Our house reef!

First time I heard mentioning the "house reef" I had no clue what the guys from the dive shop were talking about! Then they started mentioning turtles, sharks and other exotic fish names and I understood they were referring to the coral reef that is around our small island! Talking about small island, I measured our little paradise on google earth and it is something like 250m long at the longest point and 200m at the largest point (or maybe the other way around) that is without the extension for the villas built on the water. So yes it is small. I think to snorkel around it, it probably takes around 2 hours. I haven't tried yet, but will soon I hope.

Of course diving here is the big hit, haven't been able to start yet, but just to snorkel is amazing. Here are a few pics of our amazing "house reef". It is home to I think 4 turtles, several white tipped reef shark - not dangerous and generally shy - and wow thousands of fishes: big, small, juveniles and babies! it's another world happening "down under". I am no fish expert, so if you see mistakes please do correct me!

So here we go! ... this is what i see, a couple of minutes of swimming from the shore!

Moorish Idols, Empress Angelfishes, Blue Surgeons, Butterfly fishes, Parrot fishes... just to name a few! 

Maldivian Anemone fish (our local Nemo!) and a family of Blue Stripe Snappers

Batfishes and a Oriental Sweet Lips in the background

A cute Porcupine Fish

Yellow Margin Triggerfish

A White Tipped Reef Shark - I was chasing it for a picture, but he is very camera shy! unfortunately visibility was not the best that day.

and finally one of our sea turtles! These pictures are taken on 2 occasions, but I think it's the same one...

and there are so many more! next time... 

From Hulhumale to Male

We have a 2 ways of leaving the island if we want to travel to Male, I am fortunate enough to have a fairly easy access to the sea planes, but otherwise we have boats leaving a few times per month - early morning and coming back late afternoon.

So the trip starts with waiting for the sea plane's departure time; we only get that confirmed the evening before and then we wait to see if the plane is on time or not! it is often that the schedule is changed in the morning. It happens also that we transfer by boat to another resort to catch the famous twin-otter. Obviously both kids absolutely love the travelling part of our island life! Don't tell anybody, but so do I...

Sea Plane landing at our resort. Credit for this picture goes to my little 4 year old paparazzi!  

After the awesome 25 minute flight to Male airport, we transfer to the pier where the boats to Male leave from. That happens right in front the departure hall of the International Airport. There are minibuses going from the sea plane terminal to the main airport. It only takes about 5 minutes, well depending if they are closing the road because a plane is landing or not. I was told that before the cars/vans/buses were crossing the runway... until a bus got stuck and there was a plane was landing! I don't know the rest of the story, but I suppose it ended well, but thankfully they decided to build another road that goes behind the runway.

The pier, view from the boat

Back to our trip. We bought our tickets from a little booth, for the price of 10MVR (Maldivian Rufiyaa - 1USD = 15MVR) per person we went from Hulhumale, the airport island to Male. It is possible to pay is dollars as well, i guess the price in $1. For that matter, in absolutely all shops, restaurants they take US$. 

The ticket booth

our boat

and the inside

The crossing takes about 10 minutes, it goes very slowly - the kids thought it was much fun! They leave about every 15 minutes. We were the first on board, but 5 minutes after it was buzzing with locals, tourists, expats from all over the world and full of luggage and noodle boxes as well.

A boat crossing

View of Male from the sea

And finally here is a picture of the pier in Male as well as the booth where we bought the ticket to go in the other direction. 

Remote island life with small kids

When we told our families and friends we were moving to the Maldives, there were 2 questions that came up: what about you? what about the kids? - well to be honest i'd rather be on a small island in the "middle of nowhere" than to end up in a big polluted and busy-busy city with 2 small kids who don't really need to go to school! There are also a couple of things I have learned since we started being expats over 4 years ago:

- Always take the positives of where we are and don't waste time on the negative stuff - if there is nothing to do about it, leave it - if I can change it, I do my best to do so. Yes I am on a small tiny tiny island, but hey I can actually learn how to kite surf, sail a catamaran and to scuba dive with the most amazing scenery.

See what I mean?? ;)

- The second thing I learned was to always put things into perspective.... what I mean is when I was pregnant with our biggest one, living in the UK, we visited Dubai to see if we could move there - and to be honest I did not like it very much - no soul, no culture, only malls, big roads, lots of cars etc. Then we moved to Jordan - not a lot of shopping (at that time, it is much better now), lots of roads with no lights but holes in (maybe that has improved as well!!). We then went to Dubai and of course after having been in Amman for a few months I could have easily moved to Dubai! All a question of perspective.

- With the kids, I have learned that if I don't make a problem out of it, well it's likely not really to be a big problem for them either - so we prepared for our move with them, talking about the Maldives, looking at pictures, telling them what was going to change... and they adapted quite fast to their new surroundings. Of course A talks about her friends, her school, and H about his nanny and his toys which are still not here. H is younger than A was when we moved to Bali and he is actually very aware of this move (2yrs, 7months).

I think there is a lot of positives for the kids to be out here: healthy lifestyle - full of sunshine, running around outside, water, sand, turtles and sharks, boats, kayaks and paddling boards - people from the whole world - both staff and guests. Good food. I home-school our biggest one, thing I really enjoy - doing science projects on the beach, learning to read and doing maths at home, playing football or doing yoga, oh and swimming as well of course. No stress about going-to-bed-times or waking-up-times, it's a holiday everyday! living at our own pace, trying to get as much out of every day. Finally the island is their size, nothing is too far away - okay we don't have roads and cars - but we have buggies and even a tractor.

I plan our day according to the kids - we always have a morning walk and swimming: sometimes we hunt for crabs on the beach - sometimes for turtles in the kayak. we go snorkelling, my girl with her kit and the small one on my back. we go for a boat ride and ice cream! always a sunset walk and a play on the beach and in between all that we try to squeeze in some house work for the mummy, some home-schooling for A and a nap for my little boy. dinner time, play time, and finally bed time. long days but filled with laughter and lots of discoveries.

I love it as much today as 4 weeks ago when we first arrived. I am sure it is not for everybody though - and many guests come, enjoy their time but are happy to leave again; others come back and back to get the serenity you only can find on an island this size, far away from the craziness of our world.

First trip on the sea plane!

"Life is about the Journey"

So when you go to visit or live on a small island away from Male, I guess you only have 2 options on how to get there... either you transfer by boat or your take, well... a sea plane. 

The sea plane stand, as in taxi stand, is on the same island as the airport. Maldives Airport hosts the biggest sea plane operation in the world (according to Male Airport's website). It operates as a taxi service and the sea planes can fly to several islands in one go - leaving and picking up passengers to fly them to their destination. 

It was a first for the kids and for me as well - and wow I absolutely loved every minute of it! It took us 25 minutes to reach our little paradise and it was just amazing to look down at all the small island and lagoons on the way... the kids also thought it was great! It is a bit noisy though, but you can ask for ear plugs on board. 

View of Male, capital city of Maldives

Male Airport

There used to be 2 companies Trans Maldivian and Maldivian Air Taxi, but they are both owned by one company now, since last year they operate under Trans Maldivian Airways. 

This poster from their website tells you a little bit about it all! 

TMA in brief

Back to our little trip - here are a few pictures I took!