May
Well, whale shark, that is. Pretty much harmless (they filter-feed plankton), but stunning non-the-less, and I got the chance to swim with one just yesterday! It was amazing. She was just a baby, but still 5m long with a beautiful dark green color and white spots. Finding a whale shark is one of the pinnacles of diving, so I was stoked to have had the opportunity to do so! Unfortunately, Pete was taken by a bout of travelers’ diarrhea, and did not dive with us that day. He certainly got the full experience from my rantings when I got back from the dive!
Going to the Maldives was truly an amazing, once in a lifetime experience. It was very rewarding to travel here and see my friend Dennis. Dennis and I met in Thailand after he did my Rescue Diver training in 2004. We’ve stayed in contact and Dennis and I spent a month together over Christmas 2005 doing my Dive Master training. Dennis now manages the Euro Diver Centre at the Diva resort on the tiny Maldivian island of Dhidhoofinolhu along with his girlfriend Risa, who is a dive instructor. When Dennis invited us out to the Diva resort, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go to a place we could never have the means to travel to without knowing someone that could provide a major hook-up.
The Diva resort is a brand new (not completely finished) 5-star resort on a 2km x 150m island. There is nothing on the island but Diva. No McDonald’s, no Starbucks, no 7-Eleven. If you need anything at all and the staff has not already thought of it, dial 0, and it will be brought to you, though at some expense and depending on whether it needs to be shipped in or not, you may have a considerable waiting period, too. Dennis had us upgraded to one of the water villas looking out over the south Ari Atoll. The resort absolutely exceeded any expectations we had. The beauty of the exclusive resort was breathtaking and the five star service was to die for. If you look closely at the picture, you can tell what age Pete turned during our stay in the Maldives. Pete is cheating and saying that he’s 22…
The water villas sat on the south side of the island. These rooms were laid out in a semi circle scattered out on either side of a long board walk and suspended over the ocean. Each villa had its own private balcony with sun chairs, day beds, and stairs that took you down to the ocean. The open air concept had showers and toilets that made you feel like you were showering right over the ocean.
We had a great time on the tiny island resort, but after 5 days it was time to move on. We flew by sea plane back to Male, and then onwards to Singapore with a one night stop over in Colombo. We will be in Singapore for 2 days before flying back to Chicago on Sunday, May 11.
No, not like big box stores, we mean literally, big boxes! All over Asia, we have seen hundreds of passengers at airports checking boxes upon boxes of stuff. In Bangkok, one lady was definitely checking boxes of durian or durian-flavoured food – the smell was unmistakable. And the deeper we travel into Asia, the bigger the boxes seem to get! We landed in the early hours of the morning here in Colombo, Sri Lanka (we have 2 more flights before arriving at our final destination of the White Sands Resort in the Maldives), to see the biggest boxes of them all! Indeed, these passengers were collecting boxes of refrigerators, plasma TVs and microwaves that they had bought at the duty free and getting ready to check them as baggage on their onward flights!
– May 11, 2008