Virtual Experience
Eat & Exercise
Unbeknownst to me, I made reservations at a resort that is Italian owned and in its first two decades of existence was only known to Italians. After almost a week of fine cuisine not to mention ambiance, I am glad other nationalities have discovered and shared this little piece of “heaven” with Italian flare.
Most of my meals included all of the fine dishes one can eat in Italy. Seeing how that destination is still on the bucket list, I felt as though I was being offered a two for one. 🙂 A lot of the ingredients are imported directly from Italy and you even have the option of choosing lobster or crab from the islands private farm or for others, they can go out and catch their meal for the night.
Although I was not a resident of one of the water bungalows or villas, you can pretty much say I had the “public” beach and lagoon to myself with the exception of mealtime and the various exotic birds that roamed about. Most of my exercise for the week consisted of walks around the island and trips to my room when I needed to change from my brief snorkeling excursions and/or charge my laptop. Yes, I brought work on this holiday… The upside it could be done while gazing out on the ocean with the sound of quiet waves splashing in the background. Does flying also qualify for exercise? If it does I burned a lot of calories as it took five departures and arrivals (one way) to reach my destination. Two of which included my very first seaplane experience.
I also snorkeled a few days, yes you read correctly. 🙂 The first day was out in the middle of the ocean, which required me to jump, flippers first – yikes! For thirty minutes I was able to keep up with the group and was thoroughly amazed by life under the ocean. On the trip to the snorkeling location I met a lovely couple from Austria. They were experienced snorkelers and were very kind to this rather novice explorer. They also promised to make sure I stayed alive. As part of that promise, the husband thought it not wise to ask me to take the photo of the baby shark that was three feet behind me while we were exploring. I was certainly appreciative that he kept this nugget to himself until we got back on the boat!
Now to the recovery process… I probably put on 3 kilos this week alone and a visit to Greece (for work) is right around the corner!
Pray
God saw that it was good.
There are so many scriptures I thought of while in quiet reflection and so many songs that my heart echoed while in meditation, but it all came to just how good God is. As we are on the heels of Resurrection Sunday I have a new experience to add to my affirmation and proclamation, “Because He Lives.” I am truly thankful and humbled by each experience that this phase of my life has offered. I say with a newness of spirit, “It is all good because God is good.” And for my churchgoers, “God is good, all the time. And all the time ______________” I am trusting you to fill in the blank. 🙂
The scripture I thought of specifically during this island getaway are the words penned in Genesis 1: 6-10; 31, “First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss. God spoke: “Sky! In the middle of the waters; separate water from water!” God made sky. He separated the water under sky from the water above sky. And there it was: he named sky the Heavens; it was evening, it was morning— Day Two.
God spoke: “Separate! Water-beneath-Heaven, gather into one place; Land, appear!” And there it was. God named the land Earth.
He named the pooled water Ocean. God saw that it was good…God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!”
Love
I love the fact that I got to experience a little bit of Italy, Maldivian style. One of the three books I brought to entertain me was John Grisham’s, “The Broker.” It provided a great opportunity to extend my limited Italian and I was able to pick up on a few conversations around me during my stay. Besides grazie (thank you), buon giorno (good morning), and ciao (goodbye), I now know:
Come va? – How’s it going?
Cosa e quello? – What’s that?
Ripeta – Repeat
This book and more significantly this island, make me want to move a trip to Italy to number one on the list!
Teach
Why the Maldives? I had heard so much about its beauty and unfortunately of the possibility of its disappearance in years to come should it fall pray to land shifts, non-green living, etc. The island where I stayed was built on Kudafolhudhoo island, located just 74kms from Male. It is part of the North Ari Atoll area.
In researching Nika Island I found one write up that describes it perfectly – Nika is still Nika: unique, beautiful, classy and private. In my best Sophia voice from the sitcom ‘Golden Girls’, I will continue in saying, picture it: “ A single sandy path runs in an oval around the inside of the island. It leads you through an equatorial garden of flowers and shrubs, shaded by arches of white and purple bougainvillea and the blazing red flowers of the flame tree, passing the majestic banyan tree that gives the resort its name. Grey herons nest in the banyan tree and lovebirds, along with others, delight the walker with the uncommon sound of birdsong.”
As for the Maldives it is described as being mesmerizing from the air, beautiful on the ground and awe inspiring underwater – all to which I agree. Further description states that the special qualities of this country are the very simplest that nature has to offer: blue sky, green palms, white sand, turquoise lagoon and deep blue sea. All bathed in equatorial sunlight. Nothing can distract you from achieving the ideal of relaxation and regeneration, nothing except work for a couple of graduate courses but even the typing stood still from time to time.
The temperature was perfect always providing a cool breeze in the middle of direct sunlight. I was awoken every morning by the call of birds; for if I did not find them exotic and appealing would have resented the 8 am wake up. Yes 8 am, don’t judge. Geographically, the Maldives is a large group of islands that cross the equator, southeast of India and west of Sri Lanka. It is defined as 26 atolls that hold over 1200 islands by a distance of 700 kilometers. Most of the islands are less than half a kilometer square.
The population of the Maldives is estimated to be a little less than four hundred thousand with the religion being Muslim. Throughout my stay at Nika I could hear the prayer calls. The islands were said to be populated relatively early, around 500 BCE by natives of India and Sri Lanka. A sultan up until 1968 ran the Maldives. The language of all Maldivians is Dhivehi and their script is called Thaana, which is written from right to left.
The formation of the Maldives is said to be a result of an eruption of a hotspot 65 million years ago that punched through the Indian plate. The Inner Sea that separates the two parallel chains of Atolls dos not go beyond the water depths of 500 meters. The depth of the lagoons vary somewhere in between 31 and 82 meters. In 2004 a tsunami hit over fifty percent of the capital, Male and some of the smaller islands were completely submerged.
Well, caio Nika Island and grazie for a remarkable, relaxing, and refreshing week. When leaving Mr. Balasi, the owner and I chatted over “dirty water”, (his description of coffee) about his love for his homeland Venice and for his island, Nika. He asked me if I would be returning, “one day,” I said it was a wish and too told him of my plans to one day take holiday in Italy.
Posted by kjb1908 | Filed under "Eat, Pray, Love, and Teach"