We were both out as soon as our heads hit the pillow last night. It was a solid night’s rest. I woke up around 5am and after an hour and a half of further resting, I decided to go for a walk as the sun was rising. The humidity was so intense that my camera lenses fogged up to a level I have never seen before. It took over five minutes for them to acclimate to the change, so my first images probably look like someone rubbed Vaseline over my lens.
As I continued my wee stroll, I saw a big heron. I also saw a hundred tiny fish jumping in the air as if to get away from a predator. I would find out later in the day, that there was perhaps a shark just below the surface and still hidden in the limited early morning light. A bat flew over my head into the trees as well. The wildlife was active.
Nicole was stirring when I returned. We then headed out to our free breakfast on the beach, where in the span of about an hour it went from looking like it was about to rain to an uninhibited sun beating down on us . We hit the baked goods hard, and saved a few for later like a couple of old people at a Golden Corral. We also had some fruit, dim sum, waffles, and an omelette. One has to take advantage of the free food and beverage before they have to pay $12 for a sprite later in the day.
We then walked to the other half of the resort, which required a long walk on a bridge that connects the two. There is currently a lot of construction going on, so I don’t actually think people are staying on that half for the time being. The water on that side is a much richer and brighter tinge of blue, but virtually every hut and building is being worked on extensively, and looks like it will be at least a few months before it is ready to receive guests.
Fortunately, poor people such as ourselves are still allowed to go over there and explore. Our greeter yesterday told us we could and I’m holding him to it. We perhaps explored more than the Hilton staff had in mind, but we didn’t venture into any abandoned overwater villas or soak in their private pools, we simply admired the scenery and waded in the water as workers waved to us. We nearly had the whole island to ourselves.
After making a big circle around this island, we gradually worked our way back along the bridge and back to our lesser island where the cheapest room is a measly $1200 per night. We made dinner reservations at the spa restaurant, which is out along one of the boardwalks hovering over the turquoise waters. Nicole thought it would have good atmosphere and it is far from the most expensive of options. We could reserve a special cocktail hour in the underwater restaurant for $185 per person. I think that gets you a can of coca-cola or something.
Anyway, as the weather was glorious, and the forecast suggests that this may not continue, we headed for the beach and brought our swimming outfits. One of the workers during the manager’s special yesterday evening told us where a good spot to snorkel would be so we camped out in that area. There is a proper reef in that area, so we aimed for the dark areas thinking this was reef, but were in for quite a surprise when one of the dark areas was probably hundreds of thousands of small fish.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many fish in one spot. The picture above doesn’t even do it justice. At some points they were tickling my ankles. I didn’t care for that. We decided not to swim directly through them because it was oddly unsettling to be surrounded by that many fish. We went around the periphery and that’s when we caught some glimpses of some black tip reef sharks. Yes, we were in the water with the sharks, and no I wasn’t scared. I found the little fish more unnerving. They’re the ones who could swim up my shorts and wreak havoc.
Nicole was sort of spotting me from the shallows and would point out where the sharks were. I tried to swim in their general direction, but they kept swimming away from me. In an odd twist, I was perhaps the scariest thing in the sea at that moment. Later on they seemed to get a bit more comfortable with my presence, but they never got much closer than five feet or so before veering off. Their priority was eating the little fish, so I made sure to keep my distance from the massive school so as to not get in the way of my new friends.
You could watch them work together to funnel the fish into each other’s swimming path and this is when hundreds of fish would jump in the air in hopes of escaping the shark’s mouths.
It was actually a lot of fun to watch. I did see some other tropical fish, but that’s not even all that interesting in the grand scheme of things. One can see tropical fish in many different locales, but I don’t think sharks have ever been so accessible. It’s said you see them constantly when in the underwater restaurant, so I guess they are comfortable with people staring at them while they eat. And the Maldives has a ban on shark fishing, so they can relax too. There is an excursion that takes you out to look at sharks that costs like $200 per person. It was the only excursion I would even consider, and now I know I can save my money. While we were doing all this, we only saw two other people at the beach, so I’m really not sure what people do during the day, but it would appear everyone is off doing excursions all the time. When one is spending $1200+ for a room, I don’t really understand that logic for numerous reasons, but everyone travels differently, but I much preferred my laid back afternoon with the sharks and Nicole.
After our spell at the beach, we decided to head back to our beachfront villa to further relax from our relaxation. Another bottle of wine was delivered to our room in honor of our anniversary. It’s been 3 years since our wedding, and 12 years since we’ve been in cahoots you see. I am to send a WhatsApp message to our housekeeping guy to let him know when we’re out of the room because they are doing some sort of special turndown service, whatever that means. Nicole hopes for rose petals on the bed, “like they did for you and Greg in Vietnam,” as she references. It will be hard to compete with that romantic mood set for Greg and I by a $38 per night hotel in Hue, Vietnam. I, myself am hoping for a towel animal in the shape of a crab.
We proceeded to the members-only free happy hour while we watched the evening floatplane arrive and depart. Then we returned to clean up in the outdoor shower under the sun and palm trees before changing into somewhat sophisticated island attire for our dinner reservation.
We were seated outdoors on a ledge just next to the water. It had good atmosphere and a nice breeze to keep us cool from a hot day in the sun. Nicole had chicken. I had fish. It wasn’t exactly cheap, but it is technically the first thing we had to pay for today, so I think we are doing ok for food, all things considered.
We walked around a little bit after dinner before returning to our room to find flower petals AND towel animals. What. A. Find. We celebrated by opening one of our free bottles of wine and pairing it with our free chocolates and free marshmallows. We sat out on our massive patio and talked about how our lives are atypical. Especially in America, there is such an emphasis on working hard to get ahead and that anything can be accomplished with just more work. Bricole have always valued personal time and quality of life over money. It’s far more important to spend time with each other than for me to be flying 4-day trips on a 777 or Nicole to be working 12-hour days on set. “Maybe we’re doing it wrong,” said Nicole, “but we’re sitting in the Maldives right now, so I don’t think so.”
passports & pepto bismol 