Lack of Planning Upon
Arriving in Seychelles...
August 1, 2006
I am on the airplane right now en route to Mahe, Seychelles. I wasn’t very smart before leaving for this leg of the trip. I
realized just last night that I would be arriving at 8:00pm. While that doesn’t sound like much of a concern, the problem is that
I am staying on another island tonight and I am not quite sure how I am going to get there as I don’t know if the ferries run
this late. Hmmm…. Guess I will just have to wait and see what happens when I get in. The worst-case scenario is that I sleep in
the airport and lose the cost of one night of a hotel. I hope that doesn’t happen. But if it does, oh well. What can I do now???
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Okay. I have now arrived. I am thinking that I should have thought a bit more about technicalities.
For example: I probably should have checked to see what time I was arriving into Mahe since my hotel for the first night was
on a different island. I did not think about doing this until yesterday and that is when I realized the flight was coming in pretty
late and there might not be ferries that run at that time. Doh.
I asked the flight attendants on my flight about flights to Praslin (I have now learned that it is pronounced ‘prah-lin’) and they
said there was one tonight. Upon getting my bags, I made my way over to the domestic terminal and asked about that flight.
Booked. Of course it was…the plane only holds twenty people.
I went back to where the baggage claim is and asked one of the tour companies if they could help me out. Iriny from Creole
Travel Services was so sweet and found a place for me to stay. She also told me the time that the ferry leaves in the morning to
Praslin (7:30am) and gave me a ride to the hotel in the van that takes them home so that I didn’t have to pay for a taxi. When
I got to this hotel, they called my hotel on Praslin to let them know that I will be there tomorrow. I am out the money that I
paid to the Praslin hotel for tonight but it barely even bothers me. I have already experienced such warmth and generosity in
the one hour that I have been in this country.
It is so odd that absolutely none of this really phased me. I never panicked. I never got upset. I never lost my cool. My only
reaction was to chuckle and tell the people I was trying to coordinate new plans with that I was an idiot. I just have the
mentality ‘What’s done is done.’ Maybe I should care a bit more…but I know that wouldn’t solve anything. Because my name
is Jen Nathan I am bound to make many, many more mistakes such as this one. It just comes with the territory of being me. I
do have to say that it is very nice to not sweat stuff like this. Situations like this definitely put a person to the test to see how
they would react and I feel like I passed this one. I mean something was bound to slip through the craps with the planning of
this trip, right???
Before calling it a night, I decided to walk around the grounds of the hotel a bit since I won’t be able to see it tomorrow
(because I leave so early for the ferry). I heard a noise and decided to follow it. I finally got to the source. I literally beamed
and even jumped up and down a bit in excitement. Though I couldn’t see it, there was the ocean and I was reminded that I am
now in Seychelles!