From the 5th to 9th, the ESS class and a few of the biology class went to Maldives. This was a trip that started last year, but it was decided that this will a trip that the DP 1s go on every year. I can’t even begin to describe how excited I was for this

Day 1

We had to be at school in the ungodly hour of 3am to get to our 7:20am flight. After that flight, we had to take a boat ride to Fulhadhoo Island, our first stay of this trip. Hours later, Sendi gave us an orientation of the place and its environment, where we took a visit to the mangroves and paddle boarded around the ocean.

After dinner, we drove to the beach where we did a night walk and found some stingrays. I always loved beach walking in the night because the different atmosphere compared to in the morning is way better (I just can’t describe !!).

Day 2

Our first snorkling day !! We started off our snorkling adventure by finding the right material that fits us well, and then we got a briefing on corals. Once that was clear to us, we split off to different groups to explore the different colors of corals, in which I was in a group with Antoine and Isa. Where I got to see different types of corals and its different colors.

After lunch, we headed off to Senova Fushi, where we learnt about how they manage their waste and energy. This was really interesting to me because as someone who is in Recycling and Sustainability, this really fits in my service and I can learn a lot about how the management is like in Maldives compared to how it’s like in Sri Lanka.

Day 3

We had another snorkle session, except we went deeper in the water, where we can see animals like turtles and dolphins. Snorkling was really fun for me because I got to see how the underwater life was in clear sight.

After that, we went to Innafushi, an inhabited island. We saw how we couldn’t ride the boat, so we had to swim for the last remaining parts to get to island. We saw the different trees and how the ocean changes colors depending on if it’s shallow or deep water.

We ended the day by watching the locals play volleyball and playing some (more like passing the ball to each other) after they were gone.

Day 4

Unfortunately, our stay at Fulhadhoo Island came to an end as it was time for us to go to Male, the city side of Maldives. But before we left, we first started off with a early morning walk around the beach. Once we got to Hulhumale, we began our stay by walking around the city to explore the city and unpacking to our rooms.

We then met Yamaan, an OSC alumni from 2015. We showed us around the city a bit more and took us to dinner. We learnt a lot about him and about Maldives in general.

Day 5

Our last day :(. We had to dress formal for the first part of the day to meet the ex president, Mohamed Nasheed, where we also were gifted books about Maldives’ biodiversity and had a small tour of People’s Majlis, the parliament house of Maldives.

After going back to our hotel to pack all our bags to get ready to go back home, we then explored more of Male, we saw many things like the market, the harbours, the mosque, etc. This was really cool to see as I could see the diversity of the city and realize how different it was compared to the other islands we visited to the days before.

Wanna Go Back

Even though we went to a different country where it’s a really tourist spot (especially for people who love the beach and swimming), we learnt a lot of things like energy and waste management, the biodiversity, corals, etc. Which was very informative for us, as ESS kids.