Maldives

          As exciting and beautiful it sounds, weddings are tiring for the bride and groom. Believe me when I say, greeting people is not very rejuvenating. It is in my wedding that I learnt what exactly "crowded" means and why the newlyweds take off on honeymoon. I just wanted to stop meeting people. Initially I told Bharath to cancel those plans so that we can spend a little more with our families. But he decided otherwise and I am really glad that he did it.

          Maldives is an archipelago. If you who remember your geography classes well, this is not the first time you read 'Maldives' and 'archipelago' is a same sentence. Flight to Maldives wasn't pleasant. Even though I don’t have any kind of travelling sickness, my ears got blocked and even started to pain as we were about to land. But the bird eye view of those beautiful islets made me come out of the abhorrent feeling. The Maldivian airport is an island solely dedicated to be Ibrahim Nasir International Airport. There are no tall compounds and no explicitly marking boundaries to the airport. Airport ends with the islet. We had to get our on-arrival visa before grabbing our bags. After going through countless procedures to get the United States visa, this process seemed nothing. In fact it took less time than it takes to get past the US immigration at the port of entry.

          After completing all the formalities, we got out to the lounge to wait for the resort representative who was suppose to pick us from the airport. Meanwhile, Bharath wanted to check out the place and stepped out though the exit door. I followed him and was stunned at what was waiting for us. We have taxi stands outside a typical airport, but in Maldives it was boats instead of cabs. Boats that were floating on turquoise water. It makes sense after saying that there is an islet solely reserved for airport. It was a wonderful sight and merely words can't make justice. Being a photo buff I am, I spent most of our way to resort looking and absorbing the beauty around and not taking pictures.

          We finally hopped into our motor boat from the boat-stand and started towards our resort islet.  We had a warm welcome. We freshened as fast as we could and decided to take a walk and enjoy the place as much as we can. We had a private beach and calm water, oh yeah you read it right. The island was fortified all around to prevent the waves from reaching the beach. It was heaven on earth. It was truly relaxing. The nature had formatted my mind of all wedding stress and rebooted with joy, content and love. We spent the whole day walking, talking, relaxing, clicking a million pictures, on the beach, in the water, eating and everything  you could to just forget the outside world.

          While we were walking on the beach, we saw beach bungalows and at the very end there was a restaurant. We decided to go and get something to drink. It was around 6pm and we found a guy curiously looking at something in the water. We went and asked him about it and he showed us a baby shark. As we were looking we noticed there were more and more sharks, big and small, joining it. The school of sharks grew like snowball rolling off the slope. The restaurant guy came out at 6:30pm with a bin full of fishes. Apparently they feed sharks at sharp 6:30pm every day. You must have seen fishes jumping over one another to get the food if you feed them in a pond. Imagine the same, but only sharks instead of fishes. We were there bearing witness to nature's rare act till the end of it and then returned to have a large, festive meal before going to bed.

          The next morning was beautiful especially because I got to sip the divine tasting coffee brewed by none other than my husband on the beach. It was the perfect morning. And then I realized that our day gets even better because we had scuba diving planned. We reached the diving center at 10am and our training started right away. We had a small written test at the end just to make sure we weren't sleeping through the training. After passing the test, we geared up and left to dive. Bharath is a swimmer so we decided that he goes first. I would have voted for the same irrespective of the fact that he knows swimming or not. Now it was my turn.

          I have to talk about the scuba gear first before telling my experience. You get a vacuum sealing goggle that even covers your nose. Once it is on you cannot breath through your nose. You have to inhale and exhale through your mouth. It doesn't sound complicated or as if it is a big deal as long as your head is above water but the problem begins when the regulator from oxygen tank is in your mouth and you are completely inside the water. I was in the water till my neck. My instructor asked me to put the regulator in my mouth and to put my head inside. I did so while inhaling through my nose, the vacuum seal dint let anything inside and my brain suddenly entered the panic mode that overrode the instructions to breathe through my mouth. I took my head out of the water and spit the regulator out and started laughing. I know it sounds weird and my instructor thought so too. He said "Don't worry. I am holding you and won't drown". He had to say this a hundred times to make me try it again and I succeeded.

          It was marvelous beyond words. There were fishes all around us. They scattered away as we got closer just like butterflies on the land. The corals, oyster shell and other creatures in the marine eco system were divine. There is a whole new world inside the water. I forgot my panic, everything for that matter for the whole time I was in the water. I have to tell this to my friend who know me well, I sneezed while I was inside the water, twice. And yes the regulator popped out of my mouth when I did. I was taught how to put it back in my training. I got the regulator right back into my mouth and proceeded. I got scratched by coral which left a 5-inch scratch wound which I noticed only after coming out of the water.

          I don't know if the ocean bed is the same everywhere but here it was pretty normal until at a point where it abruptly dropped hundreds of feet. I reached that point and stopped suddenly. My instructor signed me to continue going to which I replied that I don't want to go further and to please take only Bharath. He did go and I waited till they got back and then we continued. We were looking at everything that our instructed pointed at and this time he pointed at a shark. My body got cold when I saw it because it is a SHARK and also since the images of sharks feeding on the fishes from the previous evening came into my mind. But he eased the panic saying they were harmless. But I had my doubts. From that moment I never looked at anything he pointed to. If I were to be its prey, at least I didn't want to see its teeth before dying. We were inside the water for two to two and a half hours and it was marvelous.  we spent rest of the day exploring parts of the islet that we hadn't seen the previous day and just relaxing.

          We planned to pay a visit to Male, the main land of Maldives the next day. During our trip we learnt from our guide that the country comprises of 1190 islands. It is amazing how a country can function on an island which has an area of 2sq km. They have the office of president, prime minister, official residences of the prime minister and the president, parliament, police station, multi-specialty hospital, defense headquarters, mosque, markets, shopping complexes, war memorial and everything else that is needed to run a country is present in the island of Male. Needless to say, Male is super dense. Well, Wiki can provide better insight with facts than my blog.

          After 3 days of fun and isolation from the real world, it was time to get back with lots and lots of memories, experiences and of course tons of pictures. I have not included many more  fabulous things that we encountered because this post is already long enough. Even after an year, I still remember everything about Maldives as if it was yesterday. My advice to everyone is that you go to some place, wherever it is soon after the wedding. Do not skip that part because you get married just once it will be beautiful irrespective of the place you choose. Also I forgot to  mention that it was the first time Bharath and I flew together.

View of Maldives from the airplane

Another islet of Maldives

Airport without any compound

Fortification around the island to prevent the waves from reaching the shore

Sharks jumping over each other to grab their food

Maldivian special chocolate

Bharath is adjusting to the pressure gradient

Shark that passed us during our dive

Ocean bed that gets abruptly deeper

Scuba Gear