Marvelous Maldives
Day 1 stories
(Leeah)I don’t remember exactly when I heard about ‘the Maldives’ – but it was likely in my 20s, when Instagram was booming and photos were all that existed.
Likely, it was a shot of the overwater bungalows with crystal clear waters and bright white sands. Smiling faces and interesting looking fruits and foods. It was likely something that I had never thought I would see with my own eyes. Just another item for the bucket list that’ll stay unchecked (likely) until I grow old and die.
So, taking our boat taxi from Male to the private island of Vadoo was absolutely a dream come true! I thought it would be all boojie (which it was) with no heart and sterile hotel workers who tended to the needs of the 1%. Nope, nope, nope. It was one of the most culturally rich portions of our trip yet, ending with new friendships from around the world.
We set out early from our overnight hotel in Male to get to the water taxi. It absolutely started with White Lotus vibes again, so when we pulled up and they put a cute banana leaf necklace on us and then were handed the most delicious, iced tea/passion fruit/mango juice drink when we got to the check in location it all seemed on par. We were introduced to our ‘butler’ (lololol) who then gave us a tour and walked us to our room!! And, by room I mean, overwater bungalow! Going through the wood fence, there was a huge deck, with steps down to the ocean and a plunge pool facing the sunrise. We faced part of the island, the white beaches and teal water with a cute swing, perfect for Instagram. Turning around we walked into our room, that had an entire glass wall with a king bed and a few couches and lounge chairs. There were full closets on both sides of the room along with desks and a (very) fancy Bluetooth speaker for us. But, the best part, was the bathroom! Not only was it styled perfectly, sleek and sophisticated. When you looked down though there was a glass portion of the floor, where you could see the fish swimming around below. Unbelievable! Our butler told us not to stand on it because it might break (!!), we both believed him and said ‘okokokok’ and then he bust our laughing. I guess it was a joke! Ha!
And, there he left us. In this absurd house thing. Unattended. Like we were adult enough and responsible enough to manage this property for the next few nights. Lol. We immediately connected to the Bluetooth, cracked some beers and frantically danced our faces off in celebration of some how getting this life cheat code. Wow.
We headed to the beach after to go pick up our scuba gear and from there made our way to some lounge chairs and sat. Just sat and watched the water. Within about 10 minutes I spotted something down the beach, just a casual fever of stingrays. About 2 feet from the beach, like 6 of them, just. Just, there. Doing what they do. Existing. We kept laughing and looking at each other and I would do my little knee dance where I wiggle uncontrollably because I cannot believe my eyes. The rest of the day lulled by, with an amazing spa visit (and the Bali girls), a delicious dinner (and our first meeting with Agra!!) and drinks, lots of drinks. Oops.
(Erik) Getting on the boat to Vadoo at 10:30 meant we were able to have nearly the whole day on the private island. It was surreal. I never thought I'd go to Maldives but when Leeah strongly suggested it, I wasn't about to say no. I typically would not find myself spending lots of money to go lay on a beach, and actually, we didn't. We spent lots of money, yes, it's not cheap to go to these resorts and I was skeptical, but my mind was changed pretty quickly. The room was spectacular, our butler Anshul, was excellent and always somehow knew where to find us if needed. We came with no plans and before our orientation was over, we had dinner reservations at two of the restaurants on the island and a list of activities we wanted to do. My main focus for day one was to get in the water and see some beautiful fish. That we did.
Before we even got our snorkel gear, we saw 8 stingrays!!! After we got the gear though, holy cats, it was spectacular. right from shore we dunk our heads in to find every brightly color of fish out there. Some with stripes, polka-dots and even both. Leeah and I stuck together while snorkeling, squeezing each others hand when a new beautiful fish swam below us. When Leeah got tired, I went out to the drop off to see what other fascinating creatures lay beyond and was floored by a wall of fish just swimming over the deep blue nothingness. After a while I began to think that I needed to apply more sunscreen and I got to it a little too late, having been enthralled with the life below me.
Day 2 stories
The second day was the 3rd time in my life I’ve ever gone snorkeling. And guess what, I’m so obsessed! After spotting the stingrays the day before and after a pretty heated lesson from Erik on how to properly snorkel I felt ready for the day!
What I was definitely not ready for was low tide. Oops! The night before we had seen someone snorkel from the beach over to their hut, we thought we’d give it a try in the morning. After succumbing to a few vicious coral attack, I decided we could just walk to the beach, the long way, but getting ice cream on the way.
I only have about 6 photos from this day on my camera because we spent the whole time in the water looking for interesting fish and hoping to see some stingrays again. The most exciting thing we saw were some black tipped reef sharks. Which is, like a big deal! That night we ate at the sushi restaurant within the resort and Erik got a plate of fish we (likely) had seen.
I awoke to the sun peaking over the horizon and right into our bedroom, so I decided to watch the sunrise with a cup of coffee from our plunge pool (sounds absurd as I type it). I think I had trouble sleeping because of how excited I was to see more fish and aquatic wildlife. After breakfast, we headed down to get in the water and we were in and out so much, there wasn't much time for a whole lot else. However, of course, for the excepts of another stop at the spa for a 90 minute massage, or the occasional Arrack cocktail at the beach bar. The tide was low so we were up close with a lot of the fish and the coral (ouch)!
Leeah headed back to the room a little sooner than I did and as I returned my towel I chatted with one of the lifeguards on staff, Lahiru. He was from Sri Lanka so we talked about his home country and the New Year and the next day he invited Leeah and I to the Sri Lankan festivities held for staff and made plans to go out to a different part of the reef in search of sea turtles and sharks. Needless to say I was thrilled for tomorrow's activites as well.
Day 3 stories
At some point on day 2, Erik had been chatting with a new friend, Lahiru, and he got us invited to the next days Sinhalese New Year! We had been hearing about it when we were in Sri Lanka but were so surprised to hear that they planned to celebrate on the island. There are 38 Sri Lankan people working on the island – including the general manager, so it seems that they go all out each year.
The night before a sarong had been dropped off in the room, so we got up early to head to breakfast (which was unnecessary!), we ran into Agra and she helped explain how to tie the sarongs and she said “Wish me Happy New Year.” Lol. We laughed and told her and she was very happy.
Eventually, the time came to head over to the celebration!! We were not aware that we were now the guests of honor, which I felt so horrible about. They allowed us to sit front row center as they started the traditional milk boil (which is said to bring prosperity) as well as for the candle lighting. In fact, we got to light two of the candles! We felt so thankful that they allowed us to be there, I still can’t believe they also let us to be a part of the actual ceremony.
After that we feasted on sweets! Literally, we both filled up our plates with sweets and then sat and attempted to eat them! Anyway, later in the day we got to both watch and participate in some of the New Year’s games! I think the memories I’ll remember always from our time in the Maldives will be watching the games. A pillow fight, on a pole, with one hand behind your back?! Yup. An egg toss in the sand? Yup, so when the egg broke as you were falling you then got covered in egg sand (!!). It was so fun to watch as well as so fun to participate! The evening ended with a dance until midnight – what a delight!
Agra helped us figure out to put the sarongs on that we were provided for the ceremony in the morning and it was comical to see us try and put them on as gracefully as they did. Nevertheless, we figured it out and headed to the milk boil. After which we were meeting up with Lahiru for some snorkeling. Leeah was brand new to snorkeling so she didn't feel as comfortable going out where she couldn't easily get to shore for a break so she stayed back and got a foot massage. Lahiru grabbed his gear and said lets go. We b-lined it out passed all of the bungalows and into some coral that was so tall we needed to bob and weave through them like a ski racer does through the gates. I could see Lahiru enjoyed going out just as much as I did, despite doing this frequently. It wasn't more than 20 minutes from leaving shore and we saw a sea turtle. It was calmly swimming through coral and let us get pretty close to it. After we admired it's tranquil swimming, we moved on to the drop off. On the way there we saw a moray eel slithering through the water! It had to have been 3 feet long, though I didn't have a tape measure to check my facts. It has a resting grumpy face and the current was strong so I kept my distance. We got to the drop off and yet again, it was teeming with fish and other wildlife. I also saw a few sea urchins, some brightly colored clams and another eel and a huge puffer fish. Lahiru said he saw a shark too but I was behind him and it may have been scared off with our presence. It was an excellent time.
We headed back to shore and I was all smiles, or whatever type of smile you can make with a snorkel in your mouth. The afternoon was filled with New Years games played in Sri Lanka. Lahiru participated in most of them and won many, but I was invited to play a few as was Leeah. The most enjoyable was a sort of a pinata game but with a clay pot. Everyone would yell directions to try and help you get to the pot and when you got close you were supposed to smack it with a large bamboo bat. I missed. I'm glad I did. There were prizes and this was the Sri Lankan's new year. I didn't want to win anything as I was just so happy to be able to participate. I also did the lemon spoon race, which is exactly what it sounds like. Put a spoon handle in your mouth, put a lemon (in this case a lime) on the spoon, and run to the finish. I nearly won, but got too cocky and away went the lime. It was a hell of a day and we were so grateful to be part of it all. Maldives and the people there changed my mind on what paradise might actually be.
The milk boil
