"Don't Start Me Talking"

Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Bodu Hithi, Maldives
Let's talk about food. No Bush story would be complete without some commentary on the meals. Our package has limited us to the "Air" restaurant, but we are not complaining...

Meals here are, of course, also 5-star. The buffet breakfast has the full range of Western hot foods, some hot Asian offerings, cereals and fresh fruits, Japanese sushi, cold meats and cheese, breads and pastries, one man juicing fruits to your recipe and another manning a live station cooking eggs to order and pancakes or waffles.




Dinner has likewise offered a large range of Western hot dishes such as beef with peppercorns and cauliflower gratin, local meals such as last night's delicious chickpea curry or baked salmon, prepared salads, raw vegetables, cooked vegetables and desserts. Oh, the desserts... the displays could be from any Toorak Road patisserie.

Lunch is a mystery, as we have avoided paying the large amounts charged here by eating up at breakfast and having the fruit in our room for lunch. Amongst the apples and mandarins, fruits have included mangosteen, longan, yellow passionfruit, sugar bananas and the most delicious mango I have ever slurped my way through!

But today's highlight was nothing epicurean.



We ventured to the other side of the island on the advice of staff for some morning snorkeling while the water was calm. I bought a US$19 can of Banana Boat foam with local anesthetic and ventured out lathered with that, SPF30+ (on my legs too this time!) and dressed like a total goose in t-shirt and cargo pants.

We passed the sharks averaging 2 feet in length, the dinner plate-sized stingray and headed into the depths to find tropical fish more diverse and more densely populated than any spot visited before. The coral dropped away to something like 50 feet at the edge of the cay. The water was crystal clear in the sunlight.



And then a 'rock' moved! And then I realized that the rock had four flippers and a neck! A green sea turtle calming nibbling on the coral ledges! His shell was about 2 feet long and he cared not one iota that we were flapping about above him. A couple of times, he surfaced for air and we were able to pat his shell on the way past.

I also spotted what was probably an outfall pipe for the island's treated grey water... It was teeming with schools of all sorts of fish. I was able to swim amongst them as if I was one of them. It was an amazing experience. Occasionally, something pumped out the pipe and the fish instantly headed down toward the outlet creating a frantic eddy. I could talk for ages about drifting in "Nemo-land"!

Cursing that underwater camera that promised so much and now sits in a bag of dry rice, hopefully drying...

 

 

Comments

KT
2011-05-11

I so want to be there. Coldest night of the year last night and my gas heater wouldn't work........ keep having fun

kt

2025-02-14

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