The Maldives Rocked!

We are back from having an absolute wonderful 8 days away from Chennai while visiting the Maldives Islands. Unfortunately as soon as we got back I seemed to have caught a nasty little bug but am finally feeling better.

Before we left on our trip we had to deliver Millie and Cleo to our friends house as they had graciously offered to keep them for us. Of course the kids kept asking, " do they know that Cleo (the kitten) bites? It was wonderful knowing that the pets were well cared for. And I think our friends really enjoyed them as well!

The trip had a bit of a rocky start as Indian Airlines changed the flight times so that our flight arrived to late to catch the sea plane to our resort. We left for the airport early in hopes of eating at the Hard Rock Cafe (they have beef burgers) in Bangalore but traffic was heavy so we ended up at McDonald's (no beef!).

We were able to fly out one day early and spend the night on the island of Male. It was nice to be able to see Male. We were able to walk around town and had a fantastic meal at a Thai restaurant. One very interesting thing about this town is that there are no dogs...none what so ever, well except for the 2 guard dogs at the airport. That was really strange as in India there are dogs everywhere and they all look pretty much the same. It is actually illegal to bring a dog into the country. Early in the morning we took the first plane out (around 6:45) and had a ride of about 45 minutes. I have never flown on a sea plane and Ted has always dreamed of flying on sea plane (now the dream to actually fly one remains). I was a bit skeptical as I don't like flying but I can honestly say the sea plane ride was great!


The Royal Island Resort & Spa let us check in to our rooms early which was wonderful of them. We were poolside by 10 am!

The island that we went to wasn't very big (none of them are very big), it was maybe 1/2 mile long and 1/4 mile wide. For one week we heard no horns (just boats and sea planes), saw no cows (just bats and crows), saw no vehicles of any sort (no bikes, motorbikes, cars, etc). We had hot water without turning on a heater and had hot water at the bathroom faucet! We swam in the pool, read books, snorkeled in the ocean, jet skied and para sailed (just Mason and Ted). It was very relaxing. We didn't have to worry about things breaking and trying to get them fixed, scheduling drivers, hearing about what the staff are bickering about, our guards sleep at night or trying to get the landscaping completed. I see why our company encourages us to get away every three months, Ted is very much refreshed and was ready to go back to work!

The bats...very interesting and very big. They must have a wing span of at least 1 1/2 ft, although at time they seemed much bigger. They were not like traditional insect eating bats that swoop right above your head but fruit eating bats. We would be walking along the beach or sitting by the pool and see these huge things fly over us. I really liked watching them hanging from the trees and feasting on their bounty of fruit.