Maldives - The sunny side of life

The Republic of Maldives is an archipelagic state in South Asia in the Indian Ocean consisting of over 1100 coral islands situated within 26 atolls. The country is considered the lowest country in the world with the average natural ground situated only 1.5 metres above sea level and is at high risk of being submerged by raising sea levels. With current climate changes, it is being estimated that by 2100 Maldives could be inhabitable. Tourism is the main economic industry for the country. 

Getting to Maldives took us on a 4 hour overnight flight from Abu Dhabi to Male, the capital city. Each of the 160 resorts are located on individual islands within the atolls affording more privacy and a more luxurious experience for tourists. The population of each resort island consists of resort workers and the tourists visiting; no locals live on the islands. Depending on the distance the resort island is from Male, you'll either need to arrange for boat or seaplane transportation. With so many options of which resort to stay at, it can be difficult to decide. We ended up choosing the W Maldives, not only because it's part of our preferred hotel family, but because the house reef around the W is reported to be the best in all of Maldives. Considering this bucket list trip was in part chosen because we wanted to experience staying in an over the water villa, having the best house reef sealed the deal. 

The W is located in the North Ari Atoll on Fesdu Island and is a 20-25 minute seaplane flight away from Male. While we paid for the flight, all the actual arrangements were made by the hotel including having someone meet us upon arrival in Male, transporting us to the float plane terminal and getting us checked in and on our flight. It was quite a hands on experience. Getting to the W meant my first experience flying in a seaplane which was pretty cool, but very noisy especially at take off and landing. We flew Trans Maldivian Airways, which has the world's largest seaplane fleet and they use Canadian made DHC aircraft. The plane fit 18 passengers and had a crew of 3; the pilots flew bare footed. Flying over many of the different island was neat to see as well because you could really see how they are each formed with a coral reef; some uninhabited islands you could see were shallowy submerged yet you could still see the full island given the depth of the ocean. The flight was quite smooth and we arrived around 10am. Thankfully our villa was already ready for us when we arrived and after a brief orientation ride around the island in a golf cart, we had pretty much had a full day to enjoy ourselves. The tide was going out, but was still high enough for us to get out quickly for a snorkel after getting to our room. The villa had direct water access via a ladder off the very large outdoor deck. We got into the water as quickly as possible and found the snorkelling here to be some of the best snorkelling we've ever experienced. We saw a huge variety of different tropical fish including: regal angel fish, yellow tall wrasse, bullethead parrot fish, grouper, nemo, and one of my favourites - the moorish idol which always seemed to swim in a pair. We found a black moray eel feasting from inside a coral crevasse just in front of our villa. We also saw turtles, and my first ever black tip reef shark while snorkelling. There were many different variety of coral species as well like brain coral, finger coral, and staghorn coral which often had purple or pinkish tips to name a few. The marine ecosystem around the W resort looked like it was is pretty descent condition with the coral looking fairly healthy. The clams we saw were some of the largest clams I've ever encountered and their "lips" were usually purple. I saw a baby octopus from our deck swim by our villa one morning and for a brief second it attached itself to coral and began to change colour before swimming off. The water was always a comfortably warm temperature and so incredibly crystal clear that you could always see the sea life clearly even when not actually in the water. There was such an abundance of marine life including large schools of tiny fish that would look like a large dark spot in the ocean. We also spotted a sting ray from our deck one afternoon. This all made us feel like we were in our own private tropical aquarium. The only thing we needed to concern ourselves with were the tides. At low tide we could not snorkel because the coral was exposed and there was not enough clearance, but at high tide it became our ocean's playground. 

Not only is the snorkelling absolutely mind-blowing amazing, the diving in Maldives is incredible. Z decided that of all places, this would be the place to do a refresher course at the house reef. From there he then completed three other dives. --> Z here, yes! Before arriving I knew that I wanted to make a couple dives happen so I booked the refresher dive and one additional dive the next day. The W has a great dive centre called "Down Under" that made the entire diving experience super easy. I lucked out and got a dedicated dive instructor for my refresher, which started off with a written multiple choice test I was not expecting! I passed both and enjoyed a great first dive around the house reef with several more fish varieties and a hidden "W" under water which was a nice surprise. The next day, all my equipment was set up on the W dive boat and we were off to an area called Hohola Thila where I completed dive #2 and got to see shrimp, more colourful fish including large bat fish that would swim right up close to your mask! On this dive trip I met a couple from Hong Kong, and learned that the wife used to live in Coquitlam so it was fun exchanging stories as there were not many Canadians to be found in the Maldives (or so we thought). Turns out this couple had 10 (!) dives scheduled on their trip which made me rethink my plans. I was in a pristine dive location after all. I ended up booking two more dives in the following days (the cost per dive is very reasonable as they take a boat out with several people every morning) and was very glad I did. I ended up diving with manta rays, eagle rays, black eel, octopus, reef shark, so many more fish and as a bonus after one of our dives, a pod of spinner dolphins made an appearance alongside our boat.

The W resort is a heart shaped island that has a selection of over the water and beach front villas. There are 4 restaurant options each with its own theme. Each morning we ate at Kitchen, the buffet restaurant which offers a large selection of different ethnic foods and includes a large variety of tropical fruits and fresh squeezed juices. We ate at Fish, the seafood restaurant situated over the water that also serves non seafood dishes. In the evening they turn lights on the deck that point in the water and around 8pm a bunch of reef sharks can be seen around this area. One evening we even saw a string ray. Fire is another restaurant that caters mostly to land based meat dishes and is situated right on one of the beaches. On our second evening we attended their Earth Hour all you can eat BBQ dinner that featured a selection of grilled to your preference sirloin, lamb, lobster, tuna, and prawns along with a large selection of sides and salads. The dessert stand had too many delicious options to choose from that made it very difficult to choose. Everything we ate was of high quality and tasted superb. We didn't get around to eating at Kada, the restaurant that features mostly Maldivian cuisine because all the cuisine is seafood based and didn't appeal to me. The restaurant itself though has a cool vibe with picnic tables for seating under large tropical trees that if you look up you'll see are filled with fruit bats. Most of the time these bats were just hanging around, but we did get to witness a couple fly one morning and noticed their very large wingspans; wingspans can get up to 1.7 m. The resort also has a descent sized pool, called Wet, that is surrounded by the pool bar. In this same area you'll find board games, a ping pong table, a pool table and fitness gym. Also on the island is an over the water spa, their dive centre and Ouch - the medical clinic.... that one of us had to visit one day to have some itchy spots on her leg checked out. It's not a big island and probably takes no more than 10 minutes to walk around the entirely. As you come off the jetty where the seaplane parks, you enter the Living Room aka the check out area and where the talent team is available to help with any questions, requests or excursion bookings you need to make. Lastly there is a small gift shop right behind the Living Room where you can buy a variety of overpriced souvenirs to commemorate your trip. 

We stayed in villa 232 on the ocean side. About half of the villas are ocean side with the other half lagoon side. While both are incredibly wonderful to stay in, we discovered the ocean side villas have the house reef right in front while the lagoon side villas don't have much reef right in front. Having direct access to the reef was important to us. The villa is quite large with a king sized bed set up facing the water. Just a couple steps down from the bed is the sitting area featuring a comfortable lounger couch and a porthole in the floor so you can see the ocean below; it was really neat to look through there and see fish swimming around. The entire side facing the ocean is either window or windowed doors opening to the very large private deck that had 2 sun loungers, a table with two chairs, a covered round large cushioned seating area, a private infinity pool, an outdoor shower, and of course a ladder leading to the ocean playground below. Off to the side of the sleeping and seating area is the bathroom which features a separate soaker tub set beside a large window, a walk in shower, double sinks, and separate toilet room. The bed was super comfy and I think we both had some of our best sleeps of the trip here. The sound of the waves crashing into the villa stilts was quite soothing for me and also help with great sleep. There's no better sight for me in the morning that waking up and seeing the vast ocean in front of me. Making this even more special was being able to walk out on the deck and pier over the edge and clearly see all the fish swimming around. Being out in the middle of the Indian Ocean also meant very little light pollution making it ideal conditions for star gazing. During our trip Mars was also clearly visible each evening and it so happened that the parade of planets was occurred so we managed to catch a glimpse of Venus, with Uranus hidden behind it, Jupiter unfortunately was always hidden behind clouds on the horizon and was never visible. 

This being a bucket list trip of a lifetime, we did splurge a bit on a few treats for ourselves. We enjoyed a relaxing couple's massage treatment at Spa one afternoon. The setting was incredibly beautiful with the spa situated over the water and a view of the vast ocean in front of you. It was a very tranquil and soothing atmosphere. And the biggest splurge was treating ourselves to a private island escape. One unique feature of the W resort is that besides the main island, the W also has another small secluded private island, Gaathafushi; a 10-minute speed boat ride away. We booked an afternoon lunch BBQ on Gaathafushi which meant we got the entire little secluded island to ourselves. Well actually for lunch, a private chef and one wait staff are on island as well, but they leave after lunch, and you then get the entire island to yourself. We were treated to a 4-course meal prepared on island by the private chef. We enjoyed our lunch on the sand under the palm trees shaded nicely from the sun. We started with a sashimi appetizer consisting of 4 different fish; obviously this was a Z dish, and 2 salads; a fresh burrata salad and a chicken caesar salad. We started feeling full after these 2 courses already, guess we shouldn't have had breakfast and we still had 2 more to go! The chef BBQ'd the proteins for the main on site, and our main dish was a feast in itself. Something got lost in translation when we mentioned to the staff that I don't eat fish....we were obviously not specific enough because both of our main dishes came with a half lobster, 4 prawns, and squid - all shell fish. I guess we assumed the no fish instructions would have translated to nothing from the sea, but alas that was not the case. At least there was a really tasty lemon butter sauce which really helped mask the fishy taste of the shell fish and so I tried my best to eat some of it. In addition, Z got a tuna steak while I got a sirloin steak (which is what I thought was supposed to be the substitute for the seafood). Also on the plate a large serving of grilled vegetables. Needless to say we ate as much as we could, but really couldn't finish everything and in fact asked for dessert to be delivered to our room instead so we could eat it later when we actually had room again. The island is equipped with full toilets, showers and even an area that gets set up for overnight stays which is also an option that can be booked. After our fantastic, leisurely lunch, the chef and wait staff cleaned up but not before giving us the "bat" phone in case we needed to reach the main island and then left us to enjoy a couple hours by ourselves. We brought our snorkelling gear along because we knew the island was surrounded by a reef and that it was likely more untouched than the main house reef as it was further out and only accessible if you were on Gaasthafushi. The snorkelling was incredible. We spent most of the rest of our time there in the water. This was such a neat once in a lifetime experience; a splurge yes, but it was worth it! 

This beautiful place of paradise was a long way to get to and we thought we were the only Canadians on the island but as we were boarding our seaplane to begin our journey home, Z spotted a passenger with an Air Canada luggage tag and we discovered that this family was visiting from Smithers, BC. And we thought our journey was long!!