Y'all don't even know how true that is. If you've been to the Maldives, I'm sure you know why I say that. We went there for a week, and it was seriously one of the most amazing places I've ever been to (if not THE most amazing place). It was especially convenient for us since Bangalore is only a two hour flight away from the Maldives. After about half an hour of flying, you're over water for the rest of the flight. Right when we were about to land, I started freaking out because we were getting dangerously close to the water and I couldn't see an airport anywhere near us. All of a sudden, a strip of land seemed to pop up in the middle of the water and the plane lands on this thing. It was literally a runway jutting out into the water, just wide enough and long enough for the plane to land on. We taxied for a long time before the rest of the airport finally came into view. Upon stepping off the plane, we were hit with a wave of stifling heat. This would have been really bad if there hadn't been a beach within five seconds of anywhere on any island of the Maldives.
Anyways, we get off the plane and recover our backpacks from baggage claim and step out of the airport. Customs and immigration was hardly even anything worth worrying out about; we were in and out of that stuff within half an hour. After finding the guy who had a sign with my mom's name on it, we followed him to a taxi and drove to the little house we rented. At first we were confused because his name was Rifau (pronounced Ri-fah, with a short I sound), but the information on the house said that a guy called Mohammed would pick us up. Rifau said that Mohammed was at the house, and, figuring that he was telling the truth, we got in a taxi with him. The house was about twenty minutes away from the airport, on another island called Hulhumale. Hulhumale is a man-made island, but it's just as beautiful as all the other islands. Throughout the ride to the house, all of us had our jaws on the floor like idiots because we were in awe at how clear the water was. I'm pretty sure that there is no water bluer or clearer than the water in the Maldives, except for maybe it's tied with Thailand and Australia (not that I've been to either of those places but I've seen pictures). It's clearer water than Hawaii, and Jamaica (according to my mother). So we go into the house, and I'll be honest, it wasn't a five star resort or anything, but it was nice. Really cozy and cute, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two living spaces, a nice patio, and a kitchen. But get this--it also came with two full time, at-your-disposal guides (Mohammed and Rifau) who would take you anywhere, tell you any random facts you wanted to know, and who were able to help you with stuff whenever you needed. AND, to top it all off, the house came with two boats as well! The guides and the boats turned out to be the two things that made our trip what it was. Mohammed and Rifau took us to several different islands and snorkeling places. We went to Hulhumale (or course), Picnic Island, Male (the capital), and a fishing island (which was not at all touristy, it was all locals). It was so awesome to have a boat that could take us anywhere we wanted whenever we wanted, and Mohammed and Rifau were so great to have around. We learned a lot from them and they were really nice.
Literally ten steps outside of the house was a beach. Super soft white sand that led up to the clear, bath-tub-temperature water. The beach had some litter on it, which made me kind of mad, because how could anybody ever litter on such a beautiful sight?! It was even more painful to see litter in the water itself. The beach right outside the house was a local beach, and guess what that means? Since the Maldives is a Muslim country, it means that women are getting into the water in full borka and hijab. Yeah, that's right, people are getting into the water fully clothed! It was so different from the usual beach wear that you see people in--no bikinis whatsoever, not even any one-piece swimsuits! Our family all wears rash guards (t-shirts that are made to be worn into the water) because my mom and I burn really easily and Amara and my dad get super tan. Even though our good friends in a family that we've known since I was 5 think that tans are okay and healthy, they aren't any better than getting sunburned. You can get skin cancer from any prolonged sun exposure, which can mean getting tan or getting burned (true story, my padre is a doctor). Anyways, that's not something that any of us want to risk, so we put on sunscreen obsessively and wore rash guards.
The two boats that we had were a normal boat to take us to the other islands and reefs, as well as a banana boat. Yeah, I didn't know what that was either when we first got there. We later discovered that it was an inflatable boat shaped like a torpedo/banana. It had room for four people, and it was attached to the back of the other boat. The other boat then drove you around on the banana boat, and basically, the goal of Mohammed and Rifau was to throw us off the banana boat as many times as possible. It sounds like it wouldn't be fun, but it was actually tons of fun (aside from the few rope burns that we got from trying to old on for dear life to the floating banana-shaped-torpedo-like boat).
Now I'll tell you about the snorkeling. When we went to Picnic Island for the first time (we went twice), Rifau went out with us to snorkel. The water was unusually calm and the snorkeling was amazing and gorgeous. It was our first time to snorkel in the Maldives, and it was super beautiful and really different form anything we've ever done before, at least for my dad, sister, and me. It might have been similar to Jamaica for my mom, but she went there alone. I think it was still pretty different for her too. Sooooo, when we first started snorkeling on Picnic Island. It seemed like Rifau knew exactly where to go, so we just followed him. The water didn't get any deeper than about six feet at the beginning, but it was super clear so the depth didn't really matter anyways. The coral was of so many different colors and the fish of even more colors. At Picnic Island the first time, my mom and I got massive sunburns on the backs of our thighs. Basically, our butts got so sunburned we could hardly sit down. My burn was worse, and it's started to peel a little bit now, which, let me tell you, is disgusting. Moral of that story is, put sunscreen on EVERYWHERE that isn't covered, because you have no idea how uncomfortable a really bad sunburn is on your butt and the bends of your knees, and pretty much anywhere else.
While snorkeling at Picnic Islamd, all of a sudden, I noticed a significant change in the color of the water, and I also noticed that the coral and fish just seemed to...disappear. I pointed to where they seemed to disappear, and said to my mom, "What is that?!" She said, snorkel in her mouth, "That's the egg." I was so confused, and I had no idea what she meant by "that's the egg." Once we finally got to this so-called "egg," I realized that what she had actually said was, "That's the edge." Not egg, edge. I then started laughing really hard at myself for thinking she had said "egg," which caused me to inhale a lot of salt water and therefore cough until I thought I was going to die. After recovering from my near death by choking on the saltiest water you've ever tasted, I submerged my head in the warm water once again and almost died all over again. There was an edge indeed, and a very scary one at that. One of our family friends, I'll call her A, warned us of this before we left. She said, "The thing I don't like about snorkeling in the Maldives is that it suddenly just drops off into a never-ending abyss of nothingness. It's kinda scary." I didn't have any idea what A meant by that, but once I saw the edge of the reef, I definitely understood. It does indeed drop off into a never-ending abyss of nothingness. You'll just be chillin in the water, snorkeling and oooh-ing and ahhhh-ing at the pretty fish, then, BAM, all of a sudden, the six-foot deep water turns into an edge that leads down to the bottom of the ocean. You can't see the bottom, even though the water is so clear, because it's hundreds of feet deep. The edge is beautiful though. It has the most incredibly vivid colors of fish and coral that Crayola couldn't even begin to replicate. The fish get bigger and more brightly colored the farther down the edge you look, and the coral gets different too. Snorkeling at Picnic Island was the first time that I had ever seen this edge, and it scared me a lot. I mean, think about it. You can no longer see the bottom, the fish are huge, and you don't have a clue what could be lurking in the deeper waters off the edge. What if there's a shark down there, waiting to eat you?! Okay, it might sound irrational, but that's because it's hard to visualize. You have to see it to understand what I mean when I say all this.
Some people take to the edge better than others, like my parents did. My dad wasn't at all scared by it, and my mom was even less scared by it that my dad. She almost immediately said, "All I want to do is dive down there. I just need a mask, a tank, and a buddy and I would be off that edge in a heartbeat." My MOTHER said that. My mother, who grew up on a farm, who thinks skydiving is too dangerous, who doesn't want my sister to get a third ear piercing, wanted to throw herself off the edge and into the never-ending abyss of nothingness and dive down there with the scary and probably man-eating fishes. Granted, she has her diving certification and she used to dive a lot when she went to Jamaica for a couple weeks, but still. The edge is everywhere in the Maldives. Any reef that you go to, the main attraction is the edge because that's where all the good stuff is. The edge is where we saw tons of different types of fish, a shark, two turtles, several eels, lots of different coral, sea cucumbers, and more. My parents went out by themselves one time and say a manta ray! They said it was "a majestic beast," which is most likely an excellent way to describe it. We also saw tons of dolphins while we were on the boat, which was really cool to see them so close.
One of our favorite snorkeling sites which we went to several times was called Kurumba House Reef. The reef was amazing and the edge was incredible. This was also the place at which Amara conquered her fear of fish and jumped off the boat and snorkeled with us. Being the first time in about three years that she's snorkeled with us, we were all really happy that she got over her fear of fish and the ocean and got in with us. We loved the snorkeling every time we went to Kurumba, except for one time. The snorkeling was good, but the water was pretty choppy. We had been snorkeling for a little while already, when suddenly we started to feel little pricks on our skin. They itched and stung, and we weren't sure what they were. I then realized that the things stinging us were little brown floating blobs. They were almost microscopically small, but if you looked closely you could see them. Apparently, since the tide was in and the water was a little choppy, these little demon-bities as I called them (they were actually tiny jellyfish) came in with the current. Yeah, they were jellyfish. And they stung us all over. However, Mohammed and Rifau were quick to let us know that they weren't poisonous and the stinging/itching would go away after we took a shower. That turned out to be true, and the itching and stinging mostly went away after a shower.
One of the funnier things that happened while we were there was when we were snorkeling at Kurumba. I saw these HUGE but weirdly flat fish swimming about fifteen feet off the edge. They were really hard to see, but we asked Mohammed what they were. He said, "I don't really know how to say it in English, but in our language we call it 'floating rubbish in water.' I guess that's what it is in English, but I don't know the name for it." Floating rubbish in water, how funny is that?! We all thought that was pretty hilarious.
Alright, well I think that's enough about the Maldives for now, I might write more about these lovely islands later though. I already started writing a new version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, replacing the words to the original version with words that describe the Maldives in all its glory. :) I'm definitely going back someday!
Also, for those of you who are wondering, we asked Rifau and Mohammed how the name of the Maldives is actually pronounced. When we asked them this, they replied with, "Well, yes, there is diving here, but not in the name." So, that means that the I in Maldives is pronounced like a double E instead of like the I in dive. Mal-deevs, not Mal-dives. :)
Thanks for reading, more later! :)
