Me, Belinda Carlisle and the airport in Goa

The moral of the story is: Don't ever run out of business cards, and pop culture is critical to your success as a diplomat so read People.

Now, there are two reactions you might have to the subject line:

1. Who is Belinda Carlisle?  If this is your question, please look at these websites before continuing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belinda_Carlisle
http://www.belindacarlisle.tv/

2. Cool-did you meet her and where is Goa?  If so, read below

Goa is a state in western India that has lots of beaches.  According to Indians, Heaven is a place in earth and it is called Goa.  I wouldn't go that far, but it is nice.  There are two beaches, north (party central) and south (peaceful).  It is a perfect vacation for many in India.  And we went there one weekend in January because our friend JC, who was born in 1984 (becomes relevant as I go) rented a house.

So we are in the airport waiting to board, and I see a really put together white woman who is pretty stunning. We ride the bus to the airplane and we are next to her, and I am thinking-she is so familiar.  So it comes to me and I immediately tell Sandip this woman looks like Belinda Carlisle.  He agrees and we immediately try to read her boarding card (which is hilarious for those of you who have ever seen me try to read a board or drive at night).  So her first name is Belinda, last name not Carlisle.  I think this is too much of a coincidence but don't say anything.

So we board, Google Belinda Carlisle, and it is totally her.  So in baggage claim I march up and tell her she looks like the lead singer of the Go-Gos, and she is totally charming, engages in this great conversation with us.  I tell her me and Sandip work at the Embassy, and she asks us a visa question!  Hilarious!    So we give an answer.

We had a great chat about India, its people, policies, and the US involvement here.  We talk about her trips here and the wonder of Rishikesh (remember I went there!)  Then I ask for a picture.  She happily obliges, and here it is below:

Then, she asks for a card, and I DON'T HAVE MY CARDS!  AAAAHHHH!  So we gave her Sandip's.

Who would have thought that 20 years ago, when singing along to her song, I would as an adult meet her in India, have her ask a visa question, take a picture, and not have my business cards.

Anyway, here are the rest of the photos:

Seriously-a dude in his tighty-whities and the woman in jeans and a t-shirt.  This was a common site.

We 80s children know this reference...

Maldives 2012-underwater post 2 of 2!

First a couple of photos for the nieces and nephews:

A bit of the atmosphere on the dive center and dive boat:

Romain and Shayne with our world travelers.  Great story on how they met-becoming divemasters!

Ali giving the dive briefing on the dive boat.

Me looking awesome trying to keep the sun off my white skin

The dive tanks and dogball and duck

Turtle (obviously)

Scorpionfish-very dangerous.

Bubble anemone and clownfish

Me

An idea of the kinds of things you see-starfish, sea squirts, soft and hard coral...

 

Do you see the octopus?

 

Hard to see through the sediment, but that is a 2.5 meter manta ray

Watch the video Sandip took of the manta ray

 

Porcupinefish (watch out-it's dangerous!) 

 

Spotted eagle rays.  They look like they are "flying" in formation.  Very strong current here.

See below for cool video of eagle rays.  I am having formatting issues.

 

 

Me holding on to coral, watching the eagle rays riding the current

Swirling fish

another shot

More bubble anemone, clownfish (though might be imitation)

There is a fish in this picture.  I promise

You can see it here with different exposure.

Our view when we pop back up

Totally cool

This is one of my favorite photos.  Sandip the merman!

Hello turtle!

isn't this so amazing?

This is a whale shark.  Total vegetarian and we rode 90 minutes in speedboat hoping to see this.  We did.  It is huge-like 5 meters long!

Opening mouth to gather plankton

Video

Gives you a sense of size

Odd couple

Giant Oyster

Reef shark-a sign of healthy reef

Oriental Sweetlips

Those antennae are for shrimp.  The white/green small things you see around the picture are sea squirts

Pin cushion star fish.  It eats coral, especially baby coral.  Baby coral are by the way white and look like mucusy eggs.  I thought we had a picture, but didn't find it.  Our underwater sign was swinging arms like you are holding a baby.

Lionfish-very dangerous.

Leaf fish on some coral.  our first time seeing this fish.

Great shot to give you a sense of the entire thing.

Love this coral!  Oh wait-see on the left of the photo on the hot pink it is kind of white/murky?  That is our baby coral!

Thanks for going under the sea with us!

Maldives in 2012-post 1 of 2!

We are extremely lucky to have gone to Maldives again this year.  We went to the same resort, the Angsana Velavaru, that we did last year and had a week of relaxation, diving, and good food.  The food was even good for me since we worked with the food and beverage manager and they flew in ingredients (like tofu) to get me yummy, high protein options.

Enjoy!

Our Lovely Room

Personal pool

Our amazing room

View from our room

The beach outside our room

Our room from the ocean

The Scene at the Resort
So picture perfect that you can really not put into words.  It might just be the most beautiful place on earth.  Tragedy that global warming will probably ruin this place.

Eco-Friendly!

One of the reasons we chose this resort (in addition to it being just absolutely beautiful) is its commitment to eco-friendly practices.  The have a well staffed marine biology center that does talks about coral and fish life as well as environmental practices.  They also do a lot of coral planting-and let Sandip and I accompany!  One day we did it in the lagoon (about 1.5 metres down) one day we did cage planting about 8 meters down.  So enjoy the pics of the eco-warriors!

This is the shallow planting.  You put a cement ball on the structure, then shove the coral into it.  It is murky because we kept kicking up sand and the cement balls were coming undone a bit.

Getting ready to plant coral on the cages.  The staff at the marine center kept telling me I didn't need the wetsuit because it is not that cold.  I was like-yes but I am white and need the sun protection.

And it was cold.

So this is us putting on coral using zipties.  They will come through later and snip the plastic down.

This gives you a great sense of what we were doing.

View of Sandip

Night feeding the rays

The marine biologist

Baby black tip reef shark who showed up for the feeding.

Dolphins racing the dive boat

Us, enjoying ourselves

Our favorite lunch spot.  Love the hat.

Amazing ice cream drink called "Banana Boat" so yummy and worthy of being named after my niece!

Dogball and duck outside the dive center

Goodbye Maldives