It was November 2017 already, and my friend/now my travel partner and I desperately needed a vacation. We weren’t sure about the place for our “trip of the year”. But we knew what sort of vacation we really wanted. Surely a place that is hardly crowded, by that I mean not another city with all those hustle and bustle or with all those famously overrated and “must be on my Instagram page” tourist spots. What was needed was a real break, to forget about our mundane life and spend time in a place experiencing the tranquility, but where would that be?? By the way our budget was limited. After a lot of research and discussions on choosing the right destination in that limited amount of time we finally decided to go to… MALDIVES!!
Yes!! Maldives, Paradise in the Indian Ocean… It truly is a paradise that one must visit. Why so? Because, why shouldn’t you? And if you don’t visit, you will be missing one of the most beautiful experiences in your life. Like many, even I am so much in love with beaches. That mesmerizing turquoise blue water and that fine white sand,
Oh!!! Just the thought of it literally melts my heart… We just knew that Maldives is going to be THE 2017 destination. Neither of us gave a second thought on the destination later.
Our planning was so easy. It was done in a week time, not much in the itinerary though. We chose Gan Island out of those 1200 something islands of Maldives, for two main reasons. First, flights to Gan Island were not so expensive from Chennai. The second reason was the resort there was beyond perfect for our budget. We decided to celebrate the New Year in Maldives and guess what..? That turned out to be the best New Year I ever celebrated so far.
It was 30th December and it was time for our all-expenses-paid-tropical 4-day trip! Not too short, not too long.
We were so exhausted and so hungry by the time we landed but we completely forgot about everything the moment we came outside the airport. The first thing that caught our sight was the beach. Oh. My. God!! Such a beautiful view an airport could have. So welcoming…
The resort was just 5 minutes from the airport. After a satisfying breakfast (oh, the food was absolutely delightful throughout the trip), we ran off to the shore. We were literally in tears (happy tears obviously). We were in a state of euphoria. The sand was as fine white as it could be, and the water was as turquoise blue as it should be. The entire day we were just admiring the place, playing in the water, taking pictures of those small crabs crawling on the shore rocks and the colorful small fishes that swam closer to the shore. It felt like we were transported to a different world.
Since it was almost New Year, the resort had arranged different activities for that entire week. It usually happens in almost all the islands of Maldives. On the following day, they had arranged for dolphin watch for which we registered at the time of our check-in. We were so ready to meet the most intelligent mammals on earth and I was super excited to see them since I have never seen a dolphin before, except in TV obviously. We took a 30 minutes ride on a speed boat and once we reached the spot we had to wait for about 5 – 10 minutes for the dolphins to come out. And finally, they came. Quite an entrance I must say, with their famous flips and jumps. There were about 20 to 30 dolphins at least. Happily playing in the water and making their lovely squeaking noises. We spent almost an hour watching those most fascinating creatures.
During the evening, we rented two cycles from the resort and made an island tour. Gan island is a very small island with very less population (1000+ approximately). The entire tour took us 45 minutes including small halts in between due to rain.
The next day was New Year’s Eve. We had no plans for that day, literally had nothing to worry about, because we were living in a different world. There was no such thing as work stress or personal issues or any sort of issues. The entire day was spent at the seashore.
It was almost midnight and the Countdown began from 10. In a simpler and subtle way, we were prepared to say goodbye to 2017. No DJ, no dance floor or crazy dancing crowd.
3… 2… And 1! Goodbye 2017…!!
Rest of our trip, which was just one more day, included just us and the beach. We were either playing in the water like kids or lying lazily on our beach chairs and happily getting sun baked.
That evening while we were sitting by the shore with some of the other guests, we noticed that it was sunset time. The chatting stopped immediately, and everyone was admiring the sunset. The view was literally like a watercolor art. Streaks of crimson red rays over sort of purplish-blue sky with some patched of off-white clouds here and there. And then the sun was gone for the day, and the chatting resumed 😉
Our vacation has come to an end… Next day morning, it was time for us to say Au Revoir to Maldives with sunburns and some cute seashells from the seashore as our souvenir.
Words can’t express how content I was by the end of our memorable and well-deserved vacation. It was a perfect way to end 2017 and enter into my new year 2018.
2 stamps down, many more to go…!!!
Destined to be Globetrotter 