To celebrate the Christmas season, we went on one of our favorite vacations ever! From beautiful beaches to amazing buffets to majestic coral reefs, the Maldives had it all!(and ruined beaches for all of us for the rest of our lives)
Getting there was quite the adventure as it definitely is one of the more remote tourist destinations. Our flight from Singapore took us to the capital Male late on Friday night. We took a boat to the hotel we stayed in our 1st night. When we woke up we caught a boat, then a bus, then a sea plane- and then another boat to our resort, the Antara! Views from the sea place were awesome, as the coral atolls looked like peacock. feathers.
Scuba diving was awesome! Jay and Bee did it on Tuseday, December 17th. It was amazing and super cool! We started by going through some basic safety things, our instructor quizzed us and then we got into the water! One thing I noticed was how heavy the equipment was! Then our instructor showed us how to get rid of any water that was in our mouthpeice and how to recover it if we dropped it. We got down to about 13 1/2 feet at our deepest point and were in there for about 20-25 minutes!
The restaurants at the resort were top-notch! Breakfast and dinner were included so normally we only had those 2 meals. There were 5 restaurants: sky bar(a bar with the largest telescope in the Indian Ocean), Sea (a gourmet meal in an underwater viewing area- Jay and Bee got to see it as a special activity with kids club) Fire ( a Teppanyaki place where they cook right in front of you!), Spice(a place where they had every type of asian cuisine ever)and our favorite – Plates( a massive buffet with very time of food imaginable).
The pools at the resort were awesome, as were the extra activities which included biking all around the dirt trails, giant chess, ping pong, fusball, a great kids club, beach volleyball, badminton, tennis and a fantastic water obstacle course! They even had this great swimming bed right over the pool! And fantastic wooden boards and huts with thatched roofs! Views around the island at night time were also spectacular- a few flickering lights in the vast ocean!
On our 1st night in the Maldives we went out on what wound up being a private sunset cruise…the sun didn’t cooperate, but we have a perfect smooth ocean and a beautiful sailboat- one that was taking its first voyage after a 6 month restoration. They served us gourmet snacks and champagne….and then the highlight- the captain found us 2 big pods of dolphins- probably over 20!
Dad’s highlight was the snorkeling- and he got in 8 snorkeling sessions in the 5 days. Right from the house reef, you could swim out and see a 40 m wall- with so many tropical fish- of every color and shape! And the water was so clear you could see 20 feet down! Huge schools of black and white damsel fish, moorish idols, giant parrot fish, pufferfish, lionfish, pencil fish sergeant majors, silverspot sqirrels , sting rays, moray eels and Picasso trigger fish – just to name a few that we identified. (Dad also used names such as camouflage fish, blue spot black fish, yellow fish with purple stripes, and funny nose fish- all very technical names of course). We took a boat trip out to a reef of another island for some more awesome snorkeling and fish (including two lion ish). Then we took a special turtle expedition and spotted 5 Hawksbill turtles. Jay and Bee did a great job surviving the very choppy waves on both trips. Then Jay and Dad even tried a night snorkel- where we used super water proof flashlights to spot the fish coming out from under the rocks! Jay captured some great images with his go-pro! Even saw huge schools of silver fish, baby sharks and a sting ray right from the boardwalk to our house!
A sting ray right from the walkway to our house- 
Wasn’t a ton a non marine wildlife- but did spot a few cool birds- one which guarded over the beach each morning, some lizards and a few sand crabs!
So another huge highlight was our over the water quarters- a huge room with a dock where you could jump right into the clear waters right from your deck. We had our own pool, hammocks right over the ocean and even an outdoor shower! At night you heard the tide crashing into the side of the cabin!
And last but certainly not least- you have to mention the beach- a ring of perfect white sand stretching 360 degrees around the island. The water was so clear that you could see every shade of blue as the depth increased. Spent a lot of time on the beach, relaxing ,playing in the water and trying to capture the moment!
What a trip!
