Modhuchondrima

After a long wait, the suspense was over…but was it really over? Well, you must be

wondering what is the suspense all about. I was going on my honeymoon, and I still

didn’t know the destination….my enthusiastic husband, Santa, had kept it as a secret from me.

He didn’t even tell friends and family, fearing that they might leak it out. We’re supposed

to depart on the 22nd of December, and even on the 21st I didn’t know where I was

heading! Not that I mind…because it’s heightening the sense of excitement within me.

Finally on the 22nd morning he relents and tells me “Sweetie, we’re going to Malaysia”.

I say, “Ok….sounds good to me…”, but I don’t believe him completely.

I was right in not believing him because after reaching the airport I found out that we

were going to Maldives and not Malaysia. I was so excited! He couldn’t have made a

better choice. I tried to think if I had mentioned to him sometime in the past that the

white beaches appealed to me a lot, but couldn’t recall doing so. Anyways, let’s give him

credit for his decision because it was just perfect. I think I married the right person! This

place with its white sands and azure waters has painted my imagination since the time I

saw it in a travel magazine. I simply couldn’t wait anymore to get there, but as luck

would have it, our flight was delayed by an hour and a half. It could not dampen my spirit

though.

Finally we took off at noon and having managed a window-side seat I got a wonderful

aerial view of the Western Ghats and the Nilgiris. I took in every moment of it. The

mountains were simply amazing. I was so thrilled on seeing the mountains. Little did I

know then that even more amazing things were in store for me. Well, I knew amazing

things were awaiting but I couldn’t anticipate the degree to which I would be amazed.

After an hour and a half, Maldives made its appearance as a stretch of small dots on the

deep blue ocean. The aerial view of the islands surrounded near the banks by the clear

blue waters and after that by the deep blue ocean left me dumbstruck. It was time for

landing and as the plane was reducing altitude and preparing to land it almost felt that the

plane would be landing in the waters itself. It went in a semicircle over the ocean and

before I could realize it had touched land!!

From the international terminal of the Male International Airport, we were taken to the

seaplane terminal, which functioned like our domestic terminal. The seaplanes looked just like the ones I had seen in Tintin. And never in my dreams did I think that I would one day be a passenger on this. Maybe this was my all dreams coming-true trip. From this area seaplanes took people to the different island resorts. The seaplane could accommodate only 15 people at a time. If there were more than 15 people the plane came back for a second trip.

From the seaplane we could see the islands more clearly and distinctly. Some of the

islands were so small that we could actually mark out their borders complete with the

sandbank and everything. The specialty of this area was its white sands and the crystal

clear azure waters. It was a slice of paradise right here on earth. After seeing this I was no

longer in the mood for imagination and was getting more and more impatient to go to

Kuredu Island – our home for the next 7 days. Finally, after a wait of two hours and a

journey of forty minutes we landed in Kuredu Island Resort. 

The white sandy beaches of

the island lined by palm trees swaying in the evening wind and surrounded by the

turquoise waters stretched as far as I could see. On our arrival we were given a warm

welcome and then taken to our cottage. Everything in the island was picture perfect

starting from the scenery to the ambience. The entire atmosphere of the island was very

relaxing, very calm and languid and I was reminded of Tennyson’s “Lotos Eaters”. Life

seemed to go on at its own leisurely pace. One had all the time in the world to do

whatever they wanted.

The island had 5 different types of accommodation and we stayed in two of the types --

the water villas and the Jacuzzi beach villas. All of them were sea-facing and had a

stunning view of the Indian Ocean. For the first three days we stayed in the water villas.

It was perfect for honeymooners. The water villas stood out secluded from the rest of the

island in the north-west side on the turquoise lagoon. There are 50 such water villas,

standing in a wavy line one after the other, each connected to the other physically only.

The cottage's standing on wooden logs half inside the azure waters were what I had

always seen in magazines and had always dreamt of staying in. 

After we entered the

cottage there were more surprises awaiting me. There were huge glass doors at the back

which faced the Indian Ocean and which opened into a furnished balcony. A few steps

down the balcony we were on the sundeck which was just five to six steps away from the

blue lagoon. Standing on the deck, with the Indian Ocean stretched out wide in front of

me I was mesmerized. It took me a little while to realize that this was not dreamland.

Realizing that I might go off into a trance anytime my husband dragged me off to dinner,

otherwise we’d have had to skip dinner because dinner was served from 19:30 – 21:30,

and it was already 21:15.

After dinner we took a walk down the beach…it had rained earlier in the day and the air

now was humid and sultry…but the water was cool and as we strolled along the beach we

felt the waters rushing in and then again drawing back against our feet. It felt like heaven

here on earth. There was a quiet lull everywhere in the island. As I strolled through “a

drowsy numbness” pained “my sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk”……we

returned to our cottage totally drunk with the languid air of the island.

Next day I woke up to clear blue skies and the open sea in front of me. For once I thought

that I was dreaming but very soon I recovered as I remembered that I was staying in

paradise right here on earth for 7 days. I lay in bed and stared at the blue ocean in front of

me with the small white waves hitting our cottage at regular intervals. Lazily I walked out

of bed into the verandah and onto the sundeck and took in the sea. It was a bright and

sunny day…we headed straight for breakfast…breakfast was a sumptuous feast. After

stuffing ourselves we felt a bit lethargic…you simply cant help being lazy…the very air

we breathed made us feel drowsy -- so we just lazed around in the beach and watched

other energetic people! One thing’s must on this island…no matter where you are….on the

beach or in the water, make sure that there’s always loads of sun block on your skin.

Even with that it’s pretty hard to retain your original skin color as I found out later on!

What struck me on this island resort was that it was filled with Europeans. And we as

Indians stood out completely in the crowd. One more interesting fact was that the

majority of chefs and table-boys were from Bangladesh. When they heard us speaking

Bengali, they were very excited and began to ask us how and when we got married. From

them we found out that there were around 200 Bangladeshi employees in the island

resort. Some of them were there for the past 10 years, and had visited their homeland

only twice in that period. All the employees of the resort were very friendly and cheerful,

always ready with a nice, warm smile on their faces.

Food on the island was a sumptuous fare at all times, to say the least! It was mainly buffet, but there were a- la-carte restaurants too, if you wanted that special candle- lit romantic dinner on the beach with your

sweetheart. Maintenance on the island was amazing. Beaches were cleared of all fallen

leaves and other material every morning. Our rooms were cleaned twice daily. We

couldn’t have asked for more. Things ran very smoothly on this small island resort. We

didn’t have to carry cash with us. Whatever expenses were incurred was billed to our

room number and dues were cleared while checking out. This facility proved to be very

useful because it let us go anywhere on the island—be it the souvenir shop or to the bar

for a drink—without having to worry about money.

One thing which I missed on this island resort was the lack of local people. Being an

Indian, different cultures have always attracted my attention. This is one of the main

reasons why I love to travel to different places. But here the lack of Maldivian culture

and lifestyle was starkly missing. The entire island had been converted into a resort and

no touch of Maldivian life was found on the island. But if one really wanted to witness

the Maldivian culture and way of life, cruises were available that would take people to an

island inhabited by local people.

After staying for three days in the water villa, we shifted to the Jacuzzi beach villas to get

a feel of the sea and the beach. The water villas were secluded and more private.

In spite of the laid back atmosphere the island has a number of activities ranging from

snorkeling, scuba diving, fishing, windsur fing, kitesurfing, parasailing and many more.

The Maldives was one of the finest spots for scuba diving and snorkeling. Snorkeling was

great fun. We rented snorkeling gear from the snorkeling center in the island….I also

took a lifejacket because I didn’t know swimming but I had to go snorkeling….so a life

jacket turned out to be my savior! 

The first day we went snorkeling in the backyard of

our water villa…it was quite shallow out there with waist deep water and sometimes it

came up till the chest. My first lessons in snorkeling were given by my husband, being an

expert swimmer and snorkeling pro that he is. On day 1 I couldn’t do much because I was

unable to breathe properly through the tube and water came rushing into my mouth and

nose. So what I did was walked to a spot which my hubby darling found had many corals

and fishes. I stood there because the water was chest-deep and dipped my face inside the

water and saw the corals and fish. 

Meanwhile my husband went out to sea after warning

me not to budge from the area further into the sea. The underwater view triggered my

interest and I tried to overcome my fear of getting drowned. Even with the lifejacket on

me and my husband holding my hand and instructing me to swim I was so scared that I

would be drowned I didn’t even make an effort to swim. My logic stopped working in

that place because much as my husband tried to explain that it was not possible for any

fully grown adult to get drowned there as the water wasn’t very deep and there was

always a foothold on the seabed, the more scared I became. Well, you can’t blame me for

not thinking logically. The place was so breathtakingly beautiful that I stopped thinking,

let alone logically! But that underwater view changed everything. I decided immediately

that I had to swim….at least swim somewhat so that I can go snorkeling further into the

sea without the fear of getting drowned. Then and there I floated back to our water

villa….well I did struggle…not because I wasn’t able to swim but because I was scared

that I will be drowned. God knows why I was so scared because even a kid would have

known that it wasn’t possible for me to drown there what with the lifejacket on and the

water being so shallow and salty in the first place…

Finally the next day I overcame my fear by going out to sea. I confined myself to a small

area and swam around in a circle, went up and down and saw a few corals and brightly

colored fishes. My husband instructed me to stay within the area and practice while he

went deep into the sea. Now that I had gained confidence I was dying to go further but

didn’t as the waters were deep and not many people were around. So I went up and down

and waited for my husband. He came up after a long wait and asked me if I wanted to go

farther because he had spotted a huge turtle and was following his trail and that led him

to a rich bed of corals and fishes. Eager that I was I said yes at once. I followed him into

the sea. This time he was scared because the water was very deep and if I floated away

from a little, he would pull me back in line. See, how things change, a day back I was

scared and now he is scared! But after reaching the spot what I saw was amazing. There

were live corals and such a wide variety of brightly colored fishes moving in and out of

the corals and as we moved towards the fishes they scampered away. It was so much fun

watching them. And then, when the sunlight streamed through the waters and lit up the

seabed it was simply awesome. The resort had a tagline that said “Live your dream”.

Floating on the sea and staring at the corals -- I actually was living my dream. I have

always seen such things on the National Geographic Channel and Discovery and always

wanted to actually go down there and see it for myself, through my own eyes. I actually

did it! We had rented an underwater digital camera from the diving centre and took some

great snaps of the corals and the underwater world. I did miss out on the turtle

though…never mind. Next time I’ll return as a swimming pro -- I’ve learnt half already –

and go in search of the turtle! After we came back from the snorkeling trip my hubby

darling was kind of surprised that I went ahead so deep into the sea without knowing how

to swim. Let me tell you he was very happy though! After spending the whole morning

snorkeling and swimming we were very hungry and rushed off to gobble up some great

lunch. After that we were scheduled to go for a blast ride but that didn’t materialize

because we were late by 5 minutes and someone else had taken up the boat. So we

decided to take a bath in the Jacuzzi in our open air bathroom. After the salt and the sun

relaxing in the tub with a glass of champagne and the man you love the

most…well…things couldn’t have been more perfect. Things were so perfect in this

island. We didn’t have to worry about anything in life. Life moved on in its own slow

pace. Life on the island could be best described by this slogan we saw on a T-shirt and

which we later bought “Sail Fast, Live Slow”.

After a refreshing bath we set out again for parasailing. I had never done that so I was

very much excited. We wanted the tandem so both of us could go together but the winds

were not strong enough so we went one at a time. Well, this was very exciting. Especially

while going up I was very thrilled. Our instructor told us to stay put on a wide belt kind

of thing which was actually the seat (!) and not to play with the clips which were attached

to the parachute. Up I went…zzzzzoooooooooooooooooo… “higher still and higher”. I

was a bit scared though and held on tightly to the rope. Below me I could see the Indian

Ocean and imaginary sharks. Other than our island it was only water, water everywhere. I

held on to the ropes as if my life depended on it…actually it did! From such a great

height I could see the island end-to-end and also beyond it. Everywhere I turned my head

it was water….faraway I could see a few more islands in the atoll. Whenever there was a

thrust of wind the clips to which the parachute was attached would make a creaky noise

and my heart would go thump-thump-thump. I could see my husband below in the

motorboat. He was waving at me but scared that I was I didn’t even move an inch. When

they started pulling me back I mustered up the courage to wave back at him.

The next day we planned to take the Robinson Crusoe excursion. The description of this

trip thrilled both of us and we were up for it. In this trip they took us out to an isolated

island and let us stay there for as long as we wanted—from half a day to a full day or

even overnight—with no one else around. We took a half-day trip, from 9:00 to 13:30.

They gave us enough water, cold drinks and food to last the five hours and dropped us off

on a motorboat. 

On arriving there we saw that it was a deserted island in the truest sense.

We could see a thatched cottage in one corner which looked haunted to me even in the

bright daylight! On the beach we could see two deck chairs and a table. Our boatman

brought out an umbrella and planted it near the deck chairs and left us with a cellphone,

in case we needed any help. 

Immediately we started exploring the island. It was

surrounded by the Indian Ocean on the side away from the atoll. The Ocean was right

behind the island. Between the ocean and the island was a barrier of rocks. We could see

trawlers which went for deep sea fishing on the ocean. We went till the rocks and stood

on the rocks for sometime, though it was very risky. After exploring the island from end-to-

end we deduced that it was a good decision not to stay overnight because it was pretty

scary. I collected some wonderful shells on this beach. We left our footprints in the sand

(we were the only inhabitants since that morning) hoping that they wont be destroyed by

the ravages of time! 

In the middle of the island there was a dense growth of medium-sized

trees and sunlight hardly penetrated the ground. Back from our exploration we

thought of nibbling some sandwiches but to our dismay found out that the crows had

them strewn all over the place. They actually managed to open the box and make the

most of our sandwiches! Never mind, the scenic beauty more than made up for the lack

of those snacks. 

The sun was scalding our skin and in order to save ourselves we decided

to go into the water. The water here was even clearer--the azure blue fading into

transparency. We decided to walk on the sandbank. While walking through the sandbank

we discovered that it went on and on and we could actually go on to the next island. But

it was quite a distance away and we preferred to go deeper into the water because the

cool waters soothed our burnt skin. I also worked a bit on my swimming. I wondered if I

went there for my honeymoon or my swimming lessons. It hardly mattered, as long as I

enjoyed it. We stayed in the water till 1 o’clock. After that we came back to the beach.

While coming back we saw an electric eel at a foot’s distance scampering away. Staying

on this island with just each other for company and no else was once in a lifetime

experience. While coming back from the island our boatman showed us two huge

stingrays in an area in which we were cooling ourselves half an hour ago.

Like all good things our honeymoon also came to an end. It was time to wrap up and go

back home. We didn’t feel like going at all though. Early in the morning after watching

the sun rise we set out to explore the island one last time. We went back to the water

villas because after we moved out we never came back to this part of the island. 

I started collecting shells to take back home. I was standing in ankle deep water and picking them

up from the water itself. As I was doing so, Santa suddenly shouted out “there’s a

stingray behind you”. He had done this previously too to scare me…so this time also I

took it as a joke. But I turned back just like that and…the stingray was there, just behind

me. I screamed and scampered onto the beach. I guess my scream scared the wits out of

the ray because it ran away so fast. 

This area was also infested by baby reef sharks and

they were not supposed to be dangerous. Actually they didn’t seem very harmful. They

themselves were scared of humans and ran away whenever we tried to go too close. So

that was the end of my honeymoon. Exciting from start to finish! I said goodbye to this

honeymooner’s heaven with the hope that our lives together will be as beautiful and as

exciting as it was here in this paradise on earth.