Day 12| Explore the Botanical Garden and Victoria Market

One of the interesting customer benefits of our Hotel was FREE PICK-UP & DROP facility to Victoria Market. This was highly beneficial as Victoria is the cultural and shopping hub of the Island. It had the bus terminus in walking distance, variety of markets, travel agencies offices etc. However, it was subject to availability  so one has to book in advance, i.e in the preceding eve to get the service. They drop you in an AC Mini Bus, which starts at 10 AM and picks you up at 4:30 PM.

Victoria - Watch Tower

We made use of this facility on the penultimate day and reached Victoria Stadium Parking. The souvenir stalls opposite the parking area weren’t opened as yet. So we decided to check the morning rush at Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market. The market road was closed as the vendors were dropping of fish produce and vegetables. It’s a spices and vegetables market, and you can see different variety of fruits and flowers being sold here. There are some spices and vanilla items seller in the latter end of the market. The first floor shops are mostly boutique shops selling clothes and make up items in very affordable rates. You can bargain some good deals from the sellers out here.

Sir Selwyn Selwyn Clarke Market

Since, Victoria market was not yet in full swing, and we had today completely for this area, we headed to Botanical Garden in the vicinity. The ticket price here is 100 SR/ person and it’s a very well maintained park. It had variety of trees and is recommended for taking some really good photos in such clean and beautiful surroundings.

Inside Botanical Garden

It was quite some walk in the park, and we were feeling really hungry. So we returned to Victoria again and stopped by Pirates Arms, a really nice place for food and drinks. It’s highly recommended for its amazing prices and cool ambience. It has a small casino too, for those who’re interested. There’s a Seychelles National Museum opposite Pirates Arms, but was closed for lunch, but we anyways weren’t much interested in visiting it. After relaxing here, we roamed around Victoria picking up some stuff for friends and relatives, and all this shopping made it quite tiring. There are lot of small shopping complexes in the Market area, mostly selling clothes, Make-Up Items, Coconut and wooden crafts, coco-de-Mer and antiques etc. There are couple of branded grocery retailers as well. After picking up some take away food from Liam –Liam food shop, we returned to Hotel by 6 PM. We had missed the HOTEL bus, so we had to take the state bus for returning.

I have been having food cravings for Indian food since a few days now, and I really wanted to have something Indian today to be really satisfied with the trip. We had once tried at our Hotel’s restaurant and it was good, but today we wanted to try the Coral Strand restaurant, the other Indian restaurant in the vicinity of our Hotel. Although we didn’t have any energy left, so we took a small nap, before walking upto the Coral strand for dinner. We preferred the Beach walk as it’s shorter, but there were lot of crabs to scare us. Our steps and torch lights made them run away from our path. We reached Coral Strand Hotel and went to their Indian Restaurant, it faced directly at the Beach and one can hear the waves reaching the shores. Butter Chicken and Naan served me a perfect end to a beautiful trip. 

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