Eighth Dip In Indian Ocean, Maldives sojourn!

My 8th dip was destined to be in Indian Ocean at Maldives. The previous blog was prelude to our endeavor in Maldives.

 

Maldives is the smallest country in Asia situated in the heart of Indian Ocean, far from Africa on west and Indonesia on east. India is in its North east, flight taking nearly two and half hours from Mumbai. In geographical parlance it's known as Archipelagic Country means a nation formed by group of islands. There are nearly two thousand islands out of which only two hundred are inhabited. And it's not for those who go on foreign tours for either sight seeing or shopping or merry making. Being only 100% Islamic country[ Even Saudi is not!] Alcohol is absolutely No No. And there are hardly any sights for tourists' interest. It's a country for those who love sea in its all forms. Sports, Food and Scenery!

 

But before going to Indian ocean directly I would like to dwell on the seas where I could not have a dip which I regret till date!

The first one on the list is Mediterranean sea. Right from Spain to south of France to Italy I did have chance but somehow it did not materialize. Barcelona in Spain has beautiful beaches on Mediterranean but it was winter and temperatures lingered around 11* Celsius. The winds were bitingly cold, so it was out of question. South of France from Cannes to Nice to Monaco beaches are beautiful but the sands are rough, they are rather well rounded small stones. On the beach of Nice two elderly ladies in their 60s were playing badminton in bikinis with  the smallest lower piece but nothing on the top, totally topless! Naturally they attracted men, even in France there are, I won't call them perverts but onlookers with weird taste, and they were in dozens! . But the site was nothing sexy at all, at the most it was hilarious!![ Tongue firmly in cheek!, Just stretch your imagination !]. Italy, Mediterranean is at its best especially in and around Capri. The caves , Blue Grotto are out of this world. Rays of Sun refract through the absolute crystal clear waters to give it a bright fluorescent blue color added with shades of Silver! Once seen it, it just is there in your brain!

 

Busan in South Korea has two seas washing it shores. On the east is Sea of Japan and on the south Korea Strait. Again many beaches, the famous ones are 1. Gwangelli and 2.Haeundae. Third one Songdo is artificial, totally Man Made! Gwangelli beach is out of reach for swimmers while Haeundae is another Girgaon Chowpaty! So was absolutely No No for ! Plus the temperature at 11 O* clock in the morning was around 8 to 9* Celsius. I was in layers and to remove them was unthinkable! Even with the aura of Girgaon Chowpaty, Haeundae beach is clinically clean beyond any Indian's imagination! Beach at Tokyo bay is again out of reach for casual bathers.

 

Bondi Beach in Sydney, yet an another miss. Most famous for its Golden sands and family friendly environs! South China Sea at Hong Kong, Santa Monica and Zuma at Malibu again beaches on Pacific Ocean In Los Angeles, oh so many I still miss them! 

Indian Ocean , we call it our own , it being INDIAN ocean but except the name it does not have anything akin to India. First the waters are absolutely blue and Cyan [ Greenish Blue Hue]. They are crystal clear even in crowded places like Male' airport ferry wharf. No floating trash of any kind especially Pet Bottles.

Male' airport, known as Velana international airport is actually not  on Male' island , its on Hulhule island surrounded by sea on all the sides, of course! So you have to take speed boat or ferry to reach anywhere in Maldives, even to capital Male' which is just across the channel at stones throw away distance on an another island.

 

We were to ride in speed boat to our hotel on Thulusdhoo island. Pronunciation at speaker's risk. Like our south Indian Bros Maldivians too do not know how and where to put 'H'! Local language is Maldivian or Dhivehi . It's similar to Lankan language Sinhalese. Actually these are water taxies operated round the clock for basically locals  as well as tourists, on whom the basic and major economy of Maldives depends! Fishing and shipping being other two. Ride to Thulusdhoo was phenomenal. Rather all the rides there after were on par with rides 007 takes in all the Bond movies, super duper fast! A special cart had come to pick us up at marina at Thulusdhoo. Hotel was 3 star. Reef Edge. It was so true to its name. Standing just right across the sea but not exactly on the beach, it gave splendid view of blue waters from every room. Amongst all the islands of Maldives Thulusdhoo is the only one having waves.

White frothy silvery waves breaking continuously was so soothing to the eyes. So it's called surfers' paradise.

 

Just five minutes of walking from Reef Edge takes you to the actual sea. They have build few boulder walls in the sea to make the lagoons. And let me tell about my first experience of swimming in the REAL ocean. So far, in Atlantic or Pacific , it amounted to just wetting the feet in waters, metaphorically, but here in Maldives it was actual ocean, Indian ocean! I so far have prided  in being a good swimmer but that ego crashed in minutes! It turned out that they are poles apart, swimming in Kalpataru's pool and actual ocean.
In the pool the water is placid and do not have any movement or currents. And you can stand on the poolbed anytime if you are tired. In the ocean  water is never still, it pulls you in any direction it may want! Once it so happened that I was trying to reach the shores but the current was so strong that I was practically stationary , neither moving forward nor going backwards! And if you try to stand for taking a respite either the sea bed is too deep , unreachable or it's covered with stony corals, bruising your soles literarily. 

 

I did not use the snorkeling gear for my first dip and used my usual swimming goggles. Even then the marine life I could see was so vivid and vibrant. Umpteen number of  fishes, of variety whose names I hardly could ever remember, with the exception of  two types of eels, one plain and other striped, crested eel known as Honeycomb eel!. Was the normal one the  Morey eel , I am not sure. Corals again in different colors bright and vivid. In different shapes and types. After a while may be 45 minutes or so I swam back to the shore. Different experience awaited me there. After swimming in the sea waters, absolutely salty and leaving salty bitter taste in mouth, my body became so stiff that I was unable to stand, as if my knees were giving away. I have a steel rod in my right thigh due to previous surgery that added to the woo in form of pain though not excruciating but nonetheless bothersome.

 

All said and done swimming in actual ocean was tremendous experience worth having!

 

In the evening local fish Mahi Mahi was served . I definitely am not a fish lover, I can devour only limited types like, Pomphret, Basa, Bombay duck if well made. So any fish that smells 'Fishy' I can't stand it. Upbringing! But except me all the other family members proclaim that they are born to eat fish! So only I had to do away with veggie fodder! [In their view !]

 

The next day it was trip to Sand banks. It's a unique geographical phenomenon. The boatmen mostly are Maldivians and know their Ocean like  back of their palm We were seven, Me, my wife Shubha, Son Saket, his wife, my daughter in law Neha and their son, my grandson Arshu, and Neha's parents, Nitin and Sugandha. With the speed of lightening they traversed the ocean to a spot absolutely in the middle of nowhere. It was sea, sea and sea everywhere, with neither land nor humanity in the vicinity of miles and miles! What actually is ocean one realizes at such places! How do they navigate in these directionless environs they only know!

 

At certain times in 24 hours sea recedes during low tide leaving just a strip of land, not more than a meter in width and around 50 to 100 meters in length. That's Sand Bank. And  it goes under the water again within a very short period, say 45 to 50 minutes. We have to catch that period. We could, after getting up very early in the morning.

 

Golden white sand shines in the early Sun like glass  crystals spread all over. Turquoise blue water with different shades of blue cajoles the bank on all the sides. The ocean slopes here very gradually  up to a certain point and then suddenly dips to very great lengths. Very good situation for snorkeling. Here I wore snorkeling gear for the first time in Indian Ocean. Snorkeling gears are available in two types. One which covers the face entirely where you can breathe normally through the nose. While the other one has a mask with glasses that covers your eyes and nose. The ventilatory tube one has to hold in the mouth with the teeth and breathe through the mouth. Hear the piece over the eyes and nose has to be absolutely water tight otherwise if water sips in one might choke. The gadget which I wore was absolutely perfect and I could glide over the deep sea waters effortlessly for tens of minutes. Underwater valleys and trenches were sights to behold. Here the corals were different with totally different shape and color. One was  like a human brain with color and sulci and gyri exactly matching human brain. Others were like huge flowers spread over few feet with enchanting bright colors from pink, to green to at times brown. Fishes too were in myriads of shapes and color. Some were translucent while some fluorescent. Water leeches too were there. Boatman announced that it was time to leave. When we came back to Sand bank, water had already started engulfing it leaving only a faint reminisce of the Sand bank that was !