The Maldives – Paradise and a “Vacation from Traveling”
After leaving the chaos of India, spending some time in the idyllic island setting of The Maldives was very appealing. While we do enjoy relaxing, the idea of the beach vacation to “veg” on the sand usually runs fairly counter to our travel instincts.
In a traditional view, travel gets put into two buckets – work travel and family vacation. The hardships of work travel have conspired to make that as inconvenient as possible while family vacations are supposed to be stress reducers, with the least amount of discomfort as possible. 
Our philosophy on travel adds a third category.While work travel is inevitable, we look at our family time as “traveling” and “vacationing”. Traveling makes up the vast majority of the time we spend away from home. It encompasses programs like Semester at Sea, studying Spanish in Mexico (even if it is in Cabo!) or traveling in Peru. “Traveling” means learning, growth, uncertainty, calculated risk and typically some level of discomfort. Traveling includes the “hard” trips, where you push yourself to do something difficult, learn something uncomfortable, share others circumstances and see things that will leave indelible marks upon you. It can be draining but is ultimately the most rewarding aspect of travel. 
A guiding motto for us is “There is little growth in comfort, and there is little comfort in growth”. Traveling means a mud hut on the shores of Lake Titicaca, a homestay in a South African township, or four hours a day of intensive Spanish in a Guatemalan village. It doesn’t include the nicer hotels we all love where the staff speaks English, you can drink the tap water and any inconvenience can be solved with a call to the front desk.
Sometimes though, you just need to recharge. And that’s where the nicer hotels, the beach vacations and the comfortable living come in. And that’s certainly where The Maldives lie on the spectrum of travel! Other than very minor growth from visiting a new part of the world, understanding a little more about life on a very low lying island and seeing some new fish species, we expected a lot of comfort! And it delivered. Spectacular sunsets, great food, great company and bicycles! 
We semi-coincidentally ended up visiting The Maldives with our Lifelong Learner shipmates, the Belfiore Family and the Bryar’s (friends of the Belfiore’s who are living in Singapore). We spent six great days at our resort, on the beach, snorkeling, cruising alongside dolphins, eating great food and relaxing in general. The Maldives can certainly lay claim to being one of the most beautiful places on earth and have an incredible abundance of fantastic reefs and fish.
Luke shared his first scuba diving experiences with Alexander and discovered what it looks and feels like underwater. Christy rekindled her love of scuba with some incredible dives with Joe and Kristina, and Ryan and Jay snorkeled in the ocean and lazed in the pools. We thoroughly enjoyed our “vacation from travel” in The Maldives and would highly recommend a visit there – especially on the tail end of visit to India, which can be so chaotic and such a physically and mentally draining place.
