Tales from a 12-Year-Old: My Trip to Maldives Day 1

My enchanting trip to Maldives started with a transit from Singapore via Trivandrum, India en route to Maldives. At Trivandrum airport, the lady at the check-in counter gave us the front row seats and the Air India staff accommodated all my requests for beverage and food during the short flight to Male. On landing, I could feel the memories returning from my last visit in 2010. I had decided then that Maldives was the most beautiful place on Earth.

A Boat Ride to the Hotel

At Male airport, there were at least a hundred resort counters. There are many resorts in Maldives, we were staying at Club Med Kani Island. As soon as we found our resort counter, the staff took us to the boat - yes, in most places one takes a car or taxi to the hotel but in Maldives, one takes a boat or a seaplane. The boat ride was bumpy and windy. During the ride, it started to rain and the raindrops felt like tiny bullets pounding against my skin. I tried to pull the blinds down but we were going too fast. My hair was blowing everywhere and through my unruly curls, I spotted some flying fish.

On arrival at Club Med in Maldives, we were welcomed with ice lemon tea and cold water. There was music booming from the speakers near the pool and kids were playing games. I wasted no time going to the beach and joining the party. The GO’s (Group Organizers) were friendly and multilingual. The food and drinks were unlimited. We drank some refreshing drinks and ate some small sandwiches.

Snorkelling at Lion Fish

We got our room at 1:00 pm and it was a nice walk to our beach cottage with a beautiful sea view. After changing into my beach gear, my mom and I enjoyed a nice filling lunch. A few hours later, we were on our way to the jetty for our first snorkelling trip in Maldives. I met some of the trainers and figured that they could speak Mandarin. I had a long conversation with them about fish. When we were collecting our snorkelling equipment, I looked out in the distance and could see the different colours of the water. The shallow water was light blue, the not too shallow or too deep water was mild blue and the deep water was ocean blue. It was so beautiful that it looked like an artist had painted the scenery on canvas.

The snorkelling site we were going to was called the Lion Fish. I was the first one to get in to the boat but the third one to get in to the water. As soon as I jumped in, I felt as if the water sucked me in; it was cold and refreshing. I wanted to stay under water but I needed to go up for air.

The first fish I saw when I opened my eyes was the Blue Surgeon. It had sharp scalpel like spines on its tail that are used for defense and fights amongst the species. It looked a little bit like Dori from the movie Finding Nemo. Another fish I spotted was the Gold Striped Emperor. These swim in small schools near the reef because their main food source is from the reef. I enjoyed swimming with them because they would just swim right past me and I could observe them. Towards the end of the trip, my mom got a glimpse of a Stocky Hawk fish. It looked just like a puffer fish because it was puffed up. I could not see it at first but as I focused, I saw that it was well camouflaged. This fish blends in with the coral and waits till another fish comes to feed off the coral and then attacks it. I found that pretty intelligent. After floating over it for a while, we went back to the boat.

As we climbed on to the boat, my mom saw someone carry a phone out of the water. They told us that it was in a waterproof bag, which helped the phone stay dry, and they could use it to video record the snorkelling experience. This contraption was available at the gift shop. We decided that we too had to get a bag to take with us on our next underwater adventure. However, it did not work too well for us as we realized that you should turn the record function on before you jump in as it is a task to try to maneuver the phone’s functionality when submerged in water.

I was still feeling quite energetic so I went down to the kayaking area and did some kayaking. The wind was blowing and the small waves rocked the kayak. After half an hour of sitting in the kayak, I went back to join my mom for dinner. After our lavish and delicious meal, we made our way back to our room.