Paradise

*Hooray!  I finally got the photos uploaded to all the posts, for anyone who has any interest in going back and looking at them.  Of course, they are all on Facebook too, so many of you have probably already seen them.  :)

January 1 - 4

I can not even begin to describe how poorly I sleep on long travel days.  I will make it simple and just say that I don't sleep.  Period.  I managed to talk Nando into keeping our rental car for a few extra hours so I could sleep in, knowing that I would not be sleeping for somewhere around 30+ hours between leaving Pretoria and arriving in the Maldives.  It's amazing how well, "do you want a grouchy wife??" works to get a few extra hours of sleep.  That said, it may not work quite as well when we are no longer on our honeymoon.

After a 9 or 10 hour flight to Abu Dhabi, a 9 hour layover (overnight) in the Abu Dhabi airport, a 5 hour flight to Male, a 2 hour layover in the Male airport and then a 25 minute seaplane ride to South Ari Atoll, we finally made it to Mirihi Island Resort in the Maldives.  Honestly, they could have just named it Heaven and I don't think they would have missed the mark by much.  It is nothing short of incredible.

Mirihi International Airport

From the moment we got here, I knew it was my kind of place.  We got off the boat that transported us the 100 feet from the "Mirihi International Airport" to the island itself and walked up a long wooden dock only to be handed a coconut with a straw coming out of it and asked to remove our shoes since most guests go only barefoot while they are here.  I haven't worn shoes in 3 days.

The resort is the only thing on the island.  There are 30 over the water bungalows and 6 beach bungalows - for a maximum of around 75 guests.  140 staff members live on the island to essentially cater to pretty much every whim of the guests.  We are in one of the over the water bungalows and we are spoiled with air conditioning, our own private deck with a staircase directly into a stunning underwater playground and a bathroom with floor to ceiling glass doors that look out over the water - no matter what we may need to be doing in there.  Lovely.

Since being here we have eaten absolutely delicious food, lazed on our deck, gone snorkeling and today Nando did his first open water scuba dive, much to my delight!  Last night we had the most amazing dinner on the deck of the over the water restaurant with floodlights illuminating the Indian Ocean beneath us.  Still to come before heading to Singapore are: a whale shark excursion, a Maldivian cooking class, a 4 course wine and dine dinner and plenty of just plain nothing...