Maldives: Six Days in Paradise Volume 4

~*Day 4: The Disappointing Sunrise Fishing*~

It had been four days in paradise and I had yet to catch the sun rising from the horizon.

On the first two days, I made sure I set my alarm clock to the sun rise timing just to catch a glimpse of how it looked. Alas, there were always clouds along the horizon shrouding the golden ball. Kh suggested we sign up for sunrise fishing so that we could once and for all catch the sunrise.

Apart from the staff, there were only us and another Japanese couple with their cute toddler son on board. We set off on the traditional Dhoni for line fishing when the sky was still dark. We were taught by the guides on how to use a line to fish. After about 15 minutes of bobbing on the choppy waters, a slight drizzle ensued. As I stared for quite some time at the rising and falling crest of water where my line was cast, I gradually felt nauseous. That was then that I realized that I was suffering from sea sickness.

I felt the world spinning around me and had to lie down. Any more vertigo and I would puke right into the ocean.



Hence, you could see that there aren't many photos of our fishing trip.

Kh caught a fish and the Japanese couple with the cute toddler son caught two. One of the fish was brightly-coloured in patterns of brilliant yellow and blue. I was quite surprised that that fish could actually be eaten.

Soon, the rain fell more heavily and we had to wrap up the fishing trip.

And you know what? I was disappointed with the sun rise yet again. I wish I could wave a magic wand and chant "evanesco" to chase those darn clouds away.



Some really powerful being cast the "ascendio" spell on the clouds instead for they rose higher and higher like this.



~*Day 4: Breakfast & Walk*~

I was still recovering from nausea and the savoury smell of food irked me.

In the end, I could only drink hot cocoa. Hot cocoa wasn't on the menu actually but the wait staff saw how pale I looked and offered it. I reached out for some KokoKrunch when I felt better.

Meanwhile, kh took a plate of food which he thought was perfect for my state but had to finish my share instead when I was still feeling nauseous.



After that, we strolled along the beautiful beach The water was crystal clear, turquoise where it was shallow and royal blue far out in the deep. The beach was a pristine sandy white peppered with pieces of seashells and marred only by our footprints.





Little fishes swam right up to the shoreline; I often wondered if they would be swept onto the shore and be beached.



A boat had beached itself along with a lunatic who thought he was Captain Jack Sparrow.



There I went destroying the smooth sandy canvas in reply to what kh drew in the sand two nights back.







Making our mark and leaving our footprints on the sand.



Like little children, we had a whale of a time playing with the little fishes in the water. I relish walking through them and seeing the colours of the water changed around me.



Minus the shadows of the palm trees, the darker parts of the water were where the fishes were. You could see how they form a circle around us.

Here's a video of how these little fishes reacted to stimuli above the water surface like shadows.



Here's another video depicting the fishes swimming all around us in the water. Kh kept suggesting we should bring our snorkelling masks just to take a peek at these fishes underwater.



If you're watching the video with audio, please excuse kh's "Here's my fit. I'm standing right in the bitch." lol

The most absurd thing happened right when the video space ran out-- A whole horde of silver fishes jumped up from the water, flew right across my waist and disappeared into the water all within split seconds. I was taken aback by the sudden gleam of silver before me as they reflected the sun's glare into my eyes. I was dumbfounded for a few moments before I screamed, "What just happened?"

The staff from the dive centre who happened to be on the bridge near us laughed and explained why.

Apparently, the little fishes were escaping from the bigger fishes. I guess I was standing in their way and so they had to jump out of the water and back in again. Kh and I were both kicking ourselves and the camera for not having recorded that down! You could see some splatters of water on my t-shirt.


Outfit of the morning:
♥ Heritage 1981 Carnivore T-shirt
♥ Oakley Dartboard shades in berry red
♥ Worn to death shorts and shoes

~*Day 4: 2nd Scuba dive*~

I've shared a lot on my experience, thoughts and feelings about my 1st dive in Volume 2. I was really fast falling in love with diving by then. My only gripe was that we did not manage to meet with any manta rays or sea turtles




Outfit before dive:
♥ Rip Curl bikini
♥ Sheer Romance beach outerwear
♥ Oakley Dartboard shades in berry red

~*Day 4: Cocktail Party & Dinner*~

When we got back to our room, we saw an invitation lying idly on our bed. It was an invitation to a cocktail party at Jahaz Bar that evening.

Being greedy pigs, the first thought that came to us was: Would there be food provided?

We wondered if the cocktail reception included food and did not know if we should make any dinner reservation thereafter.

After dining at JING the other time, we were both dying to try out the food at Meeru Barefoot Grill. As we were able to access the menu from the tv in our room, we could see that all the food on the menu sounded really appetizing. Seating capacity was however limited to 20 people and we could not possibly walk in with no reservation made.

Before we headed to the main island, we took some sun set shots.





Sunset on one side and moonrise on the other. I love the blends of grey and orange on side and the hues of blue, purple and pink on the other.



As we neared the main island, we could smell smoke and bbq in the air. From the distance, we could see that most of the outdoor seating at Jahaz Bar were already taken up.



Other than alcoholic drinks, there was this one other finger food and I was about to die in drunken hunger there and then.

We didn't exactly know what the cocktail reception was about but we hazard the guess that it was more for the staff to mingle with us and get to know their visitors better. Although Maldives Constance Haleveli Resort is an idyllic getaway, I cannot imagine myself as a staff working there long term. I guess the staff enjoyed themselves a lot more than the guests did. lol.



A Caucasian staff attended to us for a while and remarked that we spoke very good English for Japanese. In a joking manner, kh answered, "Ah, that's because we're not from Japan." He enquired where we were from, meekly apologized and then drifted away to attend to a Caucasian couple. I wondered if he was embarrassed or anything but we certainly didn't take offence at all.

Next a Filipino staff came forward to chat with us. We found out that he is the chief engineer for Constance Haleveli. He shared with us about how such water villas were built, how they distilled their own drinking water, the water filter system and about island life. We were filled with awe. As for me, I was deeply impressed with the piping and draininage system on the island.

We dug a little deeper about how employment works in the Maldives and soon found out that most people in the tourism sector are foreigners and that the local themselves do not enjoy working in the various resorts on the various islands for months without their families and friends.

I've gained many new insights about Maldives but I guess it would take a whole post to write about my new-found knowledge.

By the time cocktail ended, JING and Meeru were all fully booked that we had to settle for Jahaz restaurant. Instead of an Australian themed buffet like in Day 2, it was Japanese this time round.





So far, we had nothing but praises for the food at the resort. However that time round, they fared a little low with their Japanese food. The sashimi were not exactly cold and fresh. Some were a little mushy. The miso soup tasted like MSG with kelp and beansprouts (or were they mushrooms). As for the meats, the yakitori and tempura were a little overdone and tough. The only saving grace were their desserts.

I think we've been spoilt by good Japanese restaurants in Singapore and thus felt that the Japanese buffet was the most disappointing meal we had in Maldives.

What I like about Maldives is how they focus on eco-tourism. Every man-made structure is built around natural structure. If a tree was standing in the way of erecting a wall, a space would be made in the wall for the tree.



Kh thinks the lizards pictures above are one of the most disgusting pictures of our trip. I was thrilled to have captured 2 lizards mating to care about what he had said.

A little surprise greeted us when we returned to our villa. We had a little cake each in two bell jars by the sides of the bed. The staff also arranged a bottle of water and a glass by the bedside as if to remind us to drink more water. Mats were also laid out for our bedroom slippers.



The bathroom was bathed in a futuristic blue glow. I never once noticed that there was a switch to switch the blue lights on.

Like every other night, we watched lots of on-demand movies and was glad to have caught so many shows which I've missed in the cinema.

I would conclude Volume 4 with a picture of my outfit.


Outfit of the night:
♥ Prada embroidered silk lounge dress
♥ Sheer Romance flower clip

I've been a little caught up with lots of non work issues that have been keeping me really occupied recently so pardon me if I don't reply to your comments or visit your blogs as frequently. I will continue to keep up with the reading of some of my favourite blogs. Continue to keep those lovely comments coming in though coz I simply love reading them!

Happy 46th Birthday Singapore!

Majulah Singapura!

I'm no manicurist or nail artist with no professional tools but I love Singapore enough to do bimbotic things like these mini Singapore flags for later's National Day Parade.



Whenever I post photos of my nails I've to mention that I've got stubby nails with small and short nail beds. It was difficult trying to paint within such a small "canvas" and the outer polish staining my skin should be gone after a good scrub so pardon all the flaws k?

As part of the National Education Programme, all Primary 5 pupils will be given the opportunity to attend the National Day Parade (NDP) Preview held on a few Saturdays before the actual day. My Primary 5 students have been telling me that I should go watch the NDP this year coz it's really good. I thought it was ok to miss it since tickets are virtually impossible to get but fortunately, dear reg got an extra ticket and invited me to watch with her mum and her brother on National Day itself. Hurray!

I love all the extremely nationalistic Singapore songs from the 25th anniversary tape.

When pop songs took over and I would always love Home sung by local talent Kit Chan



and We Will Get There by international sensation and local singer Stephanie Sun.



This year's theme song In A Heartbeat hasn't sunk into me yet but I hope attending the NDP later would.

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.

That's it! Wisdom's out! Say hello to Stupid.

My upper right wisdom tooth had been giving me some problems every now and then. It was growing towards my cheek and when hard food got stuck at the little gap between it and the gum at the end of the jaw joint, it would grate against my cheek. I was contemplating to extract it in May but after that it stopped giving me problem till now.

Earlier in the evening, I went to the dentist for scaling and polishing and decided to extract my wisdom tooth once and for all. Extracting the upper tooth did not require any surgery so I thought it would be fine to make the decision after listening to what the dentist had said.

So I did it.

It's been 6 hours and the wound is still bleeding.

It's been 6 hours. I'm very hungry but I can't eat as I've to bite the gauze to cease the bleeding.

It's been 6 hours and the dull aching pain is beginning to set in. My 2nd gauze is soaked red and I've only got 1 gauze left. My hubby and mil are wondering why I wasn't given an MC. It didn't occur to me as I thought it was just a normal extraction unlike extracting the lower one which requires surgery and warrants a 5-day MC.

Have you ever gotten MC for extracting your upper wisdom tooth?

~~~

On a separate note, I went to the Watson's members only closed door sale near the dental clinic chipmunk cheek, mute and numb from the anesthesia and all. I'm SGD193.40 poorer but I saved a lot, earned a lot of points and I'm happy with my buys.

~~~

Updated:
I managed to wrangle an MC from the dentist. I was in pain and fever set in so I requested for one to cover me for I was sleeping the pain and fever away for half the day. After leaving the clinic, I went back to work and everyone was wondering why I was back.

Maldives: Six Days in Paradise Volume 2

~*Day 2: My life is like a stroll on the beach...as near to the edge as I can go*~

As much as we would like to sleep in like what people on vacation usually do, we had to peel ourselves off the sheets once the sun rose as we could not afford to miss our complimentary breakfast.

You know, that's one meal settled and lots of money saved in a place called paradise where money and debit still exist. ;P

It was such a sunny day that I set my hat on my head and felt like I was ready to brave the sun. Alas, the wind was so strong; I had to to constantly hold onto my hat for fear of it being whipped off my head and sent a fluttering into the clear blue ocean.



Remember that from Volume 1 of the Maldives series, I mentioned that our water villa was located right at the tail of the "jetty"? Whenever we had to walk from our villa to the main island, I would constantly look out for the buggy to hop on. It was really fun trying to catch a buggy to hitch a ride from. You could actually call for a buggy from your room but we decided it was more fun trying to catch them while snapping pictures along the way.



Buffet breakfast at Jahaz --the main buffet restaurant and bar-- was always enjoyable as we love to people-watch while we tucked into our food.

It was interesting checking out other couples and guessing what nationalities they were. Kh and I were the only Singaporeans there. For Asian, we spied lots of Japanese and Koreans and two Hong Kong couples. There was also a Japanese family with a very cute toddler boy in toll. Of course there were Caucasians too but the Asians clearly outnumbered them.



I reckon Kh and I were the most uncivilized couple there. People often stared at us and at our plates wondering how these two seemingly thin people could finish all the food.



I was perpetually hungry at Maldives, much hungrier than in Singapore. Breakfast was what I looked forward to every day to appease my gnawing tummy.

kh and I constantly left our seats for 2nd and 3rd helping. We attacked and devoured our food like how normal Singaporeans eat during lunch time when there are people standing around your table, tapping their feet and waiting for you to scram... only this time, we had all the time in the world and nobody waiting for us to scram.

All around us, the dainty and elegant Japanese and Koreans consumed a small portion of food with delicate little nibbles. Most of them, especially the ladies, had only ONE helping of food before they wiped their mouths artfully and wafted away.

kh and I merely stared at each other in utter surprise, read each others minds with knowing looks and continued lingering on till the buffet breakfast ended. Those refined Japanese and Koreans might have thought we were such glutton and secretly wrinkled their noses in disgust as they walked out from plain sight.

After making sure we stock up enough in our bodies to withstand till dinner, we took a leisurely stroll along the beach.



I've always loved the beach. There's something about the blue-green in its waters and brilliant golden in its sand, the briny wind in my face and the gentle swish of the waves all combined to give a sense of serenity.



"At the beach, life is different. Time doesn't move hour to hour but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides and follow the sun." -- Anonymous





~*Day 2: Snorkeling fun! Snorkeling fun?*~

Since we signed up for a scuba diving exploration trip, I decided I had to overcome my fear for water by first going snorkeling in our "backyard ocean".

That was the 2nd time I ever snorkeled in my life... with a life vest of course.

The first time was in Bintan a few years back and after I overcame the initial fear, I let kh pull me as I drifted along with him and marvelled at the sights underwater.

However this time, I just could not do it. Each time he squeezed my palm to signal for me to look out for some nemos or dorys, I would turn my head and saltwater would gush into my tube and into my nose and mouth. If the water level was too low, I would gag and immediately stand up and pull my mask away to cough violently. If the water level was too high, I would flip myself face up while floating with the help of the life jacket. Then, I would cough and sputter till tears and mucus flowed nonstop.



kh checked my tube and realised that it was facing downwards such that any slight movement of the head would render saltwater in. However, no matter how we adjusted, the tube continued to face down. I decided to head back to the safety of our plunge pool and "practise snorkeling" there.



I didn't wanna hold him back coz of my silly aquaphobia and told him to snorkel by himself instead of accompanying me and waiting for the fear to wash away.

See the divide between the deep blue and the light blue? That's the edge of the atoll and you couldn't even see the bottom of the seabed once you reach the dark blue parts.

I forced him to put on a life vest just in case. Everyone put on life jackets there too, even those who looked like swimmers so I insisted he did it for safety.



We did not have an underwater camera and so we used the instant one available in the room for USD25. He took lots of pictures for me to see how it was on the other side of the blue. Imagine my disappointment when I collected the photos from the photo developing shop and saw how how the actual photos turned out. I will try to scan some for all of you to see in my diving post.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing in and by the pool soaking up the sun, taking some videos (which I won't upload here) as well as in the bath tub soaking up the bubbles with a hydrating mask on.

Life is bliss!

By the 2nd day of our stay, I've become as brown as a berry and I really love my tan then.



We expended lots of energy on snorkeling and overcoming the fear of snokeling and felt hungry way before dinner time.

Kh was too spoilt and would only eat salty food when hungry. In the meantime, decorative fruits had become my saviour to tide me through the next meal. Thank god for these fruits. I wiped out all except the rambutan which was a little overripe by then.



~*Day 2: An adventurous dinner by chance*~

Preparing to head out for dinner... Here's my outfit of the day and night. For the night, I added some accessories like the hairband and the necklace both of which received many compliments from the staff there. I guess nobody else dressed as silly as I did for an island getaway holiday!


♥ ASOS blue sundress
♥ No label small floral prints Usamimi hairband (aka rabbit ears hairband)
♥ No label camera mirror necklace
♥ Pretty Fit embellished hooked on sandals

The nerds of the 70s headed out to eat. That's us featuring the opened and closed eyes.



The 2 restaurants which we wanted to try were fully booked and thus we had to head to the main Jahaz restaurant which was having an Australian-Asian themed buffet that night.

The food looked a lot nicer in daylight and Acqua Panna is my new favourite atas (malay slang for high class) water.



Once again, it was a cloudy sunset...



and by then, the food photos didn't look good at all under the low light unflashed condition. The food looked worse with flash photography.



Could you guess the unknown skewered meat up there? I can't remember if it was kangaroo or crocodile meat. The one in the burger was crocodile. I refused to eat them and chided kh for taking them.

They also served rabbit meat too which fortunately, kh didn't take for he knew I would never eat it. (I used to keep rabbits as pets.)

The rabbit meat incident was quite comical. Many of the staff commented on my usamimi hairband and said I looked like a rabbit. When I was at the meat station and enquired about that certain unknown meat, the staff there replied politely that it was rabbit meat and urged me to try. Kh intervened by saying, "Look at her ears. She wouldn't want to eat her family."

After that, many of the staff remembered us!

Desserts were so so.



~*Day 2: Circles in the sand*~

After eating, we took a night stroll back.









This concludes Day 2 of the trip. Look out for photos of my maiden diving experience and one of the BEST fine-dining meal we've ever eaten all in the next volume.