Maldives - January 2008 Photo Gallery by angimichel at pbase.com

Maldives - January 2008

Pure relaxation = two weeks in the Maldives restoring the soul on a soft white sand beach in the warm sun next to a crystal clear turquois blue ocean full of countless vibrantly colored tropical fish, turtles, stingrays, etc. The only thing more amazing that being on one of the hundreds of islands is viewing them from the Maldivian Air Taxi waterplane. The islands appear like priceless opals in the Indian Ocean. My suggestion... go there and experience it for yourself.

We spend our vacation at the Meedhupparu Island Resort and throughly enjoyed ourselves. The island is beautiful and meticulously maintained. The staff is very nice, the food is great, and the island is full of lush vegetation. The beach is white and soft and the water is warm, crystal clear, and full of life. I dream of our return to the Maldives some day...

Maldivian Air Taxi - our transfer plane to the island of Meedhupparu	Maldivian Air Taxi "Terminal"	Waiting for our water plane	All the pilots fly barefoot	One of our pilots (barefoot!)
About to take off (room for about 20 passengers including the pilots)	Best seat for taking photos (left rear seat under wing)	Taking off	View of airport runway in Male	The first resort island we flew over on our way to Meedhupparu
A few other islands and boats	The islands in the atolls are beautiful!	Another island in the Raa atoll	Meedhupparu - our home for the next 15 days (south pier)	Our pilot flew around the island before we landed. These are the over-water bungalows on the North side of the island.
North side of island (you can see pool to left of pier)	West tip of island	Southside of island where we are about to land	Our landing approach
Touch down	The "runway"	Our dropoff point at the South pier (the water was so clear and blue)	We're finally here!!	Very strange looking trees all over the island
Some nice flowers too...	Reception area	Lush vegetation everywhere. The shade was a welcome relief from the hot sun.	Coconut palms	Our bungalow (258)
Our room	View to beach from our room	View from our bungalow patio toward beach	View from beach to our bungalow	Modest bathroom (open to outside, no AC)
Outdoor shower - we used this one more than the inside shower	Our table at dinner (our waiter Najeeb was fantastic!)	Nice presentation	GREAT food!	The sand felt very cold at night, despite getting very hot during the day
View East from the beach in front of our bungalow	View facing West from the beach by our bungalow (view of South pier)	West part of south side of island (unfortunately suffering much erosion)	East end of South side of island (less erosion, great beach!)	View of Grill Bar from south pier
The water here was so unbelievable	Water bowl for rinsing sand off your feet before entering bungalow	Area on North side of island	View from pool area to North shore	Pool (although very nice, we never went in. The beach/ocean were much better!)
View of Grill Bar from dive shop	Grill Bar - best place to watch the sunset	Karl looking for sharks, octopus, rays, and crabs	Michael & Karl	A few people wading in the shallow water in the morning
	Crabs on the seawall	A small (3 foot) white-tip reef shark in the water by the Grill Bar	A baby stingray in the water by the Grill Bar	Maldivian flag
Our favorite spot each day - nice, shady, secluded	We read 9 books between us while we were there!	View from our favorite spot to the beach	The two large stingrays we saw on our snorkel trip to the Coral Garden	Plenty of beautiful fish along the corals
	These little blue fish would all hide in the coral when we swam closer to them	Nemo and friends		No lack of underwater sight-seeing
Angie & Elfi soaking up some sun on boat ride back to Meedhupparu	A herron fishing	Herron	Catching a fish!	Don't touch the turtles
Walking along North shore in late afternoon	Huge crows like these become very active (and VOCAL) at daybreak each morning!!	Hibiscus flower in sand	These little birds made funny peeping noises	Moon in afternoon
Moon at dusk	Karl	Reception area	Coconut spa	A girl from Bali made these flower arrangements in large bowls of water every morning
A huge ray we saw	Getting a closer look	So many fish, eels,rays, turtles, sea snakes	Get there early for a good seat	Two rays!!
North pier in daylight	This is where we saw the rays and turtle (shallow water)	A few people snorkeling off North pier at edge of reef	So many fish at the edge of the reef where the water gets deep	Sun is intense... wear wetsuit or lots of sunscreen
Colorful fish off North pier	View of island from North pier	Parrot fish in the water	Elfi and Karl	Grill Bar at sunset
We enjoyed lobster dinner on the beach one night (food was ok, but dining under the Milkyway was awesome!!)	Watersports hut at night	Pool	Main bar	South pier
Michael, Karl, & Elfi	Enjoying the last sun of the afternoon		The water was about 29 deg C (86 deg F) - wonderful!!
Beach on Southshore			White soft sand
	Elfi & Karl	South shore by pier	North shore (very nice beach, but much more windy on this side of the island)	North shore walking east toward water bungalows
Solar water heater	Island conservation efforts....	Sneaking up on some tourists	Getting closer	On the morning we left, we took a small boat out to the water plane. The captain steering with his foot.
Sunrise the morning of our departure	Last look at Meedhupparu on our flight back to Male	Island looked so serene in the morning light	Sunrise	An island completely covered with water
Flying back into Male to catch our flight to Frankfurt

comment |

Milo		28-Feb-2008 21:52
This gallery is marvelous! I swear I will make it to the Maldices one day! V

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