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| First view at the sea in front of airport terminal |
Day 0, Friday I had full day of work then went home at 6. Started count down at 4 while lunching with KS. Uneventful SQ flight, almost full. Arrived and met mom dad Henry whose Scoot flight was delayed by more than an hour. Waited another hour for our local guide to guide us to a comfortable SUV over 10mins ride to Hulmale. Our guest house is modest with haphazard service, we were allocated 202 and 302 on different floors. Feel asleep at 12am local time.
Day 1, Saturday arrived at Royal Island and spa. We took local domestic flight and was asked to standby at airport from 930 for 1115flight which was delayed by an hour.
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| Propeller plane ATR-72 used on the domestic flight |
The flight itself is only 20mins and we flew low on propeller plane over rings of atoll atop Maldives archipelago.
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| Clear water and sea |
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| Sunrise on the Earth day 22 Apr 2018 |
Day 3 Monday, we moved to table near the pool. Tried swimming fins. Snorkel front but panic. Sea visibility poor because of rain and current.Discovered badminton. Dinner at Boli Bar with Maldives curry. Sunset by jetty.
Day 4 Tuesday, sunrise and walk around island for first time. Lounge by pool among trees. Snorkel front pool. Then rest and snorkel by jetty until sunset. Beautiful perfect sunset at 6. Then evening badminton set with parents. Dinner at Boli bar.
Day 5, sunrise view and walk around island. First ones to get breakfast. Tried diving 10am through noon. Relax 1 through 4pm. Diving again at 5 but rough seas and stormy. Return and relax to chat with boy back home who lost 5digits in stock. Dinner romantic at Raabondhi until 10pm. Had appetizer prawn salad, creamy aspragus soup, lemongrass sorbet, beef medium rare with veggie, malibu cassata, and skipped coffee, for a glass of wine.
Day 6, Thursday Apr 26. Awoke 7am and missed sunrise. Leisurely breakfast, playedpool three rounds and snorkel at 1115 for an hour. Tried fin. So hot and beautiful weather. Mom tried swimming far. My fin fell off but retrievable. Play at garden. Went to see sunset that is almost perfect and beautiful. Went snorkelling and we can see small fishes swimming among the corals. Love the sunset.
Day 7, Friday Apr 27. Awoke at 535am for sunrise. Is beautiful and peaceful. The hotel is doing sandflies control. Lots of guests started to arrive for weekend. Breakfast with white oatmeal. Then snorkel and swim while learning tread water. Rest up at beach benches and took video of surrounding. Check out babes and dudes. Saw babystingray. Water is high and saw fishes among the tides overturned at rocky waterbreaker. After resting, I walked around however since the garden sanctuary was occupied by a tv crew filming some sort of cooking show, I rested on the swing overlooking sea and jetty. we return for a sunset snorkel for awhile, enjoying some rare fishes, saw a white-brown dotted moray eel. The wave was gentle stronger than usual forming some surf wave. We then at burger-theme dinner at Boli Bar. The moon is almost full, illuminating the beach and seaside with bright pure light. We can see stars filling the night sky. Even Taurus constellation.
Day 8, Saturday Apr 28. Cloudy sky today. Slow breakfast and we saw stormy grey weather but still mild. Played three rounds pool with mom dad and Henry (I won two rounds, including one bout with FOUR consecutive in pocket 😊). We then rented kayak and go round island in about 40”. Wow it is tiring and a good rowing exercise. When the waves near shore it gathered height and gently rocked the kayak. We laugh in delight. We then snorkel with awesome visibilty, mom pointed a large lobster under a rock, we can see only the long whiskers, really. We saw few more types of new species of fishes. I then relaxed at garden while reading Virtue Falls novel by Christina Dodd on kindle.
Day 9, Sunday 29 April. Was cloudy this morning. There was big sprayer and fogging going on must be because of flying insects that are biting our legs. Miraculously those marks disappear after a day, at one point I had upto 10 marks on each leg. We braved the fog towards the other jetty. The water point is very low and visibility so clear 20-25m. We snorkel for awhile under the gentle morning sun, when Henry spotted manta. There was a medium manta rays. We waited awhile further towards the deep side of the sea when we spotted a huge ray swimming gently flapping its side towards our side. It is perhaps around 10m away but was huge! Wow. So amazing sight to behold. . We rest in the afternoon then went out again to front where we saw a pack of baby reef sharks. The water was so clear tempting us to snorkel again along the shore.
I saw those white parrot fishes burrowing its snout to the sand as if trying to dig for some eel or soft-bellied crawlies. We also saw a soft moving doughnut of rolling sand as if they are beginning to form algae and corals. Towards the end, Henry pointed me to a large black head poking out of the rock. I thought it was a moray eel you can see its white sharp teeth. I was resolved to finally be able to tread water. I dip to the pool at the depth where I could barely stand but still with my head above water comfortably and start to practice my leg movement, the frog kick. By holding my hands to railing I could finally float. Releasing my hands from the side, I started to do sculling moving my arms back and forth with wrist inflexible and fingers closed. Then we moved to jetty. Two yellow fishes swam friendly close by to my mask almost playfully. I practiced treading on slightly wavy sea and I could finally tread water! We took more sunset photos taking advantage of the favourable light condition. Another rounds of badminton followed where I beat Henry 15-4 😊. We were hungry by then and after shower hurried to Boli Bar and had a nice dinner with maldivian fish curry, nasi gore g, seafood salad, and young coconut which I imagine is freshly harvested from many trees around the island. Went to bed at 10pm. The moon was shining so brightly it was almost full moon and we can see crabs along the shore.
Day 10, Monday April 30. Time to check out. Alarm rang at 410am. We had packed and settled the bill. After light breakfast, mom pa and Henry sent me off to jetty at 505am prompty from pier. The sky was still dark and the boat full of twenty or so tourists looked back toward the Royal island fondly...the full moon shining bright and high over the island. After 10mins we arrived at Dharavandhoo for check in procedure. No alcohol allowed so they took away my bottle of champagne. Must hide that fact from mom.
