Guess where I just came back from? The Maldives!

Yup! See the crystal clear waters? The beautiful island? The blue skies? The fine grains of sand?

I went there for a short nightstop just two days ago and though I only had the morning and afternoon to explore the island resort I was at (Bandos Island Resort), it was enough to do a few things.

The first thing I did when i woke up was to step outside the chalet:

and take a few photos of the beach just about 10m away from my door! I was really really amazed at what I saw! Call me suaku (someone who has not seen something before, as if he/she has been living in the mountains all his/her life) but this was the first time I've seen such crystal clear waters! I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

The breakwater (that is broken)...

The beach and the water...

A boat in the distance...

One of the crabs that were crawling around...

The broken breakwater...

After taking in the scenery with a breath of delight, I went back to my room to call up the rest of the crew and arrange for the snorkelling session. Can't wait!

About 45 minutes later, we all met up and went to the reception to enquire about their dive shop. Ooops...seems like I made a mistake and took everyone on a merry go round. The dive shop was on the other side of the island! So paiseh..

Anyway, we headed down to the beach (on the first photo) and snorkelled around. Too bad I don't have a camera that is capable of taking underwater shots, so I can't take any photos. But there were a lot of dead corals around. However, the fishes were so friendly, they were found just a few metres away from the beach! We even saw a baby black tipped shark coasting around the shallow depths of beach!

Here's a photo of one of the kinds of fishes that were swimming around:

Can you make out what it looks like? Heehee

The snorkelling was good! One of the cabin crew ladies passed me a piece of bread to feed the fishes and the moment I broken a piece of it and let it float, swosh! A fish had just taken it into its stomach for lunch! After doing it for a while, I noticed that many many many fishes were swimming around me! All kinds! Hahaha...never had so much fun feeding fishes in my life! Some of the small fishes were damn cute! They swam up to my face, took a look at me and then swam away. I must be one of their attractions also! :) One thing about the waters off the island was that when it was low tide initially, we could not find a way to go past the reef as there was not enough water to swim over them. After a while, when the tide rose, we then managed to go over the low lying reef and reach the other side of it, where more marvels of the shallow waters awaited us!

The shallow waters only extended out from the beach for about 40m or so, where it then became deep in a cliff like drop. I didn't venture over the deeper part because I was mindful of the underwater currents that could pull me under, so I didn't really see how deep it was. But looking at the satellite photo above, you could tell it was a drastic change of depth. But even so, the fishes nearer the edge were much more interesting and colourful than the coastal ones! I saw a few long (about 40cm) brown needle-like fish that were floating around and was quite intrigued, so I gestured to a fellow snorkeller to see them. Both of us had no idea what it was! Maybe one day I'll manage to find out. I also saw a few black lumps on the seabed that was supposed to be sea cucumbers. They were bigger than the size of my palm and looked so charcoal'ly and shiny. Interesting!

We snorkelled for about 2 hours, taking in the sights and watery sounds of the Maldivian sea, occasionally tasting some of it (quite nice actually) and then took a break for lunch. We went back to bathe and then met up later for lunch at a waterfront cafe:

Look at the setting...how romantic eh!

Before we sat down to eat, we decided to first feed some fishes again..he. ehee..(before we ate them..erhem...). The brown thing is the bread. These fishes are really damn hungry! Which actually reflected our state of hunger also...haha...

We sat down and ordered, under the cool shade instead of eating at the tables above because it was simple too hot and humid to do so. Each of us ordered our meals and what I ordered was a WAHOO STEAK. Seems like its a fillet of the King Of The Maldivian Seas, a fish that I am now going to google out...standby please...:

(Woah....I actually ate this...)

Here's the dish:

It tasted quite nice and juicy though it was grilled. But it costs US$15.50 for it. A nice meal anyway! One thing about the service was that it was super super slow. For city dwellers like me, its really really slow. After we ordered, it took about 30min for the break basket to arrive, 35 min for the drinks and about 45min for the food to come. So if you ever go there, order your food long before you are hungry, otherwise you may feel like eating the fishes sashimi style when you go snorkelling..heehee..but don't do that. Not nice lah. Those fishes good for viewing, not for eating!

Well, it was my first Maldives trip and it was really memorable and enjoyable! I'll be going there again in mid-March and I'll surely return to the waters for another snorkelling session! If anyone wants to find out anything about The Maldives, just drop me a message!

PS: A breakdown of the typical costs involved for a holiday in The Maldives:

Air ticket (less taxes) - S$600 for Two To Go via Singapore Airlines

Boat Transfer - US$50

Resort - Varies from US$120 - US$400 per night depending on chalet type, meals etc.

Snorkelling Gear - US$5

Meals - US$15 for a western dish, US$5 for a drink

Souvenirs - US$3 for a fridge magnet and upwards for various artifacts and stuff