Leaving Laamu

We have had naked feet for 6 days now. I don't just mean that we've been mostly barefoot. Literally, we have not clothed our feet in anything at all for about 130 hours. On the bike, at breakfast, for cocktails at the bar and for fancy evening meals, all have been done barefoot. What a treat! But sadly it's over. At least the Laamu part of it because tomorrow when we go to Soneva Gili it has a 'No Shoes No News' policy, so back to naked feet it is. I'm dreading the rubber between my toes for the 2 hour journey between the two resorts!

We have had a great day today. It has been picture perfect so we have been, as Tim described us, 'Maldivian Water Babies' all day. Here is Chokdee getting out of the water, basically emulating us.


We snorkelled the reef edge today and it was nothing short of stunning. Sadly no turtles but every kind and colour of fish you could imagine. The reef edge drops away with stunning coral, and visibility is about 20 metres. From there it plunges into the depths, to a place where only gills or an air tank will take you. Snorkelling is fine for us!

We then (after getting badly sunburnt) returned to our spectacular villa and entertained ourselves immensely, as you can see...





In-between jumping off various parts of the villa, we Skyped both sets of parents and snorkelled some more, where we got into an argument with a lobster. He won. We backed off although Amanda kept muttering things like 'I'll see you in a risotto one day' and such. It didn't help his mood!

I also messed around with the iPad camera and decided these were the highlights:






So all in all, it was very productive! Or as productive as you can get in such a place :-)

Facts today... When we arrived to the Maldives we had to take two flights to get to the nearest island to the resort. The first flew from the capital Male to the very southern most island called Gan. During the flight we crossed from the northern hemisphere into the southern. Then, to get to Laamu we crossed back over the equator and returned to where the water rotates anti-clockwise when you flush the toilet.

The reality is that many things effect which way water rotates when you let the plug out of the sink, and that to be exclusively anti-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in rotation in the southern hemisphere will only happen in very careful and precise conditions. The effect is known as the Coriolis Effect and certainly happens on massive objects such as the oceans and weather, where the water or weather's inertia are affected by the rotation of the earth. A bit complex for a blog but anyway, go to the loo and see which way it spirals and let me know!

We leave at 6.45 am tomorrow (some paradise!) but should arrive for breakfast in the beautiful Soneva Gili so we'll blog from there.

Cheers,

Dave Canavan MSc
www.thechingchokhunter.com

Location:Bodu Magu,Hithadhoo,Maldives