Gunter and crew took me, Tom and Heike over to the airport on the Dhoni (traditional Maldivan boat) early yesterday morning so that we could catch seaplanes to our resorts. I spent a couple of hours in the Maldives Air Taxi terminal in a wicker chair with my feet in the sand watching the seaplanes come and go. The pilots and ground crew don’t wear shoes and most of the baggage coming and going looked like dive gear. They are doing some construction at the “terminal” and it was amazing to watch guys in flip flops and shorts moving steel beams. Not a piece of safety equipment in sight!
I was so excited to finally walk down the pier and hop on my first seaplane. (For Greg—it was a Canadian de Havilland DHC-6 100/200 series Twin Outter.) After the 20 minute flight it was surreal to watch the captain jump from the plane to a little floating dock and tie us up like a boat. We were picked up on the floating dock by a Dhoni and taken to Ellaidhoo Resort. Upon arrival I was handed a fresh coconut topped with a flower and straw and escorted to my beach bungalow. The room is adorable and has a luxurious outdoor bathroom. There’s even a big stone bathtub sitting under a coconut tree. The beach is about 10 yards from my front porch and the view through the palms is sensational.
It’s going to be a relaxing few days with no shoes here in my tropical paradise!
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