Ah the Maldives. I wish I were still there! Swimming in my pool, eating all the tasty foods, watching all the fish and sharks swim by. It was wonderful and so so so beautiful! The color of the water was unreal. It is kind of crazy as the whole country is just a bunch of small islands in the Indian Ocean. The airport is on a larger island, but it is still not that big. Most of it seems to be the runway. So as soon as you get off the plane and through customs it is welcome to the beautiful water! We flew overnight and Raymond slept some on the plane, but my ears were bothering me so I didn't really. Closed my eyes for a bit, but was surprisingly awake once we got there. Oh it was amazing. While we were landing there was one lady who must have had something not good going on with her ears as she kept whimpering and crying and it was not good. I felt bad as my ears always give me problems, but usually not super bad and never as bad as that.
Just a side note - I have a lot of posts for the Maldives I am queuing up. I hope to have them completed next week or so depending on how many there end up being and I have to tell you these posts will just be lots and lots and lots of photos of us (selfies and sneaky photos of Raymond), the beach, the swimming pools, the water, the sand, the fish, the sunsets. Oh, the sunsets. Absolutely beautiful! Just us swimming around and relaxing and the gorgeous surroundings. A few birds and bats are in there as well. But we only stayed on 2 islands, the first it might take 5 min to walk around, so you might find yourself saying at some point Okay! Okay! We get it! You guys are super cute, this place is incredibly beautiful, that sunset was amazing, but do you have to keep rubbing it in? The answer is yes, yes I do. Cause I need to post all the photos! I won't be upset if you get tired of looking at paradise ;)
Male from the airport. I tried to talk Raymond into going on an excursion to there one day but he said no! This is a lazy vacation!!
After we got through customs we found the desk for the resort we were staying at and they said our boat would be about a half an hour if we wanted to wander around we could. So we left our bags with them, Raymond put on his warm weather clothes (he didn't change like everyone else did on the airplane!) and just took it all in.
The boat came sooner than expected so the lady came and found us and we were off!
Look at the water! Seriously it was incredible! You will probably get tired of reading me say how beautiful and incredible and gorgeous and amazing everything was.
It said it was a half hour boat ride to the resort, The Adaaran Prestige Vadoo, but the boat drivers go soooo fast it couldn't have taken that long. It felt like 5 min and we were there. The spray went up over the height of the boat! Crazy!
Male again from the boat.
And our room. I know it is dark, but it was gorgeous! We got there and they took us to the main bar and gave us some iced tea, then our butler showed us around the island and took us out to our room. This is the island that might be a 5-minute walk if you walked around it. It was pretty tiny. So all of the guest bungalows are over water bungalows! They all have small plunge pools and you can go right from your deck into the water to snorkel. You only have to choose if you want the sunrise side of the sunset side. I, of course, chose sunset as I love sunset! Plus I am probably not awake for sunrise when it is at 6 am...The only "problem" with the sunset side is that you get full sun on your deck for most of the day. By the time we woke up it was almost high enough so sitting out there was way too hot (but that is why there is a small pool!)
It was still a tad early for lunch (I was starving as I didn't eat much on the plane...which is odd for me) so we settled in and then it was time to eat! I forgot to take photos of all the food, but for lunch and dinner you could have a 4-course meal. It was crazy. So much food! Every group has their own waiter who waits on you for your entire stay. Ours was...alright. I had written prior asking about vegan options, which they said were no problem, we stayed there 5 days, and every single meal our waiter seemed annoyed by me asking if the vegetarian options could be made vegan or if there was another option for me. I don't think he cared for me. One night he was working somewhere else so we had a different waiter and he was on it! So helpful and much friendlier. Ours was fine, but not the best.
We ended up having a salad, artichoke soup (so tasty! I almost always had the soup if I could as they were all amazing!) and a main of grilled veggies, rice, and mushroom sauce. The main was a giant plate full of food. Then they tried to get us some dessert, just fruit, but still. We were soooo stuffed! It was so much food!
After lunch we went and spied on the beach
And sat for a few to digest.
Then it was pool time!!
You could spy out towards the bungalows
Or towards the beach. There were a ton of people on the beach the day we got there, all the sun loungers were taken, but we quickly realized they were just day visitors. And the rest of the time was not as busy as the first day.
I don't always take good photos...
But I take lots!
And hope to get one I like in there eventually.
After swimming in the main pool for a bit we headed back to the room...and I got sooooo sleepy I couldn't stay awake. So we took a nap. Afterwards we hung out in our plunge pool for a bit and watched the fishes until we wanted some fun beverages.
Then it was off to the bar for a mocktail for me and a cocktail for Raymond. There is an outside deck up higher and we sat up there with our drinks. They have a fish feeding every day at 5:30 (sunset is around 6) and we watched it from there - they feed the fish from that walkway in the photo above.
Stingray came to check it out
And lots of people watched from below
I had forgotten something in the room so I had to go back and grab it during sunset!
After sunset from the bar - so beautiful!
They have a few lights on in the water so we sat and watched the fishes
And saw a shark! It is not the best photo, but it was our first shark sighting! Exciting! Though we finished our drinks and then had to try and stay awake until dinner which didn't start until 7:30! Over an hour to wait and try and stay awake. It was odd as the bar didn't have any lights outside so we were sitting in the dark with a bunch of other people. Though it was wonderful for stargazing and the seats were super comfy to sort of lay back and watch the stars. There was a light breeze, a beautiful night, comfy seats, watch the stars or the fish, it was pretty perfect. Though hard to stay awake because it was so comfy.
Then finally dinner! I again forgot to take photos, but our meal was a salad to start and pasta with a tomato bean sauce. We were still kind of stuffed from lunch so no soup.
And they gave us a special dessert - a lemon mousse which was very light and tasty. Not a ton of lemon flavor, but good. Oh they also made bread just for us as their normal bead has egg in it. That was really nice and then we had that with every meal. All of the food was super tasty! Afterwards it was just back to the room and sleep! Sleep forever!
Now as I said this first resort was super tiny. And I quickly realized that if I were with Raymond no one would talk to me. They wouldn't even acknowledge me. It was like I wasn't even there. Only Raymond was worthy of being noticed/spoken to. How was the meal sir? With their backs turned to me so it was super obvious I was not included in the conversations. How is it going sir? Everything okay sir? Let me tell you about this and that sir. Oh, there is a lady here also? I don't see anyone. It was SUPER annoying and I really really didn't like it. I have never had that happen before. And it was with everyone we encountered. Our waiter was even like that even when I had to ask for different things. It was almost all guys working there. There were some massage ladies, and a lady in reception, and I believe the rest were guys. If I was alone then they would say hello to me, but only ever hello. At first I thought maybe it was because it is a Muslim country (we have never been to one before), but our second stop wasn't like that so...I don't know. Luckily we didn't deal with people too often, we just lounged around by ourselves, so it was okay. But if it would have been more interactive it would have been hard to not say something. I'm not used to being dismissed because I am a woman...but I still enjoyed our time there. More photos coming soon!
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