Where: The Maldives
When: May 11 - 22, 2016
With: Dave
When Dave and I were wedding planning, the burning question we received from many people was: where will YOU TWO go on your honeymoon?? After all the traveling we've done, I guess people were curious to see where we'd consider spending such an important trip.
Normally, Dave and I like to take pretty adventurous trips. While I could sit on a beach all day every day for a week, I prefer to move around and see new things. And Dave...well Dave has a one day maximum to sit on a beach. However, after all the stress of wedding planning, we were both willing to concede that if ever there was a time for a "beach vacation", our honeymoon would be it.
That is how we hatched our plan to go to the Maldives. This grouping of islands sit in the Indian Ocean off the southwest tip of India. While its capital city of Male is a giant cluster of stone buildings and a predominantly Muslim culture, the rest of the "country" is made up of 26 atolls which are basically coral reefs that occasionally break the ocean's surface to create beautiful stretches of beach. Within these atolls are 1,200 "islands" of which only 200 are inhabited. These atolls make for some of the best scuba diving in the world, and since Dave loves fish and I love scuba, this sounded like an all around perfect honeymoon destination.
The location of the Maldives makes this a very popular vacation spot for Europe, but is just a touch far from America. Our journey to get there included a red-eye to Paris (where we had a lovely day's layover), a red-eye to Istanbul, and then a long flight from Istanbul to Male. However, the years of airline loyalty paid off gloriously as we booked ourselves business class the whole way. And Turkish Airlines had one heck of a business class.
After flying out Sunday night to begin this journey, leaning out the window on Wednesday morning when we finally had reached the last leg of our trip was quite a beautiful sight. The royal blue of the Indian Ocean stretched out below us, with nothing breaking the view but the atolls and their rings of turquoise.
Now that is a break.
The airport was hysterical and beautiful. It was all completely open and sat right on the water. We enjoyed the view while waiting for our water taxi to take us to our first hotel.
Certainly looks a bit different from the taxi lines in New York.
On board the water taxi for the 45 minute ride to our first hotel. We were greeted here with bottled water and lemongrass scented cold towels. Also, my shoes came off and didn't go back on for a week.
Leaving Male behind.
Our first resort was in the South Male Atoll on the island of Makunufushi. The funny thing about the islands here is that they are so small that usually, one hotel will occupy an entire island. Therefore, the island often takes on the name of the resort, and in this case, the island is nicknamed Cocoa Island as we were staying at the Cocoa Resort.
We got off the boat and immediately felt like we were in paradise. Or a screen saver.
Look at this change in color.
We walked off the long dock onto the island and into a small hut that represented reception. We checked in and then we were taken through the middle of the island to the other side where the rooms were. All in all, it takes 15 minutes to walk the entire perimeter of the island.
The rooms were all over-water huts that sat off a long dock a few hundred yards into the water and followed along the shoreline.
Screensaver.
Some of the huts were in the shape of a dhoni or a traditional fishing boat of the Maldives. We were fortunate enough to end up in one of these beautiful rooms.
The back of the room was all glass looking out onto the water behind us. And outside, there was a deck with a staircase straight into the water. It was absolutely stunning.
Once we got settled into our room, it was time for a champagne toast to truly kick off our honeymoon.
After relaxing ourselves in and by the water for the afternoon, we headed back to the main island for dinner. Not a bad commute for food.
There was one dining room on the island that served all the meals. It was completely open, no shoes required, had an epic view of the sunset, and was right next to the pool (which was beautiful, but we never used it when we had the whole ocean on our back porch).
The wait staff was incredibly friendly, and the food was fantastic. Some nights, there was a theme for dinner, like traditional Maldivian or a Seafood BBQ. Every meal was delicious.
Most nights, we would show up to watch the sunset and enjoy some sundowners before heading to dinner.
And most evenings, we closed out with a glass of wine and a couple games of backgammon.
The commute home.
A couple of days, we opted to order room service and eat lunch/dinner on our balcony, which was super lovely.
Our only real activity while here on Cocoa was scuba diving. And surprisingly, we were the only people that were on the island that were certified. So we spent a couple days going out with a basically private guide to the various reefs off the atoll. It was absolutely beautiful.
Our scuba guide, Pablo.
However, not all sealife needed to be viewed with a scuba tank. The waters right around our bungalow were teeming with sealife.
The most popular thing we saw were little black tip reef sharks that would swim in the shallow surf. They were totally safe and super small and totally scared of us!
Even from a distance, we could see those black tips sticking out of the water.
As Dave loves sharks, he was quite happy with these little guys all around. He just wants a hug!
Another popular guy to see around the rooms were the rays. They would burrow themselves into the sand, and as a result, were pretty easy to find since the water was so clear.
We're also pretty sure they could see us too because they would try to get as far away from us as possible, even when we were up on the dock.
There was also a little coral nursery just off the edge of the island. No actual wildlife here, but just as important to the ecosystem.
Another favorite activity of our time on Cocoa was walking the perimeter of the island, which wasn't much activity - it took all of fifteen minutes to do!
At the far end of the island was a little peninsula that jutted out into the water. At high tide, it would disappear, but at low tide, it would be a beautiful little bridge into the middle of the ocean.
The peninsula at sunrise.
Even on days where the weather wasn't pristine, the island was still beautiful. Since there was nothing obstructing our view, it was just clouds rolling in as far as the eye could see.
Halfway through our time here, we had one of the only snafus of our trip: a giant family of very touristy tourists moved into the bungalow beside us. There were at least three kids and five adults (not sure how they all fit!) and they came in like a tornado. They were swimming around loudly shouting back and forth to each other, and at one point, one of the men took a rest from his swim on the stairs of our deck! We tried to ignore it, chalking it up to the excitement of just arriving, but we drew the line when a drone came flying over our heads and buzzed around us for nearly 30 minutes. Dave went to the front desk and kindly explained that we needed to move and they very thankfully obliged. While we sadly had to leave our beautiful dhoni, we got an even bigger room with a bigger deck. So it all worked out in the end.
The new digs. Not looking much different from the old digs.
Dave, taking a snorkel off the deck.
A couple of happy honeymooners.
On our last day on Cocoa, trying to take a few more snapshots to remember this island by. Sad to leave, but excited for the next location!
To get to our next island, we actually had to return to the airport island. From there, we would not take a boat, but a seaplane. It would be my first time on one of these and I was nervous and excited.
I was surprised that the seaplanes in the Maldives operate in almost the exact same way as a normal airline, with luggage weighed and a proper check-in. The main difference (other than the water part) was that the individual resorts have lounges that you can wait in, giving guests a taste of what's to come before they even arrive.
However, unlike a normal flying experience, these guys act like buses in the air: they make multiple stops per trip, and for a few lucky passengers, as we were, we got to go up and down several times before our stop.
Oh boy. We're sitting next to the luggage.
As you can see, there's only about 15 passengers per plane, plus two captains and two crew members. It was tiny! The propellors are so loud from the inside that everyone got a pair of earplugs to block out the noise.
Taking off, right from the water!
The views just couldn't be beat, and it was a surprisingly smooth. So we pretty quickly settled in to enjoy the ride.
Male from above.
As the plane emptied out, we moved up in our seats closer to the cockpit, which had no door. We had a nice shot of the captain and co-captain not wearing any shoes as they flew. But, we also got to see our next resort out the front of the plane which was pretty cool.
Landed and made it!
I loved seeing this on the dock that floated next to our plane as we got off.
Our next resort, as evidenced by the "international airport" sign, was called Mirihi. Mirihi is located in the South Ari Atoll, which is a bit further away, hence the seaplane. The island is one of the smallest inhabited islands in the Maldives at 350m by 50m (basically 3 1/2 football fields by 1/2 a football field). Mirihi means "unique" and their catch phrase is "Mirihi, as unique as you" which they sign every email with.
The island from the "arrivals" gate.
The walk onto Mirihi, where we were greeted by the super friendly staff.
While Cocoa did not require shoes anywhere on the island, Mirihi actually encourages a shoeless environment. Even the staff is barefoot, and as such, all of the restaurants, bars, even check-in, had sandy floors.
The restaurant.
The walk to our room through the island was like a deserted jungle island, through foliage and following a small sandy pathway. We made a quick stop to pick up flippers and masks for snorkeling and we were on our way.
After the jungle cleared, we saw the walkway to our bungalow.
All around the bungalows was an amazing reef for snorkeling, another reason we picked this resort.
The view back to the island.
Our bungalow, complete with umbrellas and a bucket of fresh water to wash sand off our feet before entering.
They had quite the lovely greeting for us upon our arrival: flowers, strawberries, champagne and chocolate. I think I'm gonna like it here.
The bungalows were set up totally different than Cocoa, as they sat in a semicircle rather than a straight line. Our room effectively encircled our patio, which gave us more privacy and had a gorgeous aesthetic.
This is where I'll be sitting for the next few days.
Enjoying our first sunset on our patio.
We spent a lot of time on this back patio. We decided to keep the activities to a bare minimum here and just enjoy this gorgeous view.
Even when it was raining, the patio was shaped in such a way that we could sit outside under cover and enjoy the rain. It was gorgeous.
This guy did a lot of snorkeling off the back patio. He ran into all kinds of wildlife, including a nose to nose encounter with a shark. While it was really cool to have all those reefs right around our hut, we had to mind the tides because it was easy to get stuck between the coral if the tide got too low.
Evening views from our patio.
Upon exploring the island itself, I noticed that it was covered in hammocks. I mean, what is more peaceful than this?
It didn't take long to explore the island, but everywhere we turned, it was another screensaver.
Egret.
Post rain evening on Mirihi.
While the meals were all included with our stay, there was a separate restaurant that hosted special events every evening that we could sign up for. The floor of the restaurant was completely hollow in the middle, with giant spotlights shining below to highlight the vibrant sealife underneath.
Enjoying the champagne and lobster dinner, as well as Dave's vacation beard.
The outside of the restaurant had a gorgeous wrap around porch with seats and a perfect view of the sunset. It also gave some beautiful views back on the island itself.
The pure definition of sundowners.
Just a few of our sunsets.
There were also a ton of fish around the outside of this restaurant, though mostly rays. And more often than not, they were mating, which was not something I was expecting. I guess the romance of this place crosses species lines.
Every morning at breakfast, a beautiful view and a Maldivian "word of the day".
One of our two big excursions that could tear us away from our beautiful patio was to go whale shark diving on a dhoni. The hardest part about an excursion like this is just trying to find the whale sharks, so best enjoy the boat ride just in case.
Passing by other islands and resorts as we go.
So cool to see the gradient in the water colors even from this angle.
We totally did get to see a whale shark, but it was mayhem when it was spotted. There were several other boats in the area, and when the whale shark was seen, everyone went leaping into the water, despite their swimming skill levels. Let's just say there were a lot of bad swimmers aimlessly kicking around and not moving. Thankfully, years of growing up in the ocean let me jet ahead of most of them and have my own peaceful time following the big guy, the largest fish in the ocean!
We also had this really cool experience where a woman from Kuwait who was on our excursion had an underwater camera. She happened to catch me on film with my one-on-one time with the whale shark and insisted I needed a copy of the video. When we got back to the resort, she went off and purchased a USB stick (not cheap at a resort like this!) so that I could have the footage. She tracked me down at dinner to hand it over. It was so sweet!
Some other fun shots of the trip.
Our final night, we booked ourselves a private dinner on the beach that was cooked tableside. Here was the setup.
Not a bad way to spend our last night.
Everyone was happy to take a photo for us.
It was so much food but it was so delicious and all fresh. The funny thing that happened at this dinner was that we had made friends with the sommelier on the island (he recognized that we were the drinkers REAL fast). Except we don't really love white wine, but he thought that meant that we just hadn't tried white wine. So he used this meal as his mission to get us to "try white wine and love it". Poor Kristoff, he was so eager that we didn't have the heart to clarify. We just said yes yes, this was delicious, and he was quite pleased with himself as though he'd rocked our world.
Our last morning was our final big excursion on Mirihi: a fishing trip. We had to be up super early in order to get out in time. So after watching the sun go down the night before, now we got to see it rise again.
Setting up the rods.
Excellent view.
Ready to catch his lunch.
Second try.
Success!
My turn!
Beginners luck!
Mirihi from afar.
The best part about our early morning fishing was that the kitchen took our fresh caught fish and made us lunch. With my tuna, they made the best fresh sashimi I have ever had. With Dave's fish, a local Maldivian fish, they made us a salad. It was all unbelievable.
And with that, it was time for us to board the seaplane again and make our way back to Male for our long flights home. While we were ready to go after two weeks away, it was bittersweet to say goodbye to the Maldives and the whole wedding experience. The Maldives were such a unique place and made the perfect location for our honeymoon. If it was easier to get to, I think we'd be finding excuses to go back.
No comments:
Post a Comment