After leaving India on May 21, 2014, I arrived in the Maldives on May 22nd for a week-long holiday in the sun.  Here are my posts from that week.

Island Hopping

May 23, 2014 @ 9:34

Okay, so I made it to the Maldives – after quite a bit of island hopping.  I flew from India (after a layover in Chennai and a flight that stopped in Bengaluru and some other town I’ve never heard of before arriving in Male.  From there, I transfered to  local airline.

I had booked a flight to my hotel’s island, Gangehi.  The plane turned out to be a seaplane,  one of those ones capable of landing and taking off on the water.   One of the pilots was wearing flip-flops, and literally flew half the flight barefoot. The views from the plane after we left Male were spectacular.  You can watch a short clip, if you like. In it, you can see from above the set-up of a typical island resort, with bungalows that extend out over the water.

After a little while, the plane landed on the water next to an island and pulled up at the end of a dock.  I got off with everyone else, and walked along the dock toward the land.  I could see so many fish in the clear water, it was incredible.  When I got to shore, however, I realized that this was not the island I was supposed to stay at.  Apparently, it just was a lay-over island for me.

A boat was pulling up to the dock, and as I turned, I saw they were looking for me and gathering my luggage.  I went back and got on for my private boat ride to my island.

When I arrived at Gangehi, I was greeted with a face towel and fresh lemonade as I walked up the dock towards reception for check-in.  Pretty swanky.

I had decided to book one of their nicer rooms reasoning that a) this may be the only time I stay at one of these island resort type places, b) my birthday is this week, so I might as well treat myself, and c) if I’m coming all the way to one of these places, I don’t want to stay in some dinky room just near the beach.  I want to stay in one of those huts that is literally over the ocean.

So…my room is AMAZING!  I’m staying in an over-water bungalow.  My bathroom and shower literally open up to the ocean.

I can pee or shower and literally watch the fish swim by under my bungalow.  That side of the building is open to the sea and sky, but with a privacy screen.  It’s beautiful and airy.

I have a back patio with a sunbed and steps that lead directly into the ocean. I had requested a sunset view, and I got one.  It’s spectacular!  This place is crazy beautiful.

 

Even if I never left this room at all, I’d love every second of my week here.  I even had a visit by a stork to my patio last night just after sunset.  Wow, I’m so happy I came here!

Can you blame me?? Look at that view! This is what I woke up to this morning!  After weeks in Kolkata, I hardly know what to do with all this fresh air!

 

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Divine Maldivian R & R

May 24, 2014 @ 14:27

So I’m finding that a week on a restful island paradise is just what I was looking for!  This place fits the bill.  The view out my bungalow is constantly changing and continuously spectacular, rain or shine.  The island is small, and you can walk across it in about 15 minutes.  There are boardwalks constructed between the buildings. There are many trees on the island and also carefully maintained vegetation along the boardwalks.  Some are fascinating plants I’ve never seen before.  Someone also had the brilliant idea of using old daab for flowerpots, but I haven’t seen any to drink here.  I doubt they would be imported, as it would be a bit cost-prohibitive.

There are individual cabins along the shoreline and the ones in a few clusters over the sea, accessible by docks.  There is a stretch of beach, but since I have access to the water from my deck, I haven’t spent much time there.  There’s a library, a regular restaurant, a fancy restaurant (costs extra, probably won’t go!), a spa (where I get a free massage!), a scuba center, volleyball court, gym, bar/hangout area.

The restaurant has a crazy buffet-style selection of tons of different kinds of food – Maldivian, Indian, Italian, Greek, Spanish.  I got to have beef!  More than once! (Haven’t been having much of that lately.) Also, there are desserts and homemade-on-the-island ice cream.  I even tried a fresh passionfruit, which I’d never had before.  The food is all served up by people who also tell you what each dish is.  Usually with a strong accent – there are so many languages spoken here, among both visitors and staff.  A lot of Italian, as that is what the owner of this island is, I believe, but many others.  The staff is mainly Maldivian, Indian, and some Italian, I believe.  So, “Grilled swordfish with asparagus and squash” or whatever fancy dishes they have can come out in many different ways – especially depending on how good   the guy’s English happens to be.  The other day, I was actually offered some “Rice Crappies” for desesert!  Awesome.  How could I resist?

There are yoga, classes, evening games and entertainment, and excursions you can sign up for. Some are trips to nearby islands, or fishing trips, or snorkeling trips.  In fact, I got to borrow a snorkeling set for the week, so that’s been fun.  And today I’m going to check in with the scuba school and find out what the situation’s like there.  I’m already certified, but it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to dive.  Hopefully this week I can change that.  I hear the Maldives has some of the greatest diving anywhere.

One evening, one of the staff members at the bar from Sri Lanka taught me how to play a game they have there.  It’s similar to pool, but it’s played with discs on a smaller table.  You have a main one that you flick at the others, kind of like in marbles, and try to sink the discs in pockets as you do with billiards.  It was pretty cool and I enjoyed playing.

One part of the beach here only appears when the tide goes out.  It’s pretty cool.  I can see it in the distance from my sunbed.  I think they call it Lover’s beach or walk or something.  It is a long strip of sand that appears  at low tide and makes for a lovely walk.  I’ll have to head out there some time.

Aother thing that made my week super-great already is that I found one of my favorite trilogies in the little English section of the library!  (His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman, fyi).  I love reading, and I’ve been getting in some quality reading time here.  I think I’m going to go sit on my sunbed and ready now.  With some coffee that I make here in my own room!  I’m so glad I came to the Maldives.

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Still Scuba After All These Years

May 25, 2014 @ 18:57

I just went scuba diving!  For the first time in 20 years (okay 19, but who’s counting?) and I am so glad!  I have heard wonderful things about the diving in Maldives.  In addition to the fact that there is an abundance of sea life – fish, coral, invertebrates, sharks, turtles, rays, you name it! – there are many islands and reefs and the visibility is usually crystal-clear.  As I was hoping to dive again during my travels, I thought now would be a great time for a couple of reminder dives.  I thought I’d brought my license, but unfortunately, when I got here, all I had was my old dive logs.  The dive instructors thought they could look up my info – until they saw that I had certified sometime Before the Common Era… (probably not gonna be in the database!), but luckily all of my dive logs were signed off and they were able to accept that so I could take the refresher course, rather than an entire new how-to class.

So I started in the morning with my instructor, Yannes, as it turned out to be a 1-on-1 class, reviewing and quizzing and then we did a brief dive from the shore to work on skills.  I’ll admit, I was a little worried about how I’d do, it having been so long.  Would I panic?  Probably.  Could I talk myself down when I did panic?  Now that would be the real question.

Good news…I was able to manage.  It’s true, there are those moments when you look up at the surface, far above your head, and know that you can’t possibly reach it in one breath.  And of course, with the classes fresh in your mind, you are painfully aware of the fact that your lungs couldn’t handle the pressure anyway, and of all of the minutiae that could go wrong.  But luckily, you’re also practicing all the safety moves, such as how to breathe from your buddy’s tank, and to find your respirator if it’s pulled away etc…  Once again, I was able to prove to myself that I am usually able to – mind over matter style – talk myself down from panic’s ledge.  And there is nothing quite so peaceful as floating, relaxed, at the bottom of the ocean, watching a beautiful alien world float by.  Everything you see is a new discovery, it seems.  It’s well worth that momentary “WHAT AM I DOING?!?” that goes through your head.

In the afternoon, we went out a little further, down to about 12 meters depth to the house reef.  I certified originally in San Diego, where the visibility is okay, at best.  Here, it’s okay, at worst.  Here, I saw more in the 45 minute dive we did than I probably did in all 6 of my certification dives in California.  At one point, we were surrounded by an entire school of electric blue-and-black fish.  The coral was incredible, and I saw a starfish bigger than my head.  The whole day was amazing….

So…I signed up for two dives tomorrow morning!  They are boat dives, so the boat will take us out to one of the bigger reefs, a channel between two islands which apparently has sharks and tons more things to see.  Yay!  We’ll see how I do.  And how my ears do.  They still haven’t cleared from the dives today.  Other than that, I feel great!  Totally looking forward to tomorrow!

I also talked to one of the scuba instructor ladies today, because I’d heard that there were places in the Maldives that have bioluminescence.  This is a phenomena that occurs in the oceans in a couple of places in the world when there are certain organisms in the water which react to stimulation by giving off light.  Apparently, it usually happens only at certain times of the year, like during manta breeding season, when that type of algae is present in large abundance in the water.  Doesn’t sound too hopeful.  I’ll check out the beach at night, though.  Just to be sure…

 

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Dive, Dive!

May 27, 2014 @ 2:33

Wow, those boat dives this  morning were phenomenal, to say the least!  I literally saw half of the cast of Finding Nemo down there!  (Sharkbait, wooh ha ha!)  I saw a couple of turtles and a couple of sharks.  Also, the coral was incredible.  I wanted to float down there forever.

We took the boat out in the morning, after gathering our gear.  The tanks had already been put on the boat for us.  There was a bunch of people going out, and we split up into groups.  I was with Yannes and a guy from Italy.  The first dive was at the Gangehi Kandu North reef.  The second was at Mathiveri Beyru.  Between dives, we chilled on the boat and got to drink some tea and eat a few slices of fresh coconut, while we sailed to our next reef.

It’s funny to think how excited I was with the vast amount of things I’d seen yesterday!  Today beat that by a mile.  The turtles were especially cool to watch swim by.  This time, we got to go down to 20 meters (65 feet).  It was beautiful.    The sharks weren’t huge and stayed away, but it was cool to see.

Tonight, I decided to check out that bioluminescence thing – where organisms give off light when they are stimulated.  I went out to the beach after dark.  After watching the stars for a while, my eyes had adjusted to the night light.  I was looking at the waves crash on the beach, and I saw the tiniest little sparks of light in the water as the waves hit the shore.  It almost looked like mini-fireflies in the water.  They would appear and disappear quickly just as the water hit the peak of the shoreline and began to flow back into the sea.  Not really enough to draw one’s attention unless you were looking hard, but fascinating nonetheless.  Like the stars fell into the sea.  This place is spectacular.

 

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 Shark Week

May 28, 2014 @ 20:32

Today I went for another dive.  It was a bit further out, to Angothi Thila, a reef known for having sharks and a lot of marine life, and it’s supposed to be worth it.  It was.  I had decided to rent an underwater camera they have available.  It takes underwater pics and video.  Unfortunately, the video from the dive time was lost, but I was able to keep the camera overnight, so I had it with me this evening while snorkeling, which was fun.

I was teamed up for this dive with one of the instructors named Ivan, and with an Italian guy named Ivan and his niece Valentina.  She had been taking the classes to certify this week, and it turned out she was doing her clinicals and schooling for anesthesia, so we had something to talk about on the boat ride out.

This time, we saw a bunch of sharks, including some very large ones.   Some were small, only a meter or so long,  but a few were  2 or 3 meters long.  A really big one came swimming directly towards me at one point, and only turned away a couple of meters in front of me.  I can assure you, I made no sudden movements as that big guy approached!  At one point, Ivan had my camera, but just missed a pic of me with a big shark directly behind me.  But I have is this one with a shark a bit in the distance.

We saw all sorts of other great things throughout the dive.  Towards the end, we saw a ray, and it came right in amongst us.  The whole experience was great.

Yesterday was my birthday.  When I came back into my room at one point, I found a little chocolate cake waiting for me.  My sister had put a card in my luggage before I left India and I had waited to open it.  The cabin boy had even left that out with the cake, along with candles.  It was really sweet (the gesture and the cake)!

I also enjoyed a walk along that sandbar that only appears at low tide, Lover’s Beach, or Walk.  It was at sunset, and was probably the most magnificent one I saw all week.  As the water began rising again, there was a point when the beach became a little island of its own before disappearing.  It was pretty cool.

 

 

 

 

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Leaving on a boat and a seaplane and another plane or two…

May 29, 2014 @ 17:04

I have to leave the Maldives today.  I am very torn about it.  I had a wonderful time here.  I enjoyed the restful time I had, and loved the scuba diving.  I liked the people I met and the experiences I had while I was here.  I’ll be really sad to leave some of them behind. I’m sure I’ll have a great time in Morocco – in fact, I’ve been looking forward to my travels there for quite some time.  Especially since I’ve timed my trip there with the Gnaouan Music Festival in Essaouira.  Still, the starlight and the storms here on the beach were magical….

From my bungalow all week, I could see one of the world’s smallest airports.  It’s a little dock out in the ocean.  Occasionally, a seaplane would land (or would it be a seaplane would sea?) and pull up to the dock.  A boat would meet the plane and someone would get in or out.  Fascinating.  Now it was my turn.  As I sat on the boat which took me to the dock that was the “airport” where I had my first “transfer” to the seaplane that took me to Male, I  looked back at the island, and was sad to be leaving such an idyllic paradise.   I looked at the clear blue water and wanted to turn right back around for another week!

I’m especially glad I renewed my diving skills, I’ll be looking for chances to put them to use now!  I don’t know if I’ll be back here again.  I’d like to think so, but…  I sure didn’t expect to like it so much here.   It is so beautiful. The pictures I took are instantly postcard perfect, and it was so relaxing and fun.

Goodbye, my holiday in Maldives!  I’ll never forget you.

And so, I head to Morocco, via Qatar…more adventure awaits!  Turns out I’m looking forward to that, too.

 

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