The Sunny Side of Life

Our first post busy season trip of 2014 was to the Maldives! There are almost 1,200 islands in the Maldives but we only saw a few...While doing research for the trip Melissa saw these red seaplanes and was really looking forward to taking one to get to our resort. I reluctantly had to inform her that the Sheraton Full Moon Resort was just a 20 minute speed boat ride from the island airport, good that saved us the exorbitant $450 ticket price per person. These islands are so small that even the capital and its main (only) airport are on two different islands. The space on the airport's island is at so much of a premium there are no taxiways so once you reach the end of the runway, you have to turn around and head down the same runway to take off or exit to the terminal.

As the Maldives is an Islamic nation they are very strict on what can be brought into the country including no alcohol or pork. After you claimed your bags they even x-rayed them to make sure of it! But lucky for us it would not be a dry trip as alcohol is allowed at the resort islands which comes at a cost - a very expensive hotel alcohol permit.

After exiting the terminal, we located the Sheraton desk and were soon boating off to the resort's island. After getting checked in we took a golf cart to our room. We were not there for long as we were itching to explore the island. In front of our building there was a nice little beach with a beach bar and the main restaurants were just a short 10 minute walk away. We walked down the beach to the Anchor Bar for a late lunch and to watch the sunset.

The next morning we hit the beach just after breakfast claiming our lounge chairs under some palm trees for a nice spot to spend the day. On our walk along the beach it was hard not to notice these "don't touch the stingrays" signs. If you look a bit closer you will see a white stingray partially covered by the sand. We saw this same white stingray every day as it would swim just along the shore. While hunting for shells most of the ones we picked up were already homes to little hermit crabs. Just off the beach were a few coral reefs that had seen better days but were still home to plenty of colorful fish.

The island is covered with different types of palm trees and numerous flowering plants from hibiscus to frangipani that were so fragrantful you could not help but pick one off the tree for a sniff.

Melissa absolutely loved this peacock fan palm tree! 

There was not much to decide except where to sun and what to eat - perfect for a relaxing vacation!

Anchorage Bar has outdoor beds which were perfect to watch the sunset and have a beer. Every evening there was a shark feeding, with a lonely small black tip reef shark being the only one that showed up. 

One of our last sunsets the hotel put on a traditional Maldivian dance show which was quite interesting - note there are no women? After the show we headed toward the over water bungalows to view the sunset. A perfect way to end a great stay. We will be back!