PROS AND CONS OF LIVING ON MAHE

Pros:

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We love the beaches, we’ve travelled and lived all over the world from Central and South America, to Europe, and Asia including South East Asia and these are the best beaches for overall look – the turquoise clear water, super fine powdery sand, and lush landscape with maybe some dotted tasteful cabana style chalets as there aren’t big hotels taking over the view. 

There are lots of beaches, so many different ones (click here for another episode on each beach and what’s the diff what’s good for what). 

The nature, it is extremely green with wonderful plants growing ( click here to find about local plants and their uses), vast  and special varieties of birds to see and hear, tropical and colourful fish to see whilst swimming, snorkeling and diving, and amazing hikes that lead to epic views (See our other article about our favourite hikes). 

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Also some unique creatures such as Aldabra Atoll Tortoises (To find out where to see them see our article on Unique Creatures of the Seychelles), as well as fruit bats!

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We love the smells and tastes of the local spices, cinnamon added to curries and snack foods available like samosas. Wherever you go the smell of Creole food smells of decadent curries slowly bubbling. 

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We love the tropical fruits and vegetables ( click here to learn about the local fruits and vegetables), there were so many new fruits and vegetables to try and we are learning to prepare favourite recipes using what is local and available. 

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We love being able to speak French and English and are amazed at how the locals can speak three languages easily, including Creole. 

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We love the simplicity. A perfect day is just going to the beach, harvesting our own coconut ( watch here how we crack open a coconut without tools), having a picnic of local bits and bobs, and then watching the sunset from home, eating local fresh fish and or just a simple vegan meal of fresh vegetables. 

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We love being away from it all and if we need something then we can nip to the capital.

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There isn’t anything to dangerous creature wise…if anything you might get a mean bite from something (David got bit by a massive spider recently, but survived) or have issues with pests but there aren’t any really dangerous species lurking about in general.

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Close knit community, getting to know people who are looking for similar lifestyle. 

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Cons:

Initially where we were living, We didn’t feel safe as the house wasn’t very secure but now we’re feeling a lot better where we are (See our article on Our first week in Mahe). There is theft and break-ins but typically these are opportunistic. Feeling safe is very important as we have two young children. We were living in Cyprus which is very safe feeling and we just had to up our security measures at home and whilst out and about.   

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Recycling is very bad here, it appears nonexistent aside from some people collecting bottles to return for a small income which is devastating. There are some aluminum can recycling scattered around the island and some plastic bottle recycle spots, if you can find them. 

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Fruits and Vegetables, and specialty things if you’re into them like kefir, yogurt, free range eggs, and any foreign items are extremely pricey. We drive around to various roadside stalls to find the more local and organic produce – thought it would be nice to see more organic products (click here to find out about the cost of living in the Seychelles). 

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Animal welfare. Unfortunately the welfare of dogs and cats is not great, check out SSPCA to support their awesome efforts at improving the local animal welfare. 

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Cost of groceries. Going out for a meal or drinks is very expensive for us as for our financial means and in comparison to other places we’ve lived as well as leaving the island to travel elsewhere is pricey. (click here to find out more about costs and click here to find out about budget meal places ) 

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Needing specialty items If you like swiss water processed decaf organic coffee, or matcha lattes like we do then this is not an easy place to get those specialty treats! Organic clothing or basically anything fresh and trendy is not really easily accessible. 

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Cockroaches, rats, creepy caterpillar cockroaches are around plus they fly which is intense, big rats can be spotted, and the long red caterpillar which gives a painful bite. Ouch!

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Traffic – Victoria Rush Hour!! Arghhh!!! Find out more about why we bought a scooter here. 

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Seychelles has the highest Heroin addiction per capita, and unfortunately you see many people who are suffering from addictions; however, the hope is that with the support of the government more funding will be put in place to help people battling addiction.

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So, overall the pros outweigh the cons, but hopefully some of the more serious cons can be fixed soon.