Maldives Please

Ten years ago, Meadows and I retroactively concocted a date that we started dating so that we could have an anniversary to celebrate. Our noncommittal dating strategy freshman year made it difficult to pinpoint the exact moment we became official, but March 23^rd was the chosen day! Admittedly, it didn’t have much meaning until three years ago when Meadows proposed on that day in Naples. The combination of our made up dating anniversary and our engagementversary makes March 23^rd a special day! We typically spend this weekend back in Naples; so when we saw that we had Good Friday off and it falls on our engagementversary weekend, we accepted it as a sign. We booked a trip to Maldives!

When we arrived at the airport on Thursday evening, we were notified that we’d been upgraded to business class on our Emirates flight. We don’t know why or how, but we did not protest! We sipped champs and chilled as we made our way to paradise.

We landed in Malé, one of the world’s smallest capital cities and also one of the world’s most densely populated cities, and took a boat transfer to our resort: Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort. We got quite the welcome upon our arrival. Apparently, when the concierge emailed Meadows to get the final details of our stay, she asked if we were celebrating any special occasion. Naturally, Meadows felt obligated to inform the hotel of our 10-year anniversary of exclusivity. We arrived at our water bungalow and realized they took the word “anniversary” a bit more seriously than we expected… Flowers, chocolates, champagne, chocolate dessert and more!

 

On Friday morning, we explored the island a bit after breakfast and signed up for a snorkel safari. We swam at our bungalow until it was time for our adventure.

 

It’s hard to explain or even capture just how perfectly clear the water is!

 

The snorkel safari was two stops: the first location featured sea turtles, and the second destination was home to stingrays. We went out on this unique boat called a dhoni, which is a traditional Maldivian fishing boat. It can be easily identified by the arm that reaches up at the front of the boat.

The first stop felt a bit like the Yala safari search for the leopard. We swam aimlessly looking at fish until we finally caught the trail of the sea turtles. Once we found them, we got to see five different turtles! All of the turtles we saw here were hawksbill turtles, which are critically endangered. They are my favorite turtle species, as their shells are the most beautiful! Sadly, their perfect shells are the source of their endangered status; they are the primary source for illegal tortoiseshell pieces. As usual, Meadows dove down to get as close to the fish and turtles as possible.

 

At the second stop, we knew we would see stingrays; I did not expect to see so many different creatures interacting though! They swam all around us – all of a sudden, I would turn around and be face-to-face with a stingray and multiple schools of fish. My favorite animal we spotted was the spotted moray eel. It looked like an eel took on cheetah spots! The snorkel safari was a total success.  [Video credit: Meadows + GoPro]

Before sunset, we went to the resort beach for the nightly shark feeding. Supposedly, the baby shark swim up to the shore where the hotel staff toss out fish to them. No sharks showed up! I was simultaneously disappointed and comforted by the lack of sharks. Instead of playing with sharks, we soaked up the sunset and headed for a seafood dinner on the beach.

On Saturday morning, we walked the entire island after breakfast. The resort has some beautifully serene areas scattered around the island. And the banyan trees are insanely huge! We’ve seen some big ones in Naples, but the ones in Maldives and Sri Lanka are much older, bigger and full of character.

 

We spent the entire day swimming and snorkeling at our water bungalow. I was skeptical that we’d see anything interesting, especially by comparison to the snorkel safari; but we saw tons of fish! Just as I was growing tired of snorkeling, Meadows adamantly kept exploring with his GoPro. We were about 20 feet (5 meters) apart from each other when I SAW IT! A shark. A 4-foot-long black tipped reef shark was just a few feet from me. I panicked and screamed for Meadows. The shark swam off before he could get to me and see it. I could tell he didn’t believe me, and I’m not sure I would’ve believed my story either! I insisted we go back to the bungalow, but on the way back… the shark returned. Even Meadows (whom I would’ve expected to whip out his GoPro and start documenting) began to panic. This shark was too large and too close for us to stick around – and the fact that he came back to find us was pretty scary. We stayed close to the bungalow after that!

 

 

In the early evening, we went on a dolphin cruise. Again, we went out on the dhoni; but this time, we sat at the very front of the boat so we could have the best view of the dolphins. We were not alone during or search for the dolphins. A couple of other boats circled the area with us, and all of us moved in the same direction when we caught sight of them! They were so beautiful – traveling in packs and seemingly showing off for us. On the way back in, we saw a sailfish jumping out of the water!

We docked right as the sun was setting, so we rushed to snap some photos of a glorious sunset. I have to give credit to a very patient Meadows for putting up with this amateur photographer 🙂

 

Saturday night, we indulged in some of the best Thai food I’ve ever had. We opted for an evening flight on Sunday so we could soak up another day in Maldives. We hit the beach (smokeshow alert!) and swam in the clear blue water at our bungalow one last time before flying back to Sri Lanka.

 

Farewell, Maldives! We hope to see you again someday!