The Maldives

After a brief stay in the states, it was right back onto a plane bound for The Maldives (mahl-deeves) via Dubai.  Here's a map of our flight route, Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates on the Persian Gulf, and The Maldives are southwest of the southern tip of India.

Once again, there are a lot of pictures here.  I'll do my best to be brief with the comments!

Upon landing in Male, we took a boat to the Four Seasons Kuda Huraa about 30 minutes away.  We had a welcome crew of dolphins!  There must have been fifty of them.

I'm convinced it's impossible to take a bad picture in The Maldives.  The water is all this color inside the reefs, and the sand is all perfectly white.  This was our first impression of the resort.

This is the pool where we spent much of our time.  The hut is over the infinity part of the pool and is a great place to watch a sunset.

The sun was a big factor.  Being so close to the equator, we went through a lot of sunscreen, but all of us got burned at some point or another.

Besides lounging around the pool, we also found some time to kayak.

After two nights at Kuda Huraa, we boarded this boat for three nights, the Four Seasons Explorer.  To really see The Maldives, both above and below the water, you need to move around the islands.  A dive boat is a great way to do that.  Here's a map of the route we took.

No shoes allowed on board.  Count me in.

One of the members in our party booked the only suite on the boat.  We spent a lot of time in there; those windows look directly out over the bow.

Me out on the deck.  The weather all week was fantastic, I don't think it moved more than one or two degrees from 80.

On board, our longest sail was maybe 5 hours, and we learned about the fish of The Maldives from our resident French marine biologist Magali.

But the beauty of taking a dive cruise is not what happens on board--it's what happens under water.

Although we didn't see as many large animals as I saw last year in Polynesia, the reefs and their aquatic life here were awesome.  Here's Marc getting personal with a turtle!

When the instructor asks if you're ok you can't give a thumbs up because that means "rise to the surface", so you give the A-ok sign.  I prefer to do it upside down.

We saw a lot of eels on this trip.  They poke out of dark holes and have super sharp teeth, so you have to be careful where you put your fingers.  We got to do one night dive and they came out to swim around.

We saw a lot of cool fish like this puffer fish.

And there were so many of them!  Huge schools of beautiful fish.

Doug and I during a safety stop.  The mathematics of diving can get interesting when you're doing several in a row because the nitrogen must bubble slowly out of your blood.  A safety stop involves waiting between 4 and 6 meters for three minutes at the end of a dive.

I found Nemo!  We saw so many cool anemones and clown fish.

The current was absolutely screaming through this anemone and the fish were just hanging out waiting for the plankton to float by.

Underwater camera technology really can't capture what we saw, it was so cool.  Clear water, beautiful fish, and lots of great memories.

One of the most interesting parts of the trip for me was going ashore on an inhabited island to see how the locals live.

These guys are using a traditional Maldivian lathe to create a vase.  The technique is pretty cool.

I played peek-a-boo with this girl.  It was adorable.

Traditional architecture involves pieces of broken coral held together with mortar, but recent laws regarding coral protection have changed how houses are build.

I was so excited to see this, I played Mancala all the time when I was a kid.  Great way to pass the time!

We finished our tour with some traditional Maldives food.  They use a lot of fish combined with various doughs and they like to fry their food.

We got to take a tour of the boat to see the crew quarters and the bridge.  The captain has been with the boat since it was built twelve years ago.

Other post-dive activities included swimming and giant foam mat wrestling.

Another big highlight of the trip: they brought us to a deserted island.  It was so cool to be castaways for an afternoon.  It took maybe 10 minutes to walk the perimeter.

Activities included: contemplating the water

Waterskiing!

Here's a nice, happy picture for you Mom!

The hermit crabs on this island were so cool.  They were gigantic, to start with, and they were fearless.  I like this one with the Explorer in the background.

This guy was eating dinner.

The sunset on the beach was one of the best we had.

Doug got a great shot with the Explorer.

One of the crew members on the island with us really liked taking pictures.  She got this shot of me running off into the sunset.

After a quick trip back to the boat to shower and change into traditional Maldivian garb, we came back to find the crew had dug benches into the sand and created a table for dinner.  It was so cool eating awesome local food on a sand table!

After we ate we got to see a drum performance traditional to the Maldives.  The dancer was our head of dining on the boat.  They said another male had to "fight" with him, so...

Of course I had to step in.  It was so much fun, we both really got into it.  I didn't really know what I was doing but they all said I did a really good job.  Who knows?

After one more morning dive, we bid farewell to The Explorer.  We had such a great time aboard.

We ended our cruise at the other Four Seasons resort, Landaa Giraavaru.  They made a brilliant move.  They said our rooms weren't quite ready, but that we could use the Royal Water Villa in the meantime.

This was undoubtedly the most ridiculous hotel room I've ever been in.

Our back yard.  Double infinity pool looking right out over the reef.

A look back at the room from the lower deck.  They told us for the price of our three rooms plus a little more that we could have this one.  After a little wheeling and dealing, we stayed.  I slept in the second floor loft you can see here listening to the waves.

The majority of my time at this resort was spent right here.

Although it was also fun to explore by bike.  This place is huge.  They gave each of us our own bike with a basket and our initials on the front.

Any time bikes wouldn't suffice, we took a "limo" instead.  They'd come pick you up anywhere in a golf cart.

Seriously, some of these pictures are things you only see in movies.  So beautiful, and so romantic.

Our last sunset in The Maldives was a winner.

What a great spot to watch God's hand at work.  So beautiful.

Before we left the island, I was riding my bike around and stumbled upon the orchid greenhouse.  They grow all their orchids in-house, and it was so cool to see all the different varieties.

So many beautiful orchids.

Ibbe, native to the Maldives, spends every day caring for the flowers and making sure there are fresh blooms in every room.  It's a big job.

This one looks like a woman dancing.  Nature is so cool!

After some more time relaxing by the pool, it was time to head back to the airport.  I know what you're thinking.  We're so far away from the airport, hours and hours by boat!  How will we get back?

On a sea plane, of course.  These things are all over The Maldives.

I had been looking forward to this all week.  It was such an amazing experience.

The islands from the sky were stunning.

After a quick stop at Kuda Huraa, we boarded an Emirates flight back to Dubai.  We landed at 3 a.m. and checked into our hotel.  This city is amazing in many ways, but most prominently in the architecture.  There are some weird buildings, some beautiful mosques, the world's tallest building and arguably its most famous hotel.

Oh, and they have a shopping mall with a ski hill inside of it.  In the middle of the desert.  I had to check this out.

Since no one in the UAE has any snow gear, everything is included in the price of a ticket.  I booked for 2 hours, got my stuff and hit the slopes.

This place is pretty spectacular.  Most families just come to experience the snow; they have sledding, a zip line, and some other novel snow-related stuff.

The run took maybe 15 seconds at most riding at top speed, but had two fun terrain parks on the way down with a few boxes and rails.

It was a lot of fun snowboarding in the desert.

I took the metro back and was able to capture the sunset next to Burj al Arab, the famous sail-shaped hotel right on the water.  This picture was through the window of the train, but it's still one of my favorites of the trip.

We went to a bar at night that had great views of the Burj al Arab as well.  It looked great all lit up.

For our second day in Dubai I went out exploring.  The creek area is filled with boats carrying mostly appliances.

The markets surrounding the creek have everything distinctly middle eastern from spices to clothes and trinkets to gold.

The spice market was arguably the most interesting.  Colors and scents of every variety, it was pretty cool.

Also surrounding the creek are the old city walls.  Dubai is a relatively new city with most of its development happening in the 20th century.

I took this picture on the metro to highlight their work week.  Their "weekend" is Friday and Saturday with the first day of the work week being Sunday.

There are mosques everywhere, and they're all impressive.  Since you have to wash before going in there is always a little washing basin outside.

My last stop in my Dubai exploration was the Gold Sauk, or Gold Market.  There was more gold in this once place than I've seen my whole life.  Check out the size of that necklace!

More impressive gold necklaces.  These things were everywhere.

It was like walls of gold in all the windows.  Everything shimmered.

After wandering the streets for a few hours, we headed to the airport and flew back to the states.  What a great trip!

I was fortunate to be able to spend a few days in Florida on the back end of this trip as well.  This is Airheads, a giant warehouse devoted to trampolines.  I went with all the current ACErs and their (my former) academic advisor.  We had a blast.

I also found some time to get back on the water at McCormick's.  I skied much better than I thought I would.  Not anywhere near what I was skiing when I left, but I still ran the course five out of six passes so I felt great about it.

I also had the chance to play some cards with my former students.  I introduced them to a mentally intensive game called Fish back when I taught there, so we met at Panera to have Loaves and Fish.

This was such a great couple of weeks.  I'm back in Minnesota now for about a week, and will be heading to Canada for a quick ski trip with some high school buddies this coming weekend.  Stay tuned for pictures!