the coco de mer (sea coconut) palm trees, endemic to two islands in the Seychelles. And, unlike other palms, a tree flowers bloom either male or female, not both. None that we saw were in bloom so don't have a picture of the very phallic looking male flower! There is a picture of it on the Wikipedia page!
It's only after the husks have been taken of a ripe coconut that the somewhat erotic features of the fruit are revealed!
The other highlight was the giant Aldabra tortoises from the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles which houses about 100,000 of the tortoises. Giant tortoises used to be on a most of the islands in the western Indian Ocean and on Madagascar as well, however, over exploitation by European sailors during the times of the East India companies led to near extinction by the mid-1800s.
There were quite a few of them here!! It's hard to tell how big they were without something nearby to put their size in perspective! The male shell averages about 4' long with a weight averaging 550lbs. Females, average 3' long, 350lbs.
Back to the bus for a short time then, about a ten minute walk in downtown Victoria. One of the first things we noticed was how clean the streets are! After India, it was quite refreshing! The Maldives' weren't as bad as India but not as clean as here in the Seychelles!
Standing in the middle of two crossing streets is the clock tower, a replica of the one in London near Victoria Station. It was quite impressive and quite clean! Note that the street Christmas decorations are already up! (This was on 12/5.)
Turning the corner, we see this beautiful, very colorful, Hindu Temple, the Seychelles Hindu Kovil Sangam. Surprisingly, it was built in the 1980's!
We were VERY happy to see it because we knew our air-conditioned bus was nearby! It was a very hot and very humid day!!!
And, back on the bus, we headed for the beach at a resort at Beau Vallon near the bottom of Beau Vallon Bay. It was about 30-40 minute drive around the northern peninsular. Note the yellow highlighting on the map.
A couple of interesting "art in public places" in the, I'm sure, British inspired, round-abouts!
And, of course, we've been confounded by the propensity for the locals to drive on the left hand side of the streets!! Inevitably, we'll go for the right side of the vehicle to board only to find it to be the driver side! We were fine until we got to India where the British influence took over. The British Empire was at its height when autos were introduced, thus, they'll never get it "right"!!
From Victoria, the rest of the drive was even more beautiful, almost all along the coast with magnificent views. There were often trees or shrubs between the bus and the ocean so we didn't get many great photos. This one was a classic. 
Arriving at the Berjaya Resort & Casino, we see that they too also have their Christmas decorations up. While there is a representation of Hindus on the island, the vast majority religion is Christian. We were surprised at the number of rooms that face the land side rather than the ocean side! On checking it out online, I found it to be a chain of hotels in London, Seychelles, Indonesia and Malaysian peninsular. 
Some folks headed for the beach, some folks just hung out on the tropical grounds, some folks hung out in the lobby, some folks got in the long queue along the pool for the free soft drink, Tom and I headed inside to the other side of the pool bar for our first adult beverage of the day!
It was fortunate that we chose to go inside! No sooner than when our drinks arrived we had a 10-15 minute downpour!!
It was a beautiful place that we would consider adding to our bucket list of places to come back to and spend a week… IF we were true jet-setters!!
After we spent nigh on an hour there, we boarded the bus for a short way back to our ship. We did make a quick photo stop for photos through the bus windows. What we saw primarily was our "boat" waiting patiently below for our return!
It was only a 3 ½ hour tour but we covered so much it sure seemed a lot longer!
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