Four Nights In Paradise (And An Average One In The City)
2024 was a busy year for us, we rarely spent more than three or four weeks at a time at home, there were quite a few short trips I didn’t write about, and I’m still catching up on reliving some of the big ones. In fact, a week before this holiday we were away in Phuket, but that was an end of year trip with Anna’s colleagues so almost every time we were overseas it involved her work to some extent. Except for this time. She knew it was going to be a crazy year so Anna had booked 12 months in advance this opportunity for the two of us to get away from it all in one of the most beautiful places in the world, the Maldives (plus there was a special deal for doing so that early in advance). However, it wasn’t just for the breathtaking scenery, the natural relaxing atmosphere, or activities like snorkelling in the coral reefs that appealed to us, but also the fact that if the sea level keeps rising at the current rate, the entire country could be uninhabitable in 70 years so we had better visit while we can.
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
We caught a relatively late four-hour flight that evening to the capital, Malé, but this is a Muslim country, thus not a whole lot of nightlife in the city so after catching a taxi to our hotel we checked in and went to bed, but there would be plenty of time to let our hair down over the coming days in the Maldives:
The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is a country and archipelagic state in South Asia in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about 750 kilometres (470 miles; 400 nautical miles) from the Asian continent’s mainland. The Maldives’ chain of 26 atolls stretches across the equator from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to Addu Atoll in the south.
The Maldives is the smallest country in Asia. Including the sea, the territory spans roughly 90,000 square kilometres (35,000 sq mi), with a land area of 298 square kilometres (115 sq mi). The Maldives is one of the world’s most geographically dispersed sovereign states. With a population of 515,132 in the 2022 census, it is the second least populous country in Asia and the ninth-smallest country by area, but also one of the most densely populated countries. The Maldives has an average ground-level elevation of 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) above sea level, and a highest natural point of only 2.4 metres (7 ft 10 in), making it the world’s lowest-lying country. Some sources state the highest point, Mount Villingili, as 5.1 metres or 17 feet.
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
The air-conditioner in our hotel didn’t really do a whole lot, plus I have trouble sleeping anyway so it took me quite a while to drift off and it seemed that almost immediately after I had that the dawn call to prayer from the mosque a couple of blocks away started blaring out, startling me awake and taking another hour or so to fall back to sleep.
We checked out at midday and would be taking a 30-minute speedboat ride to the child-free Anantara Resort on the Baa Atoll, but ours wouldn’t be departing from a dock at the airport until 2:30pm so we had a bit of time to kill before we needed to be in the taxi. This meant roaming the streets of Malé to find coffee and although that was easy to achieve, we were glad we were going to an island and not just staying in the city.
Once caffeinated we jumped in a taxi for the short drive back to the airport where we would be boarding our boat. It’s not something people tend to say about an airport, but even the view from there was stunning, just boats bobbing up and down in the crystal clear waters with the city in one direction and islands in the other in the distance.
Our tiny, warm hotel room, walking around the city, and the view from the airport before catching our boat:
We boarded our boat and half an hour later we were docked at our island, greeted with a fresh coconut upon arrival and a garland to wear. We’ve been to some nice places over the years, but immediately when we had arrived we knew absolutely everywhere was going to pale in comparison to this! We were whisked away in a golf cart by our personal helper, Ibrahim, and taken to our villa sitting over the water. This place was incredible, even our toilet had a perfect, relatively unobstructed view of the Indian Ocean and once outside on the deck we could climb down a short ladder and be right in the shallow waters where we could even walk over to some small reefs. If there was a downside to all of this, however, is that the coral has been bleached to the point that there is next to no colour at all, just the occasional blot here and there, but that wouldn’t dampen our stay.
Our arrival and a look around our villa:
We sat on the deck with our complimentary champagne, watching all of the brightly coloured fish swimming around, but the tide was out so there would probably be more to see when it’s earlier in the day or possibly later at night.
It was too late to book any of the activities that day at the resort so we sorted something out for the next morning and were left with no other option but to make our way to the bar and poolside area, accidentally taking the most roundabout route and getting lost a couple of times along the way. Fortunately for us it wasn’t very crowded there and we were able to pull up a cabana in a shady spot outside and kick back with a couple of drinks while a giant bird took a seat on the corner of the pool. Anna is terrified of birds, however, that wouldn’t deter her from taking a dip while I sat poolside with a beer or two until it was time for dinner.
There were several different restaurants on our island, plus there were boats departing every five minutes to other resort islands, but we figured there would be no shortage of fresh fish in the area so the Japanese restaurant nearby was the perfect choice. Once dinner was done it was back to the bar, but we couldn’t have a big night, because we had plans the following morning so we went back and had a couple more on our deck, watching the fish swimming around before hitting the sack.
Wrapping up the first day at our resort:
Thursday, December 12, 2024
We were up rather early by our holiday standards, but we had a reason that day; snorkelling with nurse sharks and rays. We had brought our own snorkelling gear with us so I knew I had a mask big enough to accommodate my face and before long we were on the boat with quite a few others including an Eastern European couple, the husband looking like he could be in the Russian Mafia, his blonde trophy wife we dubbed ‘Natasha’ who had so much plastic and silicon in her that she probably wouldn’t require a flotation device, and their son who was probably around 12-years old. I’m generally quite polite so I let the others on the boat jump in the water, but when it came to the Russian family the boy was supposed to be first in, but as soon as he was on the edge of the boat he got stage fright and no amount of coaxing from his parents or the boat crew was going to get him to jump any time soon. After a while the crew insisted that he step aside and let me take the plunge and the others eventually made it in too.
Once we were in the water we were not only amazed by the sheer amount of fish that were surrounding us, but also the number of rays and how close they came up to us, as is evident in the video (below), one of them almost kissing Anna, but the real fun came a little later. We had already seen a few smaller sharks swimming around, but when we were called over closer to the boat we were almost immediately surrounded by far larger nurse sharks that seemingly came out of nowhere and it was every shark for itself. These particular sharks are sedentary by nature, but that doesn’t mean they won’t bite, especially while feeding so obviously we couldn’t get too close, but it was still incredible to be in the water with them.
After the feeding had stopped and the sharks had dispersed we were led by a rope back to the boat and it was almost destiny that I got tangled in it, but I was eventually back on board and we returned to the island.
Jump in the water with us through these photos of the sharks, plus a compilation of the best footage we caught of both these guys and the rays getting up close and personal:
Once we were back on dry land we walked down the beach to our villa and figured we were already wet so we might as well climb down the ladder and take a look around the waters that surrounded us. Sure, the tide was out once more, but we had learnt from the previous day that that doesn’t mean a thing when it comes to spotting things in the water here. Anna donned her reef shoes and went out, coming back to tell me that she had already seen some really brightly coloured fish so I put mine on and walked out a little as well. Almost immediately Anna started screaming at me that there was a shark right next to me! Most people’s first response would be to get out, but not this woman, she told me to get closer to it so she could get a photo, however, that’s definitely not something you would suggest where I come from. Anna wasn’t quick enough to snap a picture of the shark next to me, although she did manage to capture one of it swimming off, but to be fair it was the least impressive shark we had seen that day and it wasn’t even noon yet. We both walked out further into the knee-deep water and over the sharp, bleached coral, spotting some small fish and countless large sea cucumbers laying on the ocean floor, but as we approached a few deeper areas we also found more interesting larger fish. We walked around the entire area directly behind our villa before having a shower overlooking the waters where we had just been.
We returned to the poolside area to kickback in the same spot before dinner at another one of our island’s restaurants and then spent the rest of the night in the bar, playing pool with their slightly dated equipment including a blue striped ball that was so worn it was tricky to differentiate from the white ball, a problem that only got more difficult the longer we stayed. When 11:00pm came and it was closing time, we took some more drinks back to our villa and had them on the deck while chatting with some music playing in the background.
More shots from our first full day in the Maldives (by the way, we didn’t set up the pool table like that, that’s how the previous plastered players left it):
Friday, December 13, 2024
We had enquired the previous day about a trip that would take us out to an old shipwreck to go snorkelling with dolphins during the day, something that would’ve amazing, but after a few hours of monitoring the area the organisers concluded that there weren’t any dolphins around that day so the trip had been cancelled. Typical Friday 13th. This meant the day was completely free for us so we had some breakfast, went for a swim again, and then in usual holiday form Anna went for a massage while I just kicked back listening to music once more on the deck.
That evening their was a sunset party on another nearby island so we caught a boat over and immediately remembered why we chose a child-free resort as kids ran around the pool screaming while everyone else just tried to relax and enjoy themselves with an open bar. We got talking to a couple who were on their honeymoon, the man had been to the Maldives before, but his wife hadn’t so we were asking them for suggestions for activities. He recommended things like kayaking and kite surfing, but both of those options were either rather taxing or extremely expensive so we decided to stick with original plans for the following day. It also happened that this couple would be spending a week in Singapore on their way home so we gave them some tips for things to do and places to visit there too.
When the party was winding down due to the kids needing to go to bed it meant that it was probably time for us to grab some dinner, on this occasion on an island with a completely different selection of dining options so we opted for a steak restaurant. We took a seat and not only was the full moon with Mars and some stars out, but so was ‘Nicky’, another giant bird that this time always hangs around this particular restaurant and had been named by the staff. This guy was completely unafraid, just walking about and approaching our table as we ate our huge steak and a lobster which came complete with a full set of five steak knives each, Nicky even standing right next to us and looking over the table to eye off our food. Some of the staff came out to shoo Nicky away, only for him to return so after dinner we snapped a few photos with him. Even Anna quickly warmed to this bird.
We caught the boat back to our own island and spent the rest of the night in the same way as we had spent the others, back at the bar, first chatting to an older British couple for a while until they went back to their room. This was followed up by some more of what Anna and myself refer to as “fengshui pool”, not really potting anything, more just creating an arrangement of colours around the table due to how terrible we both are, me constantly bruising my thigh on a pointy part of the table that jutted out every time I walked past it. When the bar closed we once again took drinks back to our villa and sat on the deck listening to music again, this time beginning with Mickey by Toni Basil in honour of our dinner companion, Nicky, because it just seemed to make sense at the time.
The sunset party, the sky, and dinner with Nicky before walking back to the villa:
Saturday, December 14, 2024
Our holiday in the Maldives was winding down so we had to go out with a bang on our final day at the resort. As I mentioned we had brought our own snorkelling gear with us so it only made sense that we make the most of our location and do a bit more. One of the prime snorkelling spots was on another nearby island so we boarded a boat and powered on over. There was a walled off pool there, but once around those walls it was a lot deeper than near our villa so we got in and almost immediately were surrounded by a range of different sea creatures. First we snorkelled near the side of the pool before going around to the front where there was plenty more to see, but there was one problem; the waves were quite strong and the tide was coming in so because I can’t really swim, when Anna went out further and I tried to follow, each time a wave came I got wash into the rocks with a fair bit of force so I was left with no option but to paddle around to the side where it was less rough and wait. When Anna came back she went up and grabbed her phone to snap a couple of quick underwater photos, but there was another issue; I don’t know how she did it, but instead of taking proper photos of the fish and sharks, she some how screen-shotted every thing.
There is a new feature on iPhones that allows you to edit out stuff in the background of photos so here are some that she got, however, all of them with a line or two near the fish that I couldn’t remove. Ive also added an unedited picture to show what I was trying to fix:
We caught our boat back to our island, had a shower and then relaxed as we waited for the next activity on the agenda — We hadn’t had been able to go snorkelling with dolphins the previous day, but there was nothing stopping us from wrapping up this incredible holiday by taking a cruise to go dolphin spotting followed by champagne at sunset on the boat.
When we boarded it was just us and another couple from India and when the crew aboard the boat handed us life jackets they told us they couldn’t guarantee we would actually see any dolphins. We went out into the ocean, passing kite surfers and jet skiers the entire time and it didn’t take all that long before I thought I had spotted one leap out of the water, only to be told that it was in fact a large tuna. The crew started playing some traditional Indian music, claiming that the dolphins are attracted to the beat and the rhythm and about 45 minutes after the journey began we spotted three swimming beside our boat. Anna was ecstatic having finally witnessed one of the main animals she had come to see, but that was only the tip of the iceberg, because the further out we went on the cruise, the more we saw, there were dozens of dolphins and they weren’t just swimming beside the boat anymore, they were leaping out of the water in groups and spinning in the air before splashing back down. It continued in every direction and there were so many we even managed to film some doing so.
Dusk was upon us so the boat started to cruise back to our resort and the four of us made our way onto the roof for a few glasses of champagne and, much like how the couple we got chatting to at the previous night’s party were on their honeymoon, these two had just got engaged the night before so there was definitely a reason to party up there.
Once we had docked we had a couple more drinks before dinner and returned again after eating, wrapping up our final night in the Maldives by chatting with the British couple once again, some more terrible games of pool, and taking more drinks back to the villa to spend one last night chilling on the deck.
On the boat, the beach, and the deck one last time. Oh, and a video of the dolphins swimming, jumping, and spinning!:
Our flight back to Singapore was in the early afternoon so we checked out, took the 30-minute speedboat ride back to the airport and reluctantly boarded our flight back to reality in Singapore.
The Maldives was the perfect way for us to wind down after what could only be described as an eventful year and a particularly stressful one for Anna. We had always wanted to visit this place and I’m glad we did before the opportunity is gone forever.
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