My husband and I decided to visit the Maldives. Looking on Google Image Search, I found photos of beautiful beaches, small islands, clear waters, and adorable little cabanas built right on top of the water. I was excited.
Getting there was an endeavor. We flew Qatar Airlines, with a several-hour-long layover in Doha, Qatar. We spent the time pleasantly, dining and sipping tea. To our surprise, we were upgraded to business class on our final leg to Male's Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (MLE). It was pretty posh.
Arriving, we were greeted by Mr. Latheef, with whom we reserved a 4-day all-inclusive fishing adventure. He led us to the domestic "terminal" at MLE, and flew with us to Maamigili's tiny airport. Then, we took a boat to Nilandhoo, on the Faafu atoll.
The fishing was tough for me. My husband enjoyed himself, but I was pretty seasick. It was hot and sunny, and there wasn't a whole lot to do, especially in the mornings when we were mostly trolling. In the afternoons, we fished for our meals, and that was more fun. The bottom-fishing was also much easier than casting, which was very tiring.
After our fishing adventure, we went to Mathiveri on the Ari atoll. We stayed for over a week at the Mathiveri Inn. It's located immediately next to the mosque, so we were blasted with prayers via loudspeakers 5 times a day, every day. The food was not as good as at the guesthouse on Nilandhoo, and the service was laughable at best. Toward the end of our trip, we got sick of it, and moved over to Casa Mia, a resort located on the same island.
The snorkeling was lovely. There are reefs basically everywhere, and we were able to see many colorful fish, and beautiful, intricate corals. One of the days, we went on a manta expedition. The first place we went to, there was a single manta, and about 20 visitors in their bright orange life jackets and snorkels, chasing the poor manta. We moved on to a second location, where we found another single manta in the distance, but didn't get a chance to get close. We eventually gave up looking for manta, and just went to a nearby reef for snorkeling. It was gorgeous. My husband saw a sea turtle (alas, I did not).
We took a beginner scuba diving class at Casa Mia. The dive instructor took us out into the shallows by the harbor, teaching us some basics like how to recover the breathing thing, and how to clear our masks. Then we went deeper into the harbor and dove to about 10 meters. I was terrified, and spent a good 10 minutes worrying about my equipment and being completely overwhelmed by nerves. After a while, I managed to loosen up and actually look around. Turns out, it's quite beautiful down there. I did clutch my instructor's arm the entirety of the dive, but I succeeded in not flipping the hell out, and even had a reasonably good time. My husband took to it like a fish to water, that brat.
On the way back to Male, we took a sea plane. It was pretty amazing. The entire travel back from Mathiveri to home took about 39 hours, which was a different kind of amazing. Stumbling home, we crashed at 8:30pm and slept for 11 hours. Melatonin is wonderful.
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