Seychelles Is Not What You Think It Is! (Cost of living)

Summary

In this travel vlog, Taya Aino explores the tiny African nation of Seychelles, known for its pristine beaches and diverse culture. Despite initial accommodation hiccups and a predominantly white tourist demographic, she revels in the island's beauty, indulges in local cuisine, and experiences the Creole Festival. Taya also visits a giant tortoise sanctuary, a distillery for the famous Takamaka drink, and offers insights into the cost of living and travel in Seychelles, advising viewers to come prepared with ample funds for the high-end experience.

Takeaways

• 🌍 The video is about Taya Aino's travel experience to Seashells, one of the smallest countries in the world and the smallest in Africa, which is often mistakenly thought to be in Asia.
• 🛬 Upon arriving at the Seashells airport, Taya faced an issue with a non-existent pre-booked accommodation, highlighting the importance of double-checking travel arrangements.
• 💸 Taya found the cost of mobile data to be expensive in Seashells, with 1.5 GB costing 300 rupees, attributing the high cost to the country's reliance on imports.
• 🏨 The video mentions the high cost of accommodations in Seashells, especially compared to other destinations like Zanzibar, and the challenges faced in finding suitable lodging.
• 🚗 Taya emphasizes the necessity of renting a vehicle for getting around Seashells due to the high cost and inconvenience of local taxis.
• 🏖 The video showcases the beautiful scenery of Seashells, including its beaches and the Indian Ocean, and the cultural diversity of its inhabitants.
• 🛍 Taya visited a local grocery store and tried the famous local drink, Takamaka, which is a strong but enjoyable beverage unique to Seashells.
• 🔥 The video includes an unexpected event of a building on fire, showing the unpredictability of travel experiences.
• 🐢 Taya visited a giant tortoise enclosure, interacting with the animals and learning about their diet and behavior.
• 🍽 The video describes dining experiences in Seashells, including a meal at Karana Beach Hotel with a private beach and a discussion on the cost and quality of food in high-end restaurants.
• 🏞 Eden Island is presented as a luxurious real estate opportunity in Seashells, with beautiful buildings and a pristine ocean view.
• 🎉 Taya attended the Creole Festival, which celebrates the mixed cultural heritage of Seashells, and learned about the significance of the coconut in the local gastronomy.
• 🏛 The video concludes with a visit to the historical site of Rainstorm, which provides insights into the history of Seashells, including the slave era.
• 💭 Taya reflects on her overall experience in Seashells, noting the high cost of living, the lack of a strong African cultural presence, and her preference for Zanzibar over Seashells due to its affordability and cultural richness.

Q & A

What is the name of the smallest country in Africa that Taya Aino visited?

The country Taya Aino visited is called Seashells, which is a small island nation in Africa.

What was the initial impression of Seashells that Taya Aino had before her research?

Taya Aino initially thought that Seashells was in Asia until she did some research and discovered it is actually in Africa.

What issue did Taya Aino encounter upon her arrival at the Seashells airport?

Taya Aino found out that the accommodation she had booked online through Booking.com did not exist, which left her in a difficult situation.

Why is the cost of data in Seashells expensive according to the script?

The cost of data is expensive in Seashells because the country imports everything and does not produce much on its own.

What was Taya Aino's experience with the hotel she first stayed at in Seashells?

Taya Aino's first hotel experience in Seashells was not pleasant. The room was not nice, and she felt the treatment she received was weird and unwelcoming.

What is the local drink in Seashells that Taya Aino tried?

The local drink in Seashells that Taya Aino tried is called Takamaka, which is made in Seashells and is very strong but also very good.

What did Taya Aino observe about the traffic situation in Seashells?

Taya Aino observed that they got stuck in traffic due to a building on fire, indicating a traffic situation that could be affected by local incidents.

What is the significance of the coconut in Seashells' gastronomy according to the script?

The coconut is a very powerful ingredient in Seashells' gastronomy, highlighting its importance in the local cuisine.

What cultural festival did Taya Aino experience during her visit to Seashells?

Taya Aino experienced the Creole Festival during her visit, which is a yearly event that celebrates the mixed culture of Seashells.

What was Taya Aino's overall impression of Seashells in terms of cost and cultural experience?

Taya Aino found Seashells to be very beautiful but also very expensive. She felt the culture wasn't as strong as she expected, and she noticed a lack of black people, which made her feel out of place.

How did Taya Aino summarize her experience in Seashells at the end of the script?

Taya Aino summarized her experience by saying that while she enjoyed her time in Seashells, especially on the islands of Mahe and La Digue, she found it to be a rude awakening in terms of cost and cultural expectations. She advises others to ensure they have enough money if they plan to visit.

Outlines

00:00

🌍 Travel Mishaps and Discoveries in Seashells

In the first paragraph, the narrator, Taya Aino, introduces her travel vlog to Seashells, a small African country often mistaken for being in Asia. She recounts her initial experiences, including the surprise of finding out her booked accommodation didn't exist upon arrival, leading to a scramble to find a place to stay. She also mentions the high cost of mobile data and the stark contrast between the luxurious yet expensive hotels and the less desirable, yet affordable options. The narrator's experience with racial dynamics at the hotel and the beautiful scenery of Seashells are also highlighted, setting the stage for a travelogue filled with unexpected challenges and discoveries.

05:09

🏝️ Exploring Seashells: Culture, Cuisine, and Creole Festival

The second paragraph delves into the cultural and culinary aspects of Seashells. The narrator visits a distillery to understand the production of the local drink, Takamaka, and shares her experience tasting different varieties of rum. She also encounters a traffic jam caused by a building fire and explores a giant tortoise enclosure. The city's landmarks, markets, and the Creole Festival, which is a celebration of the island's mixed cultural heritage, are featured. The paragraph concludes with the narrator's impressions of the high cost of living in Seashells and her reflections on the island's unique cultural blend.

10:14

🏖️ Seashells: Beaches, Real Estate, and Reflections

In the final paragraph, the narrator discusses her experiences visiting the beaches of Seashells and the Eden Island, which is compared to The Palm Island in Dubai, known for its luxury villas and real estate opportunities. She also touches on the Creole Festival's significance in uniting the diverse cultures of Seashells. The narrator's reflections on the island's cost of living, the absence of a strong African presence, and her personal preference for Zanzibar over Seashells are shared. The paragraph ends with a summary of her overall experience, emphasizing the beauty of the island and the necessity of being financially prepared for the high costs associated with traveling there.

Keywords

💡Seashells

Seashells is likely a misspelling or mispronunciation of 'Seychelles,' which is an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of East Africa. The video's theme revolves around the travel experience to this country, which the narrator mistakenly thought was in Asia. The script mentions 'Seashells' multiple times, reflecting the initial misconception and later the exploration of its geography, culture, and cost of living.

💡Accommodation

Accommodation refers to a place to stay, such as a hotel or guesthouse, during travel. In the video, the narrator experiences an issue with their accommodation booking that did not exist upon arrival, which is a significant part of the travel narrative. This highlights the importance of reliable accommodation when visiting a foreign country.

💡Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. It is mentioned as the geographical setting for the Seychelles, emphasizing the island nation's location and the allure of its beaches and oceanic views. The script describes the experience of arriving at an island in the Indian Ocean, setting the scene for the travel vlog.

💡Cultural Mixture

Cultural Mixture in the script refers to the blend of different ethnicities, traditions, and customs found in the Seychelles. The narrator appreciates the diversity and the unique Creole culture that emerges from the mix of Indian, Chinese, European, and African influences. This concept is central to the video's exploration of the Seychelles' identity and heritage.

💡Takamaka

Takamaka is a local drink in the Seychelles, which the narrator tries and discusses in the script. It represents a part of the local gastronomy and is an example of the cultural experience the video aims to convey. The mention of Takamaka provides insight into the local flavors and the importance of trying new things when traveling.

💡Eden Island

Eden Island is a man-made development in the Seychelles, known for its luxury villas and real estate opportunities. The script describes it as a place similar to Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, indicating its significance as a high-end destination within the Seychelles. It is used in the video to illustrate the options for luxury living and investment in the country.

💡Creole Festival

The Creole Festival is an annual event in the Seychelles that celebrates the diverse cultures of the islands through music and dance. The script mentions the festival as an example of the vibrant cultural life in the Seychelles, showing how the different cultural elements come together in a unified celebration.

💡Giant Tortoise

The giant tortoise is a notable species found in the Seychelles and is part of the country's biodiversity. The script describes an encounter with these animals, emphasizing the unique wildlife and ecological attractions of the islands. This highlights the Seychelles as a destination for nature and wildlife enthusiasts.

💡Expensive

The term 'expensive' is used throughout the script to describe the cost of living, accommodations, and activities in the Seychelles. It is a key point in the video's message about the financial considerations travelers should make when planning a trip to this destination. The narrator's experiences serve as a cautionary tale about the high costs associated with travel in the Seychelles.

💡Karana Beach Hotel

Karana Beach Hotel is a specific location mentioned in the script as a place with a nice restaurant and a private beach. It exemplifies the luxurious accommodations available in the Seychelles and is used in the video to illustrate the high-end travel experience one can have, albeit at a cost.

💡Mahi Island

Mahi Island, or Mahé, is the largest island of the Seychelles and the main setting for the video's narrative. It is where the narrator spends time exploring and experiencing the local culture, beaches, and landmarks. The script uses Mahé as a backdrop to discuss the overall travel experience in the Seychelles.

Highlights

Introduction to Seashells, the smallest country in Africa.

Misunderstanding about Seashells' location being in Asia instead of Africa.

Travel experience starting at the Ethiopian airport with plans to visit Fisher's Island.

Accommodation issues upon arrival in Seashells with a non-existent booking.

High cost of mobile data in Seashells due to import reliance.

Description of the first hotel experience with its high cost and poor service.

Observation of racial demographics and treatment at the hotel.

Importance of renting a vehicle for travel in Seashells due to high cab fares.

Finding a better boutique hotel and its comparison to the first accommodation.

Visit to a local grocery store and the purchase of famous local food items.

Introduction to Takamaka, the local drink of Seashells, and its production process.

Traffic incident due to a building fire in Seashells.

Experience at a giant tortoise enclosure and interaction with the animals.

Exploration of the city center, markets, and local culture.

Dining experience at Karana Beach Hotel and its private beach.

Visit to Eden Island, a man-made island for real estate investment.

Cultural insights on the Creole Festival and its significance.

Reflection on the cost of living in Seashells and its impact on the travel experience.

Personal preference for Zanzibar over Seashells based on cost and cultural experience.

Conclusion of the Seashells travel experience with advice for future visitors.

Transcripts

[Music]

welcome to stations

[Music]

what's up guys how you doing today is

taya aino here again and today i want to

show you guys my experience traveling to

one of the smallest countries in the

world and the smallest country in africa

it's a country called seashells so a lot

of people hear about seashells and the

thing that comes most people's mind is

that asia i also thought seashells was

in asia until i did some research and

discovered that it is actually in africa

currently at ethiopian airport about to

bought a flight to seashells island i

want to go to fisher's island to see

what it has to offer so come along with

me

[Music]

let's arrive at seashells

seashells airports

we got a cab we booked an accommodation

online on booking.com and the

accommodation did not exist we basically

traveled how many thousand miles to get

to an island in the indian ocean and our

accommodation did not exist we were in a

bit of a fix we had to find an

accommodation

[Music]

so we just got 1.5 gig for 300 rupees 20

that's expensive

why is it so expensive why is it so

expensive well we import everything

we don't uh have uh okay don't produce

anything no

no not really

currently in front of my hotel here

which is behind me the sun was just

setting as we came finding them is a

plane comes from this direction so when

and then he landed behind those

mountains we're lucky enough to get one

hotel that still had some availability

but the room we're giving wasn't even

like a nice room this room costs 200

hotels are much more pricier here as

compared to places like zanzibar where

you also get to experience the indian

ocean too this is basically what i got

for 20 dollars it's not bad

we're the only black people i saw in the

hotel in the whole hotel was just white

people everywhere and even the way we

were treated when we got there they

asked some questions they don't answer

you it was just weird i didn't really

like the treatment and i'm probably

gonna make a whole different video about

this this is the first time ever i'll

travel to somewhere and i already start

feeling like oh i need to go back home

first time ever enough about the

problems let me go into the good stuff

first off seashells is a very beautiful

island we're on mahi

we are beautiful in our own different

ways because we are mixed i'm obviously

sure you see we are different we are

mixed

races i love that first

[Music]

to get on my hair one of the things you

need to note is you need to get a

vehicle about when i was in cape town

cape town was right-handed driving so i

sort of got used to it in nigeria where

i'm from it's so different even the side

of the road you're driving on is also

very different so one of the most

important parts is if you're coming down

here rent a vehicle if not you you

you're not going to enjoy yourself it's

going to be very stressful because the

cab you're already carved just to take

you from one place to another place it's

like 40 euros which is a whole lot

found a new spot this is where i am

currently at it's a boutique hotel it

costs around 110 euros this one is way

better than the first one we saw that

was very crappy and they had really

crappy service i'm just heading out now

on to go to a corner store to see if i

can get something to eat

[Music]

behind me is an example of a grocery

store you can come to to buy stuff they

also have some stores that they sell

food that you can also buy like we're

about to buy spaghetti bolognese

this is vanilla this is uh yeah but it's

it's famous everybody likes this one so

you have to try this

thank you this is the little engineers

to seashells this is their local drink

here i want to test it out what it is

like recommended by her

i was asking a lady like where did they

produce this drink you have to be

prepared

you don't just go and they want to drink

takamaka

[Music]

it's made in seychelles very strong but

very good this is their distilleries

it's a dope place to come and experience

they have this drink it's called the

takamaka drink and it's really nice i've

been drinking it since i came here so we

came to the distillery to figure out how

the drink was made hope i don't get

drunk before

i go

[Music]

vanilla

this is white rum

yeah white rum

so i had the white rum

and that was

i'm taking a bottle of this one

same as a pineapple

other one

oh

yeah it burns

[Music]

the small one is 15 years old

and maka the huge one is 19.

we're stuck in traffic because this

building in front of us is burning wow

this is really burning

[Music]

[Music]

is this one is big i think the biggest

one there we are currently in a giant

tortoise enclosure and we're feeding

them this right here this is their food

this is their lunch

don't bite me like the one in zanzibar

[Music]

there's some on land and there's some

in the water

some getting freaky freaky

oh he's the guy i'm freaking nice

[Music]

walking on the streets of seashells i'm

currently in the center of the city

you can see this clock right here it is

one of the major landmarks here

they have a general market yeah we also

want to come here and see what happens

here

you guys i'm in the center of one of the

major markets here and this is where

they sell fish they sell foods they sell

anything that you need to get here and

again i think you can get it here at the

cheaper price there are also a lot of

tourists here as you can see around me

it's like a tourist market but they also

have like food stuff and everything

anything you need to probably cook in

your house to sell everything

[Music]

i think helps test is where they have

more fashion items they have clothes

downstairs is majorly

for food stuff

getting really tired are you not sad

already i'm hungry

you he's hungry not the video i'm hungry

ladies like fine dining definitely you

gotta appease the ladies what can you do

she told me about a place called karana

beach hotel and this place is really

nice

[Music]

we found this really awesome hotel that

has a really nice restaurant that we

want to check out and probably to have a

meal in it's called karana beach hotel

this is nice somebody's having a meal

here but the cool part about this place

is that there's a private beach all to

yourself if you're staying here when i

stay here before but the price the price

is pointing at something dollars so

i say no this place is really futuristic

i think of all the hotels we've been to

this is probably one of the best ones i

wonder about seashells if you see a

really nice hotel it's going to be very

expensive

i'm having pork ribs why is my food

i can imagine the sunrise and the sunset

that you see at this place who does okay

you know sometimes most of these

expensive restaurants their food is it's

not like it's expensive it's just the

ambience it's not really like the food

is like mad like that

next up was eden island

place is beautiful man

[Music]

so guys this is an awesome viewpoint you

can come and see the old island i can't

even see the airport from here the

airport is just there that's also eden

island it's like a really nice spot for

if you want to buy real estate or you

want to invest in real estate and i'm

here with all these

beautiful people where's your face show

your face now

we going to experience this awesome

viewpoint and it's really cool

[Music]

so eden island is similar to the palms

island in dubai it was an island that

they built in the middle of the indian

ocean and it's majorly for villa state

so if you're looking to invest in real

estate in seashells this is where you

come to check out there are buildings

they're beautiful buildings imagine

you're living in a house and in front of

the house is the indian ocean clear blue

ice water you don't even need to do a

swimming pool because the weather is

like a swimming pool you can also wake

up with money and jump besides

if somebody else asks you what's so

unique about seashells what would you

tell them our culture our beaches

oh yeah okay

well driving by on the road and we

stopped by

and the beach is here it's an island so

there's beach on all sides why do you go

to the beach jump in the water

[Music]

there's an activity that they perform

here yearly it's called the creole

festival and luckily enough i came at a

time when this activity is happening

it's like a dance festival and it

happens right in front of me the citrus

culture is very mixed but there's one

thing that brings us together that's a

conglomerate of all the cultures that is

indian chinese european and this we get

the creole that's a mixture okay all

korean people in the world they know you

are creole because you are mixed you

have the fruit salad but beautiful one

so that's it and i wanted all the people

to unite in one culture that we have i

saw you cutting the coconut what's the

significance of the coconut coconut is

very very powerful coconut is a very

powerful ingredient of the seashells

gastronomy

if you are looking for some place to

relax the option is unlimited so you can

go to lobby

even here in mahi there's a lot of

places that you can just go and chill

relax check out the landscape behind us

see glass oceans and on that side you

can see the mountains green everything

is green so many trees maybe i'll just

stay here and i'll be staying in this

house

on the last day on mahi island we

decided to drive all the way to the top

of the tallest mountain here at the top

there's a historical site called

rainstorm that has some history about

you know the slave era how seashells

came about how my island came about some

of the things that happened back then

from there you can see almost the whole

of seashells so i spent 10 days in

seashells and the 10 days were filled

with the good the bad and ugly one of

the first things i noticed about

seashells was that i didn't really feel

like i was in africa i mean i didn't

feel like i was in africa that might

sound like a controversial statement but

i didn't feel like i was in africa

because everybody around me even the

hotels i went to there were almost no

black people there i felt like you know

if you're in africa you see other

africans too everybody there were just

whites

europeans russians i'm like where's all

the black people why are the black

people not chilling on the beach who are

the black people not having fun too

while the black people were not engaging

in all these activities the culture

wasn't as strong as i thought it was

going to be and also it's so expensive

do you think seashells is expensive to

live in well yes

very expensive but yeah well it is what

it is so if you're going out to

seashells just make sure you take a lot

of money with you so what are my

thoughts on seashells should you travel

down to seashells and what was my

experience in jedi i enjoyed my

experience in seashells i spent time on

two islands mahe and lady all in all it

was i lost some experience it was just a

rude awakening when i first landed there

i realized that i needed to spend so

much money and now we iterated again

seashells is very expensive so if you're

going down there make sure you hold

enough money so that you don't get

stranded i think seashells is cool it's

a really beautiful island the blue ass

water the mountains the beaches so it's

not like places where you go to and all

the bridges are bacardi i noticed a lot

of people go down here for honeymoon and

i'm always wondering why nobody ever

talked about some of all these things i

noticed when i came down here i think i

want to go to zanzibar for me i prefer

zanzibar to see shares from what i saw

because as you buy is cheaper you get

more money for your options seashells is

more expensive so yeah guys that

concludes my experience of seashells i

have two more videos on seashells coming

out soon so stay tuned and subscribe to

the channel if you plan on going out to

these shows definitely go down there or

hold plenty money make sure your pocket

is loaded

so guys that's all i have to do with you

guys today i'll definitely see you guys

in the next one peace out