We do realize how silly the title of our post sounds - but let me explain. We are nearing the halfway point of our trip. To date we have done a lot of different things and certainly pushed ourselves outside of our comfort zone on many occasions. That is exactly what we wanted from this trip - to travel to new parts of the world, try new things and meet people from everywhere. It has been wonderful. That said, after 6 weeks, and especially after the emotions of Vietnam, the stress about time in Hong Kong with everything going on, and the wonderful, but very busy Tokyo, we are ready for some R&R.
So, our trip to the Maldives came at the perfect point. This has long been on the bucket list after seeing the pictures. We arrived on Wednesday evening and it has not disappointed. We are here for 6 days and have decided that we are just chilling. We are going for walks, hanging out in the pool, listening to the water, getting a massage, taking naps and spending countless hours just taking in the beauty of nature.
Knowing this was a once in a lifetime we splurged on an over water villa. It will be hard to leave :). Here are some pictures.
We had not expected so much sea life literally right out our door - both in back and front. The first morning we came out before breakfast there was a shark swimming under our deck - we thought maybe a one time occurrence. Until another went past, and another...it is very cool!
They also have built some coral feeding areas next to the walkways from the villas. Every time we walk along we see amazing fish and sometimes a few special species. Yesterday walking to lunch we looked down and spotted an octopus on one of the rocks. As we were watching it, it began to swim off the rock and changed colors as it swam - it was amazing! You need to look on the lower left of the rock - it's hard to see with the strong currents the water is moving everywhere and they are masters at camouflage!
Later we spotted a small squid in front of our villa.
Before dinner last night we were treated to several manta rays.
Although we are basically doing nothing, we are partaking in a few of the activities at the resort. Last night we were cheering on their crab races...
and at dinner we were treated to a shark feeding frenzy off the deck right behind our table. It was a little dark but we tried to get a few pictures. We counted at least nine of them - crazy. They have a feeding a little earlier each night and we're going to try to join to get some better pictures.
Here's a few pictures from around the resort and sharing some of the amazing views.
A few quick facts about the Maldives. It is a small country off the southwest coast of Sri Lanka and India in the Indian Ocean. 26 natural atolls make up the country in a fairly narrow band that covers ~298 square kilometers and crosses the equator. Atolls are defined as land masses coming from coral - which is pretty cool. The entire chain is surrounded by a reef structure and there are amazing lagoons all around. Everyone flies into Male and then depending on the location of your resort you either take a boat, seaplane, small commuter plane or some combination to get to your destination. We were lucky to just have a 30 minute boat ride from the airport - which was great after a long day of traveling. Here's the view we were greeted with when arriving on our atoll.
One cool thing from the Cathay Pacific flights has been a camera placed under the plane where you can see views like the pilots - it was the first time we had experienced this - very cool.
The people here are hardworking and have been incredibly friendly. One standout so far was a server we met at breakfast yesterday - Fettah (pronounced feta). He is from UAE and is just wrapping up a 1 year assignment at the resort. He is leaving tomorrow for a vacation in Morocco before returning home. When he learned we were from Florida his response was 'kill me now' :). He is enthralled by the images he has seen of Miami. We talked for a bit and enjoyed getting to know him. Next thing we knew he was bringing us a special treat to our table - fresh berries with homemade whipped cream layered with vanilla - amazing! We had another plate from his this morning as we said our goodbyes.
Last quick story - for our FL pickleball friends. Sitting in the airport in Hong Kong waiting for our flight - Craig noticed the luggage of the person at the table next to us and we had to take a picture. We had hoped to share pickleball stories - but when he returned to his table we discovered he was from Japan and spoke no English. So we just shared thumbs up for pickleball :). Craig is convinced he is a Japanese pickleball champion traveling for a tournament - could be... We did a quick online search and discovered it is growing in popularity here - especially in Singapore.
That's all for now - back to relaxing, re-energizing and definitely enjoying the ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment