Our Princess
Door: Yaisa
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Yaisa
19 December 2009 | Malediven, Malé
21 French guests, 10 Maldivian crew members, our “mentor” Philippe and Stefano & I... 7 days on Princess Haleema, one of the most luxurious boats sailing around in the Maldives. We just came back from our first liveaboard trip and are very very happy...
The food is too good and too much (lots of tuna, the staple food of the Maldivians), the crew is very friendly, the guests were a lot of fun and we are pretty settled already in our cabin with four poster double bed and private shower. How decadent compared to the safari boat I know from Thailand!
And then there is the diving... Ha! Where to start... In the first three dives: marbled rays, huge (but I mean scarily huge) tuna’s, trevallies that make the giant ones in the Red Sea look like juveniles, uncountable oriental sweetlips, turtles, napoleons wrasses, white tip reef sharks, manta’s, a trizillion fusilliers, honeycomb morays, formations of eagles rays... and I could go on and on and on.... One of the most impressive dives of the 16 we did on the first trip, was the one where I was about 1,5 meters away from a nice big grey reef shark, with another two circling round at a short distance... and me thinking they were just big white tips... hihi... I will learn!
I am also learning (very fast) the names of the fish in French, everyday words that have gone missing from my vocabulary over the course of the years and new 21st century words like “télécharger” which means “downloading”, something that didn’t exist when I learned French 27 years ago... :-) And I’m exceptionally proud of Stefano’s efforts to speak French. His Italian accent and mistakes are adorable. And between the two of us, we are now in the middle of a language crisis. We speak English, Italian and French mixed together and I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to fix this.
We seem to be a pretty good team though, not that we expected anything different. Stefano does the equipment rental & maintenance and is the one becoming buddy buddy with the boat crew to make sure things run smoothly and we get to do good trips. I deal with the paperwork, money and on board sales and will probably be doing most of the briefings and courses in French...
Our only “private time” is when we decide to retire for the night and a few hours on days like today, when the boat is docked close to Male and we can get off the boat to run our errands. But most of the time, we won’t even be able to spend those hours “off” together. At all times, one of us needs to stay with the guests, in this instance Philippe is on Princess Haleema with today’s fresh arrivals, while Stefano is running around in Male trying to locate a dhoni (local boat) we need to rent and I’m in the internet cafe downloading software to make my Mac compatible for Excel so I can do the paperwork from my own laptop instead of Philippe’s with a terribly confusing French keyboard.... I’ve been downloading for three hours, I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. And I got to spend to time on my own Facebook, weblog and emails...
Slowly but surely we’ll be taking over tasks from Philippe, until we’ll be able to run the boat independently. It’s a fantastic challenge and a great start for 2010...
So in the meantime, since I won’t be as much online as you know me to be, I wish you all a fabulous, amazing, bright and starry Christmas and a splashing, warm, bubbly and inspired New Year...
Gros bisous, Mille baci, Millions of kisses, Heel veel liefs,
xYx
-
19 December 2009 - 09:37
Arlette:
Sounds fabulous Yais! You and Stefano have a good Christmas and an amazing 2010!
Love,
Arlette + Michael + Lieve -
19 December 2009 - 11:45
Anjo:
Fijne feestdagen en een tropisch 2010! -
19 December 2009 - 12:17
TT:
Sounds like fun, work and beautyful places. Have a great time, lovely holidays and a very Happy New Year Yais and Stefano! Make a splashing 2010! -
19 December 2009 - 12:38
Theo:
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!
Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
Prettige kerstdagen en een gelukkig nieuwjaar
en als laatste in Egyptsch arabisch Colo sana wintom tiebeen
-
19 December 2009 - 13:22
Yve:
sounds very very good. happy 2010! -
19 December 2009 - 17:03
SKO:
nah not jealous at all.. given that we are in for a white christmas- clear blue skies and snow on the ground for +3 days... ok there is a distinct lack of sharks but well visit a few dodgey bars and volia sharks by some other name ;)
i am off to boston soon then to aussie land - enjoy the maldives lady of luxury and little private time. Big SNUFFSSS -
19 December 2009 - 19:58
Eelke:
dit klinkt echt heeeeeeeel erg goed. Have fun jullie twee, op naar 2010! xEelke -
20 December 2009 - 12:49
Katelijne:
Wat klinkt dat goed! Sta op het punt om mijn account te drainen en een weekje mee te varen ;-)
x -
20 December 2009 - 13:37
Marta:
Wesolych wit Boego Narodzenia oraz Szczsliwego Nowego Roku!
of:
Marry X-mas and Happy New Year! :)
Groetjes,
Marta, Hans & Davey -
20 December 2009 - 15:03
Alex:
Snowy (not joking - 30cm at least !!!) wishes from Herveld! Have a fabulous Christmas and all the best for 2010!
Lots of love from Alex, Vincent, Julian & Muriel -
20 December 2009 - 19:43
Mama:
bubble bubble, blubb, blubb, op weg naar het einde van dit fantastische jaar, en naar een nog fantastischer 2010, het ga jullie goed lieve yais en stefano, we horen nog veeel meer fantastische verhalen! -
21 December 2009 - 14:57
Sandra:
hey yais,
klinkt weer goed allemaal jullie nieuwe stekkie!
heel veel liefde, nieuwe ervaringen, mooie duikmomenten etc etc gewenst voor 2010!
liefs sandra -
29 Januari 2010 - 14:59
Lars & Doerthe:
Hi Yaisa,
that´s sounds good.
Whenever you come to northmale atoll in the near of our island (helengeli) contact us :-) We have one of the top spots on maldives (Bodu Thila and Helengeli Corner) current and sharks en mass. sunny greetings Doerthe and Lars
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