Crossed off 3 items on my Life List in 7 days…
23. Stay in an over-the-water bungalow, preferably somewhere in the South
Pacific.
26. See a leopard on safari.
31. Go to the Maldives before it sinks
After a lovely conversation with the GM of the Maldives hotel, I’ve also added a new item…
101. Spend a day with an elephant in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
What’s on your life list???
I fell in love with this show, Idiot Abroad, in Ireland last year. We left before I got to see a couple of the episodes, but thankfully I caught them on a flight to New Zealand. Rio was my favorite and I literally laughed out loud on the plane while watching.
In honor of our upcoming adventure…
***American friends***- if you don’t know this show and you’re a fan of Ricky Gervais- you need to find it ASAP. Hilarious!
I will fully admit that I had actually never even heard of the Maldives before we began our life on the road. I’m sure many well-traveled friends will scoff, but this isn’t somewhere Americanos travel. At least the Americans I know. Unless you live in Sri Lanka or Dubai- it isn’t the easiest place to get to and hey, we’ve got the Caribbean and Mexico to explore and neither take multiple flights and a day of travel to get there.
I vaguely remember hearing about a country sinking into the ocean, but if you had held a gun to my head, I wouldn’t have been able to come up with the name “Maldives”.
My ignorance was quickly remedied our first round in India. The Wife’s colleagues raved about this tiny island chain located in the Indian Ocean. We actually tried to go there, but it meant sleeping in an airport in Sri Lanka and as I said, it was our first round and the brainwashing of thinking insane lengths should be taken for weekend trips hadn’t quite sunk in yet.
I didn’t have much hope of reaching the Maldives during our time on the road, but I added it to my life list in hopes of going one day- before it sank.
It wasn’t until we were at dinner with a higher-up in Sydney (you know the one who said I can’t help but sound like an asshole) and he mentioned he was going there for the Easter holiday that we realized we could actually get there from Australia on our way to South Africa. And then our heads burst from excitement.
Guys- this place is an absolute dream. Really.
It starts when you look out the plane’s window and see this…
And then walk outside the airport to see this taxi stand…
We had a quick 10 minute speed boat ride to our resort. As this was an early anniversary gift (5 years!!) we splurged for an over-the-water bungalow.
It should maybe be illegal to have this as your backyard…
Highly illegal.
After scraping our jaws off the floor, we freshened up (it was about 1 million degrees outside) and settled in on the back deck for our first Maldivian sunset…
Disgusting, right?
We spent the next two days just soaking up the beauty of it all. We could snorkel just off our deck and although the coral garden was fairly dismal, the sea life was abundant. It’s trips like these that I regret not having an underwater camera case. We tried, mostly in vain, to capture some of the creatures hanging out around our deck...
Okay, in truth those reef sharks weren’t under our deck. They were chowing down on tuna being thrown for them at the beach bar one night. We did have reef sharks swim by but I never seemed to have my camera ready. Those things are fast.
This was probably definitely the most beautiful tropical place we’ve ever been. It was like we were on our own private island and I just kept waiting for Tattoo and Mr. Roarke to come ask me my fantasy. The thing was, I was already living it.
Pics from the weekend…
Our last night in Oz…
We had a great time on our little dinner cruise around Sydney Harbor.
We finally arrived in Johannesburg last night after a very long day of travel from the Maldives, also known as heaven on earth (stay tuned for photos and story). It was about a 20 hour day for us, 12 on planes and another 5 or so at various airports. Needless to say, we’re feeling it today. We literally sore from heaving our massive and heavy bags over and over and over and our jet lag had us up before the sun this morning.
Aside from being tired though we’re so excited to be here! Our new home is actually a great little apartment and connected to one of the larger and nicer mall complexes in Joberg which makes compound living a lot more enjoyable. I’ve already been to the grocery once with plans to go back tomorrow. Hey, I said I was sore- those groceries don’t haul themselves the quarter-mile through the 2 malls back to our hotel. I’ve got to spread the canned goods and bottles out between trips.
We’re looking forward to lots of great weekends and even more excited about some normalcy with living in an apartment. As I unpack today I can’t help but smile knowing I won’t have to pack it back up again for 2 months!!
Belly dancer from our trip to Dubai in 2009…
We've got a couple of layovers in Dubai as we make our way to South Africa this week. I’ll never forget the first time I walked into their ultra modern airport after 7 weeks in India. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven…clean, stark white, orderly heaven.
We decided to make a stop in paradise for a couple of days as an early wedding anniversary gift to ourselves before we reach South Africa.
SO EXCITED!!
One of my only regrets in leaving this part of the world is that I didn’t get to spend more time in New Zealand. I loved it there so much and honestly prefer it over Australia. Hopefully one day we’ll make it back to explore the Southern Island and learn more of the amazing Maori culture…
Our time in Australia is coming to an end tomorrow. We’ve had a great time exploring the country/continent and were so happy to have El Diablo with us before he left the department and to have Pablo come to visit.
Our weekends took us to the Great Barrier Reef (one more Natural Wonder off the list- just 4 more to go) and to the Outback. We drank wonderful Aussie wines in Hunter Valley and spent an entire day riding along the gorgeous Great Ocean Road. It is a beautiful and vast country with so much to offer- far too much to see in 8 weeks.
We were lucky enough to get sent to New Zealand where I fell in love with the Maori culture and where we were both in awe of glowing maggot butts.
Sydney itself didn’t really win me over, but I think that’s because it reminded me so much of an American city, albeit a pretty one. I don’t know what I was expecting- Kangaroos hopping down the street? Men wrestling crocodiles in the alleys? Koalas noshing on blooming onions before their main course of eucalyptus? I don’t know. I liked it here, I just didn’t fall in love the way I expected.
Sydney really has a lot to offer, but I think it’s just missing a distinct vibe and that is what I’m always looking for in a city- something in the air that just makes you want to be a part of everything. Maybe if I were a surfer or sailor I would have felt differently.
We’re capping off our time here tonight with a dinner cruise around the harbor which I think will be a lovely end to our trip.
Tomorrow we trade in kangaroos for lions.
Well, not immediately as we’re taking a few days to ourselves, but by Tuesday night we’ll be in South Africa.
