Maldives Memories!

With the weather being ''dreich'' as we Scots would say, time to get back to my posh sketchbook and travel memories. This time my page is the Maldives! 

Ok, I hear you say ..... turquoise sea, white beaches and ...... a funny purple fruit? Yes, on one of my three trips to the Maldives I encountered this funny fruit. A hard purple ball, with round plumptious leaves, stacked up on the buffet, my daughter and I took one but really didn’t know what to do with it. Hard as a bullet, it sat on the plate so we asked our waiter what it was, he replied Mangostink (that wasn’t very encouraging!) he showed us how to peel it and inside was this white flesh with segments similar to a garlic bulb. In the centre the Mangosteen (proper name) has a hard stone, and it tastes magnificently exotic! We were hooked! 

These may look to you like a pair of plastic beach shoes but no, they were my first snorkelling equipment! My husband had just done his diving license and our first trip in 1993 was to Lohifushi, an island popular with Scuba divers. Although my husband went diving, I was content to snorkel and in 1993 the reefs were magnificent and teeming with coloured fish, just standing on the pier you could see all sorts. However, we did want to snorkel a bit together, so we ''shared'' our equipment! I had the mask and my orange and pink plastic beach shoes and my husband had the snorkel and flippers, quite a sight we looked, especially as there were groups of Japanese girls just finished school, equipped to the teeth with matching pink top notch diving gear. Ever so friendly, they smiled and went snorkelling with a swim ring, they giggled as they leaned over the rim of the swim ring, masks barely in the water, certainly no need for the snorkel and matching flippers, while I struggled to move forward in the sea with my plastic beach shoes! Great memories and more to come, and turquoise sea will definitely be included!