Maldives: Six Days in Paradise Volume 3

~*Day 3: Donning a wet suit for the first time*

The Discover Scuba (Intro) we signed up for was held in the morning so before that, we had a really light breakfast, quite unlike the previous morning.



Um... but some people say we should not even eat at all before diving just in case we needed to burp or puke and we couldn't do so in the masks. lol.

Kh has got a dive license but as for me, I can't swim properly (no actually, I can't even swim) so we had to start from the beginning.

Before we signed up for the dive, the staff and instructors at the dive centre assured me that it was perfectly safe to dive without knowing how to swim well.

As long as I could flail my arms to paddle like a dog,



kick about like a struggling cat in water and move,



I should be fine since they would be teaching us all the basics in shallow waters first before we took the boat out to the deeper waters.

It has always been one of my many dreams to dive at least once in my lifetime and I'm so glad to have accomplished this goal. *strikes an obligatory asian peace sign and smiles bimbotically*

The pre-diving water exercises in shallow waters did not go very well for me and I was deeply disappointed in myself. I had so much fear that I constantly shot out above the water and removed my mask to take in atmospheric air each time something went wrong underwater. It was fortunate that the diving instructor was so calm and patient with me.

The actual dive was a different story. I enjoyed myself tremendously! I felt like I was floating in a dream to be able to move in three dimensions in a fluid environment. For once, I actually believed that I could finally swim!

Slowly, I loosened my grip on the instructor's hand and started to breathe more normally. I was also able to equalise the pressure in a relaxed manner and clear my diving mask underwater without fearing about water entering my eyes and nose. Soon, I was drifting along the current and going with the flow.

I was like a water baby.



Only for kh to burst my bubble saying that I kicked like a cat.

It felt surreal to be amidst the marine creatures in all shades of colours at such close proximity. I spotted so many fishes and creatures which I could not identify. I also discovered that lobsters could be in such brilliant hues of yellow and blue.

Unfortunately, the instant underwater camera could not capture all these brilliance in the ocean. I've managed to scan some of the not so disappointing of the very disappointing underwater shots into my laptop which I would share them in another post.

Enough of words which some of you would simply scroll through.

Here are some post-diving photos for now. Please don't be shocked by my bare naked face.

Feeling cold but happy after my first dive.



I'm always amazed at the vastly different shades of blue in the ocean.



Somewhere where we dived.





It was icy cold with the wind blowing at us that we had to sun ourselves on the upper deck.



A group shot of all of us-- our diving partners on the left, our really friendly and patient instructor in the middle (she's a Japanese) and us on the right.



Our dive partners, whom kh and I call A&A for short, are from Hong Kong and we instantly hit off coz as you know in a foreign land with many Asian tourists from Japan and Korea, the Singaporeans and Hong Kongers would would find solidarity in each other since we share almost the same culture, language (English as our official language) and colonial masters.

It was really funny when Mrs A later shared with me how relieved she was to know we are from Singapore as there would not be language barrier at all.

It was also her first time diving and we really enjoyed it a lot. We decided to sign up for the next level of Discover Scuba Diving together scheduled the next evening. I did not see any turtles and manta rays and I was determined to see them on the 2nd dive.

We bade one another goodbye and I could hardly wait for the next evening to arrive.

Along the bridge, we saw sharkies parting the little fishies just like how Moses parted the Red Sea.



If you can't really see the sharkies parting the fishies in still, you may wanna click on the play button below.



To my international readers, please pardon our Singlish accent. To my local readers, high 5!

~*Day 3: A bird which paid us a visit*

Diving zapped the energy in us that we decided to lounge in the pool, tan ourselves golden and watch movies in the room till dinner time.

While I was in the bath tub, I saw an immense shadow with outspread wings descending upon the edge of our pool.

Gasp! Deatheaters in Maldives???

Nah...

There in the middle was the Maldivian seabird which I could never quite catch its name. Like an elegant crane, it lifted its wings and extended its slender neck to sip water from our pool.



I lay in the bath tub not daring to move in case I frightened it while kh hollered from the room if I was looking at that spectacle in the middle of the edge of our pool. By the time kh fumbled for the camera, that shy bird had flown out into the sea.



~*Day 3: Wonderful dinner at JING*

When the sun was almost setting, we made our way out for dinner. We had since grown to love walking on the long bridge and taking pictures.



We saw the setting sun on one side and the moon on the other.



We had dinner at JING which I would consider as a fine dining restaurant located over the water.



We had nothing but compliments for all the dishes we ordered.

You could tell a lot about a restaurant from the bread it serves and JING wowed us right from the bread. Even though the bread was good, we didn't finish them for we wanted to save some space for the other delectable food to come. The bread was so good that I wanted to bring back some which wasn't allowed of course. There goes our great idea of popping bread to curb our hunger.



The soup was a rather novel pairing of miso with abalone while the meat in the wanton (dumpling) was beef cheek. The pairing was unique and delicious. I simply love the flavourful tangy taste of the Golden Fin Tuna Tartar. In fact, I kept craving for tartar or anything raw and tangy for the rest of the stay.



For mains, I had Tuna Steak & Caramelized Foie Gras with warm salad of shimeiji mushrooms. kh had Angus Beef Tenderloin with Asian spread spinach, truffle potato & horseradish creme.



For desserts, the waiter recommended their Thai curry ice cream & Warm Chocolate Fondant. We were really attracted to the novelty of thai curry as an ice cream and decided to give it a try. The ice cream was smooth and creamy with a hint of Thai curry.



Looking at all these photos make me crave for so many food now: tartar, miso tea, foie gras, shimeiji mushrooms, spinach, thai curry ice cream.

This was how the bridge looked like at night.



I'll end this post with an OOTD photo.



Outfit of the day:
♥ Worn-to-death butterfly sleeves flowy top with inner lace spag
♥ Diva ethnic beaded necklace
♥ Sheer Romance flower clip
the rest like the shorts and footwear are the same few worn-to-death ones.