Maldives

Bungalows

The island has 55 beach bungalows, pretty much all of which are within a few steps of the water's edge. The bungalows are hexagon shaped, with a side bathroom and small front porch. The roof was made with woven palm fronds and dried loose palms for thatch, which you can see. We spent a bit of time sitting out front with books and just relaxing.

This is the view off the right and left of the porch, and a head on view of Kevin reading Harry Potter.

The island also has 17 water bungalows, which range out in a semi-circle off a dock, for the more avid water visitors.

Sunset (Tuesday)

Being so close to the equator means that sunset comes at a predictable 6pm every day, so it was easy to plan our days around.

Beach

It was pleasant just walking around the island (at 150m diameter, it was a fairly quick walk). The entire shore was beach sand and broken shells with a plethora of trees (mostly palm) and beach chairs all around. The water was clear and shallow, remaining under 4 feet for a hundred meters in almost any direction. The ocean floor was smooth sand near the shore, merging into some very impressive coral reefs a little further out.

The weather ranged from sunny to overcast regularly. The strong winds from the west side of the island blew clouds in and out so fast that, although it rained several times a day (and probably more at night), the rains rarely lasted more than 10 minutes. We got everything from gentle spits to storms that soaked us in an instant.

Sunset (Wednesday)

We had entertainment for a few evenings of sunsets in the form of a parasurfer, who had a board on his feet and was riding the waves of the wind with a small parachute above him. He'd skim back and forth along the western shore (where the wind was heaviest), and when he wanted to turn around, he'd do a jump that let the parachute lift him what looked to be about 1-2 meters before skimming around the other direction.

We got some of the best colors in the sky this evening, thanks to the clouds cooperating just right.

Local Wildlife

Aside from the various ants, mosquitos, and other crawly things that managed to find their way into our bungalow, There were a few other forms of common wildlife that we saw. The parakeets were populous, fearless, loud, and pretty. They were highly catered to, thanks to man-made nests and feeding stations we saw in many of the trees, most of them heavily in use.

The other local residents were these lizards (this is actually the same lizard; the colors got a little screwed up), which tended to be upwards of 15 cm long. They were not quite as fearless as the parakeets, and I had a difficult time getting a good picture.

Sunrise, Sunset (Thursday)

Singapore is 12 hours east of Pittsburgh, and the Maldives are 3 hours west of Singapore. I did all this travel in about 72 hours, which so confused my body that it just gave up keeping time and decided to settle on an internal time zone. Fortunately, I'm on vacation, so this translated to "2-4 hour naps whenever I got tired."

This had the interesting side effect of being wide awake for both sunrise and sunset for three days in a row, and Thursday, I managed to get some pictures.

While at sunset, once the sun disappears, the world gets dark fairly quickly, at sunrise, the sky is continually lightening for some time before the sun actually gets above the horizon. It was light enough to walk around with plenty of light to see by while I admired the various cloud formations in deepening shades of blue.

The last picture is the sunset. Unfortunately, the cloud cover was a bit too thick to get any other really good sights.

Us

Barbara steps out of the bungalow on her way to breakfast; Kevin clicks.

Kevin looks up from his Harry Potter book to appreciate a sunset, and is unsuspectingly captured by the camera.

The windblown pair hijack a German tourist in a bikini to snap a picture in the fading sun.

Sunset (Friday)

The clouds were the most cooperative on our last day there. I'm very happy with these shots.

2 hours later, we finished a quick dinner and headed to the airport.

Sunrise in Singapore (Saturday)

The red-eye flight back home arrived just in time for a nice sunrise. Amusingly enough, this shot was taken (accidentally) with the flash, and turned out better than the ones taken without. There was a small spot of glare in the upper right, which I hid.