Ginger and Lace: 3rd Day in Paradise: A Whole New World

3rd Day in Paradise: A Whole New World

There is nothing quite like that wonderful languid feeling of waking up completely sore from head to toe. It is just so satisfying to know that every sore part of my body represented the enjoyment I had the day before....

Courtesy of Taj Exotica Resort and Spa, Maldives

Teppanyaki

Dinner last night was heavenly, we had Teppanyaki at the 24 Degrees Restaurant and ended the night with deserts and drinks beachside amidst the glow of lanterns and moon rays.

For those of you out there who are unfamiliar with the art (because it is indeed a form of art to me), Teppanyaki is a japanese cuisine where the chef prepares your meal on top of an iron girdle in front of you. Food includes pan fried foie gras, beef and fried rice.

The allure of Teppanyaki is the simple and rich taste of the food combined with the intricate and smooth performance of the chef, you get dinner and a show in one go.

Being the easily pleased girl that I am, I was awestruck by the Teppanyaki chef's slick iron spatula skills and unfortunately was not able to take any photographs at all. Our chef of the night had impressive Teppanyaki skills. With spatulas swirling and whisking; wafts of butter flew through the air to land and sizzle and eggs were tossed in the air and cracked by the thin side of the spatula in complete accuracy. For those How I Met Your Mother fans out there, if you've seen the ducky tie episode, you will know what i'm talking about! At the end of the meal, we each got the chance to flip an egg at the chef via spatula, hahah! gotta admit, it was quite fun. My friend Michelle was so funny and completely missed, made me laugh so hard! All in all, it was a pretty fabulous evening. But then, at the Maldives, every night is magical in it's own way.

Our day started with Parasailing.

Have you ever been Parasailing? It is one of the most liberating feelings in the world.

Believe it or not, parasailing is not a sport for the adrenaline junkies out there. The sport is actually extremely calm and relaxing, reminds me of a hot air balloon. Via speedboat, we sped to the parasailing hot spot, thrashing across the crystal blue waters. God, i just love speedboats. This one was fabulous and even had speakers built-in! Cruising over the waves to the chill melodies of Mr. Mraz is definitely something I could get used to.

In Parasailing, the basic idea is you and a partner get harnessed to a parachute at the back of the boat, as the boat speeds up, you lift into the sky as the air fills into the corners of the parachute. In a slow, but steady puff, we rose into the air. Soon, the speedboat looked smaller and smaller, dotting the glimmering turquoise waves as we flew up higher and higher. Up so very high, we could see for miles around. The beauty of the Maldives is absolutely breathtaking at such a height.

With a slight tinge of salt in the air combined with a delightful freshness, just taking deep breaths completely clears your head. The oceans spreads beneath, an expanse of blue as far as the eye can see. Surprisingly, even from such a height, visibility of the Ocean was quite clear. We could see clearly through the translucent waters and even had the luck of spotting a little sea turtle paddling on the shores. Up so high, we suddenly had the urge to belt out Aladdin's "A Whole New World". Hahah! Completely insane, I know. But it was just the best feeling ever, the song was also surprisingly fitting. To the soundtrack of Aladdin, we saw "unbelievable sights" as we soared through the sky. Time seemed to stop when we were flying above and all too soon, we had to descend.

The rest of the day passed seemingly in a blissful blur. Snorkelling was fabulous as usual; we went to a site called the "Coral Gardens" and saw all sorts of fish. From the Maldivian Anemone Fish (Nemo anyone?), Oriental Sweetlips (Gorgeous yellow, black and white striped fish) and hundreds of shoals of sardines and slivery glimmery fish, we were completely surrounded and immersed in the underwater world. It's such an amazing feeling being able to peek in and just see a whole new way of living beneath your nose. Towards the end of our trip, we even had the luck to spot a little black-tipped reef shark (which actually completely freaked me out haha! Having grown up watching the JAWS films, I am definitely prejudiced. I did the whole freeze and pretend not to breath thing! haha!). All in all a completely magnificent day followed by an exciting bout of tubing in the afternoon.