[Written and timestamped for 10 August]

So the day arrives that we need to pack our bags and leave. Man, cliché as it sounds, I want like another week of staying on in Kuredu. It is more than just waking up to a awesome view or actually having the time of day to think about MY ideas and not having to work through someone else’s’ or even just not having to worry about work. The truth is that I liked the slower pace of the day (although time flew by really quickly tho) and the casualness of working with time to do all the activities I could fit in a day.

So we said our goodbyes to the people ‘assigned’ to us over the past few days, Nooh (guest relations), Amir (waiter), Mo (sangu chaffeur) and the room boy(can’t remember his name) and gave them their tips. The eyes didn’t shift and they didn’t spit at me when they saw the tip amount so I infer that it was within the correct range.

Took the sea plane back over all the islands and like Monday, it makes a person feel really small in the larger scheme of things. If flight was invented in order to humble humankind, it was doing a darn good job on that sea plane over the Maldives.

SQ flies only once a day so we ended up spending some time on the airport island’s only hotel. BTW, it’s main shareholder/owner is SATs. Singapore is everywhere!!I guess I should be kinda proud since National Day was just yesterday? Took the flight out of Maldives and back to Singapore for the remainder of the weekend.Have my gripes about the China Nationals who took the same plane as us but I’ll leave that for the next post.

I am already thinking of saving enough to go back to Kuredu…or another island?

[Written and timestamped for 9 Aug]

Happy National Day Singapore! I didn’t carry a flag but I guess that’s fine – no one would have recognised it anyway. What matters is the thought carried in the heart no? An interesting observation I had was that Singaporeans when introducing themselves often think of Country-Race- Language as identifiers whereas other Asians tend to go the Race-Country-Language route. Probably the beginnings of real nationalistic pride perhaps?

Spent the day sun-tanning, collecting sea shells (did you know that they came in so many shapes and colours?) as well as going for a pampering at the spa where the treatment actually worked! Felt really good and didn’t mind the USD65 price tag at all.

Saw some fish swimming around the Villa and pier areas and since it was bright daylight, managed to get a few good shots.

And I can’t end a post without the sunset shots – they really completed the day.

[Written and timestamped for 8 Aug]

Here are a few shots that I managed to take inbetween another full day spent kayaking, snorkeling, sun-tanning and probably my 20th can of beer, only because they wouldn’t let me take glasses out of the bar into the villa.

But the real highlight of the day was the Sunset Cruise where we sighted dolphins!! And I remember yesterday that I thought the sunset from the Villa was great – well, it is- but check out the shots below. It’s Awesome!!!

And the objective of the cruise, before it got hijacked by the dolphins, was to view the sunset…and what a beautiful one it was.

This is another brilliant one that I had to share.