The Maldives

We spent a week in the Maldives. Everywhere you looked there was water, sand, and wood...it was impossible to escape. I loved the way the light would shine on the surface of the ocean, on the nooks and crannies of the reef, and on the edges of the earth. The sight of the sky kissing the ocean would constantly take my breath away. At times, the jetty would try to kiss the horizon, but not quite make it. And at other times, the leaves on the palm trees would try to hug the sand, only to be beaten by the wind. So many times I just wanted to stare and sear the image into my head...but then the sky and the light would change. The clouds would dance, the moon would shift, and the air would breathe a little differently. Was it because the island was so close to the equator? Was it because this tiny, unprotected island, had no where to hide? It was hard to say. I do know that each day was magical, surreal, and calming. Every moment was picture-worthy, and it was almost impossible to see something that did not bring me joy. I didn't want to leave.

Some highlights:

- Biking on the island was super fun. We didn't ship our bikes back to Taipei, so the girls were excited to bike. And the bikes were charming - upright and made with bamboo (vs. my road bike I am used to for biking on the streets of San Francisco). Phoebe rode in a box behind Joe's three-wheeler.

- Watching a movie in the jungle. They called this "Jungle Cinema". We watched Zootopia on a big screen under the stars, on the sand, in the jungle. And had dinner and ice cream.

- Living over the Indian Ocean. Since the water was so shallow, the girls could just walk out, stick their heads in, and see fish. Lots of them. We were on the calm part of the island, protected by the waves. We had two huge box fish underneath the villa, that we named Fred and Ralph. Sometimes we'd see a reef shark (and I'd promptly gasp and swim the other way). We found multiple small coral "houses" - filled with baby damsel fish the size of my thumbnail, which we found so adorable we couldn't stop looking at them.

- The fruit. Every fruit imaginable: dragon, star, passion, lychee, guava, tamarind...some I had never even seen before.

- Fun tube. Getting dragged behind a fast boat. So fast that I didn't want to go (I was scared). But the girls and Joe loved it. Phoebe laughed the whole time. 

- The moon and the night sky. A moon so round and a sky so clear that I felt the vastness of the universe. And felt very, very small.