Sharon Feinstein

The Maldives is surreal. Extinct volcanoes in the sea on which coral reefs have grown, and on top of that a smattering of beach sand. Nothing more, just tiny pods in the ocean surrounded by vibrant reefs. In a storm you can’t help but wonder if you’ll all be blown away and land up in the dark watery depths. The best thing about being there is looking down into the ocean, seeing that dark midnight blue drop where it just keeps going down and there are floating fish for as far as you can see. Never thought I’d get blase about swimming with sharks and even being circled by two of them at one stage, 2 metre black tipped, and an even bigger nurse shark. Fell in love with a very busy Hawksbill turtle picking out the anenomes from the coral with her little sharp beak, and another day there was a pod of around 200 spinner dolphins surrounding our boat. And then the stingrays, shoals of kaleidoscopic fish, and out there at night the glowing, dancing plankton under a canopy of bright stars. The food is another big draw there, all imported but done up to the nines so that you just want to consume it all, the beautifully presented dishes that keep coming and taste of the sea. Loved both Baros and Huvafen Fushi and can still hear those little waves lapping under our water villa as I go to sleep, after 3 days back in London. Of course now interspersed with police sirens and chugging black taxis. On the island resorts no cars, no bicycles, just your legs and flippers for transport. Guess which one I prefer!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 27th, 2010 at 9:52 pm and is filed under SharonSpeak, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.