The only signs of life on the beach are the footprint of the birds and the new crab trails criss-crossing the sand. From your bed to the sea,it's 20 paces across soft white sands into the pale turquoise of the ocean,warm as a baby's bath,and so clear you can see every ripple of the sandbars underfoot.
Overhead,the sky is the deepest blue with occasional puffs of small white clouds. The Maldives are more than a thousand small coral islands, 600km south west of Srilanka; 80 of them have been turned into resort islands devoted to pretending that Robinson Crusoe had an easy life.
If you dare to snorkel here (which is really easy) you see a world that is incredible and factastic. The fish are not threatning,not even the bigger ones and when you snorkel you forget everything else. To swim along the reef is like meditation and it is so quiet down there that you only hear the permanent chewing of the parrotfish and once in a while a dhoni(Maldivian boat) passing by.
Whenever you snorkel behave like a guest of the fish,for this is their world and they have invited us to watch carefully and to be amazed. Never touch anything and don't step on the corals.
The ingredients that make up a Maldivian resort are those from which fantasies are created. Each is located on its own individual isle,completely surrounded by a ring of white san. And just beyond the white sandy beach lies a crystal clear lagoon eclosed by natural coral reefs.The islands are self-contained little units of paradise. Each generates its own power,disalinates its own water,and sometimes even grows some of its own fruits and vegetables. And each offers breathtaking vistas of the surrounding splendour if nature that can not be found anywhere in the world.
Sun,sea and white coral sand are abundant in the Maldives;and the tiny islets give a glorious sense of happiness and being far away from the world and its troubles. The first resort was developed in 1972, in an uninhabited island near the capital, Male. The resort,known as Kurumba village,had accommodation for about 60 guests with basic services,at a time when air travel to the Maldives had just about started through colombo. Today the Maldives has over 500,000 visitors from all over the world-primarily Italian,British,Germans and Japanese,who stay for an average of 8.3 days. A new development is Indian visitors,especially young,upwardly mobile people,pouring into this tiny Indian Ocean archipelago in search of the ultimate,stress-free vacation: Buckets full of sea,sun,sand and sophistication.
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