The Maldives - Arrival in paradise

The Maldives are a collection of sandy atolls in the middle of the Indian Ocean.  Located between India and Africa, the island nation is the sandy mountaintops of a massive underwater mountain range.  The Maldives boast almost 1200 islands, though only 200 of them are settled with a population of about 400,000.  

The Maldives is one of the most luxurious places in the world, and each resort has its own private island.  We stayed on the island of Kurumba near the capital of Male, which was sort of an entry level and convenient place to stay.

Landing in the Maldives 

The Male airport 

The yacht from the airport which, if you can believe it, is about the cheapest way to get around in the Maldives.  The chosen mode of transport in the Maldives is by seaplane taxi, and it costs hundreds of dollars per person.

   

Our bedroom, right on the beach.  They later upgraded us to the Presidential villa - the same villa Bill Clinton stayed in when he visited the Maldives.  This is pre-upgrade.

Bath and shower 

A boat in the harbor 

The pool at night 

Our little villa 

Very clear water filled with baby sharks and stingrays 

view from our porch 

Our first day, it was storming like mad. Luckily, it was the extent of the rain for our trip.

Gorgeous, even when cloudy 

A beach bar 

A windsurfer - in the background you can see Male - the Maldivian capital 

Cool architecture 

Baby Sharks 

The drawback? The food kind of sucked.  We ate our buffets in here.

The open air lobby 

A fleet of varying boats

After a few days, they upgraded us to the presidential villa 

We had our own courtyard pool 

A spacious living room 

Rooftop Joe Cooz

Stupid large bathroom 

bedroom 

We never sat in these 

The coconut grove 

Kristin has sort of a strange new taste in drink.  She is really into BMs - Bloody Marys.  She orders them at the strangest places, like here, on the beach.

It must be said - we loved the Maldives 

This bird is a regular at the beachfront restaurant

Eye contact 

Not a shy bird 

Breakfast 

Most mornings and afternoons, the bird just stands here and stares at the cooks...

with anticipation.

Snorkeling around the island is unbelievably unbelievable.  Seriously just crazy awesome.  I have hundreds of photos to share later 

Kristin laid out.  I explored the reefs fringing our island, swimming with no less than 20 sharks.

I never saw anyone in the pool 

The jetty 

Glamour shots:

Great long sunsets 

A great place to chill