Sumeet KeSwani feeds stingrays, meets a pod of hitchhiking dolphins and walks on invisible sand banks on an indulgent holiday in the maldives
You’re my North Star when I’m lost and feeling blue,” croons Tom Waits in Little Trip to Heaven, playing on a loop in my head. It is only after two turbulent flights, with an overnight stopover in Thiruvananthapuram, that I get my first sight of the famous Maldivian blues. The North Star is holding strong in the 5.30am sky and clear turquoise waters kiss the shore as we approach the jetty from Hanimaadhoo airport. Inside a boat, we’re handed face towels, water bottles, assorted fruit slices and life jackets. None of it helps the unease that gurgles in the pit of my stomach when the boat takes off. The helmsman announces a journey time of 20 minutes and proceeds to race against what could only be the apocalypse. We split the sea in two, much like Moses the Red Sea, leaving walls of water on both sides. But all these nerves are about to be settled and how.
I’m on a typical holiday to the Maldives, a tropical nation 350 kilometres southwest of Sri Lanka famous for its uncluttered white-sand beaches, clear blue lagoons and luxurious resorts, most of which sit on private islands. There are over 1,000 islands that make up 26 coral atolls in the Maldives, which appears as but specks on the Indian Ocean on a map.
This story is from the November 2017 edition of Outlook Traveller.
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This story is from the November 2017 edition of Outlook Traveller.
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