I spent the past few days at Kuredu resort. I have not been to a resort for years now and this was certainly a good relaxation getaway. The resort promotes "no shoes, no mobiles" and had only one little (expensive) cybercafe for internet. Thank god for the presence of Dhiraagu GPRS, otherwise I'd have been left dead in the water with no internet access. That can be very scary, indeed. The island the resort was on was quite big in comparison to most Maldivian islands I'd say. It took me a good hour to walk much of it. The resort seemed to have a large number of Maldivian employees and they were all (surprisingly) a very helpful and smily bunch.

The lagoon surrounding the resort was rich with manta rays and baby sharks. In fact, one of the most memorable moments at the resort was seeing the emergence of four large black manta rays swimming together in unison under the well lit lagoon surrounding the jetty protruding into the sea. The elegance of their movements and the ease with they seemed to glide in the water was just amazing. Additionally, the side of the island facing the famous Maldivian sea known as "baraveli kandu" sure seemed to be abundunt with "baraveli". It was quite amazing to watch baby baraveli tag along with the mama/papa baraveli along the beach line. "Baraveli" is called "hermit crab" in English and are a very interesting animal. My brother brought home three big hermit crabs late 2004 and they've lived in our house since then, subsisting by themselves in the "kashi veli" sand that texturizes mom's home garden/veranda!

Here are a few photos of the resort...