Oriental sweetlips were easily seen and although the water was not as clear as I’d hoped, it was still pretty good…
When: December 2015 Weather: Hot 30C
Leica M240 35mm F1.4, 21mm F3.4, GoPro, Nikon P900
As all of Singapore visited the ski slopes of Hokkaido and Singapore Airlines tripled its economy fare there, I decided to bring the family to the Maldives instead for our annual vacation. The Maldives is unique but also uniquely expensive however you look at it…but at least the money is spent on a quality destination instead of an economy ticket!
Arriving at the International Airport, we transferred to our seaplane for the flight to the Angsana Velavaru resort at South Nilandhe Atoll, 35 minutes away….
Our seaplane ride from the International Airport to Angsana Velavaru overflew the capitol Male…it’s, not often that you can see an entire capitol city from the air!
The views along the way are spectacular and arriving at our resort, we could see the main island where the restaurants and main reception are and the row of In-Ocean villas(IOV) in the foreground. Our party of 5 was housed in one of the three 2 bedroom IOVs you see at the extreme right of the villas. We can also appreciate the atoll structure of the island at the top, surrounded by the coral reef which forms the atoll. The IOVs are located just inside the reef. We can also see the two channels cutting through the foreground reef which you can swim through to get to the outer edge of the reef where all the action is…
This was our IOV, in the setting sun with the infinity pool left and the walkway leading to the sea on the right…
the infinity pool with the gazebo beyond..
spectacular sunsets were the norm…
even in black and white…
the next evening, we were treated to a spectacularly romantic event…a speedboat took us into the sunset…
to be deposited on an in ocean cabana for an hour to enjoy the sunset with nary a soul in sight…
over glasses of champagne and canapes….it doesn’t get much better than this!
and we departed as the sun disappeared…heading to dinner on the main island
Our table at Funa Restaurant….with fish swimming around next to us….
shallow waters around our villa with corals protruding at low tide
I was persuaded to join the kids in getting my open water diving certification…we did the theory and confined water dives in singapore and did the 4 open water dives in the Maldives…we had an excellent dive instructor, Bela who was most professional and encouraging…we are now all PADI certified open water divers now!
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Oriental Sweetlips
Lion fish
Trigger fish
Clown fish in anemone
Moorish Idol
After a morning’s diving, we reverted to snorkelling around our villa in the afternoon…
the water was clear enough for us to see the fish from above water…
blotchy porcupine fish
at night, stingrays visited…
beautiful maldivian sunset….
and it happened to be a full moon this christmas….
and the clear Maldivian night sky yielded great details of moon craters
and whilst sunsets are always beautiful, I’m often more intrigued by ‘moonsets’…this moonset was taken at about 4am and you can see the stars twinkling above the setting moon….
here in B&W
and as the moon disappeared from view, the millions of stars in the sky appeared…here we can see Orion top dead centre….
So we spent 4 nights in angsana velavaru; we had spectacular accommodation, reasonable weather and an unforgettable experience….highly recommended. The staff were excellent.
How spectacular, Uncle Ron! Looks like a holiday to remember and brilliant that you gave in to the pressure and got your diving certificate!