Maldives Day 1 Part 1
We left on Sunday last week and was scheduled to arrive just before midnight at Olhuveli Resort in Maldives after the transfer. But we had to change planes before we departed so we were delayed for an hour. Anyways after we changed aircrafts, we ended up in this plane near a Hello Kitty Plane. Now I’m not a fan of the mouthless feline but I have read about the Eva Air Hello Kitty plane via email. And I heard from Pat that they have a special boarding area in the airport for the flight (and of course there are HK decorations all over in that special boarding area). So when AS and I saw the Hello Kitty plane just a few lanes away from us, it was quite a surprise. Now we know that the Hello Kitty plane touches down in Changi Airport too.
Hehe it’s so amusing really.
Well we were really late arriving at our Maldivian resort so it was already after midnight. It was really dark but we could already see the clear waters surrounding the island. There were also a few stingrays swimming around once we arrived and even though I was so tired, I was quite excited seeing these creatures so close by. Maldives is GMT+5 but our resort actually chose to follow the GMT +4 timing (or was it +6…hmm) My point is, this place is so much like a little world on its own that it even chooses to follow it’s own timing!
I watched Indiana Jones on the flight and only slept a little. By the time we both unpacked our bags, AS had already fallen asleep and I casted on my project for the holiday. I couldn’t really sleep but in less than an hour I was snoozing away.
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Monday Morning, 15 September 2008
We woke up really early. It probably was a combination of jetlag and the beautiful sunlight streaming in from outdoors. Our bed in the Villa is facing full length glass doors and we were surrounded by the sea beyond our deck. The jacuzzi is outside and there was also a table with two chairs for meals, as well as two deck chairs for the sun-worshippers.
We could take a few steps and literally walk into the sea and swim with the fishes if we wanted too.
Well anyways more about the Villa later.
We took the oppotunity to check the events available for the day before going for breakfast. We planned out the stuff we wanted to take part in and signed up for the snorkelling excursion for the day.
Snorkelling is a first for me and I was quite excited. For the first dive, the reef was very shallow. So in order not to hurt the corals, we had to slowly climb off the boat. Initially I wasn’t very comfortable with the snorkelling mask and couldn’t see anything. But once I got the hang of it, I was ecstatic! It’s amazing to see the beautiful corals just below within 2 meters from me. There were some fishes swimming around and it was really beautiful. I think if I went any closer I would hyper ventilate. -_-
But such is the beauty of the works of God.
The second reef we went to was much deeper so we could jump off the boat if we wanted to. Did I do it? Of course! And I am victorious. (what game is this, that yells ‘You are VICTORIOUS’) Hey for someone who doesn’t swim very much, this isn’t too bad. 
And here’s just a pixel of what we saw
When we were off to our third reef, we saw some dolphins (i yelled ‘SHARK!’ at first, doh! -_-) and there was allegedly a sea turtle who was probably a ninja since it disappeared within a nanosecond.
Then our guide informed us that there was a manta ray nearby, so the boat stopped near it and we jumped into the water to catch a glimpse. It was rather far away from me so all I saw was a black shadow. It was really exciting though but we had to get out of the water and make our way to the third reef. We did our dive at the third reef which was also beautiful but upon returning to the boat, the guide spotted the manta rays again.
So of course we all jumped into the water. This time there were about 5 of them and they happened to be just behind me! Everyone was so excited and it was indeed a ’safari’ since we all swam after the manta as fast as we could.
They were really gentle giants of the ocean that when they swim, the waters are actually rather calm. Unlike the prancing dolphins, they were just swooping around us with their mighty ‘wings’. Watching them is like watching time go by in slow motion!
We really enjoyed the Snorkelling Safari and I really appreciated that the guides emphasized time and again about preserving the reefs. Being so close to nature and having the opportunity to experience the beauty of it was awesome. I really want to swim better now so that I can go deeper into the water (provided I don’t get all excited hahaaha) in future. This is definitely something AS and I look forward to doing again in future.
With our guide. He was really fun to chat with and was experienced with the waters.
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