Missing Maldivian Pictures

Here we are! I finally got all my pictures together, including my diving ones. :)

Enjoy the pictures, and some might have a little story to it...

Sea plane dock at Male

The somewhat good looking/casual looking captain of the sea plane :)
I'm so short... :'(

Our special air conditioner aboard the sea plane

Oh such a roomy cabin space :)

A beautiful view from the sea plane

The dock at the resort

The glorious walk in :)

A sign before the walk

I swear the bed was a California King... huge!

The patio looking out into the ocean :3

You can walk down and snorkel from your room! 

My mom did this with my brother. They went snorkeling behind our water villas. She said it was good. But they both ended up getting this nasty looking rash. Probably from some bugs in the water. I went scuba diving. :)

To wash the sand off our feet before going into the room

The Senior Water Villas (with a cleaning cart hehehe)

Sunbathing spot!

Mandatory picture at the beach :3

Sign post

A Feathertail Stingray; there were a few in shallow water around the villas

Happy me after my spa treatment :D

Rainy cloud I captured, pretty cool eh?

Outdoor bubble bath lighting :)

Mmmm...bubblez OooOoOoo

Shark Night (not)

Hahaha! Look what's for lunch!

This was taken on the last day of my stay at the resort. Let's just say the walk to the eating place from my water villa takes about 10 mins. Initially, I didn't have my camera with me. Upon seeing this sign, I made that extra 20 mins round trip in the 95 degree heat for this picture!

Ready to go scuba!!

My disposable underwater camera!

This thing is pretty cool looking. It says its capacity is 27 pictures. And so I saved my last shot for a sea turtle. And guess what? The 27th shot is cut like halfway through, rendering it useless! I'm soooo mad!!! A sea friggin' turtle!!!!

Plus, this camera sucks at capturing natural light underwater. It was very clear and bright when I there, but this camera failed to capture that beauty. Out of the 27 shots I took, only around half is good.

Definitely getting a real underwater camera when we can afford it. Or else just gonna commit it them to memory instead.

Some fishy in the rock.
The beam of light is from a torch my instructor, Jeon, was holding.

 

Pufferfish?

Batfish!

Two batfish! They came really close because apparently they're used to people.

A school of fish :)

My failed attempt at capturing the face of this fish that came comparatively close to me, lol

A predator fish out in the distance

My most prized picture of all time!
Nemooooo!!! <3
With a bit of my finger in the way :s

School of fishy above me

Colorful fishy!

Look! I found Gill!

I did the discover scuba diving for three days straight! It was amaaaazing! I bought the disposable underwater camera for the second day, which was boat diving. I was so busy trying to jump correctly that I forgot to bring the camera down with me. :( So I decided to go the third day and took all these pics. :D

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8 more days and I'll be home!!! 4 weeks is just too long. I miss Tony. I miss Chewie. And I just miss California, period. I swear I'm not coming back for Christmas. Over my dead body! I'm serious about that, too!

Bye Bye Maldives, Hello Limbo

I wouldn't say time passed any faster towards the end of my trip at the Maldives. I guess it was more like a peaceful existence there. There is definitely benefit from being away from people you know. Except if you're with the people you want to get away from.

I did have this sense of longing as I walked away from the water villa though. 

All in all, I went discover scuba diving for three days straight, got different spa treatments for three days straight, and went on a snorkeling trip on the last day. They were all good! Bought a disposable underwater camera and took it down with me on the last dive. Stupid me forgot to take it with me on my second dive. :/

I took the camera in to get it developed on Thursday (it's the disposable underwater 27 pics Kodak one). I wanted the pictures digitized too so I can put them online. :) They said it will be ready next week, which should be on Tuesday. So excited! Hopefully my finger didn't get into any of the shots.

I took one with Nemo and this really cool looking anemone. I will be so mad at myself if that one is messed up!

I was actually struggling a little bit to take pictures under water. For one, I couldn't stay still because you're literally drifting with the water. And because I was trying to stay still, I ended up holding my breath. The number one rule while diving is to not hold your breath. So I just breathed real slow. That's still bad. And it didn't stop me from drifting. Whatevs.

We'll see the result soon. :)

So I got to Thailand three days ago (Tuesday). The trip/flight back was horrible. We ended up having to sit around and wait a lot. Very tiring when I finally got here.

Thus, here I am in total Limbo. Waiting to get back home in two weeks. Well, 12 days now. Leaving on August 23rd. My mom's leaving for Switzerland for this health program today. She's gonna get back on the 19th. Ohh, what to do....

I ran yesterday. Did a lot better than when I last ran which was a week ago. I only did 1.5 miles though (one round around the neighborhood). Since I'll have a full free week (hopefully my brother and grandma won't be trying to pull me somewhere with them), I'm planning on starting the marathon training schedule like originally planned in May.

My only real problem is the rain. I hate running on treadmills. I always feel dizzy afterward. And it always seems to rain right around the time I go out for a run. Oh well. I'll find that window of opportunity. :)

Tony says I hike too slow. Like last time when we went to Mt. Baldy. I'll show him who hikes slow! I'll get stronger!

Yes, I have a plan. ;)

At least thinking about these things will get me through Limbo a little easier. When I get back to the States, I'm gonna sign up for the climbing gym membership. I kinda feel bad every time I sneak in with Tony. Hehehe. Plus, if I get a membership I can go by myself. Or more like take my girl friends with me.

I'm thinking I can go climb Monday morning or Tuesday night (if I don't have choir practice that day). Then again with Tony on Friday or Saturday. Twice a week. That's what the people at Chiang Mai told me to do anyway. You get stronger going at least twice a week.

Then on Thursdays I have my pole dancing class. Yessss!! I'm finally doing it! :D Super happy I finally get to start! I have Thursdays free from school, so I'm doing pole dancing from 10am to 12pm. After that, I'm going to try to do a hike. I'll try to do it with Ploy, my best friend's little sister living in Hollywood.

If I don't have anyone to go with then I'll just do it alone. I'm gonna try to hike at least once a week. So maybe a short one on Thursday, and one more on Saturday or Sunday. I'd love to go with Ploy though. I want her to get in shape and maybe we can grow stronger together. Her pace should be about the same as mine. I'm pretty slow, according to Tony. -_-

Well, we'll get faster dammit!!!

There you go. Climb, dance, and hike. Hopefully I won't have too much homework. :)

Here, I'm just going to run and do some fitness routine on the internet. One of my friends, Jessica, sent me a 20 minutes video. I'm gonna try to follow the Hal Higdon Novice 1 Marathon Training Schedule.

Will have to go buy one of those iPod holder for running and maybe some dumbbells. For the time being I'll just use two full bottles of 500ml. bottled water. :)

Okay, time for my run!

A Beautiful Prison

I'm having a much better time here than I did yesterday. Coming to terms with the fact of this month was kind of hard. But I made it through realizing I have to stay strong and committed to what I believe in. I have to stay optimistic and happy. I have a boyfriend back home who loves me, a beautiful ocean view to wake up to, and lots of fishies to see.


Edit note for last entry: I said I saw a Manta Ray, but I saw two Feathertail Stingrays in shallow water by the villas.


Today I went on another scuba diving experience. But this time I actually jumped off a boat. Well, we were only a couple hundred meters away from the island. I had some trouble with my goggles: water kept on seeping in. Ugh...wish I brought over the one that I bought. And I don't think I was equalizing too well today. Nothing hurt. Just feels a bit weird.


I was always so scared of getting too close to the reef and corrals. Didn't want to damage anything. Sometimes I feel like I got a hang of it and could control myself and direction. Other times I was just out of control or didn't understand why I'm not going the way I wanted to. The most annoying bit was when I start to float when I didn't want to. Especially when my head is dipping.


Thankfully the instructor, Jeon (he's Korean), was leading most of the time so he always had a hand on me. He's the one that regulates the amount of air in my suit. And somehow, him tugging and pulling at me lightly seems to make me float the right way without much effort. But whenever he lets go I felt myself go haywire.


Several times under the water I realized that I can't really afford to freak out. Freaking out would only make things worse. I mean, you can only do so much down there. Doing anything associated with freaking out will only endanger myself. I can't suddenly just decide to pop up. Flailing around like an idiot wouldn't do any good. And holding my breath, which surprisingly is a natural instinct under water, will only make me die.


So I figure just go with the flow and think like a pot smoker. Slooooow and steady. Problems? Just point casually. Hyperventilating will only shorten your life.


Then I learned the art of one hand control. I can descend and ascend quite easily waving my hand a certain way. Also works side to side. This technique works until I find myself in one of those random moments I feel out of control and wanted to flail around. I tried very hard not to look like an idiot so I just move my hand really quickly to try and go a certain direction (usually away from the corrals because I was getting very close).


But other than that, it was BEAUTIFUL!!!


I can't even begin to explain how beautiful and amazing it is down there. So many fishies and corrals. I saw two sea turtles, like literally arm length away feeding by the reef. Saw an eel poking its head out of a hole. Schools of fish. Actually swam through a school of fish. The fish look at me kinda weird. Like they're looking down on me. Discriminating against me or something. They come pretty close though.


Then! There was a school of Spotted Eagle Ray. Five of them actually. Two came pretty close. So close I could see their eyes. Kinda looked like a cat's eyes with slits and all. They swam pretty fast. Looked more like gliding really past fast.


I found Nemo! And Gill. The anemone was really cool. It looked like lots of puffed up balloons about to pop at the end. Saw some big fish out in the open ocean. I was literally at the drop off. Well, kind of. It's just at the edge of a really steep part.


And guess what? I bought a one-use underwater camera.....and forgot to bring it down with me! I'm sooooo stupid!!! When we saw the turtle Jeon motioned taking a pic and I realized my biggest mistake. :(((((


No worries! I'm going down again tomorrow. :) Just because I forgot my camera today.


After that I went to get another massage. I feel more relaxed today. My mind was less all over the place. I was able to just stay in the moment and absorb every motion. It was good. Tomorrow, my final spa day, I'm getting a full on three hour treatment. Scrub, massage, and facial. What a life... :)


After the massage I went for a yoga session with my mom and brother. The instructor is an Indian guy. He is a very nice and kind man. Surprisingly has a sweet face. He's probably smaller than me though. A bit shorter, and probably even skinnier. Which makes him a very small man.


It was very relaxing. He focuses on our posture, breathing, and stretching. Sometimes his accent makes me want to laugh though. You get used to it after a while. The sound of the waves really helped. Oh yeah, we did it outdoors.


We were talking to him when we were walking back, and he feels kind of out of place working here because of how different it is from his hometown. Where he comes from might not be a big city according to modern standard, but it sure as hell is big compared to this circular island.


"Everywhere you look there is water...It's a prison: a beautiful prison."


And you never really think of this coming here. You come for vacation and it's paradise. You wish you can stay here forever. Going home is something you dread. Yet the workers here are trapped. There is only so much you can do in a day here without it being a repetitious chore. You see the same thing, smell the same thing, feel the same thing every single day. Okay, maybe people come and go. But the guests don't really provide any comfort or company and they only call when they need service.


And people are stuck here literally. Even the guests! I mean, think about it. You're on an island in the middle of nowhere. If for some reason transportation fails, say a really bad storm hit, you're basically the main cast of Castaway. Except there aren't any source of water except for rain water. No, coconut trees don't really naturally grow here either. They're mostly planted. I have not seen one coconut since I got here.


A paradise in which without the fragile human engineer would fail to support life. A place in which people are ecstatic to experience mother nature's best forgetting her worse, blinded by aesthetic values and foolish chemistry.


So yes, I'm in a beautiful prison.

Maldivian Adventures 1 and a 1/2 Days

Oh, how blue is the ocean. Definitely a whole lot bluer than Malibu! Ladies and gents, yes, I am here in "paradise"..... The Maldives!


A couple's retreat. Greatest honeymoon spot. Beautiful, romantic room. Sensual bathroom. Pristine bungalows. With my mom and brother. Yep....


It's fun, don't get me wrong. There is just a certain disconnect in that logic, if you know what I mean. However, I get to do whatever I want. So that's pretty awesome except for the fact that I keep thinking about and missing Tony. I mean, how can I not when I see couples walking around everywhere.


Anyway, let me recount my wonderful stay so far. I can't really upload my pics yet, so that's gonna have to wait. :) The island/resort that we're staying at is called Constance Moofushi. Had to take a sea plane to get here. Honestly, I was really nervous getting on that thing. Smallest plane I've ever been on. And the captain, handsome as he may be, looked like one of those guys that couldn't keep a relationship and gets drunk on the beach partying every night making him perfect for this job.


Surprisingly, he worked his magic on the plane. Kinda scary seeing how far up we were. Every time I see clouds up ahead I kept on thinking, "bad clouds...clouds are bad...bad clouds." Because if you've ever been on a plane, clouds create turbulent. The last thing I want is to feel that sudden drop in such a small plane. The captain managed to avoid them. So yay! And it was a super smooth landing. I thought there would be some kind of impact, but dang I didn't feel a thing. :)


The room is super awesome! As you can see, I have internet. The TV is an internet TV. So I can watch movies AND go online. Play my iPod, etc. etc. etc. And I swear they have every movie! Well, not every one of them, but a definite shit load! Makes me want to cuddle with Tony in the middle of the night and watch something... ughhh.


There's a patio that goes down to the water. We're in the water villas so it's extra nice. The bed faces this huge sliding glass door that faces the beautiful blue ocean. Soooo peaceful. Wish I can wake up with Tony to this beautiful site.


Okay! I know I have to stop this "missing Tony" undertone. But I really just can't help it. Sigh.


Not too crazy about the food. Bland for my taste. I hate buffets when it's like that. I feel like I'm not eating enough and I don't want to eat more because it's not delicious. The only buffet that I really go to and love is korean bbq! :D


This morning I went scuba diving! Well, just the Padi Discover Scuba Diving Experience. But! I did this before in a pool. Here, it's friggin' in the ocean! I get to actually dive into the lagoon right by the beach. It. Was. AMAZING!!!!! Oh my god.... Wish I bought an underwater camera. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! I was sooooo close to the fishies. There were all sorts of fish. Smaller than my fingernail and bigger than my head. Sooooo happy I'm getting certified in September!


But seriously, I don't think the beach at San Pedro (where I'm getting certified) will be this rich. Maybe rich with dirt and chemicals, but not fish and corals. I don't even think the Catalinas will be this beautiful.


And just the smell of clean sea water. You have no idea. People don't understand me when I say that the ocean stinks in California. The beach sucks and you smell gross afterwards like dried seaweed. They don't understand what the ocean really smells like and how wonderful it is to smell salty with a mix of sunscreen. They don't understand that what they're smelling along the coast of the United States is not what the sea is supposed to smell like. They just...don't understand.


This is blissful.


So anyway, I went sunbathing after my scuba diving experience. I'm trying to get rid of this awful/weird tan line on my upper right thigh. I got it from sitting in the car for too long with my shorts and a bit of my shirt sticking out. The tan line is like this odd angle looking thing. I got darker, but the weird line is not completely gone yet. Maybe tomorrow will help. :)


I went into the shallow water for a bit because it was SUPER HOT! I was literally sweating balls. And I saw a manta ray!!!! So cool. Thankfully, I was a swimmer trained under the hot sun when I was younger. My tendency to get sunburned is greatly reduced. I just get tanned really fast.


Then I booked three different spa courses for three days. Today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. I get 20% off all of the massages if I do that. It's gonna be amaaazing. I love massages and spa treatments. :)


Soon, we'll be going snorkeling. From 3:30pm to 5:00pm. After that I have my massage appointment at 5:45pm. What an awesome day! :) Would be better if Tony was here with me and we can make crazy stupid jokes. And just spend time together. This month was supposed to be our month anyway.


Let's be fair. There are families here. You know, parents with kids. But honestly, unless you're super young like no older than 8 years old, you're not gonna enjoy yourself here with your parents. I saw this one asian boy just walking around all bored. I feel so bad for him. Probably because I'm feeling something very similar.


It's a honeymoon spot for Christ's sake!!! Don't bring your kids here unless they're young enough to make friends with the floating coconut head. I mean, it's nice they have entertainment for us in the room. But what's the point of paying so much just to stay in the room? You should be outside enjoying the scenery, sun, beach, and the company of your partner or friends.


If you're gonna be inside, it better be for a super awesome sex session!


Well, that's all I have to say so far.  Gotta go change and get ready for the snorkeling session. Toodle!