Jan 10, 2012 - Our penultimate night! :( But possibly the best night ever!

In the evening we had possibly the best night ever! We were taken by boat to an island about 30mins away. The island is completely uninhabited save 3 people who stay there to look after it, but who we didn't see at all. We had our own private chef and a waiter who, on arrival to the island, set up a BBQ on which to cook our food. We went for a walk all the way around the island, and when we got back to where we'd started, our waiter had set up a table and chairs, and surrounded it with lanterns. By this time the sun was just about setting,...

Jan 7, 2012 - Arriving in the Maldives and first few days

So - the last leg of our journey!! Boo Hiss. We flex from Phuket to Singapore and then had a few hours in the airport (which is very nice indeed - lots of space and shops and restaurants.) Lizi had a Starbucks. Richard had a Burger King. What a crazy life we lead. Then we flew to Male on a fairly empty flight and were very well looked after by the lovely staff of Singapore Airlines. One highlight - a whole magnum ice cream for dessert!! When we got to Male it was already late (around midnight) and we knew we had to find out what time our...

Dec 1, 2011 - Final Maldivian boat ride

Another clear, warm amazing day in Maldives. This am we're leaving quite early as we have a couple stops to make before heading back to Male'. This time we are looking for Manta Rays. A Manta Ray is a giant cousin of a Sting Ray. They only eat fish and will not harm humans. My kinda fish. We head out after breakfast and go about an hour and a half. The captain spots something in the water. We stop and toss the anchor overboard. We quickly prep for our snorkel, jump into the water directly and begin to swim.   We can see a few large Mantas...

Nov 30, 2011 - BOat Building and an amazing sunset

Another beautiful day in Maldives. We were all laughing as all of us blog about out trip and decided that The Maldives portion is boring. It consists of weather, snorkeling, fish, and eating. Because pretty much that is all we do! We stopped at a couple places today to snorkel. On our way to the first we began to see other boats. This was a first as we havent seen any other boats since we left Male' on Saturday.  The first place we stopped to snorkel  had a really big drop off  from the reef. this basically means to the left of me bright...

Nov 29, 2011 - An island in the middle of nowhere. 400 residents

A beautiful day in Maldives.  We woke up to a rainbow over our special island.  Seems the captain was a busy guy this morning as he went fishing and caught 2 blue fin trevally,  2 blue fin tuna and 2 barracuda with teeth as large as a small shark.  A Quick breakfast of fruit and toast and we are off  to a day on dhiggaru island. I napped next to the fish on the way. We changed and jumped in the dingy to have a morning snorkel. Wow. It was truly an underwater city for fish. Schools and schools of beautiful fish. We saw a sea turtle dart down...

Nov 28, 2011 - BBQ on the beach, or not

7:30 breakfast and a beautiful sun. Looks like today is going to be an amazing day. Captain says "no bad waves today". The entire boat is overjoyed. We set off on our journey  and cross some major deep water. I'm pretty surprised we havent see dolphins yet. We motor for about 3 hours to our spot where we are going to remain for the day and night. It is right next to a deserted island. Many of the 300 islands are deserted here. We all get into the dingy, and drop off the sides to go snorkeling. The reef is shallow and deep. The coral is as...

Nov 27, 2011 - Rough Seas ahead. And I'm a boater!

Captain says weather is getting bad. We are going to stay put until the afternoon. Ok, now Captain says we leave. Now the fun begins. We head out into the deep ocean where the waves began as 2' rollers and ended at 8'. We are up and down, getting thrown side to side. I've spent tons on time on boats in the Bahamas but I must say this was rough. V was throwing up. The rest of us were stiff like soldiers. No one was talking. No one was moving. Jillian was crying for fear.  It was a rough had ride. Stresses you to full limit. The ocean is...

Nov 26, 2011 - An Oasis of islands in the Indian Ocean

We go back to the airport and meet the group. "V" (70 years traveling by herself)  from switzerland (cannot pronounce so I named her her first initial) steve and Jillian(newlywed)  from the UK. Robert and Michelle from Australia, Ann from Dubai and the staff: a tour guide a chef a captain and 2 deck boys. All Maldivian. We board our 70' house boat. Julie and I were lucky to have selected the room with a private bathroom. Yeah. And bunkbeds. I select the top. We head out about 2 hours and dock the boat. All go snorkeling but me and Julie as...

Nov 21, 2010 - Departure - on to Doha & Dubai

Slept better than I expected for being anchored just off the runway, but was wide awake at 5am, so I went out on deck to read and hopefully catch the sunrise. Unfortunately rain was rolling in, so there was no sunrise to see this morning. The crew was up early as always, and had my breakfast set up in the galley to avoid the rain. Everyone was up and about by the time they put me in the dinghy for the ride across to the airport. -------------- Go back to the Oman & UAE journal for the remainder of the trip.

Nov 20, 2010 - Day 7 on the Dhoni

Slept really well. It's amazing the difference it makes to sleep well, because when I slept in the cabin, I ended up napping in between every meal and swim stop. The days after sleeping on the deck, I hardly nap at all. So I'll be sleeping on the deck for the duration as long as we don't expect rain. We've now learned to put on our swimsuits as soon as we're up. This morning the crew spotted another manta ray, and we all hopped into the dinghies to catch up with it. Its one thing for Kirit to tell us the one he saw last night was 8 feet...

Nov 19, 2010 - Day 6 on the Dhoni

Best night's sleep yet.  I finally chucked sleeping in the cabin and slept on the deck, because the air was so still when we went to bed that I was sure the cabin would be even more miserable than it has been. Apparently it was a good call, because it was so hot that now several people are considering the same plan for tonight.  Today we made our early morning visit to this small island where about 1,500 people live. We walked all around town, and saw things like the new fish market that the government built 4 years ago, but has still never...

Nov 18, 2010 - Day 5 on the Dhoni

Still can't seem to sleep late.  Woke up about 5:30 in sweltering heat. Very quietly changed and headed out on deck to snooze in the nice sea breeze. Managed to get a photo of the sunrise. By a little after 6am, others were joining me on deck.   As with the rest of our days, we started with breakfast, sailing to our location for the day along an inhabited island, a quick snack of fresh coconut & orange juice, then off for our first snorkel. They had told us in advance that the snorkeling here is about the fish rather than the reef, and that...