Images of the Maldives,
Embudu Village, and Below...

How did they get the water that color?
Maldives

Living on the Sea
Maldives

Stunning Evening Sky
Maldives

Hanging Chairs on Embudu Island - Maldives

Farewell to the Maldives

Out on the Reef
Embudu Village, Maldives

Snorkelling over the Coral Garden
Embudu Village, Maldives

The Many Faces and Designs of Fish

Following the diver's bubbles at Manta Reef - Maldives

Lonely Coconuts - Maldives

Taking a Look
Embudu Village, Maldives

Fantasy Holiday in the Maldives

explore the unknown blue underwater world
sink for the deep crowded reefs
extend your world to the bright underwater
exploding colors
huge eyes
cool spirit
examine the common orange nemo
drifting squid
thousands of silver fish speeding and diving
friendly reef shark moves over the sandy bottom
suddenly, sausage like moray eel smiles
breathe deep
nervously get away
join the sea lovers for deeper sea adventure
relax over diver's bubbles
experience impressive manta ray passion
treasure beach days and red sunsets
hide away and
discover the blue lagoons of the Maldives

On the Reef
Embudu, Maldives

Shoals of striped fish streak through the reef like zebras hunted by lions on the Serengetti.

The Maldives is a group of 1,200 tiny islands in the Indian Ocean with fringing reefs and inviting turquoise lagoons. To the north, our tiny island has a jetty that leads you straight onto the spectatular cliff face of coral and the shallow underwater garden reef below.

The sea is teeming with brightly colored fish flowing past by the thousands and the seabed is cluttered by species calm and haunted. Like the desert in bloom or a field full of wildflowers these ancient pastures are glowing with the signs of new life. Sometimes I think that these tropical fish are curious fallen songbirds who have plummetted into the sea and although they have lost their voice they have kept their wings and their magnificent colors.

The clear view is perfect for snorkelers and a refershing change from the hot white sand of the beach. A gentle breeze barely moves the humid air. It is peaceful but not silent. I can hear the cracking and popping sounds of the sea and the rhythm of my own breath.

Hundreds of tiny sleek fish are hunted by the large shadows lurking in the distance and occasionally break the surface in desparate hope of escaping their fate and then fluttering down like lucky silver coins tossed to the bottom of the sea. Vast and varied species roam at all depths disguising themselves with intricate markings, moving boldly in shoals, or laying still camouflaged by the patterns below.

While the aggressive titan triggerfish may scare you off as she protects her nest, the black tip reef shark will nervously swim away at the sight of you! Perfectly proportioned, this shark has all the frightening features but he's harmlessly only 2 feet long and can usually be found gliding over the sandy bottom in less than a foot of water.

This busy place boasts the colorful oriental sweetlips with her stripy pyjamas, the striking purple and yellow sturgeonfish, and the sharply colored pink and teal parrotfish with his beaky mouth. Moving all at once like an underwater fireworks display as we glide over this underwater archipelago it's like living in an aquarium.

On the South Side
Embudu, Maldives

Soft white sand lines the clear turquoise lagoon.
Careful! Sting rays may lay sleeping beneath your feet in this tempting blue water.
Darker patches frame the south side of our tiny island and it is there, in the coral gardens, an underwater world awaits our discovery.
With fins, mask, and snorkel we swim out into the choppy afternoon sea.
Wondering what will be lurking beneath we breath heavily in apprehension.
Finally, the murky water clears to reveal with sharp clarity an explosion of shapes and colors as fish, by the hundreds, dance and weave playfully through the coral fringes of this reef.

Pondicherry, an oasis of calm on the coast

We're off to the Maldives tomorrow after spending the last three days at a four star Taj resort hotel up the coast slumming it..we celebrated Heidi's birthday as well in style last week staying at a newly opened hotel in the French speaking town of Pondicherry....

Certain influences still exist from this former French speaking enclave...the boulevard treelined streets with the wide roads juxtapose against the mayhem normally associated with typical Indian streets which don't seem to have any pattern of road rules except to beep the horn as loud as possible and a policy of might is right.

All the bicycle rickshaw wallahs laze in the back of their carriages in the mid-afternoon sun when none are out and about, save the foreigners. These mad dogs and Irishmen do well to evade the pleas of the 100 year old men that still seem to ply their trade this way, even though the engine has been invented for many's a moon.

The French legacy still abounds with French speaking schools that cater to a small niche of ex-pat francophiles and even the town hall has the French flag flying. Menus have eggs mornay, chateaubriand bernaise and crepe suzette but my all time favourite are the coffee shop and bakeries that still sell pain au chocolat and baguettes. Even the waiters had an aura of nonchalance about them when we ordered having to wait 2 hours for our entrees, but we later found out the service charge was already included in the bill, so they had no need to worry about their tip.

Even though the French government pulled out from it more than 50 years ago, the local state government still has an abiding loyalty to all things French. The gendarmes look as if they've been plucked from Paris with their small rounded kepi hats and epaulettes,TV5 Monde is a local cable channel, French daily papers arrive in the newsagents and hawkers address you in French...all very quaint....

It was a terrific break just being there, like a mini-colony, recluses, far from the maddening crowds...now we have to go back to India a few streets away and we're already tensing up. Vive Pondicherry, long may it last!