Return to paradise

GIRAVARU ISLAND, Maldives – The Maldives had always ranked near the top of the Big 10 list of exotic places I hoped to visit some day, but the archipelago that fans across the Indian Ocean was so hard to reach and so expensive.

As my 30th birthday approached, I wondered, was it finally possible?

After digging up enough frequent flyer miles to take up some of the slack, the decision was overwhelmingly, “Yes!”

Then, on Dec. 26, 2004 – three months before my planned trip to a place few Americans had ever heard of – the world suddenly learned about my dream paradise. A massive earthquake had spawned a tsunami, churning giant waves ashore that devastated many areas of coastal Asia.

My heart sank when I woke up to the news a day after Christmas last year. My first thoughts were of the Maldives: How could the world’s flattest nation possibly survive?

Somehow, it did.

The Maldives lost 82 people in the disaster, but its 1,190 islands escaped relatively unscathed compared to places like Indonesia and nearby Sri Lanka, where thousands upon thousands perished. A few of the Maldives’ exclusive island resorts were damaged or destroyed, but many were open for business soon after the calamity.

I kept my fingers crossed and remained determined. I scanned hotel Web sites and the official Maldives travel page and also scrolled through travelers’ postings on the Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree.

Many of the comments were positive, and all of the travel advice said the Maldives was up and running. But I was discouraged to read that some travelers had canceled their trips there, arguing they simply couldn’t indulge in a five-star resort with champagne and swimming pools when so many people in the region were suffering.

I wondered if they instead decided to take their tourist dollars to someplace like Paris or Los Angeles where they wouldn’t feel guilty – or benefit anyone hit by the tsunami. People like those living in the Maldives, where tourism is the top industry driving the economy, are dependent on visitors to earn a living and feed their families.

These comments only strengthened my resolve: I would turn 30 in the Maldives.

But not before spending three weeks working as a journalist in Indonesia’s worst tsunami-ravaged area, Banda Aceh. The devastation and loss there could not be explained in words or pictures. Even after seeing it up close, it was impossible to absorb – how could an earthquake and waves possibly cause so much destruction?

I worried I would see similar scenes in the Maldives, but while flying over the aqua water into the airport, my concerns melted. I knew I was in for a truly wonderful experience.

After boarding a speedboat from the airport to Giravaru Island, about 30 minutes from the capital of Male, on the southern Male atoll, the stress of the scenes I had witnessed in Indonesia began to lift. The water was a dazzling array of blues, greens and aquas – so clear, it was like skipping across a giant swimming pool.

The island itself was small and quaint. The accommodation was basic but location was definitely everything. From the door to the sea, I counted 15 steps. It was more than an ocean, though, it was my own private aquarium.

After just five minutes in the warm water, I swam with more fish than I had ever seen. They formed a kaleidoscope of colors, darting and drifting in all directions with large schools sometimes encircling me for as long as I cared to stay. The house reef on the other side of the island (five minutes by foot) was even more spectacular.

My partner and I were often the only ones out on the reef, floating for hours watching what could have been footage taken straight off the Discovery Channel.

The vast array of sea life was incredible: turtles, moray eels, octopus, giant clams, cuttlefish – even a shark.

And the fish. My Lonely Planet guide only pictured a handful of the colorful species found in the Maldives, all of which I saw in my first days there. There were simply too many shapes (some nearly as big as me) and colors (from shades of sand to bright red and purple) to catalog. I felt like an honored guest invited on a tour of this calming, underwater city.

And this was just from floating on the surface with a mask and snorkel around the edge of one small island. Divers said there was a whole other world of caves and coral to be explored elsewhere.

All the rooms in the locally owned “budget” resort were nearly full, mostly with Italians. It was the only structure on the island, which is common throughout the Maldives.

It’s also the one thing I would have done differently.

The $165-a-night accommodations were plain but clean and passable, but the equipment and recreation facilities were old and shabby. The food was another big disappointment – pasta every night in the middle of the Indian Ocean? We had to complain numerous times before the cook agreed to make us “special” local curry dishes.

There was no entertainment during our entire nine-night stay, and everything was outrageously expensive – no complimentary water on an island where the tap water was undrinkable and the sun was hot enough to sear salmon. Bottled water sold for $3 apiece, and we were asked not to bring food or water back from a day trip to Male.

Our backpacks were indeed stuffed with bottles of the exact same brand sold at the resort, only we paid 30 cents apiece at the market in town and smuggled them back onto the island.

The main lesson learned was that thrifty practices used elsewhere in Asia simply don’t apply in the Maldives, where you really do get what you pay for.

Next time, I would definitely fork over a bit more up front to stay at a newer resort with more options (along with toting in a few bottles of water from home). I would also try to avoid resorts that cater to visitors from one specific country to ensure there’s more on the prepaid buffet than just pizza and pasta.

But even with the price-gouging and the few other annoyances, it was still a small price to pay in the end for an exclusive birthday getaway that included some of the best sunsets in the world for free.

As for the tsunami, I didn’t hear any of the other guests even mention it. The resort staff told us the water level simply rose about two feet and washed across the island. It took about a week to mop up the mess, and less than two months later, there was no evidence that a natural disaster had ever occurred there.

A year has passed since the giant waves made history, and 71 resorts are open for business in the Maldives, while 16 remain closed for renovations, according to a recent posting on the country’s tourism Web site.

Still, in October the country’s president reported tourist dollars had dropped by more than $40 million since the tsunami. A true shame, indeed.

The Maldives will go down as one of my favorite trips. Its magic made toasting a long-dreaded milestone a lot less painful – so much, that I’m already thinking about a return birthday visit in another 10 years.