Thursday March 30th – What time is it??? We walked in four time zones in 16 hours!

Our last day at the resort … kinda sad! We checked out at noon but were on the island until 2h30 pm. Then we started our journey back. One boat ride, three plane rides, spending time on the ground in 4 different time zones, changing the time on our watches 3 times in a 16 hour span, to finally get home at 4 am local time.

The 20 minutes boat ride takes us from the resort to a small island with an airport (Dharavandhoo) , but it is one time zone away – move your watch back one hour. A 20 minutes flight to Malé and then a 4h30 min flight to Doha, Qatar, takes us another 2 time zones farther east – move your watch back another 2 hours. Finally, a 1h30min flight to Muscat moves us back one time zone – move your watch up by one hour. It was crazy. Is there a world record for this walking in many time zones in one day? I’m sure we’d be in the running!

It has been a wonderful vacation. We really enjoyed it. Now back to school for 6 weeks of teaching, then start exams, finish the school year, and get ready to leave Oman for good; Bangkok is calling! But if you want to add something to your bucket list, we are suggesting the Maldives. It is a different world!

Soap and lotion in reusable bottles

Water (and most other liquids) in glass bottles. Everything is recyclable; there is practically no waste

Home sweet home, sad to leave!
Notice the crane in the middle of the picture, waiting for the small fish to swim by the shore and the bigger fish to chase them down. The small ones try to go from the left side of the beach to the right side of the beach, and the bird just waits!

Spent a few hours at this corner of the beach!

Almost 30 years married!

Fish swimming below a restaurant on stilts (free food?)

Love the colour of the water

Thank you so much; you have been amazing!!!

Goodbye!

From water to air transportation

A few more atolls to look at!

Velana International airport, at Malé, but you need a boat to get to Malé, as it is the next island.

Sadly enough, we went straight. And so it ends, a wonderful holiday!

Wednesday March 29th – Our last full day at the resort

Jacqui and I went back for a massage in the morning, and I must admit that she is right: they are the best massages we’ve ever had on the planet! It is total relaxation! Nice way to start the day, followed by a Maldevian Sunrise, a walk around the island and a swim in the water. However, that part was cut short for a bit as Jacqui saw a shark swim by her, maybe 10 feet away. Had this been an Olympic event in the 25m dash, she would have won no problem!! She made it back to shore in no time! The shark was maybe 4 – 5 feet long; just another fish swimming around in the ocean. Good thing she wasn’t snorkeling at the time; I’m not sure what would’ve happened then. She did however go back in the water afterwards and enjoyed the rest of her day.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We enjoyed another sunset, and had great food, like we did all week. Tomorrow is our last day, and we’re both hoping that the sea will be really rough and that the boat won’t be able to go, but we both know that it’s not going to happen. Oh well, it has been very nice so far and we will enjoy every minute that we have on this island paradise!

The island is full (or empty) of wildlife; there are Tigers and Lions everywhere you go! Love this jungle!

A "stick" fish

Small but cute

Our room viewed from our deck

Our view, from the bed

Part of the coral reef, outside our room

Our backyard!

Our deck

Our "road" system

Gateway to the reef!

About 4 feet deep at low tide, 5 feet at high tide

Tuesday March 28th – Sunset cruise

Our day was again pretty quiet, which is pretty nice. We walked around the island a few times, enjoyed our food and drinks, spent most of the day at the beach. It was very nice and very relaxing! We spent some time on our deck admiring the various species of fish below. The water is so clear, and there are so many colourful fish; it's like having our own private aquarium! (Hard to take good pictures though as the fish are moving, the water is moving, there is light dispersion, ... so all in all, a challenge! And the colourful fish stay more at the bottom.)

We did a sunset cruise at night, it was a nice boat ride! We saw a few deserted islands and a couple of resorts that looked fairly pricey (one had private pools or hot tubs for each water villas). We don’t have that! The sunset itself was just like what we see on the beach; it goes down in water or disappears behind clouds as it gets lower.

All the fish pictures are taken off our deck, over the coral reef

Neat effect of the water movement on this picture

Don't miss the orange and blue stripped fish on the right hand side

Leaving our island to go on our sunset cruise

The neighbours - about a 40 minute boat ride (albeit not very fast)

These are the ones with the pools on each deck.

Enjoying the boat ride

Sun is setting!

Sunset over an island (not ours!)

Another day done!

Back to the tip of our island

Side entrance to the main bar. Notice the small dance floor (wood) and then everything else is sand!