Maldives and Bryan’s last days in India.

The Maldives. Where to begin! It was almost too much to comprehend even at the time. Not only was I in India. Bryan was in India with me. AND WE WERE GOING TO THE MALDIVES.

We flew from BLR to Male, Maldives. Hot and humid, we waited for other guests of our hotel to land and then took the hotel speedboat from Male to Ohulevi island. The water is exactly what you see in pictures. The most beautiful shades of blue and green. Just unreal colors.

The resort where we stayed occupies 3 separate “atolls” so they had a little shuttle to take us to and from wherever we wanted to go. I cannot explain to you the lushness of these islands. Big beautiful plants and trees – sooooo much green. It had started to rain as we got to our room so we relaxed there before heading out to explore.

I won’t bore you with the details – this was a very relaxing trip (meaning, we were lazy so there isn’t much to tell). Bryan surfed one morning, I snorkeled outside our water villa, took a bath every day, and we scuba dived one day – those were the exciting parts. And I will say: scuba diving was scarier than I thought it would be. After nearly drowning in Mexico as a teenager, I’ve always had a healthy respect for the ocean. And I’ve recently gained even more since Bryan has started surfing. So I went into scuba diving with some appreciate for how scary it might get. And then, you are 40 – 50 meters underwater and realize that if anything went wrong, you couldn’t just pop up for more air.

Anyway, scuba diving was really cool. We saw sea turtles, little sharks, plump starfish, reef, octopus, etc. etc. When we returned to the dock and gathered the bag from the locker in the security room with a security guard, my Versace sunglasses were missing. I was upset and still am so sad about it (and still emailing the resort about it).

For our last dinner and breakfast, the regulars had turned over and the new group of guests had a shit ton of kids. The place was so loud, the kids were running around everywhere, and Bryan and I were able to leave the Maldives knowing that our time there had come to its natural end.

Back in Bengaluru….

For dinner one night, we went downstairs around dinner buffet time. When we asked the staff for menus, he said “okay, one minute please” and promptly came back with a colleague who explained that the dinner buffet was included in our stay package and so was complimentary. I said, “Yes, I understand, we’d just like to also order from the menu.” They each gave a confused/ nervous laugh (+ condescension and bobbing heads) and walked away. I was glad Bryan got to experience this common occurrence.

Speaking of common occurrences: on our very last night in India, we went down to the restaurant for dinner. There was a beautifully dressed Indian family, definitely dressed up for something special. Their little girl was running around – so friggin’ cute. When we finished our meal, we went to walk out of the restaurant and passed by the family. I said hi to the little girl, made some funny faces, and then they were asking for a picture of me and her together. Then they wanted a picture with me and Bryan and all 3 of them. It was hilarious and sweet. This happens just about everywhere I go – except in Bangalore – they are used to whites here. Men, women, and girls ask me to take pictures with them. And then when I do for one person, there is inevitably 3 – 4 who queue up. They are always so sweet and polite about it, bashful and so excited. I love it and was so glad that Bryan got to be in on it while he was here.