The most decadent week ever-part 1

It feels kind of odd writing this blog with all that is going on in Japan, Libya, Bahrain, etc.  Very odd indeed.  But I still want to share it with you.

Well my friends, it is not often you have a set of 10 days like my last 10 days.  In fact, it may not ever happen again.  It is what Sandip and I are referring to as "our most decadent week ever."  There are two parts that count.  Part 1-six days in Maldives where every view is straight out of a ridiculously beautiful postcard.  Part 2-going to the Taj Mahal on full moon, and staying in a hotel with views of the Taj.

If you have any rich chocolate cake, Veuve, or caviar, now would be the time to start consuming while reading...

Part 1-Maldives
As many of you know, Maldives is a beautiful, pristine chain of atoll islands just southwest of India.  They are known for their beauty and scuba diving, and lived up to the billing.  We found a deal we couldn't refuse on line to go to a resort there, and had a blast.  We got our Advanced Open Water Scuba diving certification, got to go on a night dive, take pictures underwater, and enjoy the beautiful beach every evening.  I managed to stay pasty white thanks to loads of sunblock, SPF swimming shirts, and careful avoidance of shade.  Many other white people there were not so lucky.

Enjoy the photos below.

Getting there

Sandip about to get on our seaplane

Look boss-the plane, the plane!

The place

The island as we are landing from the seaplane.

Taken from inside the lobby.  You can see the peer at which most boats dock, and the restaurant over the water.

Our little beach bungalow.

View from the window of our beach bungalow.

Also taken from our beach bungalow.

Taken at the dive shop.

Taken on our porch

The fun

We played a lot of beach boccie

This is the great boccie court.

Keeping score in the sand.

Had to run to take a dip!

This is from the day we did underwater cameras.  It is probably the best picture I got.

This is missing light-I used flash, but too deep.  See the lobster underneath in the center?

Me in the great blue under.

Sandip takes better photos than me.

Isn't it beautiful?

How wild is this?

And then the divemaster took photo-he is obviously much better than we are. This is from our night dive.

That is the tail of triggerfish.

This only comes out at night.  

This one too.  The coral gets "fuzzy" because it is feeding.

 These are our fish drawings from our Fish Identification course. We drew them underwater (which made my drawings even worse than normal) Can you tell whose drew which ones?  Can you find me?

The sun

 Reading about SCUBA

This is the beach bar lounge chairs, taken right after arriving and a much needed nap.  Ah, it is glorious.

That is a chapel in the background and we saw someone get married there.  This was taken while we played boccie.

The resort had a lot of Japanese tourists, who seemed to be on honeymoon.  They all also took many pictures like these.

Kind of ridiculous how beautiful  This is a real photo.

Pristine, clean, private beaches.  Can you guess which is whiter, me or the sand?  

SAND!  

This is the last day and I am still pasty white!  The only 5 minutes I spent on the island in a swimsuit not covered by SPF shirts was to take this picture proving I am darker than the sand.

Cool trick and Sandip finally learns the true value of the Sepia setting.  See the beach in my sunglasses?

Sunsets were beautiful and we actually saw stars-something we don't really see in Delhi.

Ah, so lovely.  Everywhere you look is like a beautiful computer desktop picture that Microsoft preload

Paradise.

New post features: follow by email

Check out the new bar at the top-add your email and it will theoretically send you email each time I put up a new post.  Hopefully this works.

Also I made it so each post has its own page (inspired by Sandra).  This should make for easier reading.

New posts almost ready-just need to pick out a few more photos!