The Maldives is just 90 minutes away. We flew to Male, and then on to one of the many small islands.

OK, this is crazy. This is the airport (check out those luggage carts). But it's also a boat dock, with super-clear tropical water, and fish swimming around. Our boat pulled up soon after we got there, and we went off to our first island. It was very James Bond.

We spent a day on one nearby island just outside of Male, before heading back to the airport on a boat (shown here) for a flight to Dharavandhoo, which is about 100 km north. It's either a 2.5-hour boat ride, or a 30-minute flight (following a two-hour wait -- so probably equivalent).

"World's Largest Seaplane Operator" -- well, who knew? But apparently it is true. Trans Maldivian operates a fleet of 56 de Haviland Twin Otter aircraft -- the same ones often used in Antarctica. We didn't take a seaplane -- typically, those are for the islands that don't have a nearby landing strip, which our island did have. But near Male, the seaplane traffic is intense -- there is almost always a plane in the sky.

Despite trying, though, we never saw one actually take off or land.

OK, the Maldives is 30 minutes off of Indian time. But this is crazy: if you look at the middle of this map that I've put together, there are three different island chains, and they are all on three different time zones! The first one (+5 1/2) is the Lakswadeep islands of India. Second (+5) is the Maldives. And then below that is the British Indian Ocean Territory (+6).

I had not really appreciated how confusing all of the time zones in Asia really are. Growing up in Oregon, I thought it was a fun oddity how Oregon had one corner that was on Mountain Time and not Pacific Time -- apparently because that part of the state was closer to Boise than Portland, so it made sense socially and economically. But I thought exceptions like that were a rarity, not the rule.

This part of the world takes time zones to an extreme. There are so many half-hour time zones and non-contiguous ones... and there's always Nepal's time zone, which is off by 15 minutes from everyone else.

Flying out of Male. Male is super-dense -- 250,000 people on one island, as you can see by all the packed high-rises here. That's about half the population of the whole country, packed into three square miles. It's one of the densest capital cities in the world, right up there with Manila and Dhaka.

Passing over the island we stayed at just outside of Male.

So many islands! All of these are coral atolls.

The national language of Maldiives is Dhivehi. The word 'atoll' is actually imported from Dhivehi.

Landing on Dharavandhoo, an island within the Baa Atoll region of Maldives.

And we've landed in Dharavandhoo, where we stayed for most of a week. This shot -- from our hotel roof -- shows about half the island, including the airfield (grassy area on the other side).

Me: "Hey everyone, did you know that on the Maldives, we are not going to find any rocks? Yep, I promise you. Since these are an atoll, then there are no rocks at all on these islands, and all rocks are imported."

Well, not less than two minutes after I said that, we came across a rock barge being unloaded, with like a billion tons of rocks (admittedly, all imported from Gujarat).

We did a lot of snorkeling, both from our beach, and from boats.

Eagle rays, who liked the bay just outside our hotel.

Sea turtle! Lots of them.

Lots of coral. The coral here has definitely suffered a lot from climate change. There were many, many area with fields of dead staghorn coral. Apparently it was killed during some very warm weeks in 1998 and 2016. It is coming back, but it's slow, and clearly is at risk of being killed again, especially the shallowest coral. (How slow? The paper linked to above implies says it takes about 16 years for coral damaged to this huge extent to grow back. I was under the impression coral takes centuries. Some of it certainly does, but the bulk of it is kind of the same timescale as a new forest.)

We swam in some areas with live coral, and some with dead coral. The dead zones were avoided by the fish almost entirely -- it's really dramatic how much of an effect coral has on the health of the entire ecosystem.

Astrid and I started catching crab to do some racing!

Now, Astro has filled up the entire bottle with high-quality live hermit crabs.

We did some tests on them to see which ones were the best wall climbers.

Now Astro has put all of the crabs at the bottom of a well. "I know they will all dig out. It's good training for them!"

Go grabs go!

Whoa! OK, coming into town, Heidi saw a giant metal fish statue in the main square. Now the fish has moved to the beach. It's not clear what it is, or what it's for.

I go up and ask someone. "We are making an experimental theater piece. Come back in 30 minutes!"

90 minutes later, the program starts. I didn't understand it, but it seemed like nearly the whole town (pop. 800) seemed to be out to watch it. I had it explained to me by someone in the audience, who was born on the island, and runs the fire crew at the airport.

Apologies for the errors, but as I remember essentially this is a Maldivian legend involving a giant fish, two sons, an iron fish-hook, a doctor, a giant storm, and a boy who climbs coconut trees to collect the toddy. The play is performed every year. It is done near Eid al-Adha (which had ended the night before). The Maldives is essentially 100% muslim (by law), but it is a traditional Maldivian story, not a muslim one.

Here's the giant fish, out at sea! And two explorers on the island. This is part of the play.

Wow! OK, set up behind the theater show were some food booths. I just ordered some pani puri, or the Maldivian semi-equivalent, seen on the plate with some chai. "And you must get this too. It's Maldivian 'chocolate' -- made with coconut, banana, and sugar, all wrapped in a coconut leaf. And no chocolate." So of course I had one of everything.

A few blocks away, a family was having a BBQ in the street, with a 13-y.o. kid standing by a telescope.

- Me: Hey, what are you looking at?

- Him: Oh, we're trying to find the moon, but it's hard.

- Me: I can help you out with that if you want?

- Him: My dad just got us this telescope, from a store on another island. We've tried to use it, but it's hard. Do you know how to use it?

- Him: Wow!!!

- Him: I really love science! I want to study biology, and learn about bacteria in space when I'm older. But on a different island, since there's no high school here.

So we got it aligned and pointed on the moon. He had a couple of eyepieces. And then the neighbors wanted to come look. Cool! All boys pictured here, but there were a couple of girls as well. Photo by Heidi.

Interestingly, we went snorkeling a few days later in this bay. Here is the skeleton of -- apparently -- the fish from a previous year's festival, lying in 10 meters of water.

We're headed out to the boat dock, for a bit of snorkeling.

Sea turtle!

Starfish!

Finn snorkles!

Coming up after a snorkel. You can see the over-water huts. There are a ton of these all over the Maldives. We almost stayed in them, but we'll have to save that for next time.

A bit of boat-tugging, with an explosive dismount by Heidi and Finn.

OK, two of the big attractions in the Maldives are the whale sharks, and the manta rays. We dropped by a dive shop, and talked with them about going manta-looking with them. Follow directions!

Filling out some paperwork to go diving! Astro has never been diving before, and is super-stoked to go on her very first dive. She has been watching training PADI videos over and over and over.

The next day, we find ourselves underwater with some mantas (not scuba, which is prohibited, but snorkeling). Holy moly. This is amazing. They are huge -- about a 10-foot wingspan. This particular site in Hanifaru Bay had about three mantas there. They typically come in for a few hours, eat plankton, and take off.

Unrelated: you can see all the tiny fish there. Dramatic how much more the fish are attracted to areas with coral, than the empty seafloor.

A lot of these underwater photos are Heidi's.

Tons of tiny fish, above a coral head.

Mantas! You can see the plankton in the water -- that is what is causing a lot of the cloudiness.

Astro with three mantas. There are strict rules in the preserve: no scuba, no GoPro sticks, and only 45 minutes in the water per person.

Hanifaru is one of the best places in the world to see mantas. Apparenlty it was made famous in a 2009 National Geographic article. Since that was published, there have been a lot of protections that have been put into place for the mantas.

Fast-foward one day. We were about to go out for a scuba trip, but once we get on the boat, it turns out the mantas are back, so the boat is bee-lining toward there. The mantas come and go with the weather and tides, so when they are there in large numbers, then many boats will head out.

There's a lot of mantas This is one of my favorite pics, taken by Heidi. I don't know who the snorkeler is, but the scale is not exaggerated.

Rule is that you can swim with the mantas, but not chase them.

Such beautiful markings on them!

And as we stay there, ther are more and more! All of these are Heidi's photos.

And more! And more! At this point there were at least 20 mantas in the water, doing slow loops.

It was incredible. Or at least so I am told. I heard the guide tell us it was time to go back to the boat, so Finn and I did.... just as the mantas really came out in huge numbers. Heidi and Astro and the rest of the people on our boat stayed out for their full allowed time.

Just more and more photos. I love these shots.

Back on the boat, Astro talks with Simone, who works at the large dive shop on the island. Astro's intro scuba dive has been understandably delayed by the mantas, so they work out another plan.

Astro is definitely ready to do some diving tomorrow.

Next day: Simone suits up Astro for her first dive!

And they're in the water!

Astro and Simone work through hand signals.

Astro loved doing scuba. She stayed below with Simone for nearly an hour. Since we returned to Sri Lanka she's continued to study PADI videos obsessively, and had a pool session in Colombo. Full certification coming soon!

Meanwhile, Heidi and I go on a dive. That's probably me on the left, with the divemaster.

Sea turtle! Found underwater.

A big goal of Finn's: he got to drive the boat. This is a big 25-person dive boat. It's not very fast. There is no steering wheel -- he just keeps it straight with a foot on the tiller.

OK, we go out for a night fishing trip.

OK, this is crazy. We spent an evening out doing 'night fishing.' That might sound hard. But apparently there is a reason why the Maldives exports so much fish: it was the world's easiest fishing. You put a hook out with a small piece of bait, and 30 seconds later, you have a good-sized fish on it. Over and over and over again.

Finn emulates the face of the fish that he caught.

Speaking of fishing, here is a totally fascinating plot of the GNP structure of the Maldives. Between the five different catagories, various fish account for nearly 80% of the Maldives' exports. The country is not poor -- typical GDP is nearly $30,000 per capita. It's a lot of fish (and a lot of tourism, which is not listed here).

One more day trip out before we leave. Finn drives the fast boat this time.

Nice long sandbar. Of course, the 'sand' is all super-soft, white, ground-up coral..

Totally beautiful. Also, check out that incoming storm!

The storm has not hit us, astonishingly.

Whoa!! OK, this was inevitable. We were snorkeling and on the sandbar for at least two hours, with the storm building in every direction around us. Finally it hit! In fact, it hit just as we were reaching Hanifaru Bay, to see the mantas again. We were essentially the only ones out there this time. But the storm was super intense, with several-foot waves, and made it hard to stay on the surface. We couldn't stay out for long.

After the storm has begun to pass, Astro enjoys some fresh water.

Back to the hotel to dry off!

On our way back: the sign at the airport warns "Copra Forbidden." What is that?? Turns out Copra is dried coconuts. Why is that illegal on a plane? Are they concerned that someone would get hit with a coconut?

I researched it, and apparently coconut flesh is indeed a dangerous good due to its spontaneously combustive nature. With its high oil content, coconut meat can be triggered to ignite, with no spark, especially after being dried and then coming in contact with water. Large cargo boats have even been lost due to spontaneous combustion of coconuts -- I am not joking!